An image showing strange lights in the sky. Shutterstock.

Foo Fighter Mystery: What Were the Mysterious UFOs Witnessed by Fighter Pilots Around the Globe?

Countless "Foo Fighter" UFOs have been seen by fighter pilots around the globe. But what are these enigmatic flying objects, and are they from this world?

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A Royal Airforce Pilot flying a Hurricane interceptor reported on December 1942 that he witnessed two lights shooting from the ground toward his 7,000-foot cruising altitude while flying over France. He first thought it was tracer fire but realized soon after that this wasn’t the case, as the mysterious ‘lights’ followed him, mimicking every evasive maneuver he made. The so-called Foo Fighters’ appearance began to be documented during the Second World War when German and allied warplanes began encountering mysterious flying objects without wings.

First Foo Fighter Sighting

The numerous Foo Fighter sightings left pilots awestruck. The first sighting occurred in November of 1944 when fighter pilots reported seeing fast-moving, glowing objects following their aircraft while patrolling over Western Europe. The objects were usually described as fiery, glowing in various colors, including red, orange, and white. They had no problem flying in formation, and most importantly, they never appeared on the radar.

Flying Christmas lights

Some pilot accounts describe the enigmatic objects as flying Christmas lights, playing around with pilots, and performing incredible wild turns before disappearing. There are several accounts of Foo Fighters flying in formation. Many allied pilots reported that the mysterious objects seemed to be under intelligent control. The mysterious UFOs never displayed hostile behavior toward the pilots. Reports indicate it was impossible to outmaneuver or shoot down any foo fighters.

Foo Fighters: top-secret aircraft?

Allied forces thought the Foo Fighters were top-secret aircraft developed by the Japanese or Germans. However, it was later revealed that the Germans and the Japanese had witnessed the sky’s enigmatic objects. Foo Fighters quickly became a widespread phenomenon. Charles R. Bastien of the Eighth Air Force reported one of the most famous Foo Fighter encounters. Bastien reported seeing “two fog lights flying at high-speed rates that could change direction rapidly” over Belgium and the Netherlands.

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RAF Fighters

After Bastien was debriefed, his intelligence officers reported that two additional RAF fighters had reported the same thing over Europe. In addition to the sighting of Bastien and the two RAF fighters, another Royal Airforce Pilot flying a Hurricane interceptor saw two lights shooting from near the ground toward his 7,000-foot cruising altitude in December 1942 over France. The pilot first thought that what he had seen was tracer fire but realized soon after that this wasn’t the case, as the mysterious ‘lights’ followed him, mimicking every evasive maneuver he made.

The Time Magazine wrote about the enigmatic objects in 1945:

“If it was not a hoax or an optical illusion, it was certainly the most puzzling secret weapon Allied fighters have yet encountered. Last week, U.S. night fighter pilots based in France told a strange story of fireballs following their planes at night over Germany for over a month.  “No one seemed to know what, if anything, the fireballs were supposed to accomplish. Guiding that it was a new psychological weapon, Pilots named it the foo-fighter.”

Electrostatic phenomena

As the phenomena were widespread and not localized, The post-war Robertson Panel theorized whether Foo Fighters might have been, in fact, electrostatic phenomena similar to St. Elmo’s fire, electromagnetic phenomena, or simply reflections of light from ice crystals. Tachikawa-Kawasaki KI-36 fighters side by side with two Foo Fighter “bogies.”

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There are other theories that Foo Fighters were, in fact, alien drones that were part of larger UFOs. The enigmatic objects would supposedly dock off the UFOs to perform surveillance missions. Neither German nor Allied pilots had seen anything like them before, which is why the mystery behind the objects spread quickly around the world. Were they top-secret weapons developed by the Germans or the Japanese? Or, is there a possibility, as some UFO researchers suggest, that the so-called Foo Fighters were visitors from another world?


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Written by Ivan Petricevic

I've been writing passionately about ancient civilizations, history, alien life, and various other subjects for more than eight years. You may have seen me appear on Discovery Channel's What On Earth series, History Channel's Ancient Aliens, and Gaia's Ancient Civilizations among others.

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