Retired Turkish general claims close encounter with UFOs

Greek jets are not the only aerial adversaries Turkish planes have engaged in the skies, according to a retired general who has claimed he encountered unidentified flying objects over western Turkey while serving as a pilot. Calling up a live television show Saturday during a heated debate about UFOs, Retired Gen. Erdoğan Karakuş said he and seven other pilots experienced a UFO encounter over the western province of Balıkesir in May 1983.

The UFOs were levitating using an unknown technique, Karakuş said, explaining that he was part of a group of eight pilots flying four Turkish jets to the southern city of Adana for a drill when one of the men spotted something in the air.

“[He] said, ‘I saw some objects, what I should do?’ and I said, ‘It may be a plane signaling for help; I am connecting to the Balıkesir frequency,’” the retired general said. “The flight-control tower in Balıkesir said it did not have any flights [listed]. I thought it might have been a civilian plane.”

The objects accompanied the pilots for 15 minutes as they passed from Balıkesir to the Aegean city of Denizli, Karakuş said, adding that he warned another pilot who wanted to fly toward them not to do so after deciding the objects did not look like planes.

“One of my friends meanwhile turned his [plane’s] lights off. This time [the UFOs] got close to the third plane. They moved on to the second one when the third one also turned its lights off,” Karakuş said, adding that when he looked to his left at that moment, he could not see anything other than a yellow beam of light.

“They moved to my left side when I also turned my [plane’s] lights off, the retired general said, adding that shortly afterwards, four to five lights resembling plane lights appeared. “Then they disappeared with a sudden [maneuver].”

Karakuş said the control towers at airports in Ankara, Istanbul and Konya also detected the UFOs that night. “We reported [the incident] and it was probably sent to NASA.”

 
/Hurriyet Daily News/