UFO Map

EN PL

UFOs

Discs and flying saucers

The term “flying saucer” was born in 1947 after pilot Kenneth Arnold’s report and spread around the world within weeks. Ever since, the disc – sometimes with a dome, lights or a ring of windows – has been the most recognizable UFO shape. Witnesses usually describe silent flight, hovering in place and sudden accelerations no known aircraft could achieve.

cases
14
years
1947–2009

Unexplained: 5 Disputed: 6 Hoax: 3

  1. 1940–1949

    1. 1947 Discs and flying saucers · Hoax Maury Island Incident Puget Sound near Maury Island, Washington, United States Two men claimed that “rings” over Puget Sound dropped metallic slag – the affair ended with the deaths of two airmen.
    2. 1947 Discs and flying saucers · Disputed Kenneth Arnold UFO Sighting Near Mount Rainier, Washington, United States Pilot Kenneth Arnold saw nine gleaming objects flying at enormous speed – his account gave birth to the term “flying saucer.”

  2. 1950–1959

    1. 1950 Discs and flying saucers · Disputed Trent UFO Photographs (McMinnville) Trent farm near McMinnville, Oregon, United States Farmers Paul and Evelyn Trent photographed a metallic disc over their farmyard – the pictures were published by “Life” magazine.
    2. 1952 Discs and flying saucers · Unexplained Nash–Fortenberry Sighting Over Chesapeake Bay near Newport News, Virginia, United States Two Pan Am pilots saw six, then eight red-glowing discs below their plane that reversed course at a sharp angle.
    3. 1958 Discs and flying saucers · Disputed Trindade Island UFO Photographs Trindade Island in the Atlantic, Espírito Santo state, Brazil In 1958, a photographer aboard a Brazilian navy ship took a series of pictures of a Saturn-shaped object flying over Trindade Island.

  3. 1960–1969

    1. 1965 Discs and flying saucers · Unexplained 1965 Deception Island UFO Sighting Deception Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica In the middle of the Antarctic winter of 1965, personnel at Argentine, Chilean, and British bases watched a glowing, lens-shaped object.
    2. 1966 Discs and flying saucers · Disputed Westall UFO Westall school and The Grange area, Clayton South, Melbourne, Australia In April 1966, more than two hundred people from schools in Melbourne watched a silvery object descend over a nearby clearing and fly away.

  4. 1970–1979

    1. 1971 Discs and flying saucers · Disputed Lago de Cote UFO Photograph Laguna de Cote near Lake Arenal, northern Costa Rica, Costa Rica During a mapping flight over Costa Rica in 1971, a camera captured a metallic disc over Lake Cote that no one had seen with the naked eye.
    2. 1975 Discs and flying saucers · Hoax Billy Meier and the “Pleiadians” of Hinwil Hinwil, canton of Zurich, Switzerland From 1975, Swiss man Eduard “Billy” Meier claimed to meet visitors from the Pleiades and showed hundreds of photographs of their ships.
    3. 1978 Discs and flying saucers · Unexplained Clarenville UFO Sighting Clarenville and Random Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada Twelve witnesses, including a police officer, spent an hour watching an oval object hovering over the water near Clarenville, Newfoundland.

  5. 1980–1989

    1. 1987–1988 Discs and flying saucers · Hoax Gulf Breeze UFO Photographs Gulf Breeze, Florida, United States Building contractor Ed Walters took a series of photos of a glowing object over Gulf Breeze – years later a model was found in his former home.

  6. 1990–1999

    1. 1995 Discs and flying saucers · Disputed Flight AR 674 Encounter over Bariloche San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro Province, Argentina In July 1995, the pilot of a Boeing 727 landing in Bariloche described a huge glowing disc flying beside his plane as the city lost power.

  7. 2000–2009

    1. 2006 Discs and flying saucers · Unexplained 2006 O’Hare Airport UFO Sighting O’Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois, United States United employees at O’Hare saw a dark disc hovering over a terminal that shot upward, leaving a hole in the clouds.
    2. 2009 Discs and flying saucers · Unexplained Night Object over Jarnołtówek Jarnołtówek near Prudnik, Opole Province, Poland On a January night in 2009, residents of Jarnołtówek in the Opawskie Mountains heard booms and humming, and one saw an object with a blue beam of light.