Sign-In
Cart
The Manises UFO Incident of November 1979: How a Spanish Airliner Was Forced Down and a Mirage Fighter Scrambled to Chase the Lights over Valencia
Paperback
Series: Aviation UFO Files
UFOs & ExtraterrestrialsAir CombatSpainish & Portuguese History
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jun 6 2026
Pages: 244
Weight: 0.73
Height: 0.51 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Off Ibiza, on the night of 11 November 1979, two steady red lights appeared in the dark - no strobes, no beacons, no answer on the radio. Aboard a Spanish airliner with 109 passengers, commander Lerdo de Tejada watched them hold formation and close. When he climbed to shake them, they climbed faster. Fearing a collision, he abandoned his flight plan and dived for Valencia.
Barcelona control could find nothing on its scopes. A Mirage F-1 fighter was scrambled into the night - and at 0.95 Mach, more than a thousand kilometres an hour, its pilot could not gain a metre on lights that stayed maddeningly out ahead.
This is the minute-by-minute reconstruction of Spain's most famous and most documented aviation UFO case: the diverted airliner and its frightened crew, the airport engineer who tracked the lights from the tarmac, the radar returns that one military station saw and another did not, and the chase that could not close.
Working from the Spanish Air Force file declassified in 1994, the original air-traffic-control transcripts, and the 1980 parliamentary record, the book sets the encounter against the Spain of its moment: a young democracy four years after Franco, holiday air corridors stacked with charter jets, coastal refinery flares, a temperature inversion lying over a warm sea, and a US Sixth Fleet running its electronics hot through the first days of the Iranian hostage crisis.
Every explanation is weighed in turn - stars and atmospheric refraction, submarine missile plumes, electronic-warfare interference, a captain's nerves - and so are the stubborn details that none of them fully explains.
What really chased flight JK-297?
Read the documents. Weigh the witnesses. Decide for yourself.
Also from
Vallais, Rudolfo
The Tehran UFO Incident of 1976: Two Fighter Jets, a Weapons Failure, and the Night Iran Scrambled Against the Unknown
Vallais, Rudolfo
Paperback
Also in
Spainish & Portuguese History
Guerrilleros and Neighbours in Arms: Identities & Cultures of Anti-Fascist Resistance in Spain
Marco
Paperback
Neptune's Fortune: The Billion-Dollar Shipwreck and the Ghosts of the Spanish Empire
Sancton, Julian
Hardcover
Neptune's Fortune: The Billion-Dollar Shipwreck and the Ghosts of the Spanish Empire (Large Print Edition)
Sancton, Julian
Paperback
The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain
Menocal, Maria Rosa
Paperback
The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews Under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain
Fernandez-Morera, Dario
Hardcover
Spain and the Independence of the United States: An Intrinsic Gift: An Intrinsic Gift
Chávez, Thomas E.
Paperback
The Moor's Last Stand: How Seven Centuries of Muslim Rule in Spain Came to an End
Drayson, Elizabeth
Paperback
First Templar Nation: How Eleven Knights Created a New Country and a Refuge for the Grail
Silva, Freddy
Paperback
Spanish Civil War in the Air Volume 2: 1938-1939
Martínez, Eduardo Manuel Gil
Cerdá, Juan Arráez
Paperback
Conquering the Pacific: An Unknown Mariner and the Final Great Voyage of the Age of Discovery
Reséndez, Andrés
Paperback
Tree of Hate: Propaganda and Prejudices Affecting United States Relations with the Hispanic World
Powell, Philip Wayne
Paperback
Spanish Military Jets 1954-2022: Difficult Beginnings
Gil Martínez, Eduardo Manuel
Arráez Cerdá, Juan
Paperback
The Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: The History and Legacy of the Moors' Greatest Holy Site in Spain
Charles River
Paperback
Mastering Spanish Handwriting and Documents, 1520-1820
Soria, H. Leandro
Ryskamp, George R.
Ryskamp, Peggy
Paperback
The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago: The Complete Cultural Handbook
Gitlitz, David M.
Davidson, Linda Kay
Paperback
The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain
Preston, Paul
Paperback
The True History of the Conquest of New Spain: The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Unabridged Edition Vol.1-2
Diaz del Castillo, Bernal
Hardcover
Brutal Journey: Cabeza de Vaca and the Epic First Crossing of North America
Schneider, Paul
Paperback
The Great Book of Spain: Interesting Stories, Spanish History & Random Facts About Spain
O'Neill, Bill
Paperback
The Last Day: Wrath, Ruin, and Reason in the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755
Shrady, Nicholas
Paperback
This Gulf of Fire: The Great Lisbon Earthquake, or Apocalypse in the Age of Science and Reason
Molesky, Mark
Paperback
Architects of Terror: Paranoia, Conspiracy and Anti-Semitism in Franco's Spain
Preston, Paul
Paperback
Portugal - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture
Culture Smart!
Pinto Basto, Sandy
Paperback
Armada: The Spanish Enterprise and England's Deliverance in 1588
Martin, Colin
Parker, Geoffrey
Paperback
Uncivil Guard: Policing, Military Culture, and the Coming of the Spanish Civil War
Chamberlin, Foster
Hardcover
The Forgotten Origins of the Camino de Santiago: The Lost Story of La Ruta Jacobeo, Ancient Muxia, and the Call to Pilgrimage.
Chamber, Charles
Paperback
The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America, 1492-1493: Volume 70
Columbus, Christopher
Paperback
The Anarchist Inquisition: Assassins, Activists, and Martyrs in Spain and France (1891-1909)
Bray, Mark
Paperback
The Spanish Atlantic World, 1492-1825: From Kingdoms to Colonies to Independence
Andrien, Kenneth J.
Paperback
The True History of the Conquest of New Spain: The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Unabridged Edition Vol.1-2
Diaz del Castillo, Bernal
Paperback
How the Spanish Empire Was Built: A 400-Year History
Lucena Giraldo, Manuel
Fernández-Armesto, Felipe
Paperback
A Cross of Thorns: The Enslavement of California's Indians by the Spanish Missions
Castillo, Elias
Paperback
A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire: From Beginnings to 1807, Volume I: Portugal
Disney, A. R.
Paperback
Colón: El Converso Que Cambió El Mundo / Columbus: The Converted Who Changed the World
Mira Caballo, Esteban
Paperback
The Science Fiction of Defeat: Future Wars in Spanish Culture (1870-1939)
Herrero-Senés, Juan
Hardcover
Revolutionary Diplomacy: Spanish Connections and the Birth of the United States
Chávez, Thomas E.
Paperback
English Encounters with the Spanish Inquisition: Faith, Nationhood and Heresy, 1558-1604
Tinsley, Teresa
Hardcover
The Chronicle of Pseudo-Turpin: Book IV of the Liber Sancti Jacobi (Codex Calixtinus)
Pseudo-Turpin
Paperback
The Freedom Line: The Brave Men and Women Who Rescued Allied Airmen from the Nazis During World War II
Eisner, Peter
Paperback
Spanish Military Jets 1954-2022: Towards the 21st Century
Gil Martínez, Eduardo Manuel
Arráez Cerdá, Juan
Paperback
The Diamond Heart: Jungian Psychology and the Christian Mystical Tradition
McLean, Julienne
Paperback
Salazar's PIDE and Portuguese Society: A History of the Political Police From Below, 1955-74
Simpson, Duncan
Hardcover
How the Spanish Empire Was Built: A 400 Year History
Fernández-Armesto, Felipe
Lucena Giraldo, Manuel
Hardcover
The Spanish Empire: A Captivating Guide to Its Imperialism, Expansion into the New World, Colonial Conflicts, and Its Legacy in Modern Times
History, Captivating
Hardcover
Iberian Swordplay: Domingo Luis Godinho's Art of Fencing (1599)
Luis Godinho, Domingo
Rivera, Tim
Paperback
A Paleographic Guide to Spanish Abbreviations 1500-1700: Una Gu?a Paleogr?fica de Abbreviaturas Espa?olas 1500-1700
Carlin, A. Roberta
Paperback
Strangers and Kinsmen: Portuguese Immigrants and the Spanish Caribbean, 1492-1650
Hamm, Brian
Hardcover
Anticolonialism, Race and Violence in Basque Radical Nationalism (1892-1936)
Baztán, Maria Reyes
Paperback
Mudéjar Art: Islamic Aesthetics in Christian Art
Lavado Paradinas, Pedro
Pleguezuelo Hernández, Alfonso
Borrás Gualís, Gonzalo M.
Paperback
The Forgetting River: A Modern Tale of Survival, Identity, and the Inquisition
Carvajal, Doreen
Paperback
Witness to the Age of Revolution: The Odyssey of Juan Bautista Tupac Amaru
Clarke, Liz
Walker, Charles F.
Paperback
Global Indios: The Indigenous Struggle for Justice in Sixteenth-Century Spain
Van Deusen, Nancy E.
Paperback
Spanish Spaces of Crisis: Cultural Responses to the Global 2008 Financial Crisis in Spain (2007-2017)
Usoz de la Fuente, Maite
Hardcover
Manual De Paleografia Diplomatica Espanola De Los Siglos XII Al Xvii: Metodo Teorico-Practico Para Aprender a Leer Los Documentos Espanoles De Los Sig
Rivero, Jésús Muñoz Y.
Paperback
Architects of Terror: Paranoia, Conspiracy and Anti-Semitism in Franco's Spain
Preston, Paul
Hardcover
The Story of the Moors in Spain: A History of the Moorish Empire in Europe; their Conquest, Book of Laws and Code of Rites (Hardcover)
Lane-Poole, Stanley
Hardcover
The Manueline: Portuguese Art during the Great Discoveries
Rodrigues, Dalila
Grilo, Fernando
Dias, Pedro
Paperback