Bethune UFO Encounter (1951)

This historic UFO case happened on 21 February 1951. Lt. Graham Bethune of the United States Navy was flying Navy R5D, Bureau No. 56501 with LCDR (Lieutenant Commander) Fred Kingdon and Lt. Noel Koger.

They were on a scheduled eight-hour passenger flight from Keflavik, Iceland to Argentia, Nova Scotia, while two other crews slept on board.

It was a clear northern night, and the pilots were flying on autopilot at 10,000 ft with a ground speed of over 200knots. Lt. Bethune and Lieutenant Commander Kingdon were on watch for other aircraft.

And Around four and a half hours out of Keflavik, Lt. Bethune noticed a bright yellow glow below the horizon around 30 to 35 miles away that appeared to be city lights.

They were concerned that they were off course. They had Lt. Koger confirms the navigation and verifies that there were no ships in the area.


Bethune UFO Encounter (1951).
Bethune UFO Encounter (1951).

Lt. Jones and Lt. Meyer were awakened and came forward into the cockpit.

The consent was that the lights were presumably due to a ship. When the lights from the UFO were approximately five to seven miles away, it was about thirty degrees to the right, the lights went out, and a circular yellow halo appeared on the water.

This was an unusual sighting. The halo from the UFO turned from yellow to orange and later to a fiery red when it was rising suddenly to meet them, turning to a blueish red around the perimeter.

The UFO arrived at approximately 100 to 200 feet below its altitude in a fraction of a second and around 200 to 300 feet in front of the airplane.

The UFO was observed to be a metallic disk-shaped object that was approximately 200 to 300 feet in diameter.

The UFO flew with the airplane for about five min and was witnessed by most of the passengers on board before leaving at a speed above 1500mph, which was later confirmed to be about 1800mph by Gander Center Radar Newfoundland, Canada.



It should be mentioned that the airspeed record of 698.505mph was made roughly two years later, in November of 1952. It was done by General J. Slade Nash flying a North American F-86D Sabre.

In Lt. Bethune’s letter to Stuart Nixon from the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), he stated that the UFO was about 5 to 7 miles away when it began its ascent.

However, in his interview with Sirius Disclosure, he later says that the UAP was about 15 miles away.

The UAP/UFO was described as rising from the sea at a distance of approximately five to seven miles to the approximate position and altitude of the craft in a fraction of a second. You might assign uncertainties to these distances and times to accommodate the possibility that the pilot and witnesses could have been in error.

The reported duration of this maneuver was done with a fraction of a second.

Is this a real UFO? What are your thoughts?

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