The Vranov UFO, sometimes also called the Vranov incident, is the most famous and arguably the most serious sighting of an unidentified flying object over Czech territory.
This incident occurred on July 12, 1987, over the Vranov Reservoir, which was full of tourists. The 51st Helicopter Regiment was ordered to pursue the object. Lieutenant Jaroslav Špaček recounted the incident in his book Fifty-One or the History of the 51st Helicopter Regiment.
The unidentified flying object appeared on radar near the then heavily guarded border with Austria, to which a military helicopter from Prostějov immediately took off. The cigar-shaped object, without wings, flew at high speed over the Vranov Reservoir. Although the crew was ordered to fire, they failed to locate the object. It disappeared towards Brno and disappeared from radar beyond Bratislava. According to soldiers, it could have flown at speeds of up to 2,700 km/h.
The observation began at 12:00 local time. The helicopter regiment crew received orders to pursue the unknown object. The weather on the day of the incident was typical for the period and climate, with cumulus clouds above 1.5 km. Initially, the pilots thought the guidance station was directing them towards the cloud. Moments later, a black, cigar-shaped object flew overhead. They received instructions from the ground to shoot down the object, but according to the pilots, the aircraft behaved very strangely. Every time they aimed at the target, it immediately changed direction. Shooting was also impossible because they were over the Vranov Dam, which was crowded with people. After two minutes of visual contact, the object disappeared behind a cloud.
After thirty years, new facts have emerged in the investigation into this case. Two L-39 Albatros aircraft were reportedly assigned to pursue an unidentified flying object. They took off from Brno Airport and flew towards Dukovany, from where they followed the UFO back to Brno and on towards the Slovak border. However, the object reached high speed and disappeared over Bratislava. It then continued its flight towards Jaslovské Bohunice and then onwards towards Austria.
Eduard Nový, a former member of the Border Guard, was a guest of Czech researcher Jaroslav Mareš in 2018, during which he stated that at the time he was a member of the Border Guard on the border between Austria and Czechoslovakia and observed the event from the ground.
One possible hypothesis was whether the alleged cigar-shaped aircraft was being confused with a fighter jet, such as an F-104 Starfighter or F-111 Aardvark.
However, the pilots firmly rejected this hypothesis, stating that, in their opinion, no Western aircraft would be capable of such changes in speed and direction, much less such a long flight without refueling, which lasted approximately 2.5 hours from the beginning to the end of the observation.
The source of the information and the image of the Vranov Dam are from Wikipedia; License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
See also: https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_nad_Vranovem
