A Bizarre Craft Over The Vienna Woods: The Hering-Miksa UFO Encounter

In the summer of 1972, in the Aggsbach Valley region of the Vienna Woods, a forester and his companion witnessed a bizarre flying craft making its way overhead. Although the witness was an experienced aviator and someone who held a position of responsibility in his employment, he was largely ridiculed by the local media after reporting the sighting and, as such, the incident is one that has fallen through the cracks somewhat, now largely forgotten about by many, which, given how seemingly credible the account is, is a great shame.

The Vienna Woods is perhaps also a discreetly important location in terms of UFO encounters, and perhaps other paranormal incidents, one of which we detailed in our book From Deep Within The Archives of UFO Insight, a case that unfolded in 1962 involving “Bobby”, a musician who traveled to the region to study at the Vienna College of Music and who witnessed a flying saucer-type craft in the forest after venturing there following some kind of strange calling. It was a case detailed by British UFO researcher, Timothy Good, and is, it would seem, one of many from this often overlooked part of the world, at least in terms of UFOs.

Of course, whether there is a connection between Bobby’s sighting and the encounters we are about to detail remains open to debate. It should, though, certainly be kept in mind.

A Brilliant Light Over the Aggsbach Valley

According to the report, at just before 7:30 pm on August 3^rd, 1972, head forester, Reinhold Hering, and his companion, Erika Graef, were walking along a quiet track in the Aggsbach Valley region of the Vienna Woods with Hering’s two dogs after parking their car near a grassy clearing a short distance away. ^[1] They followed the track for a little over an hour before Hering, at 8:45 pm, noticed a “brilliant light” hovering a short distance away to his right. He immediately alerted Erika to what he was seeing, and the pair raised the binoculars each had with them to view the strange glow closer.

As they watched it, the object suddenly came out from behind a pine tree, and Hering was immediately “dazzled” by it – so much so that he had to remove the binoculars from his eyes and avert his gaze. He later told investigators that, “If you turn your binoculars into a halogen fog-headlight at night, it will give you the same impression!” Erika, meanwhile, later stated that, “With the naked eye you could clearly see the disc which gave off a brilliant light!”

The pair also recalled that the object was “titled” in the direction of the two of them, allowing them to see that it had a dark upper surface with “two red-orange lights and an extremely brilliant one to the right!” Hering further stated that the lights were “all calm and steady,” with the brighter light seeming to “come from a groove, like some kind of all-round headlight,” before adding that “the red lights were not really lights, but red surfaces!” Hering also offered that, “No aircraft would give that effect!”

As the location of the sighting sits directly underneath the main flightpath of planes going in and out of Vienna Airport, Hering is more than familiar with conventional aircraft and how they appear to him on the ground. The pair watched as the object passed overhead and headed off into the distance, disappearing from their sight within no longer than 15 seconds.

When investigator, Ernst Berger, went to investigate the sighting, he determined that the object disappeared behind Kreuzech Hill in the direction of the village of Sulz. Using Hering’s experience during the Second World War in “night-fighting”, as well as his experience hunting in the region, Berger was able to estimate that the object was approximately two miles from the witnesses’ location, and around 600 feet from the ground. Hering further estimated that the object was around 180 feet in width and that it was likely traveling just short of 500 feet per second.

Explanations That Don’t Hold Water

Moments after the object had disappeared from the witnesses’ sight, the pair returned quickly to their car and made their way to Hering’s house in Kleinkrottenbach Valley, arriving there at 9:30 pm. He immediately telephoned the Alland police station to report what he had seen, and it wasn’t long before local media were notified of the report (and their reporting of it was far from kind, making Hering the focus of ridicule).

Meanwhile, the Central Meteorological Station of Vienna offered their own opinion on what Hering and Erika had likely seen. They dismissed the idea that it was ball lightning or that it was one of their own weather balloons, stating that what Hering and Erika had seen was almost certainly a meteor. However, as we might imagine, given the details put forward by Hering and Erika, the object certainly didn’t act as we would expect a meteor to act, so we can almost certainly rule out such an explanation.

A daily Vienna newspaper stated that they believed “the UFO was a plane coming in to land!” Once more, Hering dismissed this explanation, stating that, “If a plane flies over Hinterriegel at that altitude, I’m sure the pilot would be fired immediately!”

Ultimately, despite these seemingly more “rational” explanations, none of them held water, and just what Hering and Erika saw that evening remained – and still remains – a complete mystery. Unbeknownst to the two witnesses at the time, however, on the same night, another pair of witnesses seemingly saw the same object from a different location in the region.

The Miksa Sighting

At around 8:50 pm in nearby Heitzing, Councillor Friedrich Miksa – an official for the Military Science Department – was driving home to Liesing with his wife Anna. A short time after crossing over the railway tracks, Miksa spotted a “luminous object” in the sky a short distance ahead of them. As the road was quiet, Miksa continued driving, albeit slowly, so that he could focus on the strange glowing object further.

Miksa later recalled to investigator Ernst Berger that there were no clouds or wind on the night in question, and that as soon as he saw the object, he realized that it wasn’t a plane. He further stated that it “appeared roundish and clearly outlined” and was a “bright yellowish orange!” He elaborated that the object “swept across the southern sky in a parabolic trajectory” and had an “eerie feeling” to it. He further stated that “the speed looked impossible!” Within no longer than three seconds, the object was out of sight.

Miksa recalled further details to Berger. He stated, for example, that the object appeared to be “more luminous” in the middle and had the appearance of a “halogen fog headlight” that was a mixture of “chrome yellow and yellow-orange” in color. He further added that the light was “much brighter than a sodium vapor street light” and didn’t flicker as you might expect such a light to do, adding that “you could look right into it without being dazzled!”

Adding further detail to the sightings, Miksa recalled that the roof of the car was open at the time of the incident, and as such, he specifically recalled hearing no sound whatsoever coming from the curious craft. From this vantage point, the object like a “squashed egg or a thick disc,” and it moved with “frightening” speed, perhaps even as fast as Mach 5 or Mach 6, and certain “much faster than a supersonic jet” but “without an exhaust trail!”

I Had “Never Seen Speed Like That!”

Much like Hering, Miksa has “unique experience” in terms of giving details of what he saw due to his being in command of an anti-aircraft platoon in the Second World War, and as such, he has witnessed a variety of aircraft and is familiar with their movements, adding that he had “never seen speed like that!”

He estimated that the object was likely four miles away from his location at the time of the sightings, and was between 4,500 to 6,00 feet from the ground. It was, though, a passing detail offered by Miksa that is perhaps most important, and one that certainly dismisses any potential explanations of meteors or conventional aircraft.

He stated to Berger that, “Just a moment before its disappearance it went a little slower, (and) some kind of glow seemed to radiate from a source in the bottom, and when the faint halo went out, the object accelerated and moved behind the rooftop. It appeared to be reducing speed for a quick ground observation, and then, up and away!”

Of course, whether or not the object witnessed by Miksa was the same as that witnessed by Hering is not certain, but it seems very likely. And while the sighting is perhaps not the most dramatic on record, it is certainly one of the most detailed, and seemingly one of the most credible, suggesting that whatever it was, there was something very strange over the skies of Austria that summer’s evening in August 1972.

It is, though, far from the only UFO encounter to have unfolded in Austria during this time.

The Nagora Photograph

Here it is worth turning our attention a little over a year earlier, to the afternoon of May 23^rd, 1971, to the Austrian town of Styria, where Rudi Nagora, a musician from Munich in Germany, was visiting Austria with his wife. On this particular day, the couple had driven out to a quiet area and parked their car in order to take a stroll in the afternoon sun.

Before they set out, Rudi inspected the area first to ensure it was safe and suitable, leaving his wife in the car. As he was doing so, however, he heard a sudden “whizzing” sound coming from above. He quickly turned his attention skyward and was shocked to see a “shining, silver disc” zigzagging across the sky, occasionally disappearing into one of the few clouds in the otherwise bright, blue sky. He immediately ran back to the car to grab his camera, excitedly telling his wife what he had seen at the same time.

He quickly returned to the spot he had seen the object, relieved to see it was still visible, and aimed his camera to the sky, pressing down on the shutter several times. He eventually used the entire film, consisting of 12 pictures in total. Perhaps of particular interest, as he took the pictures, the craft came closer and closer to him, almost as if it, or more precisely the occupants or intelligence behind it, was aware of his presence and actions. By the time he had run out of film, the object was only a short distance away from him. It came a little closer before stopping and hovering for several moments. Then, without warning, it suddenly shot straight up into the sky and disappeared within seconds.

As we might imagine, Nagora’s photographs have been subjected to intense scrutiny and investigation over the years. They are, however, seen largely as authentic and genuine, with no signs of manipulation or trickery. You can view one of those pictures for yourselves above.

Is There Something Special About The Vienna Woods?

While the sightings we have examined here might remain a mystery, what appears to be certain is that the Vienna Woods is a potential place of high strangeness, certainly as far as UFO encounters go. We can only imagine how many other sightings have occurred here that have gone unreported, either because of fear of ridicule or because the respective witnesses were simply uncertain of what they had seen, or even unaware they had seen anything out of the ordinary. We might also consider whether such sightings – reported and unreported – continue there today as we navigate the third decade of the twenty-first century.

Perhaps we should ask why UFOs might be seen in this part of Austria? What, if anything, is so special about the Vienna Woods? Could it simply be that it is an out-of-the-way place where fewer people are likely to venture? Or could there be some kind of electromagnetic anomaly there that perhaps provides access for these UFOs from their realm of existence to our own? Or might it even be possible that there is some kind of discreet base there from which these futuristic vehicles are seen coming and going? And of course, we need to consider that these crafts might not be extraterrestrial at all, but some kind of highly advanced military vehicle.

For now, many questions remain unanswered, and there are likely more yet to be asked, both of these cases and the UFO big picture, in general. By revisiting and reexamining such cases, some researcher somewhere just might spot the next missing piece of the UFO puzzle.

The short video below looks at some of the most baffling UFO sightings from Europe in history.

Expert Opinion

In August 1972, multiple observers in the Vienna Woods described luminous discs gliding at incredible speeds and performing perplexing maneuvers. The most noted eyewitnesses, forester Hering and local councilor Miksa, both had substantial aviation experience and insisted the objects were unlike any aircraft they had ever observed. Their testimonies, along with similar accounts from others in the area, form the core of this enigmatic encounter's enduring legacy.

Critics suggest these sightings might be explainable by meteors, experimental military craft, or even misidentifications of conventional airplanes. However, the eyewitnesses’ detailed accounts—particularly regarding the silent approach, sudden acceleration, and vivid coloration—remain difficult to square with routine phenomena. Although there are credible elements supporting a genuine mystery, the lack of definitive physical proof ultimately keeps the case deeply intriguing but still unresolved.

Verdict: Inconclusive
While compelling witness testimony exists, no conclusive evidence has emerged to verify or debunk the strange aerial objects.

Marcus Lowth is an expert on this topic and has over 20 years experience studying and reporting in these fields. Marcus has written several books and appeared on TV shows as an expert investigator discussing these topics.