Malmstrom missile incidents
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🛸 Case
Contents 6
| Type | Case |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Echo Flight, Oscar Flight |
| On the Timeline | 3 events, 1974–2012 |
The Malmstrom missile incidents refer to events at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana in March 1967, when a flight of ten Minuteman nuclear missiles went off alert, and to later claims by former officers that unidentified flying objects had been seen near the missile sites at the time. The case is central to research on UFOs and nuclear weapons, but the Air Force attributed the shutdown to an electronic fault, and the UFO connection rests mainly on recollections made decades later.[1][2]
The Echo Flight shutdown
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On 16 March 1967, all ten launch facilities of Echo Flight, controlled by Malmstrom's 341st Strategic Missile Wing, went to "No-Go" status and lost strategic alert at almost the same moment. An Air Force report noted that no other missile flights of the same configuration were affected, and maintenance teams restored the missiles within a day. Investigators at Malmstrom, the Ogden Air Materiel Area and the missile's manufacturer, Boeing, traced the shutdown to an electronic noise pulse in the guidance and control system. The Air Force report described rumours of UFO involvement as "disproven", and a mobile security team that had checked sites in another flight that morning reported nothing unusual.[1][3]
Robert Salas's account
On 13 August 1996 the Great Falls Tribune published the account of Robert Salas, who in 1967 had been a 26-year-old Air Force lieutenant serving as a missile launch officer. Salas said security guards on the surface reported strange objects manoeuvring in the distance and then a glowing red object hovering over the front gate, and that missiles in his capsule went offline minutes later. At first he did not suggest anything extraterrestrial.[1][4]
Salas later said his experience took place at Oscar Flight, a different flight from Echo, about a week after the Echo shutdown. In 2005 he co-wrote Faded Giant, suggesting the government was hiding evidence of extraterrestrial involvement, and in 2008 researcher Robert Hastings featured the incidents in UFOs and Nukes. On 27 September 2010, Salas and other former officers spoke about UFOs at nuclear sites at a National Press Club press conference organised by Hastings. He has since written further books and briefed officials.[1][5][6]
Skeptical views
Skeptics note that the surviving Air Force records concern Echo Flight and contain no mention of an Oscar Flight shutdown or of UFO reports that night. Writer Brian Dunning has suggested the Echo outage followed an ordinary commercial power failure and that Salas's memory may be mistaken; Robert Sheaffer has argued that a bright light seen by guards could have been the planet Mars. Science writer Mick West notes that the military found no link to any sighting and that the story persists largely through Salas's advocacy.[1][2][7]
2025 explanation
In June 2025 The Wall Street Journal reported on Pentagon investigators' findings about the origins of several UFO stories, including a claim that the 1967 Malmstrom shutdown was linked to a secret test of a device simulating a nuclear electromagnetic pulse. The report has been debated by researchers.[1][8]
On the UAP Timeline
- Malmstrom Romeo-29 incident (1974) (March 1974) — A large glowing object hovers over a Minuteman launch facility at Malmstrom AFB, Montana.
- UFOs and Nukes press conference (27 September 2010) — Former military officers hold a press conference about UAP at nuclear weapons sites.
- Fergus County sheriff's log sightings (2012) (19 September 2012) — A sheriff's log records a report of two silent V-shaped UAP near a Montana missile site.
References
- Malmstrom UFO incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Brian Dunning, "The Day the UFO Deactivated the Nukes", Skeptoid #842 · skeptoid.com · archived copy
- Air Force records on the Malmstrom missile incident, FOIA release (2001) — The Black Vault · documents.theblackvault.com · archived copy
- "1967 UFO incident still mystifies man", Great Falls Tribune (13 Aug 1996) · newspapers.com · archived copy
- "Ex-Air Force Personnel: UFOs Deactivated Nukes", CBS News (2010) · cbsnews.com · archived copy
- "Nearly six decades after seminal Montana UFO incidents, air force vets brief Pentagon", Calgary Herald · calgaryherald.com · archived copy
- Mick West, "Great Expectations: UFOs in Congress", Skeptical Inquirer (2022) · skepticalinquirer.org · archived copy
- "The Pentagon Disinformation That Fueled America's UFO Mythology", The Wall Street Journal (7 Jun 2025) · wsj.com · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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