ufo_data/bin/rr0/tran1978.md

-  **4 January (February ?), 3 PM:** At Kawaga, Miki-Cho (Japan), Hirobumi Matsushita takes pictures with a
 - Friends notice a shiny golden and colored object flying high above them in the blue sky. There are no clouds and a light breeze is blowing, but not enough to carry debris so high in the air. The object seems to be moving on its own, apparently under intelligent control. Matsushita adjusts his device and takes some photos of the strange object before it disappears. See images/1978-01-04.jpg, images/1978-02-04.gif, images/1978-02-04_1.gif


-   **January 16:** End of the air explosions wave. 200 explosions have been recorded since November 1977.

-   **January 18:** As an [USAF](USAF.html) security officer was on a routine patrol around the American base of McGuire (New Jersey), several witnesses saw a UFO flying over the base. A member of the Military Police pursued the craft that had flown over his car. Shortly after, the military police member saw a 1m tall being which he described as brown-gray, thin, with a large head and long arms. The policeman fired 5 times at the creature and once at the UFO above him. It shot vertically to join 11 other stationary objects far in the sky. The creature's body was found near the airstrip by the security officer and a patrol who noticed the nauseating smell coming from it, like ammonia. Later in the day, a team from the USAF base of Wright-Patterson arrived on the spot, sprayed the body with chemicals, put it in a box, loaded it in a C-141 troop transport and left [\[Report of an Air Force Security Officer\]]{.source} [\[FX 95-2654\]]{.source}.

-   **January 20:** Launch of the first Soviet cargo ship *Progress.*

-   **January 26:** Launch of the IUE ultraviolet satellite (ESA-[NASA](NASA.html)).

-   **February 15:** Unidentified aerial explosion.

-   **February 22:** Launch of the first Navstar satellite of the American GPS network.

- **Mars**

- Beginning of a wave of observation of long cylindrical objects above Lake Michigan.


-   **March 17:** Meeting with [Ken Edward](temoins.html#EdwardKen) (England).

- **March 25**

-   **0 h 30**: Y. S., 23 years old, living with his parents in the village of Saint-Armel (Ile-et-Vilaine) sees, on the communal road No. 202, between the village of Saint-Armel and the place called "les Apprix", an enormous disc of orange color a few meters from the ground and which causes the stop of his automobile vehicle. The disc disappears and the vehicle restarts after a few seconds [\[Bourret, L'armée parle\]]{.source}


-   **23 h 30** : Y. S. and his fiancée C. R., 18 years old, see at the same place as the day before beams of light coming from different places and directed towards their vehicle [\[Bourret, L'armée parle\]]{.source}

- **March 26**

-   **13 h 30** : C. S., Town Secretary of Saint-Armel (Saint-Erblon), calls the Vitré Gendarmerie Company of Ile-et-Vilaine to report the observation of her brother-in-law on March 25th. The gendarmes ask Mrs. S. to invite Y. S. and his fiancée to testify at the local gendarmerie [\[Bourret, L'armée parle\]]{.source}

        -   **14 h 15** : Y. S. and his fiancée present themselves at the local [gendarmerie](Gendarmerie.html) [\[Bourret, L'armée parle\]]{.source}

-   **March 29, 9:30 PM:** Near Indianapolis (Indiana), 3 truckers driving in convoy are chatting on their CB when a bright blue light envelops the 3 trucks for about 5 seconds. None of the 3 men can see beyond the hood of their truck. All outside noise ceases. The CBs stop working and the truck engines start to fail. Then, the blue light - described by a nearby car driver as a kind of bright blue lampshade above the 3 trucks - disappears and everything suddenly returns to normal. The last trucker in line yells into his CB: Hey, UFO, if you hear me, I want to go with you! The blue light returns, for about 15 seconds, and causes the same effects as before; the speed of the trucks drops to 8 km/h. When the light disappears again, everything returns to normal.

-   **April 2nd:** In Newfoundland, on Bell Island, facing the coastal
    town of Anglee, 3 violent explosions are heard above Jim Bickford's
    house. The phone is ripped off the wall, the television implodes,
    strong surges manifest and three 50 centimeter holes appear in the
    snow.

-   **April 17** Photo of April 17th in Hot Springs. See images/1978-04-17.gif.

-  **April 17** Observation photographed in Hot Springs (Arkansas). See http://membres.tripod.fr/rr0/images/1978-04-17.gif.

- A [Groom Lake](Area51.html), beginning of the stealth aircraft program *Tacit Blue* [\[USAF Press Release of January 4, 1996\]]{.source}.


-   **April 19, 1:30 PM:** Above Colfax (Wisconsin), Mark Coltrone photographs a "flying saucer" [\[VSD 2007 H\]]{.source}.

-   **May 4:** *Have Blue*, the first F117 prototype crashes at [Groom Lake](Area51.html) after its landing gear was damaged and it was unable to land [\[Peter Merlin, *Dreamland - the Air Force's Remote Test Site*, article for *Aerotech News and Review* April 1, 1994\]]{.source}.

-   **May 6:** A large luminous object crashes on a 4000 m mountain near the village of Padcaya (Bolivia), on the border with Argentina. An expedition composed of soldiers and scientists is sent to the site but, slowed down by bad weather, finds nothing.

-   **May 9, 8am** : In Eragny (Val d'Oise), observation of an object shaped like a large truck with portholes at 100m in the process of rising. [*Val d'Oise Gazette, July 16, 1997]{.source}

-   **May 20:** Departure of *Pioneer Venus 1*.

- **June**


- Photograph in Spain. See images/1978-06.jpg.
    
- In the [GEPAN](GEPAN.html) report of June to the Scientific Committee, [Claude Poher](PoherClaude.html) indicates that the observed objects are generally physical and of an unknown technology.

- **June 20** Photo taken in Rio de Janeiro. See images/1978-06-20_RioJaneiro_Bresil.jpg.

- **July**


- End of the cigar observation wave over Lake Michigan.


- **July 13th:** Observation in Las Vegas (Nevada). See images/1978-07-13.gif.


-   **14 July:** Meeting at the headquarters of the [United Nations](ONU.html) to discuss UN support for the study of UFOs.

-   **July 20:** At [Groom Lake](Area51.html), first flight of the 2nd F117 prototype *Have Blue* (#1002) [\[Peebles 1995\]]{.source}.

- **September**


- French ufologists receive, individually, an invitation to a bi-party meeting [GEPAN](GEPAN.html)/private groups. If the official goal is to present [GEPAN](GEPAN.html) to ufologists, it is unofficially announced that it was a kind of test, to determine with whom [GEPAN](GEPAN.html) would be most likely to collaborate.

-  **Sunday, September 10**: In the suburbs of San Miguel de Tucuman (Argentina), in an empty multipurpose store (and also large warehouse), Miguel Angel Carbajal, the manager's son, his friend Ledesma and another disabled friend follow a television program in the dining room of the house. A few months earlier, a house near the store had been inexplicably bombarded with stones. Gradually, the image shrinks until it becomes unreadable. They turn off the television and plug in a record player but it runs slow for no reason. Convinced that the electrical network is suffering from a voltage drop, they turn on a small portable radio: the broadcasts are inaudible. They hear noises of objects falling in the store. Thinking of thieves, Carbajal and Ledesma put their disabled friend in safety outside the house, then open the door of the store. Jars of mayonnaise and a bottle of wine are broken on the floor. A scale has also fallen, glass broken. 6 m away from them are 2 beings of human appearance but of small size, dressed in tight-fitting suits, observing them with a threatening attitude. One of the two takes a box filled with cigarette cartridges from a counter and throws it towards the witnesses. Then one of the beings raises a hand to his face: when his index finger comes into contact with his nose, the two entities vanish into the air [[Lecomte]]{.source}.

-   **September 16**

- **September 16:** Observation in Purugia, Italy, see images/1978-09-16.gif.

- Installed on the roof of a farm he is restoring in the Loire (France), a 23 year old man watches with his wife the passage of an unusual light source in the sky and has the impression that the soft purring that accompanied this light is a false engine noise.

-   **October 3:** Observation of [Hideichi Amano](AmanoHideichi.html) in Sayama (Japan).


- **October 21**


-   **6:19 PM:** [Frederik Valentich](temoins.html#ValentichFrederik) takes off from Moorabbin (Melbourne, Australia) for King Island (Bass Strait, Australia).


-   **19:06:** [Frederik Valentich](temoins.html#ValentichFrederik) calls Melbourne ground control to report an unidentified aircraft flying around him. The communication is interrupted.

-   **7:28 PM:** The search to find [Frederik Valentich's](temoins.html#ValentichFrederik) aircraft begins and will last a week, without success.

-   **October 27th, 6:40 PM**: At Falcone (Principality of Piombino, Italy), 2 fishermen see a luminous bell-shaped object emerge from the sea with a metallic sound and fly away 50 m from them [\[Cappa and Winter 1979 \> Haines and Vallée 1989\]]{.source}.

-   **November 10:** 7 technicians, including 1 expatriate American citizen, working at Kuwaiti Oil Company's Pumping Station No. 24 in Umm Al-Aish, observe a cylindrical UFO, with a dome and flashing red lights, silently landing not far from them. The oil pumps stop functioning and only resume their normal activity when the UFO departs 7 minutes later. The witnesses estimate its volume to be larger than that of a jumbo jet, but the craft leaves no trace at the landing site. For the entire duration of the sighting, Kuwait's international telecommunications networks will have ceased to function.

- Observation of November 15. See images/1978-11-15.jpg.

-   **November 27** : [J. Allen Hynek](HynekJosephAllen.html) speaks to the [UN](ONU.html).


- **Friday 1st December**


- **18 h 50**

-  In Eragny (Val d'Oise), Mrs. B., a mother returning from work, saw from the train, above the Val d'Argenteuil, an elongated shape of an extremely bright orange. The illuminated edges were sharp. See images/1978-12-01_Eragny_1.jpg. [[Deforge](DeforgeGegard.html) > [Gazette du Val d'Oise, 16 July 1997]]{.source}

- Mr. B.'s husband, a parent of a student at the school, in his garden far from the road heard a violent and increasingly loud noise coming from behind him. He added: "I was scared for a brief moment that something would hit me from behind. The sound was like a huge screeching of brakes mixed with a kind of scream [[Deforge](DeforgeGegard.html) > [Gazette du Val d'Oise,* 16 Juillet 1997]]{.source}.

-   **7:50 PM** : In Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Val d'Oise), Mrs. B.
    again sees an object similar to the one at 6:50 PM.
    When the possibility of an airplane is mentioned, she responds
    that no airplane would have appeared so large and could not have had
    such a large illuminated surface.


-   **Saturday 2 December**

-  **7 h 55**: At Eragny (Val d'Oise), observation of an elongated cigar with a small lateral light: It advanced, it stopped. At a stop, the white light in the center decreased, then increased like heartbeats (it was always visible). See images/1978-12-02_Eragny_1.jpg. [[Laurent L., 11 years old, CM2 > [Deforge](DeforgeGegard.html)]]{.source} [Gazette du Val d'Oise,* 16 July 1997]{.source}

-   **8 h 10**

-  At Eragny (Val d'Oise), Joanna B., 10 years old, CM2, observed an object in the shape of a three-branched star with two feet See images/1978-12-02_Eragny_2.jpg. [\[Joanna B., 10 years old, CM2 \> [Deforge](DeforgeGegard.html) \> [*Gazette du Val d'Oise,* 16 July 1997]{.source}\]]{.source}

- At Eragny (Val d'Oise), 100m observation of a stationary black mass with headlights pointed towards the ground See images/1978-12-02_Eragny_3.jpg. Above the Oise, seen on Rue Cl. Bénard... 4 large orange flashing lights, the whole was grey, it moved forward, and it stopped (300m from the ground) [\[Mr. T., parent of student \> [Deforge](DeforgeGegard.html) \> [*Gazette du Val d'Oise,* 16 July 1997]]{.source}

-   **8:15**: At Eragny (Val d'Oise), observation of a large oval mass [\[*Gazette du Val d'Oise,* July 16th 1997\].]{.source}

-   **4 December:** *Pioneer Venus 1* is the first to be satellized around [Venus](Venus.html).

-   **December 8:** Following the UFO lobbying efforts led by [Eric Gairy](GairyEric.html), the [UN](ONU.html) finally adopts a resolution (in fact a statement of principle) in which it commits to keeping informed about the UFO dossier and in which it encourages member states to coordinate, at the national level, scientific research and investigations into extraterrestrial life, including unidentified flying objects, and to inform the Secretary-General of observed cases, research and evaluation of these activities.

-   **9 December:** *Pioneer Venus 2* releases a probe towards [Venus](Venus.html).

-   **December 21**

- At dawn, the crew of a Safe Air Argosy cargo plane from Blenheim (south of Wellington, South Island) to Dunedin/Christchurch (New Zealand) is asked to divert to try to spot some very unusual objects followed by Wellington airport's radar. According to John Cordy, an air traffic controller, it looks like nothing known. Commander (captain?) Vern Powell and Captain John Randall thus direct their Argosy towards the area and then see a strange light following the plane for 19 km along the coast, before disappearing. The observations are recorded by the plane's radar.

-   *Venera 12* released a probe towards [Venus](Venus.html).

-   **25 December:** *Venera 11* releases a probe towards
    [Venus](Venus.html).

- The UFO photographed in I-Petry in Crimea. See images/1978.jpg.

- **December 31**


-   **23 h 46 :** The observations from the previous days ([December 21](#12-21) and others) prompt an Australian television channel to contact one of its reporters, [Quentin Fogarty](FogartyQuentin.html), and ask him to investigate the case. He then boards the same flight that night.


-   **0 h 10 :** The captain and the co-pilot see lights off the Kaikoura Peninsula, which is also picked up by Wellington's radar, as intermittent spots.


-   **0 h 22 :** Another radar-visual contact takes place and the UFO is filmed.


-   **1 h:** After further brief contacts, the Argosy landed in Christchurch.

-   **2:16:** The plane takes off again to return to Blenheim. As the engine comes above the clouds, a bright UFO appears in front of it, on the right. Christchurch's radar detects a huge object with the same position, about 30 km away from the plane. The footage taken at this moment shows an oval object with rings of light. During the flight, the UFO approaches within 16 km of the plane: one of them, a flashing UFO, is filmed while it changes color, from yellow-white to dull orange-red.
 - **3:10 PM:** The plane lands. Other witnesses will manifest in the region. The film will generate huge media interest, as indicated by the following press release: The world's attention turned to the sky above Kaikoura after a film of the sightings was broadcast by American, British and Australian television. This sparked an international debate about the possible explanations of the large bright white ball captured on film. Captain Verne Powell, one of the first to see the UFO, said he watched, amazed, as the object crossed 24 km of sky in 5 seconds. He was annoyed that it was suggested he might have mistaken [Venus](Venus.html) for a UFO. A pilot since 1944, Powell declared: "I can still recognize [Venus](Venus.html)."
Stanton Friedman [met](FriedmanStanton.html) with the director of a television station in Louisiana who suggests to him during their discussion to get in touch with a certain [Jesse Marcel](MarcelJesseA.html), who had in his possession, while in the army, pieces of a flying saucer that interest him."


- Swedish researcher Anders Liljegren discovered that the Swedish Air Force had created an investigation bureau during the 1933 aircraft sightings.