Strange Skyscraper Photographs

It doesn’t happen often that reports of alleged UFO sightings in the country would come from witnesses inside or around skyscrapers. February 2011 saw one of these rare cases, in the Kelapa Gading Sub-District, North Jakarta region, where an unidentified silvery and seemingly spherical object was photographed by 2 different people in the sky near several buildings in the area.

Although not all of the buildings in the February case are actual skyscrapers, it does fit the emerging pattern of sightings in the city’s bustling centers.

October 2010 saw at least 2 other cases in Jakarta. One of which was also supplemented with photographs. These earlier cases seemed to pose the same intriguing possibility that more and more UFOs are actually appearing in the city area, rather than just on the country side.

One could only speculate as to why these UFOs would ‘expose’ themselves in Jakarta’s crowded business center areas, with so much possibility of being sighted and photographed. Did they actually ‘want’ to be seen and photographed?

The main facts of the 2010 reports, as received by BETA UFO, are as follows:

22 October 2010

Location: Standard Chartered Tower building; 31st floor; Jln. Prof. Dr. Satrio; Karet Kuningan Sub-District; South Jakarta region; Jakarta.

Time: 5 PM

Description: A witness, taking photographs from his office window, saw several strange objects appearing in the sky. One of the object looked like a Hang Glider/Delta Plane while about 6 others looked like black dots. The ‘Hang Glider-like’ object was observed moving upward & disappeared into the gathering storm clouds while the ‘dots’ seemed to moved away from the witness’ view.

26 October 2010

Location: The 21st floor of an unknown office building in Kemayoran District; Central Jakarta region; Jakarta (exact location unknown).

Time: 1 PM

Description: A witness took some pictures from the 21st floor window of an office building. Some of the photographs supposedly showed at least 12 strange objects hovering in the sky. When the photographs were zoomed they allegedly showed objects shaped like a rocket, a sphere & a Saturn-like sphere, with legs protruding from underneath it.

Public Sighting in Downtown Jakarta, September 2010

Just a few days prior to the UFO sighting in NYC, on October 13, a somewhat similar event occur in downtown Jakarta. On September 28, two freelance journalist hanging out at Plaza Semanggi Shopping Mall on Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta spotted (along with several dozens other people) several strange, colorful lights in the sky. The video that they -fortunately- made of the phenomena was then sent and aired by a local TV channel (RCTI) as can be seen in the video below.

The National Space and Aviation Agency (LAPAN) has since been contacted by the TV channel and -as can be seen in the video- stated their conclusion that this phenomenon could be nothing more than balloons or kites or simple reflections of airplane lights..BETA UFO has so far rejected such simplistic explanation. Especially since witnesses all agreed that the strange objects were moving and forming formations in the sky.

Strange aerial phenomena in Ancol, North Jakarta

The photos displayed are taken by a photo hobbyist in Ancol beach, North Jakarta on November 1 at around 06:49 AM. The photo of the strange aerial phenomena was first reported to the BETA UFO group on November 3 while the photos (including the cropped ones) were e-mailed a few days later.

According to the photographer, the photos were made while he was out hunting for good scenery to photograph, using a Canon EOS 400D camera with a shutter speed of 1/100 seconds. The photographer said he was also standing with the sun at his back when the photos were taken.


Out of the many photos he had taken, only two frames showed the strange aerial phenomena. The photographer also didn’t notice it until he uploaded the photos days later.


So far, BETA UFO’s analysis of the photos is that the object captured in the photos is probably not a UFO. The group’s experts in photographic analysis suggest it might be a bug or even a speck of dust that flew right in front of the camera and reflected the blitz light. It is, however, still open to other analyses.

Indonesian Sightings 2008 : The Photographic Evidence Case Files

Jakarta, Cipinang Baru road, East Jakarta district, January 5th 2008. A reddish star-like object, seen flying a west-northeast course by 3 witnesses. The long arrow is supposed to point out the object's flight path as well as the object itself (at the end of the arrow) while the smaller arrow points out an electrical pole. Unfortunately, the low quality of the photo does make it problematic to see anything peculiar.

Jakarta, Kembangan Utara Sub-District, West Jakarta region, January 19th 2008. Seen by 3 witnesses (husband, wife & their 8 year old child). No actual photos were taken (artist sketch is provided by BETA UFO) but all 3 witnesses testify that the strange craft was box-shaped and moving slowly overhead when they saw it.

Photographed by 'EA', a commercial flight pilot that (according to BETA UFO) wished to stay anonymous, during a drive to Pacitan city, East Java Province, on March 23rd 2008. The photo shown here has been cropped and enhanced by BETA UFO for analysis. Original size photo can be seen on the BETA UFO website (under sightings, 2008).

The area around Darma dam, West Java Province, on April 5th 2008. The object (originally three in number) which is highlighted by a red arrrow in the photo, was witnesses by 2 youth doing a cross country tracking around the area. Witnesses also claimed that 2 of the 3 UFO's seemed to have landed in a nearby hill.

Photographed with an old Sony Ericsson S 700 HP, on April 12th 2008. The object was seen & photographed by a single witness, in the Karawaci area, which is part of the Tangerang Regency, Banten Province, Java island.

Photo taken in the Ponorogo, East Java Province area, on April 13th 2008, at around 9 in the morning. Photo taken by the same 'EA' that took the photo in Pacitan, on March 23rd 2008. He believed that it is actually the same object.

This photo was taken by 2 brothers in the Pondok Kelapa residential area, east Jakarta, on October 3rd 2008. The object was seen as 4 blinking red spots, that stayed together in a vertical formation, for about 15 to 20 minutes.

This remarkable photo was taken around 6 in the evening, near the city of Tuban, East Java Province, on October 5th 2008. The photo was taken by a Jakartan, on the way home from a traditional Ramadhan family-gathering (mudik), in the ever busy northern Java coastal road (Pantura). The sketch below is made later on as part of the photo's analysis by BETA UFO.