AIRLINER CREW REPORTS UFO SIGHTING

This document is a report from the Soviet newspaper TRUD, dated January 30, 1985, detailing a UFO sighting by the crew of a Tu-134 airliner (Flight 8352) traveling from Tbilisi to Tallinn. At 4:10 am, while 120 kilometers from Minsk, the crew observed a yellow, non-flickering light that emitted a beam toward the ground. The object, initially perceived as a star, transformed into a luminous cone and later a 'cloud airplane' without wings. The object displayed complex behavior, including hovering, intercepting the airliner, and performing vertical and horizontal maneuvers at 10,000 meters altitude and 800 kilometers per hour. The crew reported the incident to the Minsk controller, who initially observed nothing on radar or in the sky, though the object was later tracked by the Tallinn Airport surveillance radar as two blips following the airliner. A second aircraft from Leningrad, flying in the opposite direction, also failed to see the object until it was 15 kilometers away, at which point they described it exactly as the first crew had. The report includes commentary from N. A. Zheltukhin, deputy chairman of the Commission on Aerodynamic Phenomena, who confirms the commission's investigation into the case. Zheltukhin states that the object's behavior—specifically its instant change in direction and the projection of a light beam from high altitude—is atypical. He concludes that the crew encountered a UFO and emphasizes the importance of the consistent, detailed accounts provided by the crew and the drawings made by the copilot, Gennadiy Ivanovich Lazurin.