IncidentThe Manises Incident (11 November 1979, Spain)

Late on 11 November 1979, TAE Flight JK-297 (a Supercaravelle with ~109 aboard) reported red lights rapidly approaching and pacing the aircraft at ~0.5 km over the Mediterranean; unable to get an identification from military or civil radar, Capt. Francisco Javier Lerdo de Tejada diverted to an emergency landing at Manises Airport, Valencia. The Spanish Air Force scrambled a Dassault Mirage F1 (Capt. Fernando Camara) from Los Llanos, which reportedly pursued lights and returned on low fuel after about 90 minutes. Often called the first commercial-aviation emergency landing caused by a UFO encounter, it reached the Spanish Parliament in 1980 and is anchored in the Spanish Air Force file declassified in 1994, which attributed the events to flashes from a distant petrochemical/industrial complex plus stars and planets - a conclusion the pilots reject. The detailed study is Fernandez Peris’s ‘El expediente Manises’ (2000).