Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Argentina: Tandil - A UFO City?

Source: Diario Tandil – Argentina (newspaper)
Date: 05.30.11


Tandil, a UFO City? Air Force to Research Phenomenon in Several Parts of the Country

In recent days it became known that the Argentinean Air Force launched a commission to investigate the UFO phenomenon in the country. On more than one occasion, Tandil has been in the news due to alleged “sightings” of unidentified flying objects. Could our city become the subject of repeated investigations by this new commission?

The brand new Comisión de Investigación de Fenómenos Aeroespaciales, as it has been dubbed, will be formed by civilian personnel and experts from the Fuerza Aérea Argentina (FAA) whose mission shall be to “conduct a scientific study of aerospatial phenomena.”

Over many years, Tandil has been in the news due to alleged UFO sightings. Truth? Deception? Confusion? Most residents of Tandil remember some stories related to alleged UFO sightings and even close encounters.

Last year, Tandil’s media reported on a photograph taken by a private citizen during the month of August in the vicinity of Cerro El Centinela, from which an unidentified flying object could be seen flying over the region. The image was analyzed by the Fundación Argentina de Ovnilogía, which concluded that the object shown in the image was “unquestionably a UFO” adding that Tandil is “an area prone to sightings” of strange elements in the sky.

Even earlier, in 2008, Tandil was the headline and feature of all the national media due to a story that was never dismissed as a prank or confirmed as truly unexplained: in the midst of a fire that raged through hundreds of acres of the borough of Tandil, the community was shaken – half seriously, half humorously – by a series of local reports involving a UFO sighting. Yes, either a UFO or a fireball was responsible for starting the fire.

The eyewitness accounts were only a few, and more local residents are stepping forward to say they saw it. One local resident even showed photos of strange burns in his home.

In an effort to explain the event, the media consulted Fabio Zerpa, who said that locals had seen nothing less than “foo fighters” – a sort of phantom fighter that collects energy for spacecraft (sic).

Curiously though, many suggested that year that “a UFO had been the cause of the prairie fire” near the city.

Whether true or false, whether natural phenomena are involved, or mere suggestion and deceit, over the years Tandil has been mentioned more than once by UFO researchers. Many of them – according to their theories and their personal truth – state that the city is a “transit corridor” for extraterrestrial flying objects. Determining whether this is true or not is a task for the new commission created by the Air Force. Science will surely be able to forward its own perspective.

(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)