by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear
On June 22, 1976, beginning at 10:15 p.m., offices of emergency responders throughout the Canary Islands were inundated with calls from citizens reporting a huge fireball in the western sky. Officials were able to see it for themselves as it remained visible for several minutes. The incident made international news and became a part of UFO lore with the main focus on a witness who claimed to have seen the cause of the reports yards away, which he described as a transparent sphere with two occupants inside.
We came across this story looking through a collection of clippings from the National Enquirer. It was covered in the August 28, 1976, edition in the article (page 62 of the pdf) by David Klein headlined ‘Transparent UFO Tall as a 3-Story Building.”
According to Klein, three astronomers from the Astrophysical Observatory on Monte Izana “watched in stunned amazement as the ‘giant brilliant sphere with a swirling center’ streaked directly toward their observatory.” One of them, Dr. Fernando Bello, is quoted saying that it paused during its approach and then made a 90-degree turn. According to him, “No flying machine made by man could have executed that maneuver.”
At around 10:30 p.m., Dr. Francisco Julio Padrón, a physician, was being driven to the town of Gáldar on the northwest coast of Grand Canary Island when he saw a “strange sphere” 60 yards from the road. He is quoted saying it was transparent, grayish blue, and that there were two six foot “figures” that were “either dressed in brilliant red or red in color.”
He said their faces were flesh colored and human like, that they were wearing cloth helmets or turbans, and that their heads glowed “like a halo or aura.” As for where hands might be expected he said this: “They had pointed wing-like appendages on the end of their arms that they moved slowly like hands. They seemed intent on some sort of control panel.”
Padron describes the moment the object left: “Suddenly the car radio went dead and we felt a terrible coldness. The object began to lift off – and seemed to be growing steadily larger as it rose!”
According to Klein, the men were frightened, and the driver “brought the car to a screeching halt.” The pair ran to the nearby farmhouse of Paco Rodrigues who reported that just before they knocked on his door, his TV set went dead. He let them in and “they all rushed to a window.” Rodrigues is quoted: “We could see the object clearly – a bright bluish sphere as big as a house with two red objects inside that looked like human forms.” He dove to the floor and covered his head with his arms and “yelled to my wife to do the same.”
The driver, Francisco Estéves, is quoted saying he saw two figures with “very bright, large eyes.” He said the object was “something out of this world” and that his “nerves are shattered” adding “I’ll never forget this as long as I live.”
Another witness Klein quotes is architectural draftsman Domingo Alamo who said he, a friend, and their two wives watched something strange from the roof of the friend’s house on a mountain near Gáldar. He said it was “a perfectly round transparent sphere” with “a sort of bent long shape of a bright red color” in its center and “stationary, about the height of the church spires nearby.” According to him, as they watched it for around 30 minutes, it expanded “gradually” in a “perfect circle,” and then receded “until there was just a huge, white circle in the sky.”
The commanding officer of the Spanish Air Force in the Canary Islands is quoted at the very end of the article saying that their radar didn’t track anything. However, he acknowledges that “many people did see something extraordinary, including several military people, and all accounts seem to coincide.” He added that the Air Force was “conducting an official investigation.”
According to a report on the case posted on The UFO Database, depositions from the official case file were “disclosed by a Spanish Air Force General” to J. J. Benítez, who published them in his 1977 book, OVNIS: Documentos Oficiales del Gobierno Español.
On page 237, Benítez presents the account of Padrón as it appears in the file and doesn’t name him. It’s very much like the one in the Enquirer with extra details such as the figures only being seen in profile and wearing red diving suits. Also in this account, their hands are described as seeming “to end in arrowheads, so they appeared to be gloved.”
On page 239, Benítez begins a summary of a personal interview with Padrón in which he is named. Padrón added personal details such as the fact that he and Estéves, the taxi driver, were good friends and talked about hunting as they travelled.
The documents were declassified and released on July 22, 1994. The case file, # 760622, consists of 105 pages with four cover pages and 101 numbered documents.
The file contains the depositions of thirteen witnesses divided into four categories according to credibility rating. This is noted on the third cover page of the file under the heading “Indice De Documentos” describing documents “0031 al 0075.” People with the highest rating include “militares y marinos” and those with the lowest include uneducated people and those under the influence of “crisis nerviosas, alucinaciones, alcohol, drogas, etc.” The system is laid out more formally on document oo11.
On the second cover page, Juez, the “Investigative Adjudent,” presents a timeline of sightings starting with that of the entire crew of the Spanish Navy corvette, “Atrevida” at 10:27 p.m. (21:27z) and ending with that of a Sergeant at Pozo de Las Nieves who reported seeing a circular object the size of three moons. Padrón’s sighting at 10:30 is the second one listed. According to the ranking system, the crew of the Atriveda and Padrón have high credibility and both reports are given a lot of attention starting with Padrón’s in documents 0032-0036. There is an illustration of what he said he saw on 0090. Estéves’s corroboration is covered in documents 0037-0041 and 0041 is his written testimony.
The sighting by the Atriveda crew is covered documents 0064-0069. This is a translation of the captain’s description on 0066:
“At 21:27 (Z) on June 22, a luminous point of intense bluish-yellow light was sighted for the first time; it emerged from the ground and rose toward our position. Initially, it was thought to be an aircraft with its landing lights on. Upon reaching a certain altitude (15°–18°), the light source became stationary and rotated its beam, while the source itself ceased to be visible. It remained in this state for approximately two minutes, generating a large halo of intense bluish-yellow light that persisted in the same position for forty minutes—even after the phenomenon that had created it had vanished.
After two minutes, the light source split; a smaller portion remained below at the center of the luminous circle, forming a bluish cloud, while the fragment that had given rise to this bluish core disappeared.
The upper portion rapidly and irregularly spiraled upward in altitude before eventually disappearing. None of these movements affected the initial circular halo, which remained unchanged, illuminating parts of the land and sea—suggesting that the phenomenon was nearby rather than distant.”
Juez’s four conclusions are presented on document 0082. The first is that the observed phenomenon really occurred, the second is that “it’s nature is completely unknown,” and the third is that it can’t be determined whether what was seen was a solid mass or form of energy, “as it was not detected by radar, and there is no conclusive evidence that it could have been detected.”
The fourth conclusion regards the testimony of Padrón and Estéves: “The statements made by Dr. Padrón and the taxi driver, Francisco, cannot be accorded unquestionable credibility; due to the inability to present conclusive evidence to confirm their accounts, we must reject them for the time being.”
This is his final summary: “To summarize everything presented—and after analyzing all possible logical causes for the phenomenon without finding a fit among them, and being unable to apply the label “OBJECT” due to the points raised in section 6.3.3—the final conclusion is that what was observed by the corvette’s crew (and corroborated by other witnesses on the night of the 22nd) was an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP).”
Next week: A likely cause is discovered.