Tajik Air Chief Pilot Tracks Object Over Kazakhstan, 41,000 Feet

Brief

Tajik Air Chief Pilot Ed Rhodes and two American co-pilots encountered a UAP at latitude 45N, longitude 55E over Kazakhstan while cruising at 41,000 feet. The object appeared as a bright light of enormous intensity, executed circles, corkscrews, and 90-degree turns at high G-loads for roughly forty minutes before departing at high speed over the horizon. Rhodes photographed the object with a pocket Olympus camera and estimated its contrails, observed forty-five minutes later at sunrise, reached approximately 100,000 feet — altitudes he noted were too rarified to support contrail formation by conventional propulsion. The embassy transmitted the report without editorial opinion, directly to SecState Washington, CIA, and DIA.

Metadata

Agency

Department of State

Release

5/8/26

Incident

1/27/94

Location

Kazakhstan

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

3 pages

Classification

UNCLASSIFIED

Tags

bright light, bow wave, contrails at 100,000 ft, 90-degree turns, corkscrews, visual, photographic, Kazakhstan, 1994, airliner encounter, hypersonic maneuver

Key points

• The incident occurred January 27, 1994, over Kazakhstan at latitude 45N, longitude 55E, with the crew flying a Boeing 747SP at 41,000 feet.p.2
• The object was first observed as a bright light of enormous intensity approaching from the east at a great rate of speed and at a much higher altitude than the aircraft.p.2
• Observation duration was approximately forty minutes, during which the object executed circles, corkscrews, and 90-degree turns under very high G-forces.p.2
• Captain Rhodes photographed the object with a pocket Olympus camera; copies were to be forwarded to the Embassy and to Lowry Taylor at the Tajikistan Desk in the Department.p.2
• The object's light was described as having a 'bow wave' resembling a high-speed photograph of a bullet in flight, with a small object generating a much larger trailing wave of heat and light.p.2
• Forty-five minutes after the initial sighting, the aircraft flew under the object's contrails; Rhodes estimated their altitude at approximately 100,000 feet and noted that ordinary aircraft propulsion mechanisms cannot produce contrails at that altitude.p.2
• Rhodes and his crew, drawing on their years as PanAm pilots, were adamant the object was nothing like a meteor or atmospheric re-entry event.p.2
• Rhodes concluded the object was extraterrestrial and under intelligent control; the embassy transmitted this assessment without endorsement.p.2
• The cable was disseminated to SECSTATE WASHDC, AMEMBASSY MOSCOW, CIA WASHDC, DIA WASHDC, and several Central Asian posts.p.1

Verbatim

• THEY WATCHED THE OBJECT FOR SOME FORTY MINUTES AS IT MANEUVERED IN CIRCLES, CORKSCREWS AND MADE 90-DEGREE TURNS AT RAPID RATES OF SPEED AND UNDER VERY HIGH G'S.

  p.2

• THEY DESCRIBED THE LIGHT IT EMITTED AS HAVING A "BOW WAVE" AND AS RESEMBLING A HIGH-SPEED PHOTO OF A BULLET IN FLIGHT, IN WHICH A VERY SMALL OBJECT GIVES OFF A MUCH LARGER TRAILING WAVE OF HEAT/LIGHT.

  p.2

• RHODES ESTIMATED THE ALTITUDE OF THE CONTRAILS AT APPROXIMATELY 100,000 FEET, NOTING THAT THERE IS TOO LITTLE AIR/MOISTURE AT THAT EXTREME ALTITUDE TO ENABLE THE CREATION OF CONTRAILS BY THE PROPULSION MECHANISMS OF ORDINARY AIRCRAFT WHICH MIGHT BE ABLE TO REACH THAT HEIGHT.

  p.2

• THE PATHS OF THE CONTRAILS REFLECTED THE MANEUVERS OF THE OBJECT, I.E., CIRCLES, CORKSCREWS, ETC.

  p.2

• RHODES EXPRESSED THE OPINION, WHICH HIS CREW SEEMED TO SUPPORT, THAT THE OBJECT WAS EXTRATERRESTRIAL AND UNDER INTELLIGENT CONTROL.

  p.2

• WE HAVE NO OPINION AND REPORT THE ABOVE FOR WHAT IT MAY BE WORTH.

  p.2

Most interesting

• The three American witnesses were former PanAm commercial pilots, lending their meteor-exclusion testimony particular weight — they had accumulated thousands of hours of night flying over decades.
• The contrail evidence persisted long enough for the crew to fly under it forty-five minutes after the initial sighting, providing a physical atmospheric trace independent of pilot perception.
• The aircraft itself was making over 500 knots when it passed under the contrails, yet the contrail altitude was estimated at roughly 100,000 feet — more than twice the cruising altitude of any operational 1994 aircraft.
• The embassy signed off under 'ESCUDERO' and explicitly refused to offer any analytical opinion, an unusual posture for a cable that was simultaneously routed to CIA and DIA.
• The cable header shows distribution not only to standard Central Asian embassies but also to CIA WASHDC and DIA WASHDC, indicating the report was treated as intelligence-relevant from the moment of transmission.
• Rhodes's description of a 'bow wave' is consistent with a supersonic or hypersonic shock structure, a detail that would have been technically meaningful to aeronautical analysts at CIA or DIA.
• The document was released in full with no redactions by Acting-Director John Powers on February 25, 2026, and bears the control number CSP-2025-00040.