16 Eerie UFO Encounters Witnessed By People Across The World

By: Mia Williams | Last updated: Nov 03, 2023

UFO sightings divide society. Nobody agrees on whether aliens exist or how to contact them. Others are enthralled by the ancient legends, photographs, and foil hats, while others are skeptical because there are so many crazy conspiracy theories. 

 “Objects”

It’s easy to refute individual reports, but it’s impossible to dispute with the Defense Department. In 2007 and 2017 films leaked by the Pentagon, reporting mysterious “objects” spinning in the air and above the water. The naval pilots viewing these objects look terrified.   

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Source: Getty Images

There was some controversy about these govermnent-leaked films, and UFO believers were thrilled that their suspicions were confirmed. However, the government spokesmen stood by their statement that the authorities have not identified the objects.

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Abducted by Aliens

No, it’s not the beginning of a joke. The story of Betty and Barney Hill’s UFO abduction is famous.  A bright light followed the two as they drove at night in New Hampshire in 1961. When they returned home in the morning, they were disheveled and their watches had stopped working. 

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Source: Unsplash

Sent to a psychiatrist for analysis, they claimed to have been probled by aliens during their abduction. This was the first widely publicized story of alien abduction.

Barbara and The Lizard Man

Barbara Lamb was a psychotherapist whose area of study involved the observation of crop circles. She reported that a figure in the shape of a reptile showed up in her house. His physical appearance was striking; he was very tall and had yellow eyes.

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Source: Pexels

The creature appeared friendly so Barbara, not usually comfortable with reptiles, reached out to take his hand. At that point, the lizard creature immediately disappeared.   

The End of the World

Children in Ruwa, Zimbabwe were startled one day in 1994 when several UFOs reportedly flew over their school. The children stated that there were creatures with striking features including big heads, no noses, no lips, and long black hair.  

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Source: Pexels

One girl added, “I think it’s about something that’s going to happen,”  ‘I felt the world was ending. They said the world’s ending. Actually, I have no idea. The idea suddenly came to me. He was completely silent. He communicated entirely through eye contact.

The Terrifying Rendlesham Forest

The Rendlesham Forest Encounter is a well-known UFO sighting that has earned the nickname “Britain’s Roswell.” The witnesses in the incident, which occurred in December 1980, were members of the United States military, making them quite reliable. 

Source: Reddit

Aliens reportedly flew through the woods above them. The soldiers also saw strange hieroglyphics written on the alien vessel. The belief is that the British military probably staged the entire affair as a joke on American troops.  

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We’re Not Looking Into It

United Flight 446 was preparing to take off from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on November 7, 2006, when the flight crew of United Airlines noticed a weird metallic spacecraft circling over the terminal. The workers said it floated throughout the air for a while before taking off at high speed into the sky. What’s so odd about it? 

Source: Imgur

Numerous people saw the UFO, but the airport radar failed to pick it up. Thus, the FAA declared that it was a “naturally occurring phenomenon,”  and they didn’t even look into it.

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What did People See in Melbourne

On April 6, 1966, more than 300 students and teachers at Westall Secondary College in Melbourne, Australia, witnessed five aircraft trying to corner and catch a UFO. The crowd stared in disbelief and gasped when the alien craft just disappeared. , 

Source: Pixabay

Despite hundreds of witnesses, the school’s principal reportedly urged the pupils and educators to keep quiet about the incident. We don’t know why the principal made this decision.

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The Abduction of Robert Matthews 

In  1966, an Airman named Robert Matthews got off a bus in an isolated area of Cape Cod, Massachusetts to report for duty. Matthews spotted unusual lights in the area. The bus driver urged him to wait for a ride to the base, so he called to request that someone pick him up.  

Source: Flickr

The truck arrived five minutes after he got off the bus, but the driver couldn’t find Matthews.  These two calls were actually an hour apart. The “missing time” phenomenon is linked to extraterrestrial abductions. 

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The Broad Haven Student Drawings

In 1977, students at Broad Haven Primary School reported seeing a UFO near the playground; the BBC covered the story. To check if the students all saw the same vision, school officials put each child in a separate room and asked them to create a picture of what they had seen. 

Source: Imgur

Each of the students drew an identical sketch of the spacecraft. As a result, the authorities believed the children, doubting that they could decide to lie.  

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Where Did Frederick Valentich Go?

Australian aircraft pilot Frederick Valentich reportedly spotted an unidentified flying object over the Bass Strait. According to the news report, he noted a strange vessel circling him, and the vessel was not familiar to him.

Source: Flickr

He felt as if the vessel was teasing him, flying near him and then flying away. We’ll never know. Valentich’s last words before he and his plane vanished forever were, “It is hovering and it is not an aircraft.” 

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The UFO Story That Inspired Men In Black

History.com reported in 1947 that while walking on Puget Sound, Harold Dahl, his son, and the family dog spotted six airplanes in the distance. Afterward, an airplane went down in the lake, injuring his son and ultimately taking the life of the family dog.

Source: RawPixel

He told his boss, Fred Crisman, about what had happened, and Crisman checked it out, too. Then, out of the blue, a man in a black suit approached Dahl and instructed him not to talk about it again, sparking the idea for the movie Men in Black.

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The Cycle Continues in Washington 

Seven UFOs were filmed around the Pentagon in 1952. The mystery plane was identified on radar and investigated. As American jets approached, the seven objects disappeared off the radar. After the jets landed, the mysterious objects reappeared on the radar screen. 

Source: Pexels

Air Force Intelligence Director General Sanford told President Harry S. Truman that credible eyewitnesses had reported the sightings, calling them  “credible observers of relatively incredible things.”  There were many questions about these sightings, but there have been no answers.

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Emergency Landing of JAL Flight 1628

In 1986, Japan Airlines Flight 1628 was flying from Tokyo to Paris when the crew witnessed several aircraft encircling them, one of which was nearly four times larger than their aircraft. They did not recognize the aircraft.

Source: Pikabu

As recounted in an American Heroes Channel documentary, the JAL crew made an emergency stop in Anchorage, Alaska. The crew gave further reports on the sightings when they arrived.

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The Saga of Muscarello at Exeter 

Hitchhiker Norman Muscarello reportedly saw a mysterious red flashing beacon in the woods in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1965. The terrifying source of the beams was closing in on him, so he ducked into a trench to protect himself from being hit.

Source: Getty Images

The same plane with the same blazing red lights that was spotted by the police when they arrived. The craft then sped away. From that point on, the annual event would be known as The Exeter UFO Festival in honor of the phenomenon.

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The Threat to Rick Sorrells

A huge plane buzzed over Stephenville, Texas, in 2008, and was witnessed by many people in the community. A pilot named Steven Allen reported that the spacecraft was flying about 3,000 mph and being pursued by fighter aircraft. 

Source: Imgur

Then a man named Rick Sorrells saw the same aircraft while he was hunting. Later that day, a stranger came to Sorrells home and said, “‘Son, we have the same caliber weapons you have, but we have more of them. You need to shut your mouth about what you saw.”

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The Eyewitness Speaks Up

Lieutenant Colonel Richard French was entrusted by the US government in the 1950s to explain away UFO sightings. The problem was that Lt. Col. French actually had seen UFOs during his lifetime.

Source: Unsplash

In 2013, at a hearing, French spoke publicly for the first time about his experience as a young man. He had witnessed two crashed UFOs in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and several aliens were repairing their ship; they then took off. At the time, he didn’t mention the UFO side of his story.  

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