barbutiuCaptain Commander Mihai Barbuţiu, retired military pilot, had four dramatic encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena. He decided to disclose these incidents only recently.

Mihai Bărbuţiu, born in Arad, on February 21, 1929, was military pilot since 1951, later on supersonic fighters, and he became civilian pilot since 1974, on AN24 and TU-154B. Mihai Bărbuţiu recounted about his encounters with unidentified objects, in the discussions that we had with him in Arad, in March 4, 2015 (including a TV show with Sorin Ghilea, at “TV Arad”).

1. Encounter near Caracal

In the summer of 1957, one evening, Bărbuţiu was appointed leader of flight at the airport of Caracal, used as a backup of the main airport of Craiova, if some flight problems arise and an aircraft came to an emergency landing. At one point, he was alarmed to go to the “station”, a flight management point, a huge six wheels truck, parked near the runway. At the station he heard that an elusive unidentified target was seen on radars, appearing and disappearing. To intercept it, from Craiova a MiG-17 fighter took off. This type of fighter was the first of the Romanian Air Force having its own radar. Bărbuţiu could hear his colleague, the pilot Captain Adalbert Bodiş (now retired commander, who lives in Cluj-Napoca), reporting that he located the target and, after a while, that he no longer sees it...

The station was run by a well-trained sergeant named Gigârtu, living now in Bucharest. At one point, he and Bărbuţiu saw a flying object coming towards them, from the village Deveselu, above the railway. Thinking that it could be a foreign military aircraft, with machine guns and grenades, both of them hid under the station, behind the wheels. But, for their surprise, nothing happened and there was any noise. Looking out, they saw on the ground a circular light with a diameter of about fifty to one hundred meters. It was an unreal powerful light, seeing even blade of grass. It was impossible to see the shape of the source of the light, only the light itself, like looking at a projector. The light lasted about 20 seconds. AfterwardsBărbuţiu came out from beneath the station and saw that the object went to the east. Hedid not distinguish its shape. Then he announced by radio his colleague Bodiş that the object passed right now over the airport, heading for the city of Slatina. Bodiş tried to find it, without success. Nobody asked Bărbuţiu to make any report, but the witnesses were advised to not discuss about the incident...



2. The case Cluj-Oradea

In 1958 Bărbuţiu was moved to Timisoara, to the fighter-interceptor regiment. Here he went through various positions until became squadron commander. By 1966-1967, he was on a flight from Cluj-Napoca to Oradea, with two MiG-19 supersonics, one seat each.

At one point, Bărbuţiu saw an object in front of him. He saw the plane of his colleague, Colonel Gheorghiţă, on radar, but not the object. Then Bărbuţiu asked Gheorghiţă if he sees the target on his radar. He answered that he sees it by eye, but not on the radar. Then the command station, at the ground, asked them what they see. Bărbuţiu said “it's an object here that we don’t see on the radar, but we see it with the naked eye. We don’t know what it could be”... He told later that he only saw the position lights, the flash which lit red and green alternative; red on top, green at the bottom. It could not be mistaken for an airplane; the side lights of planes, with these colours, are on the wing tips, are not so strong and have other hues. Here was a strong red, and a very strong green. It was also an unnatural green, and the red was a deep dark red...

After that incident, Bărbuţiu was called to Bucharest, where he signed an undertaking that he would not disclose anything of what he saw. In those times – he says – it was very strict with the military secrets…



3. A huge object

The next incident was in one night, a month or so later. Two MiG-19 fighters performed, at 12,500 meters, a routine exercise. Bărbuţiu was the “hunter”, to intercept his comrade-in-arms Dumitru Răducanu, (then major; deceased in 2015). Finishing the exercise, the two fighters headed, in formation, to Timisoara airport.

A dense mass of clouds, from 6500 meters to 10500, was below them. It wasfull moon. The light was so powerful that you could read the instruments without their lights, tells Bărbuţiu. At one point, he saw before him, with the naked eye, at a great distance, a flying object. The pilot did not say anything because he remembered the discussions after the previous sighting. He was only waiting if his colleague sees something. When Răducanu told him: “boss, do you see this target in front of us?” he said that nothing is there. As Răducanu insisted, the command from the ground asked – “What's there? What do you see?” So, as Bărbuţiu was commanding, he reported it's an unidentified object. The ground radars saw only the two aircrafts. The flight command asked the pilots to try to force the object to land. Bărbuţiu said he has not enough fuel. Then Răducanu received an order to fire a warning volley, as provided for intercepting an unidentified aircraft.

Bărbuţiu, curious, went to see the object closer. As he declares now, when he passed under it, he was surprised that he stood ten or fifteen seconds in the shadow cast by the object. He felt also an “electric pressure”, as when you are close to a very strong electric field. The navigation devices circled. He declares that “It was as huge as a football field ... It was grey, circular, had no wings, and no portholes... We were informed about all existing flying devices of Russians, Americans, and other states, but we did not heard about such a thing. I told myself it should be an object from another planet”.

Then Bărbuţiu began the descent. He went out of the clouds at about 6500 meters, having the town Salonta in his right, and the city of Arad in front. Răducanu said he armed the guns and approached the object, preparing to fire a volley, to force it to follow him. But when he reported this, the target disappeared...

When Bărbuţiu, by chance, looked back he saw that the object was now following him. As he recognizes, he was scared to death. But he automatically reported to the station that the object is next to him. He received the order to try to fall behind it, and to force it to come to land. As he recounts “I said to myself that if these hold a technique so advanced, if I now arm the cannon and shoot, my projectile could explode in the pipe. So, I decided to arm the cannon later, when I will approach the airport, because nobody could control when I cocked the gun”.

The pilot said he could not fall back to the object because it remained always in the same position to his plane... At some point, however, the object passed in front of him, and began to climb, toward Serbia. By reflex, Bărbuţiu started to climb with it. He passed Timisoara, where there were only scraps of clouds, and when he reached the 10,000 meters and looked down, he was just above Belgrade and the Danube... It was in a good period of relations with Yugoslavia and there was no problem... The object was in front of him, but he reported that the fuel was at the limit ... so he turned and came to landing.

While he was in pursuit of the object, he made pictures. All fighters had machine-gun cameras. When Bărbuţiu landed, he told the foreman in charge of air photos to make an extra copy for him. The next morning, the foreman said that the counterintelligence officer took the box with the undeveloped film. Nobody knew anything about the fate of those pictures. Once again, the two pilots had to undersign a commitment that they will not talk and will not say to anybody about the incident.



4. A damaged plane

Another case, where there was physical evidence too, occurred in 1970 or 71. Based also in Timisoara, Bărbuţiu came from a flight mission with a MiG-21. His flight was the last, and it was midnight. At an altitude of 500 meters, he entered in an area ofstrong and unexplainable shaking. Suddenly he felt a blow and saw a bright light. The first guess was that he collided with someone or something and he reported he will catapult. But when he saw that the plane continues to fly, and respond to commands, he reported that try to come to land. He doesn’t realize what happened ... No object was seen on radar or with naked eyes. He landed without problems, the train came out normally. Meanwhile, because of the incident, they were on site: the division commander, General Puiu, the chief engineer of the regiment, the division chief engineer, a doctor, an ambulance etc., as happens in such situations.

The pilot descended on the left side of the plane, where he was expected. General Puiu remarked that the additional, large, fuel tank, already empty, which was under the belly of the plane, is missing. It can be released using pyrotechnic cartridges. It’s not a big problem, said the general, you put your finger in the wrong place... Bărbuţiu relates now that he retorted that such a thing would not have been possible. It is the same sealed contact, as for the gun and the rocket. And the seal was not broken; everything was intact.

The general and the chief engineer of division left the place. Bărbuţiu remained with the regiment engineer, Gigi Grasu (who lives now in Bucharest) and with the flight technician. The latter, controlling the airplane, says “Boss, come see something”...

The right and the left wing of a MiG, have each two rocket launchers ... at the right side, the rocket launcher from the embedding of the plan was bent about 30 degrees and the other at about 15 degrees ... The launcher had no rockets, because they were used only in real flying missions. Everybody was perplexed; the launchers are not some ordinary metal pipes; they are steel girders, a meter and a half long, made of a special alloy of chromium vanadium, which does not bend to any. You need extraordinary strength to resist to the departure of the rocket. It should be a huge shock that produced also the release of the extra tank, triggering automatic tank staples.

Nothing was seen on radar, or visually and nothing was heard... The Russians, Hungarians, and others were asked if they had something in the air ... The second day, the third day, next week, the pilot waited, but nobody found any explanation to what collided with the plane.

In the autumn, the tank was found in a sunflower field, nestled in the ground, without a scratch ... So the hypothesis saying that the tank had struck the launch pad was not true. Then the whole thing was forgotten.



Comments of Mr Bărbuţiu

Commander Bărbuţiu declared us that he understands that such encounters are kept secret, because “they do not want the world to know that we are not the only ones here in this Universe, that we are visited by extraterrestrial beings, and that the alien ships come to Earth and controls our airspace. There are also, certainly, actions from the authorities not to arouse fear and adverse actions in people ... That is the main reason... You see, if people obtain the proof that these visitors swarm among us, they will kill each other... But people are now starting to get used…”

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