The article below was published in the daily newspaper La Liberté, France, on July 14, 1980.
Since the beginning of the year, residents of the west coast of Greenland have reported such a large number of UFOs that one could believe in a massive invasion of this Arctic island. Neither the silence of the military authorities nor the explanations of the meteorologists convinced the inhabitants that they were in the presence of unusual atmospheric phenomena.
Although no statistics have been compiled, since the New Year the local newspaper "Greenland Posten" has published statements from people often reporting the same phenomenon at the same time. The objects take various forms: double flying saucer, flying vehicle with illuminated portholes, etc. Students and teachers from the Sissimut high school even observed two UFOs scanning the sea, fjords and the high school with powerful searchlights.
In Naarsa, Mrs Andrée Hansen was frightened by an object which had approached her house at low altitude and which had avoided collision by a rapid maneuver. The craft rose vertically, remained stationary for a few moments, emitting an intense light, then disappeared. About a hundred people, some with binoculars, saw a luminous metallic object above Aasiat. It moved alternately up and down. It took the form of a blue cigar before disappearing at high speed. One of the latest observations was made by Mr. Adolphe Jensen, in Atangnils. He saw through binoculars a rocket-shaped object that was projecting flames. Lt. Col. Jensen, commander-in-chief of Danish military forces in Greenland, said there had been no observations by the air force or navy. For his part, meteorologist Leo Thorsager declared that the phenomena observed were undoubtedly explained by a strong depression which causes a sort of aurora borealis due to differences in temperature of the atmospheric layers. But the Greenlanders are not convinced.
A thick report on testimonies of air traffic controllers having seen UFOs, kept secret for more than two years by the Italian Ministry of Defense, was communicated in January to the "Ansa" press agency.
Thus the appearance of a UFO during a military exercise on October 27, 1977, gave rise to exchanges of messages between the military base of Elmas, near Cagliari (Sardinia), the NATO base of Decimomannu, the American aircraft carrier "Saratoga" and several military aircraft in flight. The UFO, which several pilots also saw, was flying at approximately 1,500 feet (500 m) and remained visible for 4 minutes. "It was going at the speed of a jet, at around 500 knots (926 km/h). When I saw it, it was right behind a helicopter participating in a night exercise," said an air traffic controller from the Elmas base.
In Pisa, an air traffic controller, warned by a colleague at the Sarzana heliport, saw from November 23 to 24, 1977 a star-shaped object changing color very quickly and going from red, to purple, then green and yellow. It was at an altitude of approximately 1,500 meters at a distance of approximately 9 km. The UFO remained visible for two hours.
A few months earlier, on the night of August 3 to 4, 1977, three employees of the control tower of Naples-Capodichio airport had themselves seen two circular UFOs, emitting a very bright white light, according to the report.
