1988 UFO Encounter Over Mt. San Jacinto Still Puzzles Pilot and Experts
Interesting Facts About Hemet
Photographer Captures Bizarre Flying Object Over Hemet—Still Unexplained 35 Years Later
In the summer of 1988, something strange happened in the skies above Mt. San Jacinto, California. On July 16, during what should have been a routine air-to-air photo mission, a seasoned pilot with decades of aerospace experience spotted something he couldn’t explain: a silent, reflective sphere moving through the sky—fast, steady, and utterly out of place.
It wasn’t a rumor. It wasn’t a secondhand story.
It was real. And a San Diego photographer captured it all on film.
UFO Sighting Over Mt. San Jacinto: A Mysterious 1988 Encounter
John R. English has spent a lifetime in the sky. His aviation experience includes working with astronauts, and he holds licenses as a single-engine pilot as well as a “Diamond” level Soaring pilot. In all his years of flight, he had seen the extraordinary—but nothing quite like what happened in the summer of 1988.
It was July, and he was in the air over Mt. San Jacinto in the Inland Empire, California, flying a mission to capture air-to-air photos of a Mini-Nimbus Sailplane—tail number N419Z. The skies were clear. The flight was smooth. Everything was as expected… until it wasn’t.
Then, out of nowhere, an object appeared.
It wasn’t a bird. It wasn’t a plane. It was a large, reflective sphere—hovering silently in the sky. Imagine holding a quarter at arm’s length. That’s how big it looked from the cockpit. It gleamed like a mirrored ball, with a strange, distorted area opposite the direction it was traveling. And unlike anything English had ever encountered, it made no sound. No jet noise. No rotor whir. Nothing.
There were no sharp maneuvers. No visible propulsion. No wake turbulence. Yet it moved—sub-sonic, he estimated. Around 670 to 700 miles per hour. Fast enough to impress, slow enough that they could really study it. And still, the aircraft was unaffected. Not a bump. Not a vibration.
Photographer Captures Mysterious Object in Hemet’s Skies
He wasn’t alone in seeing it. The photographer onboard witnessed it too—and he was no ordinary observer. He was the former Director of the International Air & Space Hall of Fame in San Diego, CA. Not to mention, two other sailplane pilots in the vicinity confirmed seeing the same strange object in the sky.
English’s memory places it around the 7:00 position relative to the top of his instrument panel—though he was in a right-hand turn at the time. That’s where it held position, gleaming and surreal.
When they landed back at Hemet-Ryan Airport (HMT) in Riverside County, he tried to confirm the sighting over the radio. But there were no clear answers. Just static, questions, and silence.
For a while, English didn’t talk much about it. It seemed too bizarre, too fleeting. But then—as he reviewed the flight materials—he saw it.
There it was. Captured on film. A bright, reflective sphere in the sky. To this day, he still has the original photo, the negative, and the flight log.
Whatever they saw that day, it was real. And they weren’t alone spotting it.
Got a Wild Hemet Story?
Got a rumor, hometown legend, or strange sighting we missed? Drop your weirdest tales in the comments—photos, blurry videos, all of it. Let’s see what other unexplained mysteries (or UFOs) are out there.
And don’t forget to share this post with your local crew—someone out there definitely has a story that’ll top yours.
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