N3808H Disappeared After Reporting a Strange Object

The flight was heading across the Caribbean

On 28 June 1980, Jose Maldonado Torres and Jose Pagan Santos departed Las Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo in Ercoupe N3808H, bound for Puerto Rico. The small aircraft had no transponder, according to the recorded exchange later reproduced in historical sources.

The Mayday call was unusual but precise enough to reconstruct

Around 8:03 p.m., the aircraft transmitted a distress call reporting that the crew was lost and that a strange or unusual object was in their course. Iberia Flight IB976 responded and relayed communications with the missing aircraft. The crew described repeated course changes and reported that their VORs had gone off frequency.

The last known position

The aircraft later reported that it was approximately 35 miles from the coast of Puerto Rico. The crew again described the object and gave a new heading. At approximately 8:12 p.m., the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range verified the last radar position as about 35 miles west of Puerto Rico.

The Disappearance Remains Unresolved

The disappearance has become a staple of UFO literature because of the pilot's description of a strange object. The underlying radio record, however, does not establish what the object was. Nor does it establish that the object caused the disappearance. Other explanations have been proposed over the years, but none can be presented as the official cause of a disappearance for which no aircraft or occupants were recovered.

The historical sources also differ in how they characterize the unexplained object. Some later UFO-oriented accounts call it a UFO, while the radio transcript itself uses terms such as strange or weird object. The latter is the more faithful wording for an aviation article. The disappearance remains unexplained, and the absence of wreckage means there is no physical evidence in the reviewed sources establishing what happened after the last transmission.

The historical radio transcript states: “we can see a strange object in our course. We are lost.”

Sources

• Historical source reproduced in Flying Saucer Review: https://nicap.org/docs/FSRV43No4_JorgeMartin.pdf
• Historical account: https://thelivingmoon.com/46Karl12/03files/1980_Puerto_Rico.html
• FAA-transcription material reproduced in Flying Saucer Review: https://nicap.org/docs/FSRV43No4_JorgeMartin.pdf
• Historical account of the disappearance: https://thelivingmoon.com/46Karl12/03files/1980_Puerto_Rico.html