1976 Canary Island UFO sighting

The 1976 Canary Island UFO sighting was a UFO incident that occurred over the Canary Islands on the 22nd of June 1976. The sighting is notable for several reasons:

* Duration; the encounter lasted over 40+ minutes.
* Multiple Locations; The UFO was observed in Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera, Grand Canary and by a ship at sea.
* Multiple Witnesses; The UFO was witnessed by several hundred people, including both civilian and military personnel.
* Detail; It is one of the few accounts to include details of the occupants inside the craft.

The official report on the incident, by the Spanish air force, was declassified in June 1994, but much of its content had already been released to the public in 1977, after journalist J Benitez obtained a number of military filesBenitez, J J (1977), “OVNIS: Documentos Oficiales del Gobierno Español/UFOs: Official Documents of the Spanish Government", Plaza & Janes] and used them as the basis of a book on UFO cases.

panish Navy

At 9:27pm local time on the night of June 22,1976, the Spanish Navy corvette Atrevida, located 5.5km off Punta Lantailla, Fuerteventura Island, reportedly observed a bright yellow light traveling above the horizon. [Flying Saucer Review Vol23#3 (1997)] At first the crew believed the object to be an aircraft with landing lights on, but continued observation showed that it returned no radar signature."Deposition No. B-07", (Deposition of the Captain of the Atrevida, declassified 1994)]

Shortly after observation, the yellow light ceased, and was replaced by a 'luminous' rotating beam that persisted for approximately 2 minutes. A glowing halo then developed around the object and it split into two components, a smaller component which split away from the bottom and went out of view, and a larger components which rose from the top of the halo which climbed away in a 'rapid and irregular' spiral pattern.

Reports indicate that the halo persisted for some time after the objects had separated from it, and that its light could be seen reflecting off the water and illuminating nearby land. It was observed by the entire ship's complement.

Civilian Reports

The first non-military sightings of the object began at approximately 9:30pm local time, when residents on Grand Canary also observed the unidentified object, or one similar to it. Reports also came in from the islands of Tenerife, La Palma, and La Gomera. The most controversial of which came from Doctor Francisco Padron Leon.

According to testimony provided to the Spanish air force, the doctor was traveling by taxi from his home in Guia to see a patient in Las Rosas, Grand Canary, when he encountered a glowing blue sphere that appeared to be hovering close to the ground in front of the cab.

He described the sphere as having a radius of approximately 30m and being sufficiently transparent for him to make out two figures inside working at consoles that were mounted on a metal platform occupying the lower third of the sphere. He described the sphere's occupants as being 2½m to 3m tall, and dressed in red. The sphere was then reported to have expanded significantly and risen into the air before flying off in the direction of Tenerife.

The sphere was also witnessed by the taxi driver and several residents of Las Rosas.

Investigation

The incident was investigated by the Spanish air force, which considered a number of possible explanations.

* Aircraft
* Missile test
* Meteorological balloon
* Naturally occurring aurora
* Naturally occurring weather patterns
* Meteor activity

After reviewing witness testimonies, the investigating officer was unable to rectify their descriptions with any known man made object or natural phenomena and was forced to rule out the above explanations. The investigating officer expressed some doubt at reports given by some of some of the civilian witnesses because of the unusual nature of their reports, but the presence of trained military personnel meant that a hoax was also ruled out for the Type I reports.

Officially, the object is recorded as being 'Unidentified' and the event is recorded as being 'unexplained'

Conventional Explanation

According to the Spanish UFO group Fundación Anomalía (Anomaly Foundation), the 22nd June sightings, and four other alleged UFO sightings that occurred between 1974 and 1979, correspond directly with times and dates that the US fired submarine based Poseidon ICBMs from its eastern missile range [Fundación Anomalía: [http://www.anomalia.org/canen.htm Canary Islands UFOs in the 70s - Space Experts Confirm They Were Missiles] , (October 2006)] , which reaches from Cape Canaveral to Ascension Island.

Fundación Anomalía cites astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell as having reached this conclusion after obtaining declassified US records.

References

External links

* About.com: [http://ufos.about.com/od/bestufocasefiles/p/canaryisland.htm 1976-Canary Island Alien Sphere]
* UFO Phenomena at Close Sight: [http://ufologie.net/htm/canaries.htm Observation in the Canary Islands in 1976]