Voronezh — the park landing of 27 September 1989

OVERVIEW

The Voronezh UFO incident was an alleged UFO landing and alien sighting reported by a group of children in Voronezh on 27 September 1989. It was the most publicised of a series of UFO claims carried by official Soviet media during glasnost.

HISTORY

According to TASS, boys playing football in a city park saw a pink glow, then a deep red ball about three metres across that circled, vanished and reappeared. The children said a 'three-eyed alien' in bronze-coloured boots with a disk on its chest, and a robot, came out, and that the alien used a ray gun to make a 16-year-old boy disappear until the object left. A police lieutenant, Sergei A. Matveyev, said he had seen 'a body flying in the sky', and the Interior Ministry said it would send troops if the object came back. On 9 October 1989 TASS reported that its correspondent had spoken to '10 or 12 youths', and quoted a Dr Silanov of the Voronezh Geophysical Laboratory as confirming the landing site by 'biolocation'.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Paul Kurtz, in the Skeptical Inquirer (1990), described that 'biolocation' as a form of ESP dowsing. The children's story closely resembled stories printed in the American magazine Saga. A private company soon sold tours of Voronezh as the 'land of the aliens' for 59 roubles a head. Filed UNVETTED: the only witnesses to the aliens were the children, and the official confirmation rested on dowsing.

VISITING

The pin marks the city of Voronezh; the article does not name the park.