UFO CAUSES ARGENTINA TO LOCK DOWN RURAL AREA

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A mysterious blue "fireball" caused Argentina´s Navy and the Policia Provincial de Corrientes to lock down a rural area of the upper Rio Parana and deploy forces in an intense ground search.

(Editor´s Note: The Argentinian Navy patrols the Rio Parana, which forms that country´s border with neighboring Paraguay.)

"Elements of the Policia Provincial, the National Gendarmes and the Naval Prefecture carried out a broad joint operation in the town of Saladas, near San Lorenzo," on the Rio Parana in northern Argentina, "in order to determine the truth of a complaint made by a man who, driving toward the community, saw a fireball falling to the ground bordering the Rio Parana."

"According to the report, filed yesterday (Thursday, July 14, 2005) at the Empedrado Cuartel (Barracks) of the Naval Prefecture, the glow moved from southwest to northeast. ´It was a fireball, like a small plane disintegrating after an explosion.´"

"This was the description of the UFO that the driver gave to the Prefecture duty officer. (Naval) Elements immediately reported this to the San Lorenzo Sheriff´s Office, and the combined operation and information-sharing began shortly after."

"The sun was not quite up as the combined (operation´s) personnel made their way across the alleged impact zone" outside Saladas. "They inspected the fields adjacent to the river, the ranches of the San Lorenzo rural area, but no one found traces of the object sought."

"Most of the local residents were interrogated, but none of them had even heard their dogs bark."

"It was then that the story of a member of the Road Control Police in Cuatro Bocas, near Saladas, became known."

"According to the police officer, an eyewitness to the event, the glow truly existed but at a greater height (altitude) than a private plane can reach in flight. This probability was dismissed in order to concentrate on the likelihood of a meteor impact."

"The search continued but no trace of the rock or space junk was found. A communique was issued by the Empedrado Prefecture to the (Navy) barracks at Goya, Bella Vista and Corrientes."

"By evening, nothing further was known about the matter, according to a report by Naval Prefecture spokesman Andres Ramirez."

The blue UFO "was the talk of the town over the radio, in bars and in newsrooms" throughout Corrientes province. "What was it that crossed the Chaco skies in the wee hours of the morning? Phones rang off the hook at the local radio stations, suggesting that at around six in the morning, a ´fireball´ crossed the sky at high speed, leaving a long blue trail in its path."

"The most frightened callers wanted to alert listeners to the possibility that a stricken aircraft was falling to the ground enveloped in flames, a report which was rejected by the Northeastern Air Region (Spanish acronym: RANE--J.T.) from the lack of any incidents involving a heavenly body."

"However, there are witnesses, not only in the (provincial) capital but also in the (Chaco) interior, who contacted (the Argentinian newspaper) El Norte to confirm that they had witnessed the passage of the ´heavenly fireball.´"

"One of the eyewitness accounts came from Sergio Acosta, who said that between 6:05 and 6:10 a.m." on Thursday, July 14, 2005, "while he was driving a truck, he noticed ´a powerful light that lit up the sky.´"

"He informed LT-16 Radio Santa Esmeralda that he ´looked upward and saw something like a giant star, flying at high speed, at an altitude that did not exceed 1,000 to 1,500 meters (3,300 to 4,950 feet) in an east to west direction, until it became lost in the horizon.´"

"Apparently, he was so alarmed by the strange object´s flight pattern that some details were burned into his mind. ´It lost a chunk of its luminous body in flight, and in its rear it had something like ´a little tail,´ following it at a close distance, like a hot coal, as though it was a jet engine or a navigation light. But it was a very large object,´ Acosta remarked."

"This was one of the most detailed accounts of the sighting. But there were at least four other witnesses who claim having seen the light with similar characteristics--and at the same time--crossing the skies."

"It was even said that one of the witnesses made a drawing of what he had seen."

"When asked if it could have been an airplane, he said it was unlikely because ´it was noiseless. It drew my attention because it was (flying) in total silence. I thought it was a shooting star, but I´ve seen shooting stars before, and they make a whistling sound. This one made no noise whatsoever.´"

"´Furthermore, it wasn´t fiery-colored but had more colors than a star, like a satellite, but very large and even titillated (flickered). It was so fast that it took between 6 and 10 seconds to cross the sky, which was completely clear.´"

"´I saw this thing, and night was turned into day. It lit up everything,´ said Cesar Gustavo Blanco to a local FM radio station. Blanco is a rural worker who was on his way to a farm field north of Napenay. Nervous after having seen the object, while he was trying to find an earthly explanation for it, he said, ´I turned off my pickup truck´s engine because I was shocked, and there was no sound. But I could hear something, like a whistling sound, and I felt fear because this was really the sound of silence."

Saladas is located 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Corrientes, the provincial capital, and 435 kilometers (261 miles) north of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. (See the Argentinian newspapers El Litoral of July 15, 2005, "Police comb area after UFO sighting;" Las Noticias Corrientes for July 15, 2005, "Commotion over Chaco flying object continues;" and El Norte for July 15, 2005, "Fireball sweeps across skies over the Chaco." Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Cristian Quintero del grupo Planeta UFO por estes articulos de diario.)