The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (Nicap)

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# Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0

Mr. Ali Diaz. Diaz was aboard a DC-3 plane carrying vacationists on a tour to view the beautiful scenery. Dr. Ladonko and Gonzalez Ganteaume notified NICAP, interviewed Diaz, and encouraged analysis of the film.

During June 1963 a Spanish speaking NICAP member from New York City, Mr. Jose A. Cecin, flew to Caracas and borrowed the original film. Analysis of it currently is being arranged by NICAP. [See Section VIII]. Viewed at the NICAP office by the staff and several members, the movie shows an eerie, brilliant yellow, tear-drop shaped light rising from the base of Auyantepuy Mountain, oscillating back and forth as it accelerates across the mountain, blue sky and clouds.

(During his visit to Caracas, Mr. Cecin was told of an incident in which a prominent citizen was driving through a rural area when he saw a large disc hovering over a field where several peasants were working. He excitedly called their attention to it. "We know about it," they replied casually. "It comes here every day. It doesn't bother anyone.")

Venezuela also has a history of sightings by airline pilots and other experienced observers. An orange light closed in on a Venezuelan airliner at 6:45 p.m., January 2, 1955, in the vicinity of Punta San Juan. When the UFO was at close range, a bright light from it shone into the cockpit of the plane intermittently. [28]

A month later, February 2, an Aeropost Airlines plane was bound for Merida from Maiquetia. At the controls was Capt. Dario Celis; co-pilot was B.J. Cortes. About 11:15 a.m., a round, glowing green "apparatus" approached the plane, rotating counter-clockwise. Around its center was a reddish ring which emitted flashes of brilliant light. Above and below the ring, markings like portholes were visible. Capt. Celis banked his plane toward the UFO. Instantly, the object whirled downward, levelled off, and sped away. During the sighting, Capt. Celis attempted to report the object by radio, but his communication was cut off. [29]

July 2, 1960, near Maiquetia, a Venezuelan Airlines SuperConstellation was arriving from Spain about 3:00 a.m. Flying at 10,000 feet about 20 degrees N, 68 degrees W (near Puerto Rico), the pilot and crew noticed a bright luminous object angling toward the plane at about their altitude. After paralleling the plane for several minutes, the object suddenly shot away at terrific speed. The pilot reported the sighting to the press upon landing. [30]

A Professor of Engineering, Central University, reported a UFO September 15, 1960. Prof. German Alvarez, in Carrizales, Miranda State, watched a luminous object sweep across the sky for about three minutes, after 7:30 p.m. The UFO accelerated in a curved course. Before disappearing behind mountains, it appeared as two objects. [31]

Formations of UFOs, about 16 objects in all, passing from east to west between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m. were witnessed by many people in the Parque del Este, Caracas, February 11, 1962. One witness, Sr. Emiro Ayesta, ran to the Humboldt Planetarium in the park where Sr. Carlos Pineda of the Planetarium staff witnessed one of the UFOs. Sr. Pineda described it as "a body giving off a brilliant light, moving at great altitude as if towards the moon." [32]

## B. EASTERN HEMISPHERE

## Scandinavia

The earliest well-publicized UFO reports from Scandinavia were the so-called "ghost rockets" observed in Sweden during the summer and fall of 1946. Military authorities adopted secrecy reminiscent of wartime in dealing with reports of the objects, banning publication of the location of sightings, and requiring newspapers to use the dateline "somewhere in Sweden." [33]

Mysterious fireballs and cigar-shaped UFOs were observed all summer. [34] Finally, in October the defense ministry announced that it had been unable to discover the origin or nature of the "ghost rockets." Of 1000 reports studied, about $80\%$ were attributed to "celestial phenomena." But, the report continued, radar detected some "which cannot be the phenomena of nature or products of imagination, nor be referred to as Swedish planes..." [35]

In May 1954, Mutual news commentator Frank Edwards (now a NICAP Board Member) reported an item from Stockholm: "Swedish military authorities sent special crews into north Sweden where scores of residents have reported strange glowing objects maneuvering over forests at low altitude during the week of May 10...Military men who have seen the things say they were not planes of any type."

After the crew of a Swedish airliner reported a wingless circular UFO over southern Sweden December 17, 1953, the defense department ordered a full scale investigation. Capt. Ulf Christiernsson, former RAF pilot, said: "It was an entirely unorthodox, metallic, symmetrical and circular object." The UFO was seen speeding over the town of Haessleholm in the main commercial airlane between Stockholm and Copenhagen. [36]

In 1961 Mr. Sven Schalin, aeronautical engineer in Linkoping, became NICAP Adviser for Sweden. In his acceptance letter, Mr. Schalin stated: "UFOs very definitely have been sighted also in this country. A 'flap' seemed to occur around January 1959, the whole period starting perhaps in July 1958 and ending about June 1959. Obviously the Swedish Intelligence Center in Stockholm knows what is going on but the usual debunking policy is strictly followed."

During Operation Mainbrace, extensive naval maneuvers in the North Sea on and about September 20, 1952, UFOs were sighted in the vicinity on several occasions. [See Section XII; Operation Mainbrace Chronology] On the 20th, a silvery disc of metallic appearance was observed passing swiftly over the Allied fleet. Wallace Litwin, an American newsman on board the aircraft carrier "Franklin Roosevelt," took three color photographs of the UFO. As far as is known, the pictures have never been published and no explanation of the incident was offered.

Norway, Finland and Denmark also have had their share of UFO sightings. During an aerial expedition to take photographs of a solar eclipse, June 30, 1954, Norwegian scientists and others on board three planes observed and photographed two "enormous" silvery discs which gave a metallic glint. [Section I]

In 1958,replying to a NICAP query,the Norwegian Embassy stated: "Our Air Force's UFO material is mainly of security graded nature and cannot be put to the disposal of NICAP."[37]

During the winter of 1958, observers on the Finnish-Soviet border reported circular and cigar-shaped luminous objects maneuvering over Soviet territory near the Arctic Circle. Brilliantly glowing spherical "missiles," some of which moved vertically up and down, also were reported. [38]

While "Operation Mainbrace" was in full swing nearby in the North Sea during September 1952, a shining apparently metallic disc was seen on the 20th by three Danish Air Force officers. About 7:30 p.m., the UFO sped over Karup Airfield, Denmark, disappearing in clouds to the east.

On November 20, 1957, during the rash of UFO sightings in the Western hemisphere [see Section XI] Air Force officers and many civilians near Bernholm, Denmark, saw a UFO flashing red and green lights as it swooped low above the water and over the island. At times the object hovered motionless. No sound could be heard. The Danish newspaper "Familie-blad" reported the sightings.

September 11, 1956: Allied intelligence experts were reported to be investigating radar sightings of "mysterious objects" which had been tracked for three weeks over the Baltic Sea by a NATO radar station on Bernholm Island, Denmark. The UFOs followed a curved course traveling about 2000-2500 m.p.h. [See Section VIII; Radar]

## England

The policy of the British Air Ministry has been identical to that of the U.S. Although claiming their investigations have proved that almost all UFO sightings have mundane explanations, the Air Ministry firmly refuses to release the case histories. When NICAP requested information about specific cases in 1957, the Air Ministry replied: "We regret that we are unable to release any information on the radar sighting at West Freugh in Scotland on 4th April...We cannot release any information on the B.O.A.C. or the Flt. Lt. Salandin sightings. Air Ministry policy has not changed since those sightings were made." [39]