THE St. PETERSBURG INCIDENT

The St. Petersburg incident is one of the most witnessed and highly recorded incidents in the history of UFOlogy. The events took place in the skies over St. Petersburg in Russia on the evening of 19th February 1997, when at around 7-00p.m. the residents of the city became aware of a cluster of lights hovering overhead. The incident was unusual in that there were multiple witnesses; a number of video recordings made and was seen quite clearly by air traffic staff and aircrew at the local airport. Just after 7-00 p.m. the air traffic controllers at the local airport saw the strange objects appear on their radar screens and also strange lights became quite visible in the skies over the airport. 

The strange lights were captured on video by 
several people - here are two different angles..

One of the air traffic controllers, Victor Laxtushin, went outside and witnessed the objects, he remarked:
   "I sketched the event as it happened; the shape of the lights changed, left and then re-appeared. Others were watching through binoculars. There was an aircraft on the runway - they confirmed the presence of a UFO. I am perhaps better qualified than most witnesses but I can't say what it was - experimental craft? But why fly experimental aircraft over St. Petersburg?" By 7-15p.m. the strange lights had now apparently formed into a "triangle" and reports of the UFO were coming in from many different locations and many people captured the incident on video tape. 

Victor Laxtushin [ above ] - 
remains perplexed by the whole event .

Uri Arzamastsev, [below] an economics student, noticed the lights, high in the sky and well above the horizon, through the kitchen window - rushing outside with his camcorder he captured the UFO on video and, by this time, the rest of his family were also witnessing the event.
The incident was later officially investigated by Naval Captain Pavel Syrchenko [right] who after collating all the evidence was unable to explain the event away as military or civilian aircraft, balloons etc. 
The objects hovered over the city for about 20 minutes and at 7-20p.m. they could not be seen. There are many similarities between the St. Petersburg incident and the series of events which became known as "The Phoenix Lights". In both cases the appearance of a "triangular-shaped" craft was heralded by strange lights in the sky.
The Phoenix Lights, Black Triangles and other Russian UFO files are covered in detail on this site.

The strange lights as 
seen over the airport

Victor Laxtushin made 
notes and a sketch.

The "lights" were recorded from different locations.

The lights take on a 
triangular appearance.

Viewed from another location.

Quite clearly a triangular formation.

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Revised: 10 Nov 2003 19:37:26 -0000 .