Overview
A retired Turkish military pilot has recounted a reported UFO encounter that he said occurred over Turkey on September 5, 1975. The account was presented in a television interview on Muhabbet Kralı, hosted by Okan Bayülgen on tv8. According to the summary of the interview, the pilot described seeing a large, luminous object during a nighttime transport flight from Kayseri to Diyarbakir. The testimony has circulated online, including through a Reddit post accompanied by an image, although the post itself reportedly provided no additional documentation or discussion.
The Reported Encounter
The pilot said the aircraft departed between approximately 8:30 and 9:00 p.m. under visual flight rules. He placed the aircraft at an altitude of about 13,000 feet and characterized the weather as clear. While flying near the Nuhat Mountains, he noticed a bright object that initially appeared to resemble “a second moon.” After observing it for several minutes, he alerted the co-pilot. The account states that eight people aboard the aircraft ultimately witnessed the phenomenon.
The object was described as changing dramatically in both apparent size and form. According to the pilot, it first appeared as a relatively small disc before expanding to what he compared to “a 30- to 40-story building.” He said the object then changed from a solid white mass into an elliptical form and ultimately appeared as a vast circular shape. Its perceived radius, he estimated, was between three and four kilometers—an extraordinary scale that would make the observation difficult to reconcile with a conventional aircraft viewed at close range, though the testimony does not establish the object’s actual distance or physical dimensions.
Radar and Air-Traffic Reports
The pilot also recalled contacting radar control to ask whether another aircraft was operating nearby. He said controllers reported that no other aircraft appeared on radar in the area. That detail forms a central part of the account, but no radar records, flight logs, or official investigation documents were included in the material summarized for the video.
As the aircraft entered the Malatya control zone, the pilot said an air-traffic controller asked whether the crew had seen a celestial body. The controller reportedly told them that governors and local officials in Elazığ, Maden, and Erzincan had received numerous reports from members of the public describing a glowing, multicolored object moving through the region. These alleged reports could, if independently documented, provide useful corroboration; however, the available summary does not identify the callers, preserve official records, or provide contemporary newspaper coverage confirming the reports.
Assessment and Context
The retired pilot rejected the suggestion that the sighting resulted from hallucination. He pointed to the medical and psychological evaluations routinely required of military pilots and emphasized that the object was visible to multiple crew members for approximately 20 to 30 minutes while the aircraft continued through Turkish airspace. Multiple witnesses and a prolonged observation can make a case more significant than a brief individual sighting, but they do not by themselves determine whether an event involved an aircraft, astronomical phenomenon, atmospheric effect, or another explanation.
The testimony remains an anecdotal account rather than a verified incident. No supporting evidence—such as radar data, cockpit records, military reports, or contemporaneous statements from the alleged officials—was provided in the source material. The account is therefore best presented as a historical report of an unidentified aerial observation, with its most dramatic details attributed to the retired pilot and awaiting independent corroboration.
