by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear
It often happens that reported UFO incidents get lost when the media is focused on one of more reports that might be more sensational. This seems to have been the situation in Italy in 1979. There had been a flap in Italy throughout 1978 and a case in December involving a security guard in Torriglia, Fortunato Zanfretta, who claimed with corroboration from supervisors, coworkers, and the Carabinieri (Italian military police) that he had been abducted by huge yellow-eyed creatures on multiple occasions, dominated the news in Italy at that time. What seems like it should have received a good deal of attention from not only the press, but investigators as well, is a case that was reported in an Irish newspaper on January 3, 1979. An extensive search that included the publications of the major foreign and domestic UFO organizations in existence at the time, and even Italian UFO publications, found no other mentions of a case that involved the Interior Ministry and reports by several Rome police officers.
In the January 3, 1979, Evening Herald published in Dublin, Ireland, there is an article (page 12 of the pdf) headlined “Thousands Dazzled by Massive UFO.” According to the article, the UFO was reported by witnesses “across the length of Italy.” Witnesses described it as “the size of an ocean liner with dazzling fishtail wings,” and said it “lit up the sky for miles around.”
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Mario Giannini, said witnesses reported that the UFO, in the reporter’s words, “retracted its wings and changed shape, created a screen of smoke or fog and disappeared behind it, traveled noiselessly but sent birds and wildlife dashing for cover.”
Giannini is quoted saying that the ministry received “dozens of calls” about the UFO from all over the country and he estimated that, based on this, “we can presume that thousands of people spotted the UFO.”
The article then focuses on the involvement of the Rome Police, alerted to the UFO’s presence by calls from four patrol cars and a patrolman on duty “outside an embassy.” Police Captain Giovanni Grimani is quoted saying he was skeptical at first, but that the officers were all “reliable” and “their descriptions were all similar.” He added that the calls came from cars in different parts of the city, and therefore, the reports couldn’t be attributed to “collective suggestion.”
According to the article, when the Rome Police contacted the Ciampino Airport control tower, they were told that nothing unusual had been tracked on civilian or military radar. However, a policeman on duty near there, Antonio Giangrande said he saw a V-shaped object that was much larger than a plane and seemed to be made of “opaque crystal.”
Giangrande is then quoted at length:
“It was giving off beams of light over a mile long which reached the ground. The beams were white, with a shade of yellow. One went up, the other down. Suddenly those beams of light got brighter and yellower. Then there was a blinding flash within the two arms of the V. It was like a burst of gunfire – but without any sound – and then the object disappeared. All that remained at the spot in the sky was a little round cloud, but you could see what looked like a glass globe speeding off in the distance.”
According to the article, the first people to spot the object were workers arriving at 5:30 a.m. for the day shift at an oil refinery in Gela on the coast of Sicily. Chief security guard Antonio Ferrara, who said he never believed in UFOs before, is quoted describing it:
“It was egg shaped at the top but had these big, bright wings, or beams of light in the shape of wings, which trailed behind it. And it was bigger than any airplane. There was absolutely no sound. A ring of black cloud appeared around it. At the same time, the wings, or beams of light, retracted, and the UFO seemed to hover in the sky for a few seconds. It vanished like magic. It was as though a black veil had been drawn across it. The craft left no trace in the sky.
An artist, Romolo Bondi, who saw the object over a mountain in Gragnano near his home is quoted saying it was “like an ocean liner that left a great wake of light behind it. It lit up the sky and the mountain for miles.”
Finally, “summing up the reaction of terrified witnesses,” excavating machine operator Bruno Natucci from Torre del Lago Puccini is quoted saying “I was stupefied – I had seen a UFO!”
It is almost certain that this story was covered in Italian newspapers at the time, so if any reader who happens to be in that country feels motivated to take a look, we would certainly be interested if anyone should come across some local reporting.