International Organizations and Case Files

Information regarding the following official international research organizations examining unidentified aerial phenomena including aviation safety related incidents may be found on this page and through the links listed below:

France: CNES-SEPRA

Chile: CEFAA

Peru: OIFAA

UK: Civil Aviation Authority

France: CNES-SEPRA

Chile: CEFAA

Peru: OIFAA

Uruguay: CRIDOVNI

UK: Ministry of Defense Files

US: National Security Agency

Official Case Files from these organizations and others may be viewed by clicking the following links:

Chilean Case Files

UKCAA case files - 1978-1984

Additional Research of Merit includes:

Hessdalen, Norway - Project Hessdalen, EMBLA

France: CNES-SEPRA

The French Space Agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), has been investigating UAP since 1977. The official UAP investigation group of CNES is SEPRA, Service of Expertise on Rare Aerospace Phenomena. SEPRA is collecting and analyzing UAP sightings with specific attention to pilot/ATC observations and incidents.

To collect data, SEPRA has established reporting protocols across many administrations including the airlines, C.R.N.A. (ARTCC), French A.F. Headquarters, Gendarmerie Headquarters and the National Police. Additionally, SEPRA developed and distributed a report form to ATC facilities for use when a pilot asked to report a sighting or incident involving UAP. A copy of this completed form is automatically sent to SEPRA. Pilots may also report directly to the Air Gendarmerie or directly to SEPRA.

For over three years SEPRA has been conducting a study of radar/visual sightings called Project VISRAD. SEPRA has already established that there is a significant relationship between UAP and aviation safety. Currently, Jean-Jacques Velasco, Director of SEPRA is regularly presenting a lecture on UAP at the National Civil Aviation School (for air controllers) in Bordeaux.

SEPRA enjoys the support of the French Space Agency and the government of France, as well as the attention of several French agencies concerned with aviation safety including: DGAC(FAA), French Air Force, Meteo France and the Air Gendarmerie.

Chile: CEFAA

The Committee for Studies of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena (CEFAA) was created in OCT. 03, 1997 by an order of the General Director of Civil Aeronautics at that time, General Gonzalo Miranda, as a consequence of various sightings that took place in the north of the country in the last day of March and first two days of April 1997. The news made its way to the press and the DGAC made a public acknowledgement confirming those sightings. This acknowledgement had a big impact in the media since it was the first time the DGAC accepted the existence of unidentified objects flying over national territory.

CEFAA reports to the Director of Aeronautic Technical School (ETA) , which depends on the General Direction of Civil Aeronautic (DGAC), which in turn depends on the Commander in Chief of the Air Force, although the DGAC is autonomous. In summary, the DGAC is a government agency (similar to FAA in USA), as is the CEFAA.

CEFAA members are: President and Director of the Aeronautical Technical School (ETA), former General Ricardo Bermudez Sanhueza; Executive Secretary and former air traffic controller Gustavo Rodr’guez Navarro and several internal and external advisers including a psychiatrist, an electrical engineer, a sociologist, a geophysicist, a computer analyst and other collaborators.

The Committee mission is to compile, analyze and study every UAP report from airliner pilots, military pilots, as well as air traffic controllers, to determine if this phenomenon could constitute a risk to security of air operations in the country. CEFAA main concern is aviation safety and we believe that the cooperation of the international aeronautic organizations, pilot associations and private foundations who have well documented reports is necessary, so that we can try to characterize the effects, find common behavioral patterns and make appropriate recommendations to air crews to help them improve the aviation safety.

CEFAA has forwarded five recent (5) official reports from the CEFAA case file as well as eight (8) more from the personal files of CEFAA Executive Secretary, Gustavo Rodrigues Navarro. When NARCAP sought permission to post these cases on our website, Mr. Navarro replied, "With respect to your request there is no problem with posting on NARCAP website the CEFAA cases and others from my personal file. The important thing is that organizations around the world that have the responsibility for air safety, learn what is going on with UAP and get the information from reliable and credible sources. I think that is our first mission. Further," he said, "Air safety is a very sensitive matter and NARCAP has to be listened to. I believe that it (the NARCAP and CEFAA approach) is the only appropriate way to carry out a world UAP investigation related with air operations".

CEFAA Case Files

It is a relatively simple matter to review these official reports and identify threads of commonality with case files from the UK, and from the NARCAP AIRCAT files, Eighty Years of Pilot Sightings, NARCAP Technical Report 4 Weinstein, 2001 or the appendix of Aviation Safety in America - A Previously Neglected Factor Haines, 2000 (NARCAP Technical Report One). These similarities include lights and objects observed by multiple witnesses (some that were not visible on radar), transient effects on avionics systems, near midair collisions with unidentified lights and objects, as well as radar/visual observations of unusual lights and objects. The reporters are military, commercial and private pilots, air traffic controllers, radar operators and ground crews.

NARCAP and CEFAA are now working in collaboration on our mutual concern for aviation safety in the United States of America and Chile.

Peru: OIFAA

Early in 2002 the Peruvian Air Force announced the establishment of the Office for Investigation of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena (OIFAA). The brief article in El Comercio suggested that this group will address observations and incidents that may adversely affect aviation safety. We await an official statement from this organization.

United Kingdon

The Civil Aviation Authority of the United Kingdon

Although NARCAP is a national organization focused on American cases, occasionally a situation develops on the international scene that is of importance.

Since 1995, the British Civil Aviation Authority, CAA, has been releasing case files of aviation related observations and incidents involving UFOs/UAP. The CAA has been collecting and analyzing data regarding near-collisions between aircraft and UFOs/UAP since at least the late 1970's . The reporters are pilots, air traffic controllers, radar operators, ground crews, military pilots and government officials. Official responsibility for these cases lies with the CAA and the government of the UK.

In an article in the U.K. Western Daily Press, CAA spokesman Chris Mason said, "Our reports are from highly trained pilots and air traffic controllers. We have no argument with what they say they have seen, even if what they saw can't be explained. We admit that in some cases the aircraft which were nearly in collision with the aircraft have never been traced. We keep an open mind about UFOs. Some things just can't be explained, but they have been reported by top professionals and we do take that into account."

An article appeared in the BBC regarding a near miss with a UFO that resulted in a CAA investigation and an official Airprox report. Also included in the article are interesting near miss statistics and commentary.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_448000/448267.stm

Though these cases received attention in the July/Aug 2000 issue of the U.K. UFO Magazine they were not distributed widely in the aviation community. We were unable to locate these reports anywhere on the Internet; therefore NARCAP has taken steps to post these cases on this site. We have made as faithful a reproduction of each one as possible, using all spelling and phrases as they appear in the reports. As soon as an aviation safety organization in the U.K. expresses an interest in posting these cases, NARCAP will hand the matter over to them.

UKCAA Case Files - 1978 - 1984

It is clear that these cases represent a variety of incidents and observations. Some of these cases seem to be natural phenomena. In a few cases, the source and nature of the phenomena is unclear. Particularly interesting are visual observations of lights and objects that did not appear on radar, large unidentified radar targets with and without visual observations, and two midair collisions with unidentified objects at FL180 (18,000ft) and above. These UK CAA files share many commonalties with NARCAP files of aviation related observations and incidents involving UAP. It is certain that the CAA is concerned about the effects these incidents may have on aviation safety.

NARCAP encourages aviation authorities worldwide to review their incident files for UFO/UAP cases and to publicly release them. The challenge before us is to put this information into documentation that can be best used by the aviation community in a pro-active manner.

Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom

In November of 2000 the Ministry of Defence announced that it would be releasing case files containing reports and investigations of unidentified aerial phenomena. It is anticipated that some of these cases will include aviation related observations and incidents involving UAP. As these cases are being released over time, the file available on the MOD website is anticipated to grow.

www.mod.uk conduct a keyword search under the Freedom of Information link using the keyword "UFO".