Why Alicante Became a UFO File Hotspot

Introduction

The most balanced reading is that Alicante is a province of “interesting but uneven” UFO evidence. Aitana radar traces, coastal lights, a citizen’s 1981 “boomerang” report and later social-media sightings all matter, but for different reasons. Some remain thinly explained, some were probably aircraft or military activity, and some modern “UFO” stories have been resolved as space debris, meteors, reflections or storm footage. ALICANTE PRESS periódico digital+2Murcia Today[alicantepress.com]alicantepress.comOpen source on alicantepress.com.

Why Alicante matters in Spanish UFO history

Alicante matters because it sits at the junction of three ingredients that often shape UFO reporting: open sea, military radar and dense civilian observation. The province has a long Mediterranean coastline, major tourist towns such as Benidorm and Alicante city, and inland high ground that gives radar and visual observers a wide field of view. The key military site is EVA-5 at Aitana, an Air and Space Force air-surveillance squadron located in the municipality of Confrides, on the summit area of the Sierra de Aitana at about 1,558 metres, facing the Mediterranean.[Ejercito Del Aire]ejercitodelaireydelespacio.defensa.gob.esOpen source on gob.es.

That geography matters because many Alicante reports are not simply “someone saw a light”. Several involve radar echoes, military personnel, maritime settings or possible aircraft routes across the western Mediterranean. The Spanish Ministry of Defence’s own presentation of its UFO archive says the collection contains 80 files and about 1,900 pages covering unusual phenomena in Spanish airspace from 1962 to 1995, with involvement of Air Force personnel or material in some form. The same official introduction explains that the files were declassified after a process begun in 1991 and later made available online through the Defence Virtual Library.[bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es]bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.esBiblioteca Virtual de Defensa > Expedientes OVNI > PresentaciónBiblioteca Virtual de Defensa > Expedientes OVNI > Presentación

For Alicante, the most important point is not that every old file is mysterious. It is that the province appears in the official file index and in several locally relevant entries, including a specific 1981 Alicante sighting and a 1986 Aitana file. The official catalogue entry for the Aitana case identifies the file as an Air Operational Command intelligence-section document about unusual phenomena at EVA-5 on 24 and 26 April and 26 July 1986, later declassified under a 1998 order.[bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es]bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.esBiblioteca Virtual de Defensa > Expedientes OVNI > Consulta› Listado de títulos…

The Aitana radar cases are the backbone of the record

The Sierra de Aitana reports are the most substantial Alicante material because they involve trained military observers, radar context and a fixed surveillance site. A 2016 review in Alicante Press, drawing on the newly digitised Defence files, reported that the Ministry of Defence investigated at least eight UFO-related cases in Alicante province during the 1970s and 1980s, including five linked to Aitana’s EVA-5 radar station in 1975, 1979 and 1986.[ALICANTE PRESS periódico digital]alicantepress.comOpen source on alicantepress.com.

The first of these Aitana-linked incidents is reported as occurring in late July 1975 at around 05:30, when several non-commissioned officers allegedly saw an unidentified object flying low over the EVA-5 installations after radar had detected a stationary echo over the sea. This is exactly the kind of case that keeps local UFO history alive: it combines an early-morning visual report, a military setting and a radar detail. It is also exactly the kind of case that requires caution, because the public record available to ordinary readers is brief and does not provide a full technical reconstruction of the radar environment.[ALICANTE PRESS periódico digital]alicantepress.comOpen source on alicantepress.com.

A second key moment came on 6 February 1979, when Aitana reportedly detected radar echoes over the sea while the crew of the vessel Tamames saw multiple lights in the Mediterranean. The Air Force report, as summarised locally, included the possibility that the episode involved parachutists. That matters because it shows the military did not simply label the report “unknown” and stop; a conventional explanation was already being considered in the paperwork.[ALICANTE PRESS periódico digital]alicantepress.comOpen source on alicantepress.com.

The 13 March 1979 Aitana case is more dramatic. According to the same account, the radar station detected an unknown echo moving from the Mediterranean towards the peninsula, after which a Mirage III was scrambled from Manises to investigate. The incident is not the same as the famous Manises case of November 1979, but it belongs to the same wider Mediterranean air-defence context: unknown radar returns, military response and unresolved public curiosity about what, if anything, was actually intercepted.[ALICANTE PRESS periódico digital]alicantepress.comOpen source on alicantepress.com.

What happened in 1986 off Benidorm and the Balearic route?

The 1986 Aitana file gives Alicante one of its clearest province-level case clusters. The official Defence catalogue describes the file as covering unusual phenomena at EVA-5, Aitana, on 24 and 26 April and 26 July 1986. It lists the author as Spain’s Air Operational Command, State Staff, Intelligence Section; gives the publication year as 1994; and states that the file consists of eight pages.[bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es]bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.esOpen source on gob.es.

Local reporting summarises the 26 April 1986 incident as an observation from EVA-5 of an object apparently falling into the sea off the Benidorm coast at around 18:00. The base reportedly informed the Civil Guard, but the Army did not continue the investigation. That weakens the case as a mystery claim: the file shows that something was noticed and reported, but the available public summary does not show a sustained search, recovered object, detailed witness chain or firm radar correlation.[ALICANTE PRESS periódico digital]alicantepress.comOpen source on alicantepress.com.

A later local historical account adds a more sceptical interpretation. It says subsequent investigation connected one 1986 echo with a Learjet 24 flying from Algeria towards France, and suggested that the reported falling objects could have been linked to some kind of parachuting activity. The same account says the 26 July 1986 radar echo on the Balearic Islands to Cadiz route was later considered likely to have come from a US Navy EA-6B Prowler in an emergency situation. These explanations are not as strong as a full official technical report visible line by line, but they are important because they show how “UFO” entries can shrink when air-traffic, military and exercise possibilities are examined.[tipografialamoderna.com]tipografialamoderna.comquan a alcoi hi havia ovnisTipografía La Moderna…

For readers, the 1986 cluster is best treated as partially explained rather than spectacularly unresolved. The official file confirms that the incidents were real enough to be catalogued, but later interpretation points towards conventional aviation or military explanations for at least some elements.[bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es]bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.esOpen source on gob.es.

The 1981 Alicante “boomerang” report is memorable but weak

Not all Alicante UFO material comes from radar or military personnel. One of the more human details in the declassified material is a citizen report from Alicante in 1981. Alicante Press describes a letter written on 25 June 1981 by a resident of Alicante to the Air Force, reporting a UFO seen from the terrace of his home and including drawings of a supposed boomerang-shaped object.[ALICANTE PRESS periódico digital]alicantepress.comOpen source on alicantepress.com.

The official Defence index supports the existence of an Alicante entry for 1981, listing “Avistamiento de fenómenos extraños en Alicante: fecha desconocida (1981)”. A Scribd-hosted copy of the file summary describes the case as file number 810625, place Alicante, date unknown, and tied to the Central Library of the Air Force. Because the public secondary copy is not as authoritative as the Defence catalogue itself, the safest conclusion is modest: the 1981 Alicante report existed in the Air Force UFO file system, but the evidence available in open summaries is not enough to make it a strong case.[bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es]bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.esBiblioteca Virtual de Defensa > Expedientes OVNI > Consulta› Listado de títulos…

Its value is cultural and archival rather than evidential. It shows how ordinary witnesses entered the official system: a person saw something, wrote to the Air Force, supplied drawings, and the report was preserved. It does not show independent corroboration, radar confirmation, photographs, physical traces or a durable explanation. In Alicante’s UFO history, it is a useful example of how a memorable shape can keep a report alive even when the case file itself is thin.

The Manises comparison: important, but not an Alicante case

The famous Manises incident of 11 November 1979 is often brought into discussion of eastern Spain’s UFO history, but it should not be folded lazily into Alicante province. It involved a commercial TAE flight, an emergency landing at Manises airport in Valencia, and a Mirage F1 scramble from Los Llanos in Albacete. It is widely treated as Spain’s most famous UFO case, but its core geography is Valencia, Ibiza, Albacete and the wider Mediterranean airspace rather than Alicante itself.[Wikipedia]WikipediaManises UFO incidentManises UFO incident

The comparison is still useful because it shows the same air-defence world in which Aitana operated. Both the Aitana files and Manises-era debates involve radar interpretation, pilot testimony, military secrecy and later attempts to reconstruct what was visible in the Mediterranean sky. A later technical discussion by Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and other researchers notes that documentation on UFO matters had been treated as classified by Spanish military authorities in 1979, and it explores possible emergency-beacon and maritime-rescue angles around the Manises chronology.[Academia]academia.eduLAS BALIZAS DEL 11 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 1979LAS BALIZAS DEL 11 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 1979

The lesson for Alicante is caution. Manises shows how quickly a complex aviation event can become a national legend, and how difficult it is to untangle lights, radio signals, radar reports, press coverage and later memory. Aitana’s Alicante cases are less famous, but they sit in the same interpretive territory: unusual reports are real historical documents, yet the documents do not automatically prove extraordinary craft.

Modern Alicante sightings often resolve faster

Recent Alicante “UFO” stories are easier to test because they unfold in public, with phone videos, social media, meteor networks and university or specialist comment. That has changed the texture of local UFO culture. In older cases, a reader often depends on official files, witness summaries and later reconstructions. In newer cases, explanations can appear within hours.

A good example is the February 2021 sighting seen across Alicante and Murcia. People reported a strange circular light in the early morning sky, with videos including one from Villajoyosa. Murcia Today reported that speculation spread quickly, but the University of Alicante’s Climatology Laboratory and the Bolides and Meteorites Research Network later confirmed the object as an artificial bolide caused by Crew Dragon space debris re-entering the atmosphere over south-east Spain.[Murcia Today]murciatoday.comMurcia Today! Murcia TodayMurcia Today! Murcia Today

The 2019 Alicante storm-video story shows the weaker side of viral UFO reporting. The Olive Press reported claims that a strange object had been spotted in footage of lightning over Alicante during severe storms, with some speculative claims about alien craft “refuelling” in thunderstorms. The same article makes clear that the footage had first been broadcast without any mention of a craft, and that the UFO interpretation developed after viewers re-examined the video. That is a classic modern pattern: a dramatic weather image, a small ambiguous detail, social amplification and then increasingly exotic interpretation.[Olive Press News Spain]theolivepress.esOpen source on theolivepress.es.

These modern examples do not make the older Aitana files worthless. They do the opposite: they show why source quality matters. A radar log or military file is not the same as a viral clip. But they also remind readers that “unidentified at first glance” is not the same as “unexplainable”.

How strong is the evidence overall?

Alicante’s UFO record is strongest as a documented history of unusual aerial reports, not as evidence for alien visitation. The official Defence archive confirms that Spain preserved and later declassified UFO-related files, including Alicante and Aitana entries. Local reporting provides a coherent cluster of dates and incidents: Aitana in 1975, radar and maritime lights in February 1979, a March 1979 unknown echo and scramble, the 1981 Alicante citizen letter, and the 1986 Aitana reports off Benidorm and along the Balearic-Cadiz route. bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es+3bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es+3bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es[bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es]bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.esBiblioteca Virtual de Defensa > Expedientes OVNI > PresentaciónBiblioteca Virtual de Defensa > Expedientes OVNI > Presentación

The main doubts are just as important:

The unresolved residue is therefore narrower than the folklore suggests. Alicante has credible documentation of unusual reports, especially around Aitana, but the best-supported claim is historical: the Spanish military logged and reviewed strange aerial observations in and around the province. The stronger claim — that these reports demonstrate non-human craft — is not supported by the available evidence.

What readers should take from Alicante’s UFO record

Alicante is best understood as a province where UFO history overlaps with air surveillance. The most interesting stories are not tales of secret alien landings, but moments when trained observers, radar systems, civilian witnesses and Mediterranean aviation all produced ambiguous reports. That makes the province valuable for a serious UFO history project: it shows how a sighting becomes a file, how a file becomes local memory, and how later interpretation can either sharpen or weaken the original mystery.

The Aitana cases deserve a place in Spanish UFO history because they are anchored to a real military surveillance station and appear in the Defence archive. The 1981 boomerang report deserves mention because it shows the civilian route into the same archive. The 2019 and 2021 sightings deserve a different kind of mention because they show the modern media cycle: fast excitement, rapid sharing and, sometimes, a conventional explanation that arrives after the story has already travelled. Olive Press News Spain+3Ejercito Del Aire+3ALICANTE PRESS periódico digital[ejercitodelaireydelespacio.defensa.gob.es]ejercitodelaireydelespacio.defensa.gob.esOpen source on gob.es.

A fair verdict is that Alicante’s UFO history is neither empty nor extraordinary in the sensational sense. It is a compact provincial record of official files, radar-linked reports, coastal observations and later debunking pressure. Its real value lies in showing how UFO claims should be read: case by case, source by source, with room for uncertainty but no need to inflate uncertainty into proof.

Amazon book picks

Further Reading

Books and field guides related to Why Alicante Became a UFO File Hotspot. Use these as the next step if you want deeper reading beyond the article.

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The UFO Experience

By Joseph Allen Hynek

Useful framework for evaluating Alicante reports.

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How UFOs Conquered the World

By David Clarke

Provides cultural context.

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UFOs

By Leslie Kean

Strong match for radar and military cases.

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Passport to Magonia

By Jacques Vallee

Places regional cases in international perspective.

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Browse more on Amazon:The UFO ExperienceHow UFOs Conquered the WorldUFOs

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Endnotes

1. Source: bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es
Title: Biblioteca Virtual de Defensa > Expedientes OVNI > Presentación
Link:https://bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es/BVMDefensa/exp_ovni/es/micrositios/inicio.do

2. Source: ejercitodelaireydelespacio.defensa.gob.es
Link:https://ejercitodelaireydelespacio.defensa.gob.es/EA/ejercitodelaire/es/Unidades/Unidad/edd28d67-7a2d-11ee-99f3-005056bf91c5/?path=%2Fsites%2Finternet.es%2F.content%2Funidad%2Funidad_00004.xml&resourceId=edd28d67-7a2d-11ee-99f3-005056bf91c5

3. Source: bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es
Link:https://bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es/BVMDefensa/exp_ovni/es/consulta/busqueda_referencia.do?campo=idtitulo&idValor=395964

4. Source: bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es
Title: Biblioteca Virtual de Defensa > Expedientes OVNI > Consulta
Link:https://bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es/BVMDefensa/exp_ovni/es/consulta/indice_campo.do?campo=idtitulo

5. Source: tipografialamoderna.com
Title: quan a alcoi hi havia ovnis
Link:https://www.tipografialamoderna.com/la_memoria/quan-a-alcoi-hi-havia-ovnis/

6. Source: es.scribd.com
Title: 1981 06 25 Avistamiento en Alicante
Link:https://es.scribd.com/document/328832555/1981-06-25-Avistamiento-en-Alicante

7. Source: Wikipedia
Title: Manises UFO incident
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manises_UFO_incident

8. Source: academia.edu
Title: LAS BALIZAS DEL 11 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 1979
Link:https://www.academia.edu/44150004/LAS_BALIZAS_DEL_11_DE_NOVIEMBRE_DE_1979

9. Source: bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es
Link:https://bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es/BVMDefensa/exp_ovni/es/consulta/registro.do?id=38312

10. Source: bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es
Title: defensa.gob.es Title list
Link:https://bibliotecavirtual.defensa.gob.es/BVMDefensa/exp_ovni/en/consulta/indice_campo.do?campo=idtitulo

11. Source: ejercitodelaireydelespacio.defensa.gob.es
Title: defensa.gob.es- Unidades
Link:https://ejercitodelaireydelespacio.defensa.gob.es/EA/ejercitodelaire/es/Unidades/index.html?agrupacion=MACOM

12. Source: es.scribd.com
Title: 1986 04 24 Avistamiento en Eva 5 Aitana Alicante
Link:https://es.scribd.com/document/328832638/1986-04-24-Avistamiento-en-Eva-5-Aitana-Alicante

13. Source: Wikipedia
Title: Incidente OVNI de Manises
Link:https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidente_OVNI_de_Manises

14. Source: Wikipedia
Title: List of reported UFO sightings
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reported_UFO_sightings

15. Source: Wikipedia
Title: Structure of the Spanish Air and Space Force
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_of_the_Spanish_Air_and_Space_Force

16. Source: Wikipedia
Title: Escuadrón de Vigilancia Aérea
Link:https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escuadr%C3%B3n_de_Vigilancia_A%C3%A9rea

17. Source: academia.edu
Link:https://www.academia.edu/27920724/THE_MANISES_UFO_FILE

18. Source: academia.edu
Title: EVA 5 Los informes perdidos de 1975
Link:https://www.academia.edu/31802317/EVA_5_Los_informes_perdidos_de_1975

19. Source: alicantepress.com
Link:https://alicantepress.com/archive/33209/defensa-investigo-al-menos-8-casos-ovni-en-la-provincia-de-alicante-en-los-anos-70-y-80

20. Source: murciatoday.com
Title: Murcia Today! Murcia Today
Link:https://murciatoday.com/supposed_ufo_sighting_in_alicante_and_murcia_causes_great_excitement_on_social_media_1561928-a.html

21. Source: theolivepress.es
Link:https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2019/09/17/ufologists-claim-alien-spacecraft-refuel-in-thunderstorms-after-ufo-sighted-over-alicante-last-week/

22. Source: nuforc.org
Link:https://nuforc.org/sighting/?id=187753

Additional References

23. Source: youtube.com
Title: The UFO that Shocked an Entire Continent
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V10Q9AWsOfY

24. Source: youtube.com
Title: The Manises UFO Incident: A Classic UFO Case from Spain
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7MTdkK_JaM

25. Source: nsa.gov
Link:https://www.nsa.gov/Helpful-Links/NSA-FOIA/Frequently-Requested-Information/UFO-and-Other-Paranormal-Information/

26. Source: youtube.com
Title: UFO spotted over Alicante during September gota fría
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OzTIGEAnr4

27. Source: youtube.com
Title: 1,900 pages of ‘UFO files’ are declassified in Spain
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XuV39079LA

28. Source: youtube.com
Title: The First Commercial Flight Grounded Due to UFOs
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_BZkOAw6E0

29. Source: instagram.com
Link:https://www.instagram.com/p/DQ7jVAoESKu/

30. Source: facebook.com
Link:https://www.facebook.com/orbitaceromendoza/posts/archivos-del-ej%C3%A9rcito-del-airedefensa-investig%C3%B3-al-menos-8-casos-ovni-en-la-prov/1481666843971992/

31. Source: planetabenitez.com
Link:https://planetabenitez.com/eva-5-aitana-alicante-24-y-26-de-abril-y-26-de-julio-de-1986/

32. Source: mapcarta.com
Link:https://mapcarta.com/es/W158591500