Minsk Aeroflot sighting
- Date
- 7 Sep 1984
- Place
- Sky over Minsk, Belarus (then USSR)
- Record
- Curated case
- Assessment
- Explained
- Evidence strength
What was reported
Early on 7 September 1984 Captain Igor Cherkashin and co-pilot Gennadi Lazurin of an Aeroflot airliner flying from Belorussia to Estonia saw a glowing shape near Minsk that turned from rays into concentric circles, a cloud and an amorphous mass, with a thin beam reaching the ground; Lazurin sketched it and a crew flying the opposite way also saw it. Controllers reported a 'double' radar return. Soviet officials blamed light refracted by floating space debris; James Oberg showed the sighting coincided with a launch from Plesetsk and that Lazurin's sketches match drawings of rocket plumes made by amateur observers in Finland that night.
What officials concluded
Tentative explanation
Soviet officials: light refracted by floating space debris
Strongest ordinary reading
A launch from Plesetsk seen at high altitude (Oberg)
Evidence profile
- Yes: Visual
- No: Infrared
- Yes: Radar
- No: Video
- No: Photo
- No: Film
- No: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- No: Civilian
- No: Military aircrew
- No: Military ground
- Yes: Airline crew
- Yes: Sensor operator
- No: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- No: Other
- No: Light only
- No: Orb or sphere
- No: Disc
- No: Triangle
- No: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- Yes: Other shape
- No: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- No: Sound
- No: Silent
Outside sources
- PBS: the Minsk sightingpbs.org
- James Oberg, Omni 1994jamesoberg.com
On the map
53.90° N, 27.57° E, plotted at the centre of the region named in the record
Show on the map