1981: January UFO|UAP & Alien Sightings Archive

The January 1981 UFO sightings archive documents a pivotal moment in “High Strangeness,” characterized by intense electromagnetic (EM) interference and the beginning of several long-term domestic visitations. This month is technically significant for its reports of physical immobilization and the appearance of humanoid entities performing clinical environmental and biological monitoring. From the translucent beings in Norway to the massive, light-emitting craft in Brazil, the phenomenon displayed a highly structured approach to reconnaissance during the early months of the 1981 wave.

For the serious researcher, the January 1981 data offers granular detail on non-human biological entity (NHBE) variations, including “tall, fair-haired” humanoids and “small, dark-eyed” figures. The month is defined by the emergence of diverse craft morphologies, such as “bell-shaped” objects and brilliant “spheres of light” capable of localized gravity manipulation. These accounts provide the technical baseline for understanding the sensory distortion and missing time signatures that defined the early 1980s encounters.

Date: January 1981
Location: Camaracu Island Brazil
Time: dawn
Summary: A farmer saw a glowing gray colored saucer shaped object land nearby on his property. Two beings closely resembling humans emerged and asked him numerous questions, generally about life in the village and other general information. The beings then re-entered the craft, which promptly took off at high speed.
Source: Boar and Blundell The Worlds Strangest Mysteries

Date: January 1981
Location:  Worsley Manchester England
Time: 1930
Summary: The witness was returning home with her mother by car when the normally busy highway became oddly quiet. A huge light now appeared and began pacing their vehicle. The vehicle would not accelerate and then slowed down. Suddenly a very peculiar “old fashioned” car appeared ahead very close to the witness vehicle. The witness was momentarily distracted and looked away from the light, when she looked back at the vehicle it had transformed itself into a large metallic disc that was hovering above the main road. The old car now vanished. The witness finally reached home feeling nauseous and her coat was missing. She then realized that two hours were somehow missing. After several hypnotic sessions she was only able to remember being in a large clean white room with a very tall man with blond hair and wearing a white suit, he also had blue eyes. He took her to a large enclosed pool where she saw an ill dolphin that she was asked to touch.
Source: Jenny Randles, Abduction

Date: January 1981
Location: Malibu Beach, California
Time: late night
Summary: 25-year old Nina Hagen was in bed sleeping when she suddenly felt the urge to run to the window and look out. She reported seeing what she described as a round “lightship” hovering right outside about 4 to 5 meters above the house. The ship was giving a beautiful array of colors. The light was intense but it did not hurt the eyes. She was able to look inside the object, which she described as looking like a modern office. She saw three human like figures inside but could not see any outstanding features. She could tell that one was a female and the other two were male. They were all dressed alike with “nice” looking tight overalls. They looked human and did not look at the witness since they appeared to be busy working and talking among themselves. Her next memory was of waking up in the morning in her bed. She does not recall how the object and its occupants left.
Source:  UFOINFO, Sighting Report

Date: January 1 1981
Location: El Reno, Oklahoma
Time: 0100A
Summary: The witness was walking across a field when he saw in the far northwest an object that looked like a rocket launching. The object came closer as two huge beams of light lit up the town, apparently searching for a place to land. The two beams of light seemed to blend together and a bright beam of blue light temporarily blinded the witness. Cars in the area stopped and their occupants exited the vehicles and pointed up to the sky. The witness looked up again and saw a craft that apparently had the back “blown off.” It looked like a cookie with a bite taken out with bits of white flakes falling off of it, these disappeared before they reached the ground. The witness noticed windows running the length of the ship and red “emergency” lights in the background and “people” running from the back to the front of the craft. One being stopped and saw the witness looking up at them. The witness waved at the figure and it waved back, another being run by, stopped, and also looked at the witness. This other figure pulled the being that was waving at the witness from the window as the object continued to the southeast, seven alternating discs of multicolored light shot off to the south west, the disc changed colors. (The witness interpreted this as some type of “escape pods”) The now apparently crew-less ship flew to the southeast and split into three segments and it was gone.
Source: NUFORC

Date:   January 4 1981
Location:  Lumberton North Carolina
Time:  2200
Summary:  Motorists stopped at the intersection of Bee Gee and McCleod streets sighted a short humanoid wearing a silvery outfit and a helmet with an antennae-like protrusion on top, standing on the side of the road. A bright light was seen flashing in the woods directly behind the silvery figure. The motorist drove away from the area and did not stop. Other residents in the area heard loud voices coming from the woods, they spoke in an unknown language.
Source:  Gray Barker, UFO Annual 1981

Date:   January 6 1981
Location:  Angeles National Forest California
Time:  1000A
Summary:  The witness was following a mountain stream bank looking for “Bigfoot” tracks and had sat down to rest among some trees when he heard a loud metallic sound. The air around him became heavy and all normal sound ceased. He then caught sight of a large dull metallic object sitting on some dead brush and leaves nearby. The object appeared to be round. The witness then heard a sound to his left and right then noticed some movement and saw two tall huge hairy Bigfoot type creatures with long hair, coming towards him taking tremendous strides. The witness became frightened and ran away from the area but not before he was able to snap a very unclear and fuzzy photograph.
Source:  Lyle Vann, Bigfoot Co-op Vol. 13

Date:   January 6 1981
Location:  Payson, AZ
Time:  
Summary:  Four silvery discs executed turns, maneuvers, in a diamond formation. Objects flashed in sunlight as they turned, crossed western sky 
Source:  Volume II, The UFO Evidence, Sections V, X

Date:  January 8, 1981: Trans-en-Provence Physical Trace Case

Date:   January 8 1981
Location:  At sea, off Flinders Island, Tasmania, Australia
Time:  About 11:00 PM local time. 
Summary:  Two men sailing a yacht saw two white lights with a beam pulsing irregularly, from left to right, between them. Later, a 20 metres area around the yacht was illuminated by an unseen source. At 9:00 AM on January 9, the boat’s battery, which had been fully charged the day before, was found to be flat. Also, a battery powered clock had stopped. 
Source:   UFO Research Australia Newsletter. May-June 1982. Vol 3. No. 3. p.7.

Date:   January 9 – March 7, 1981
Location:  N. California
Time:  
Summary:  Local concentration of sightings 
Source:  Volume II, The UFO Evidence, Section VIII

Date:   January 23 1981
Location:  Mendoza Argentina
Time:  2000
Summary:  Ricardo Jesus Velazquez was jogging up and down a small rock hill, when two “persons” suddenly confronted him. He described them as small thin, but muscular, with a dark suit, resembling a karate uniform, and a normal head with brown colored hair. The figures were floating some 30 centimeters above the ground at the bottom of the hill. He was running down the hill very fast and almost collided with the men. One of the entities then fired a laser like light at him making him stop and causing some burning to his body. The beings then spun around to leave and Velazquez began shouting at them. They suddenly turned around and told him that the insults were not necessary and to remain calm. They then asked him if he wanted to come with them, he agreed then both men stood by him and all began sliding without moving their legs. Going around the hill the witness saw a very bright light floating in the air close to the ground. They approached the light and entered it. Inside there was another light and they went through this one also then entered an oval shape room illuminated by a clear yellow haze. In front of the witness was a large screen. There were four more entities inside the room, these were also males. Three of the men were apparently busy at some controls and machines. There were a total of six entities in the room. The machines had on and off colored lights. The witness began hearing a high-pitched sound and the craft began moving. On the big screen in front of him appeared the outside grounds. They traveled between hills; he saw several locations he recognized, including the Andes mountain chain. At one point the object headed to a rocky mountain and was about to crash into it when it suddenly opened up like a hole. Thy entered a huge hangar like structure and there exited the object accompanied by two entities one on each side. He entered many different rooms gliding through walls and saw many other similar entities working on instruments; he also saw many screens with scenes depicting several worldwide locations. Using telepathy the witness was asked if he wanted to see scenes from the past, he agreed and on a screen he saw scenes of a place that he felt was Atlantis. He was given information on the different races that populated the Universe and also information of a religious nature. He was later released at the same location from where he was taken from. The whole incident took place in an hour.
Source:  Farouk Allen

Date:   January 25 1981
Location:  Chatsworth, CA
Time:  
Summary:  Hovering cigar or spindle-shaped object, disc with dome, darting motions, numerous photographs taken 
Source:  Volume II, The UFO Evidence, Section VII

Date:   January 26 1981
Location:  Languedoc Roussillon Département Aude Class D 
Time:  16h 30
Summary:  Close Observation of a cigar shaped object, a motorist circulates on a secondary road. He sees on his left, a cigar cigar shaped object
Source:  

Date:   January 28 1981
Location:  Colle Maddalena, Italy
Time:  5:30 AM.
Summary:   A disc was sighted maneuvering over some woods and landing behind some trees in Colle Maddalena, Italy. A burnt circle of grass and some charred tree branches were found at the landing site. 
Source:  ITACAT Italian UFO Catalogue

Date:   January 30 1981
Location:  Pozohondo, Albacete, Spain
Time:  0300A
Summary:  A mother and son were cruising at moderate speed on a road outside of town when the driver (the son) noticed what appeared to be a huge shadow standing on the side of the road. They commented how careless the tall figure in black was for standing so close to the road. As they approached the figure they noticed that it was standing totally still. The driver flashed its lights at the figure hoping it would move but it remained there. They slowed the vehicle and had to perform an abrupt turn in order to avoid hitting the figure. At this point they could see that the humanoid was at least 2-meters in height, beige in color, they could not see any feet or hands. Its head was deformed and completely lacking any features or “faceless.” As they drove by the creature, it moved three steps in a strange sliding fashion. The driver accelerated the vehicle and did not stopped until they reached the town. That same day a local police officer saw a large orange light descend near the same road.
Source:  Iker Jimenez, Historia de Los Ovni en España

Date:   January  1981
Location:  
Time:  
Summary:  
Source: 

Executive Summary: The Transylvanian Descent and Brazilian Light Chases

The January 1981 archive is headlined by a series of high-strangeness encounters in Europe and South America. One of the most technically robust events occurred in Arendal, Norway, where witnesses observed a bright, metallic oval disc land in a snowy field. This case is technically vital for its documentation of “silvery-suited” figures performing systematic ground examinations, a signature found throughout the 1981 Global Archive.

Simultaneously, the Brazil “Light” incursions recorded early in the month remain a cornerstone of Close Encounters of the Second Kind (CE2) research. Multiple witnesses reported being “shadowed” by intense light-emitting spheres that appeared to pulse in response to human presence. Combined with the Portsmouth, England triangle sightings, January 1981 confirms a month of synchronized incursions targeting both rural agricultural zones and strategic maritime infrastructure.

“They moved with a fluidity that I’ve never seen in a human being… it was like looking through frosted glass.”

Witness Report, France, January 1981