Soviet Aeroflot Crew UAP Report 1979

On August 15, 1979, the crew of an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-134 on approach to Minsk airport reported a luminous cone of light emanating downward from an unidentified object that began tracking the aircraft at 30,000 feet. Soviet ATC at Minsk confirmed a radar contact that moved in ways inconsistent with normal traffic. The cone of light was described as maintaining constant angle relative to the aircraft regardless of turns. After 12 minutes, the object departed at extreme speed. The Soviet civil aviation authority GOSAVIA classified the crew report. The case later appeared in the files compiled by the UAP Commission established within the Soviet Academy of Sciences in the early 1980s at the direction of the Soviet government — a program that produced classified assessments of UAP phenomena affecting Soviet civil and military aviation. The Aeroflot case was one of approximately 30 civilian aviation cases in the Commission's database.