Puttgarden: the BND's 'UFO' file
Before dawn on 26 August 1986 three border-police officers and a customs officer at the Puttgarden ferry terminal on Fehmarn saw a silent object with a blinding light hover low over the terminal, then move east over a naval station. The navy, a police helicopter squadron and Danish police could not explain it, and someone wrote on the file 'please open a UFO case'. The BND file, now open at the Federal Archives, contradicts the government's 2008 statement that it had no UFO files.
Evidence, in date order (1)
- 1986BND file B 206/1914, Bundesarchiv Koblenzdocument'DDR Grenzsperranlagen an der IDG – UFO –', 67 pp., closed until 2021 B 206/1914
How plausible · High
Three border-police officers and a customs officer saw a silent object over a ferry terminal; the BND opened a "UFO" file, known so far through one researcher's reading.
- ●●Access On duty at the terminal.
- ●●No gain sought Officers on duty.
- ●●Character record Police and customs officers.
- ●●Independent convergence Four officers.
- ●●Fits secrecy practice An intelligence service file.
- ●○Restraint Plain description.
- −Lone source, no corroboration Read by one researcher so far.
Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-23.