Manises Emergency Landing — Spanish Air Force Intercept

On the night of November 11, 1979, Iberia Airlines Flight IB-297 was en route from Mallorca to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, when the crew observed brilliant red lights approaching on a collision course over the Mediterranean Sea. Captain Comandante Lerdo de Tejada made multiple evasive maneuvers to avoid the objects, which appeared to track the aircraft's movements. After repeated close approaches, the captain declared an emergency and diverted to Valencia's Manises Airport. On the ground, the airport fire trucks were deployed and the aircraft landed safely. The Spanish Air Force scrambled a Mirage F-1 from Los Llanos Air Base to investigate. The Mirage pilot, Commander Fernando Cámara, reported making visual and radar contact with a large lenticular or flat disc-shaped object. When he attempted to close on it, the object performed maneuvers that exceeded the F-1's performance envelope and rapidly outran the interceptor. The object then disappeared at high speed. The Spanish Air Ministry's investigation report, classified CONFIDENTIAL, was included in Spain's partial declassification of UAP records in the 1990s. The Manises case is unique in the European official record as the only confirmed instance of a commercial airliner declaring an in-flight emergency attributed to a UAP encounter.