The 1969 Chilean UFO wave: from lights to a mysterious encounter
Between January and April 1969, UFO sightings came in from several provinces of Chile, ranging from a glowing object falling into the sea to an alleged close encounter in Tierra del Fuego. The cases of the time were compiled in the May 1969 issue of the UFO-Chile newsletter, which the Inexplicata blog recently republished.
The year's first wave swept through the country in January. On January 5 at four in the morning, guards at the Cerro Castillo presidential palace in Viña del Mar saw an incandescent object fall into the sea; the patrol boat sent to the scene found boiling water and a smell of sulfur, but according to the Montemar Institute of Marine Biology, the plant matter recovered was ordinary estuary vegetation that had washed out to sea, and the smell was caused by decomposition. Radio Portales later reported that a local research group had identified the people who launched a paper balloon, and that this likely corresponded to the object that sank into the sea. Barely two weeks later, on January 14, in Linares Province, many people saw a balloon-like object emitting multicolored lights and maneuvering at high speed in front of Cerro Quiñe, La Prensa of Parral wrote. On January 19, in Coquimbo Province near Socos, two taxi drivers from Ovalle spotted two UFOs moving low and fast and leaving a luminous trail, and on January 31, workers at a hospital construction site in Ovalle and local residents noticed a circular object that maneuvered for five minutes, rapidly descended and then rose again several times, before disappearing into the clouds.
An alleged close encounter in Tierra del Fuego
The most unusual episode of the series took place on March 6, near the Manantiales camp in Magallanes Province. Osvaldo Domínguez, head of the camp, reported as an official of the National Petroleum Company (ENAP) that his pickup truck's engine stalled at a quarter to ten in the evening, and he spotted a flying saucer about four meters in diameter, appearing to be made of aluminum, hovering in the air six meters from the vehicle. According to his account, two shadowy figures about 160 centimeters tall stepped out of the object; one of them came up to him but did not answer his questions, then disappeared, leaving a mark on the side of the vehicle. A similar, less detailed account came in the same month from the Calama area, where, according to an architect named Contreras, a UFO stayed next to one of the city municipality's vehicles for ten minutes, then rose into the sky and transformed into a cluster of colored lights; the architect ruled out a radiosonde, since such devices do not rise again after descending. According to the press, this was not the first such case in El Loa Province around Calama: a year earlier, a family had also seen a glowing object that followed their car on the way to the airport. In neither case was there independent confirmation, only the accounts of those involved and the reporting of local newspapers.
That same winter, another disputed case surfaced off the coast of Quintero in Valparaíso Province: on February 12, according to the crew of the fishing boat Carol, an object split apart and vanished over the water, and a Grumman aircraft was allegedly maneuvering nearby – the Air Force, however, denied that any of its aircraft had been in the area. According to the newsletter, because of the conflicting accounts, no further details on the case were published at the time.
Not every report turned out to be mysterious. On March 31, El Tarapacá of Iquique wrote that a military jeep sent to investigate a glowing object spotted on the slope of Dragón hill found a truck wheel at the scene. And on February 2, a Santiago newspaper reported a fireball and mysteriously damaged cars in Las Trancas, Ñuble Province, but after UFO-Chile sent a letter to those involved, they denied having seen a fireball – so the newsletter did not publish further details on the matter.
The wave did not end in April either: near Pichidangui, the pickup truck of two traveling salesmen stalled after a blinding flash of light, first violet and then white, and before the vehicle started up again, a mushroom-shaped, glowing object rose into the sky in front of them. A few days later, on April 13 and 14, in Tierra del Fuego, Magallanes Province, merchant Antonio Damianovic, together with his daughter, son-in-law and a shepherd, observed on two consecutive evenings a moon-like object with white and pink light that moved vertically, then horizontally, before disappearing into the sky. Most of the 1969 Chilean reports end the same way: local newspaper coverage, a few eyewitnesses and an object whose true nature was never established.
The sober take
In several cases, the press of the time and the UFO-Chile newsletter itself found an ordinary explanation: the light that fell into the sea at Viña del Mar may have been caused by a paper balloon, the glowing object on Dragón hill turned out to be a truck wheel, and the Las Trancas fireball was refuted by the witnesses themselves. In the case near Quintero, the Air Force denied that any of its aircraft had been in the area, but for the other reports – including the close encounter in Tierra del Fuego – there is no trace of any official or scientific investigation.
What was that?
- A bright sphere hanging motionless in the sky? Party and weather balloons mistaken for UFOs
- A fireball in the sky? A bright meteor or reentering space debris