June 1947: Elsewhere in the World

Fifty two years ago, on June 24th, 1947, Kenneth Arnold saw five objects that he described as "skipping like saucers over water" in the skies over Washington State. The rest is history.

Let us not forget that UFO activity was already beginning to occur elsewhere in the world, and this newspaper article from Chile, courtesy of our friend Raul Núñez at the IIEE, is a good example:

A FLYING DISK OVER SANTIAGO: SEEN FLYING OVER LOS CERRILLOS

Mr. Gillermo de la Cerda Simonot, a former civilian officer of the Fleet, states that a shining, silvery and oval-shaped object" appeared before his eyes for ten minutes at noon yesterday.
A flying disk remained stationary for at least ten minutes over the Los Cerrillos airport, at least ten kilometers from the Plaza de Armas, at the very same time that the population of Santiago left its offices and workshops to go off to lunch. The object was seen by Guillermo de la Cerda Simonot, master mechanic of a small bus line, and whose background as a former civilian officer of the Fleet for 30 years, knowledgeable about machinery and vehicles, is a serene, creditworthy individual with good eyesight.

LIGHT REFLECTED AT NOON
It was noon when Guillermo de la Cerda, son of the known racehorse owner of the same name, was returning along the Maipú road after having made repairs to a damaged bus. He was wearing sunglasses, which allowed him to face the sun. Suddenly, only a few centimeters over the horizon, he saw something that shined "like the reflection of an airplane's wings when the sun strikes them". He said nothing to his escort, an assistant mechanic of the same bus line, and he continued looking at the object, which remained stationary.

A SILVERY, SHINING DISK
Finally, convinced that it could not be an airplane, he stopped the bus and got off t for a better look. It was an oval, silvery object, similar to the ones described in newswires regarding "flying saucers". He believed that he could see portholes along its edges, but was uncertain. "I don't want to say something that I didn't say with certainty," he added. His companion saw the same thing as he.

A fiew minutes later, the oval, silvery and brilliant object vanished behind the trees and out of sight.

A "flying disk"? A hallucination? Everything suggests the former. Chile appears to hav been visited by the same extraordinary messengers from space that have already appeared in so many parts of the world.

(Translation (c) 2009, S.Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Raul Núñez, IIEE-Chile)