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World UFO Day: Most prominent, strange sightings in Michigan
On World UFO day, July 2, the Free Press looks back at the most prominent and unexplained UFO stories in Michigan’s history.
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On World UFO Day on Tuesday, people across the globe are turning their eyes to the sky in search of unidentified flying objects. Residents of Michigan are familiar with the unexplained phenomenon, with plenty of sightings, stories and spooky encounters earning headlines in Michigan’s history:
Lake Huron — 2023
On Feb. 12, 2023, U.S. Air Force and National Guard pilots shot down an unidentified object flying 20,000 feet over Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
The Huron UFO was shot down amid a slew of mysterious flying objects that February. This marked the third UFO shot down by the United States in the span of a week. Two days prior, an unidentified object was shot down in Alaska, then another was taken down in Canada the day before.
The Pentagon later reported that they believed the object could be “benign,” though it was never entirely explained or recovered.
Lake Michigan — 1994
Unfamiliar lights filled up the skies — nearly 200 miles along Lake Michigan’s shoreline from Ludington south to the Indiana border, on March 8, 1994. This incident is one of the most prominent UFO sightings in Michigan history.
UFO reports were made by hundreds, not only to 911 dispatchers but also to the Mutual UFO Network’s (MUFON) Michigan chapter. Sightings were reported by citizens, police officers, a meteorologist and others.
Cindy Pravda of Grand Haven told the Free Press in 2019 that four lights in the sky looked like “full moons” over the line of trees behind her horse pasture. She still believes the lights were UFOs.
A conversation between a National Weather Service meteorologist and a Holland police officer was reported by the Detroit Free Press in 1995.
“There were three and sometimes four blips, and they weren’t planes,” the NWS radar operator said. “Planes show as pinpoints on the scope, these were the size of half a thumbnail. They were from 5 to 12,000 feet at times, moving all over the place. Three were moving toward Chicago. I never saw anything like it before, not even when I’m doing severe weather.”
Wurtsmith Air Force Base — 1975
In October 1975, a bright white disc was spotted hovering over Wurtsmith Air Force Base. A plane was sent to pursue it, but the UFO reportedly shot into space before they could reach it.
“There were nuclear weapons at that base,” Bill Konkolesky, Michigan director of the Mutual UFO Network, told the Free Press in 2021. “It was seen on the ground by the soldiers on the ground. It was seen from the air traffic tower, it was caught on radar, so multiple ways that this was being observed. And then the other thing, too, is that within a two-week period, at least four other bases altogether in the United States that have nuclear weapons were visited by a very similar UFO.”
More: ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ investigates 1994 alleged UFO sighting that still haunts witnesses
Swamp gas — 1966
Speculation began on March 14, 1966, when Washtenaw County officers and Selfridge Air Force Base observers said they saw lights in the sky, moving at high speeds. Then on March 20, 1966, the sheriff’s office received reports of a UFO landing in a swamp in Dexter Township.
“It was sort of shaped like a pyramid, with a blue-green light on the right-hand side and on the left, a white light. I didn’t see no antenna or porthole. The body was like a yellowish coral rock and looked like it had holes in it — sort of like if you took a piece of cardboard box and split it open,” truck driver Frank Mannor told WDIV-TV (Channel 4) at the time. Mannor went into the swamp and “got about 500 yards of the thing” with his son Ronald.
Hundreds of sightings continued throughout the county all week.
Dr. J. Allen Hynek from Project Blue Book, a part of the Air Force that investigated UFOs, said the incident was just swamp gas. This drew criticism and accusations of a government cover-up.
Kinross — 1953
An Air Force jet disappeared over Lake Superior on Nov. 23, 1953.
A blip appeared on the radar in a restricted air space near Soo Locks, an important commercial gateway, and the U.S. Air Force at the Kinross base sent two experienced pilots in an F-89 Scorpion jet to investigate.
The jet chased the object for about 30 minutes and then the two radars, the jet, and the unidentified object, seemingly intersected over Lake Superior. They lost radio contact and the Air Force pilots were never heard from again.
Reporters Emma Stein and Nour Rahal contributed to this report.
Contact Liam Rappleye: Lrappleye@freepress.com
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