USSR: Media Report Multitude of UFO Sightings (archive.org)

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

Soviet aircraft reported seeing a large flying disk in their vicinity with five beams of light emanating from it: three beams were directed toward the ground and two were projected upward when the object was first sighted. The ground controller instructed one of the planes to alter its course and approach the object, at which point the disk flew to the same level and aimed one of its beams at the approaching Soviet plane, illuminating the cockpit. Listratov cited the pilot's log as stating: "At this time, the copilot was at the controls. He observed the maneuver that the object had just carried out and was able to raise his hand to shield himself from the unbearable light. The aircraft commander was resting in the adjoining seat, and a bright ray of light, projecting a spot with a diameter of 20 centimeters, passed across his body. Both pilots felt heat."

According to Listratov, the aircraft commander and his copilot both became "invalids" shortly after the incident. The copilot was forced to leave his job due to a sudden deterioration in his health, including the onset of sudden prolonged periods of "loss of consciousness." The aircraft commander died within a few months. The cause of death was listed as "cancer," and "injury to the organism as a result of radiation from an unidentified flying object" was listed as a contributing factor on the official medical record in the hospital where the commander died, according to Listratov.

Listratov told SOTSIALISTICHESKAYA INDUSTRIYA that about 95 percent of UFO sightings could be explained, and investigations have often revealed them to be burned-out rocket stages or the remnants of unsuccessful rocket launches. It is the 5 percent that cannot be explained that is causing all the commotion among Soviet scientists and military personnel. Instead of the widespread skepticism that he had expected when he first began to interview military personnel, he noted that officers and soldiers had told him about their own encounters with UFOs, and they had even shown him reports that had been completely filled out on official forms.

KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA of 7 October reported that the Soviet Union had just opened an official center for the study of UFOs in Moscow. Physicists, geologists, astronomers, and psychologists are teaching courses on the various characteristics of the UFOs that have been reported and the types of equipment necessary to investigate UFO sightings.

On 9 October the Soviet news agency TASS reported that a UFO had landed in a park in the city of Voronezh. TASS reported that the object had been observed by many witnesses before it left.

KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA of 12 October reported that a group of scientists had visited a field in Perm Oblast to investigate claims that a UFO had landed in that area and had left behind a circular impression measuring 62 meters in diameter.

KRASNAYA ZVEZDA of 13 October suggested that mass hysteria may be an important factor contributing to the recent outburst of widespread claims of encounters with UFOs in the USSR. According to the paper, many elements of the Soviet media were fanning this phenomenon, which it compared to the hysteria resulting from Orson Welles' radio broadcast in 1938 about an invasion of the United States by extraterrestrials.

The 19-25 October issue of POISK carried an article contrasting the viewpoints of scientists from the two main Soviet institutes presently