State Department UAP Cable 002, Kazakhstan, January 31, 1994
- Date
- 27 Jan 1994
- Place
- over Kazakhstan, near 45N/55E (Tajik Air flight)
- Record
- Pentagon file
- Assessment
- Not assessed
- Evidence strength
What was reported
A January 31, 1994 cable from the US Embassy Dushanbe reporting that Tajik Air's American chief pilot, Capt. Ed Rhodes, and his two American colleagues encountered a UAP on January 27 while flying a Boeing 747SP at 41,000 feet over Kazakhstan. They watched an intensely bright light approach from over the eastern horizon at high altitude and great speed, then maneuver in circles, corkscrews, and rapid 90-degree turns under high G for about 40 minutes; Rhodes took photos with a pocket camera. The crew flew under the object's contrails afterward, estimating their altitude at ~100,000 feet -- too high, Rhodes noted, for contrails from any conventional aircraft's propulsion. The crew rejected a meteor explanation based on their extensive experience distinguishing meteors, and Rhodes personally concluded the object was extraterrestrial and under intelligent control; the cable's drafters offered no opinion of their own.
What officials concluded
No conclusion stated
The file gives no official explanation.
- Agency
- Department of State
- Released in
- 123456
Evidence profile
- Yes: Visual
- No: Infrared
- No: Radar
- No: Video
- Yes: Photo
- No: Film
- No: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- No: Civilian
- Yes: Military aircrew
- No: Military ground
- No: Airline crew
- No: Sensor operator
- No: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- No: Other
- No: Light only
- No: Orb or sphere
- Yes: Disc
- No: Triangle
- No: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- No: Other shape
- No: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- No: Sound
- No: Silent
Why this rating Three experienced, credentialed witnesses (commercial pilots) sustained a 40-minute observation with maneuvers exceeding known aircraft performance and an altitude/contrail estimate inconsistent with conventional propulsion, but all data is visual/testimonial from a single flight crew with no independent radar or instrument corroboration in this file, and the photographs' outcome is unconfirmed.
As described in the file
- Witnesses
- 3 (Capt. Ed Rhodes and 2 American Tajik Air crew members, former PanAm pilots)
- Sensors
- Visual, still photography (Olympus pocket camera, outcome of photos unconfirmed in text)
- Shape
- Indiscernible in darkness
- Lights and colour
- Bright light of enormous intensity with a 'bow wave' resembling a high-speed bullet-flight photo
- Motion
- Approached at great speed and higher altitude, maneuvered in circles, corkscrews, and rapid 90-degree turns under high G, then departed horizontally at high speed
- Duration
- Observed continuously for about 40 minutes, with contrails encountered ~45 minutes after initial sighting
- Altitude or range
- Higher than the 747's 41,000 ft cruise altitude; contrails estimated at ~100,000 feet
Pentagon files
State Department UAP Cable 002, Kazakhstan, January 31, 1994
Open the original on war.gov
What the file claims
- Unverified
Three experienced airline pilots watched an intensely bright object maneuver in circles, corkscrews, and 90-degree turns under high G for about 40 minutes before it departed at high speed.
- Unverified
Rhodes estimated the contrails left by the object were at approximately 100,000 feet, too high for contrails to be produced by any conventional aircraft's propulsion system.
- Unverified
Rhodes concluded, based on the object's speed and maneuverability, that it was extraterrestrial and under intelligent control.
On the map
45.00° N, 55.00° E, plotted at the centre of the region named in the record
Show on the map