Kirtland lights and the Bennewitz affair

From July 1979 Albuquerque physicist and businessman Paul Bennewitz filmed lights and recorded radio signals over Kirtland AFB and its Manzano weapons storage area, which he took to be alien craft and communications. He reported his findings to the base in October 1980 and briefed officers there in November. Air Force Office of Special Investigations officers, Richard Doty among them, then ran a disinformation campaign that fed him false stories about alien bases, by most accounts to discredit his monitoring of classified activity; Bennewitz's ensuing claims of a Dulce underground base and a hypnotically recalled abduction by 'Myrna Hansen' spread through ufology, and he was hospitalised. The case is mainly a documented counter-intelligence deception, not an explained sighting.

Lights near a classified site turned into a disinformation operation; the original lights were probably test or security activity

• Wikipedia: Paul Bennewitzen.wikipedia.org