In a year rich in flying saucers reports in the whole world, Américo Rodolfo Aguirrezabala, tradesman, 32-year-old, remained at the farm of one of his brothers right at the edge of Coronel Pringles, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, when on December 4, 1954 between 6 and 7 a.m., he left his shop "Los Corrales", contiguous with the urban zone, near the cemetery, located near a way now road 51 at kilometer 29, to go to make some purchases.
Walking alone on the dirt track which is now road 51, he saw within some 200 meters of him and in front of a clump of trees, a luminous disc in the sky which approached while seeming to change form, then stopped within some 80 meters of him.
The craft had a reddish-pale coloring, a size which he estimated between 20 to 30 meters in diameter, it was hovering at a height he estimated as 15 meters above the ground, completely silent and seeming rather transparent.
Aguirrezabala continued to approach, walking, while having to protect its eyes of the hands from the glare diffused by parts of the disc, which dazzled, and was then within 70 meters of the craft.
It then perfectly saw that it was a strange apparatus in lift one half-meter of the ground and that in its middle, revealed by the transparency of the object, there were three silhouettes, like human silhouettes, that he would draw with arms, head, and legs, one motionless and the two others constantly moving from one side to another of the machine. He could not distinguish any finer details such as nose or ears.
A brilliant glare of light occurred a few seconds after and the disc, rising above the vegetation, quickly disappeared at the time when the sun rose in direction of the north according to the newspaper or towards the south-south-west according to the witness report to investigators decades later. It then disappeared almost instantaneously, "as by magic", he would say.
On the basis of the 130 meters approximately he walked during the observation, it was estimated that the whole sighting amounted to minutes.
After the inital amazement, he had been rather happy to be sseing one of these flying saucers that were so much talked about at the time, while not speculating more than reason about what they could be.
He checked whether there were traces on the ground, or burns of vegetation or odors in the air, but there was nothing of that. He did not experience any physical or physiological effects, hiss life did not change, and he did not see anything weird again thereafter.
He told what he had seen to his two brothers, and in his shop, and it proved that he had been the only witness. The overheard story came to the ears to the newspaper La Razon and they reported it the next day, December 5, 1954. Some of the neighbors expectedly scoffed at him.
The witness was easily found in the 80's or 90's by investigators who wanted to check whether the account of the newspaper were correct or not, and he told them again what happened. These investigators thereafter concluded that he must have been seeing a parhelia.
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[Ref. rb1:] ROBERTO BRANCHS:
CORONEL PRINGLES: A DISC WITH STRANGE FIGURESThe report is at the end of a year rich in reports of strange appearances of "flying saucers" and, in particular, their landings with occupants in the European territory. Which in addition preceded the publicity of a worldwide rash of sightings. Indeed, On December 5, 1954, the newspaper La Razon, of Buenos Aires, informs with notes of caution that: "Mr Enrique Aguirre Zabala, employee of trade here, and who was spending his holidays in the farm of one of his brothers in the vicinity of of Coronel Pringles (Province of Buenos Aires), while going out yesterday, at 6 o'clock in the morning, to make some purchases, observed in the space a luminous disc which, as it approached, appeared to change shape, until acquiring that of a "cigar." When the unknown object stopped within some 80 meters of Aguirre, the latter tried to approach, but this was prevented by the force of the radiation which it diffused and dazzled him. However, it says, "using my hands as a screen, I continued to advance until I could perfectly see that the strange apparatus was hovering at one half-meter of the ground and that in the center of the disc, a strange figure moved. It looked, added Aguirre, like a dwarf with an enormous head. A brilliance glare of light then occurred and the disc, rising, quickly disappeared in the direction of the north". THE INVESTIGATIONCoronel Pringles [Colonel Pringles] is a locality situated at the south-east of the province of Buenos Aires (see photo 1), of flat ground primarily, with small mountains of the Ventania range. Its moderate climate, its Pampa and its good moisture make it a farming area. A fast consultation with the Post office and the Municipality brought us to the dependence or store "Los Corrales" ("The Farmyards"), in the North-East and contiguous to the urban area, near the cemetery. There, we located Américo Rodolfo Aguirrezabala, who was recognized as the only witness of the case in question. As obviously journalistic news suffer from inaccuracies, we had a reason for wishing that he gives is a detailed description of this event, holding account however to the fact that many aspects can be lost from memory and that this event was never the object of an investigation during all these years. Américo R. Aguirrezabala was then 32 years old. The morning of December 4, 1954, between 6 and 7 hours, he was going from the store The Farmyards (located now on the road 51, km 29) (see photo 2) where he lived with his brother Pedro not far from the farm of another brother, Asencio, 1.000 meters away in the North-East on the same road, which at that time was - as he said - a dirt track. Just expecting a pleasant day, he sees at some 200 meters and in front of a clump of trees (see photo 3), a flying machine of "round" form, of reddish-pale coloring, some 20 to 30 meters diameter, suspended at a height estimated as 15 meters of the ground. It was completely silent and transparent (see sketch, 4, 5). "Finally I see one of them!" exclaimed Américo Aguirrezabala, after the initial amazement and satisfied to see one of these flying saucer about which one spoke so much. It was dimly shining, although " like the Sun on that side at the front and on the top, a bit hurting [for the eyes]", said the witness, who continues its walk towards the farm and approaches the phenomenon, hovering in the air, but whose transparency enabled him to see a movement in its inside, like human silhouettes which went from one side to the other. They were three characters, two of them were constantly moving, but no other detail could be observed. "When I was close to them I saw, I approached these people and saw them; I then said to myself: 'Caramba, what is that?' Because, I always said that, I am enthusiastic about this, but no, no... at this time when that appeared to me...", Américo Aguirrezabala told us. However, the perception of the "occupants" lasted hardly a few seconds and from 70 meters away, with an indifferent attitude of the latter towards the astonished observer. And at this time, the phenomenon suddenly disappeared, while giving the impression to rise "above the vegetation, towards the right, it flew towards the south-south-west...; the Sun was already rising." The disappearance of the phenomenon was instantaneous, almost unperceivable. "It disappeared, it disappeared, as by magic!", the witness express in front our tape recorder. The total duration of the observation amounts to minutes, estimated on the basis of the approximately 130 meters the witness walked. Américo Aguirrezabala tells us what occurred then: "I stopped there, I surveyed...I thought, I thought about what it could be, or could not be. I always thought that there are flying saucers, and this was one. And I wondered: why do they come, if they do not want to speak with us? I always thought that to myself, and I still wonder about that. My life did not change after this; no, nothing, always the same. It did not affect me physically either, nor did I have similar experiences thereafter, but my wife, yes, when she saw green dwarves with hats of the same color, one morning at dawn, close to our house", adds Aguirrezabala with enthusiasm. Continuing his story, he explains that he stopped to see whether there had remained traces of such an unusual presence: "There remained nothing calcined, nothing else; I supervised the plants and all was very normal". No changes in the atmosphere occurred either. Only the appearance of the described phenomenon. "I then go towards the farm", he says, "and I tell it to my brother; and he was astonished, over there further and nearer to the mountain, he had seen nothing. Neither my other brother, Pedro, who was in the store. Then, there were the comments of people, here, in the store. Some said: "You are a charlatan, what, you see saucers. Well, I, I do not know if it was a saucer, but the thing was hovering there, and nothing more... and as of those who were inside, I saw only the walking silhouettes, nothing more, neither the eyes, nor the ears, nothing of that. I cannot ay anything more than that, no. And then time passed, and I rejected it of my memory". His explanation concludes with an attempt to explain the journalistic version: "It was in the heat of the moment. It happened that it was told in this newspaper; I read the news at that time, because I always bought La Razon. But I do not know who told them about it, although, well... it came from the conversations which had taken place in my store..." CONSIDERATIONS ON THE CASEIn this episode which occurred Saturday December 4, 1954, we are vis-a-vis a witness who makes an obvious effort to remind this weird observation which occurred such a long time ago, without circumstances to update his memory. However, the durability of his memory was reinforced by the interest and the feelings in front of the vision of a striking occurrence such as that described by Américo Aguirrezabala. Taking account of these parameters, we have collected again the testimony in his most essential aspects - and stable in the passage of time - and tested a possibility of explanation insofar as the data allows it. On this matter, it must be said that the early hour of the day when the phenomenon is observed is between 6 and 7 hours according to Aguirrezabala, and "6 hours" of the morning according to journalistic news. At that date the sun rose close to 05:40; precisely in the same direction in which the hypothetical UFO was seen. It does not escape our consideration either that this wonder presents an image similar to that of the solar star, i.e., circular, an almost equivalent angular size, and a frequently colored in the twilight. On the other hand, the reported differences are: its transparent aspect (inconsistent?), a slight brightness, movements in its surface, and the sudden disappearance. If we try to reconcile these characteristics, we must refer to certain optical phenomena called parhelia, with the means of which we will be able to understand the causes of their appearance. Studying these phenomena, scientists noticed a long time ago that they appear when the Sun (or the Moon) is covered with a white shining veil, a layer of high stratiform cirri. These clouds float at a height of six or eight kilometers and are made up of small ice crystals; while rising and while dropping because of the winds, they reflect like a mirror or refract like a prism of glass the solar rays which fall on them. Sometimes it happens that the sky appears to be completely clear, but very high in the atmosphere, much ice crystals float, separately, without forming a cloud. This frequently occurs when the weather is calm and when it freezes at that altitude. Generally, the reproduction or "mock-sun" occurs when the Sun is not very high on the horizon, before it is visible. The false suns generally disappear in an unexpected manner, or a very sudden manner in agreement with the movement of the star on the horizon, the draughts, and the same hexahedron ice crystals (that they reproduce, according to the orientation of the points) while floating in vertical position. The [mock-]suns are not a rare phenomenon in certain areas of the globe, and frequently they are as brilliant as the sun itself (1). In the Province of Buenos Aires (where this event occurred) journalism consigned several supposed phenomena of parhelia. At that time, April 25, 1949 in Bernal (2) and on February 28, 1950 in Mar del Plata (3), to quote two cases. More recently, in February 1987, in less than twenty days, some eight cases were recorded in San Nicolás, and also in Monte Hermoso and Pigüe (4). As for the silhouettes moving in their surface, seen in a diffuse way, during short seconds, we considered probable that the witness - influenced by the flap of worldwide sighting - and in his belief that he was facing a "genuine" flying saucer, did not hesitate to allot a certain movement in the optical image to the presence of unknown beings.
REFERENCES
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[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:
Albert Rosales indicates in his catalogue that in Coronel Pringles, Argentina, on December 4, 1954, at 06:00 a.m., E Aguirre Zavala, a commercial employee, observed a very bright disc coming down to about 20" above the ground, where it remained suspended.
In the middle of this disc there moved a strange figure, which seemed to be a dwarf with an enormous head. The UFO rose up shortly afterward after emitting a very bright light.
Albert Rosales indicates that the source is Humcat quoting newspaper source.
[Ref. pc1:] PROYECTO CATENT:
This catalogue indicates that in Coronel Pringles, Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 4, 1954, the witness saw a UFO that came down to nearly one meter and half of the ground and in it, a dwarf having an enormous head was moving. It rose in the middle of a great brightness and he was lost from sight.
It is rather difficult to conceive that by looking at the sun, or a sundog, a person considers that it contains three characters, one motionless, the two others moving. But obviously, in the framework of the socio-psychological thesis about UFOs, the thesis of the investigators here [rb1], any explanation, even the most unfitting, is defined a priori less improbable and thus better than that of extraterrestrial beings in a craft.
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Left: Image of a parhelion, or "mock-suns". |
In fact, the explanation by a parhelion, in addition to asking to disregard as fundamentally distorted the witness's description, is not very convincing for several reasons, which are by no means apparent in the investigation.
On the one hand, if the angular size of the phenomenon is that of the sun, as Branchs indicates, then, it cannot be a parhelion, which is, obviously, of an angular size several orders of magnitude more important than the sun!
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Left: the angular size of a parhelion is of course not the angular size of the sun. |
In addition, in a parhelion, nothing moves to evoke three characters with two of them moving from one side to the other. The "central sun", the real sun, is motionless (at least nothing of its movement can be perceived in a few seconds), in addition, the two mock suns, one on the left and the other on the right, are strictly on the "edges" of the sort of circle traced by the phenomenon, and never leave these "edges."
Then, the witness indicates that the phenomenon was in front of a group of trees. Admittedly, the sun could shine through trees, but oddly, no checking on this aspect of the case was made. It was essential to check exactly what was located behind the phenomenon: trees, or perhaps also hills? The neglect in checking this is rather strange, in a case where the witness indicates that the phenomenon was initially within 200 meters of him, that he approached it to some 80 meters, then to 70 meters, indications which were verifiable and which it was advisable to check by establishing precisely if there were something or not in the background of the phenomenon, giving indeed a maximum distance, or hiding the sun, and by determining the possible variation of the angular directions in which the phenomenon was during the witness' walk. These simple checking would have made it possible to ensure or refute an explanation related to the sun, but that was apparently not done and one can wonder why.
Next, it is rather known in ufology that when an astronomical body is a candidate explanation, it is useful to ask the witness whether he saw this astronomical body in supplement of the phenomenon which he reports. If he saw only the phenomenon and not the astronomical body, then there is a good probability in the notion that the phenomenon was actually this astronomical body itself. If he saw both, then the astronomical body is not the explanation of the phenomenon. This was not clearly explored; however, the witness does talked about seeing the sun; which he said "was already rising" when the phenomenon disappeared. This does constitutes some indication that the phenomenon is not the sun itself.
Finally, as everyone should know, the sun rises in the East. Branchs indicates without further explanation that the UFO was in the direction of the sun, but in the totality of the information given, all indicates that it is not the case: the disc "flew towards the right, it flew towards the south-south-west". It is astonishing that Branchs did not carry out a well documented reconstitution on the location showing really the directions of arrival and departure of the phenomenon.
All this gives me the impression of a group of investigators defending the socio-psychological thesis on UFOs, going to visit a witness with the idea of bringing back a case of exaggeration or invention from the Press, but faced to a reasonable witness who reported the same events as those brought back by the newspaper at the time, and consequently trying to find some "natural" explanation without worrying too much to check whther it can really apply.
| Id: | Topic: | Severity: | Date noted: | Raised by: | Noted by: | Description: | Proposal: | Status: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ufology | Severe | October 11, 2007 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | No situation map and phenomenon orientation plan in the investigation. | Help needed. | Opened. |
Extraterrestrial beings or mocksun confusion.
* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.
| Main Author: | Patrick Gross |
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| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Created/Changed By: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | October 11, 2007 | Creation, [rb1], [ar1], [pc1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | October 11, 2007 | First published. |
