Argentina: Policemen Escorted by a UFO (2001)By Paco Martínez, Patricio Parente, Juan Pablo González“In the measure that we shifted from low-to-high beams on the pick-up truck, the object did the very same. It accompanied us for a distance, and our speed was minimal. And this object was always with us, occasionally ascending and descending...”The town of Cachi is the provincial seat and it is located at the feet of the Nevado de Cachi (6100 meters) offering a singularly beautiful landscape tinted by the Colonial style that predominates the otherwise simple architecture of the town.
It was there, in the Cachi sheriff’s office, that officers Ramiro Corimayo and Sergeant Humberto Flores are on duty. Both men are eyewitnesses to an event that might be unusual for some, but is frequent in the area ( which abounds in UFO reports).
Their experience took place on 9 May 2001 on the segment of Route 33 that goes from Cachi to the city of Salta, in the vicinity of the Recta de Tin Tin (the “straight segment” of the road) that crosses Los Cardones National Park for 18 kilometers at an elevation of 3000 meters above sea level. It is only 26 kilometers distant from Cachi.
The approximate number of witnesses is 5. Information regarding the number varies because one of the aforementioned protagonists, plus another officer who refused to give his identity or rank, were transporting two detainees whose personal information could not be released. Since the event was made known in the press, the central office of the Salta Police was forced to prepare an official report that was requested by our group from the police station itself. However, a series of interdictions regarding location and authorization made obtaining this information difficult, especially because on the day that the report was requested, the local police was engaged in riot control due to the social disturbance that our country was undergoing at the time. Therefore, our request was not honored.
That was the last day of our stay in the vicinity, and we were unable to overcome the obstacle of securing a report that could represent a firm and seldom documented stance by law enforcement regarding a UFO case.
As this article was written, a formal instrument was presented to secure the report and make it public to our readers, since we believe that it would determine the names of all the parties involved and the event’s description, which is well-deserved, in their own words.
For the time being, the number of five (witnesses) is correct and not fewer. The other police officer had rank, but his desire not to make a statement is respectable. In fact, the most active part of the case, in any way, corresponds to Corimayo and Flores, who have furnished substantial details on the case, without the absence of other information affecting the central description of the experience in the least.
Having made these clarifications, we move on to the case.
An Experience in Tin TinRiding in the police cruiser shown in the photograph, the persons aboard were arranged as follows: Sgt. Flores was at the wheel, with the unnamed officer beside him. Behind the driver’s seat was officer Corimayo. Beside him was a woman (allegedly accused of a crime) and in the back, which was covered by a tarp to ward off the nocturnal chill, was at least one more person.
They entered the Agua de los Loros curve after 0400 in the morning, approximately, as they were due in Salta at 0700 hours. As they prepared to enter the “Recta de Tin Tin” segment, they noticed a luminous dot in the distance, much larger than a star.
“We drove along Route 33,” says Corimayo, “and once were in the Recta, where [the sign] for the Los Cardones National Park is located, toward the east, more or less around Cerros Tirados, which are some 20-30 kilometers away, Flores says to me: “Look, it’s a
farol (evil light).”
Officer Corimayo detected the luminous dot at Flores’s indication and recalled the oft-mentioned
faroles that tend to appear to travelers at night. The considerable mentions of these objects made by people leads them to look at the object fixedly, because neither man had hitherto run into a “
farol”
Flores, in order to draw the strange light’s attention, turned on the police pickup truck’s beacons. The law enforcement officer’s position regarding the comments of their fellow residents is reinforced, as these lights are believed to respond to signs made by travelers.
What they did not imagine is that the response would be so immediate and shocking.
“He turned on the beacons and the thing was beside us in a matter of seconds. We were driving along and the thing got on our left.”
The object made a swift movement, covering several kilometers in an instant, placing itself at a distance no greater than 400 meters from the pickup truck and at an altitude of no more than 40 meters of the ground. “That’s when we realized it wasn’t a farol,” Corimayo remarked.
The object’s size was much larger than expected (several meters in diameter) although it was hard to come up with an exact figure.
The iridescent object was predominantly spherical, but with a highly luminous main body, making it difficult to specify greater morphological complexities. What was notable is that it was surrounded by other very bright lights – green, red and violet – which according to the policemen, could be compared to disco lights.
“The object’s lights were always on. It was like a Christmas tree, intermittent.”
“In the measure that we shifted from low-to-high beams on the pick-up truck, the object did the very same. It accompanied us for a distance, and our speed was minimal. And this object was always with us, occasionally ascending and descending...”
Throughout the 18 kilometer length of the straight segment, the police vehicle’s speed at no point exceeded 30 kilometers an hour due to the attention given by the protagonists to the encounter. Corimayo notes that they were basically traveling at a “walking speed”, and that this enabled them to see structural details, and the movements of the phenomenon, which kept a regular and steady distance.
“I figure that it was larger than a truck,” says the officer, cautioning that the measure wasn’t exact due to distance.
Regarding a question during our interview on the police officers’ personal position on the phenomenon, we must make their conclusions on the display of activity clear. Flores, and especially Corimayo, say the following: “I think that the (object) acted according to our provocations, because on turning on the squad car’s lights, it did the same. We turned off the lights and it did the same, but not the white light, just the colored lights surrounding it. In other words, we turned out the beacons and they also turned on the contour area where the colors were emitted.”
“It was like playing a game with them. They responded in kind.”
We inquired whether they had any doubts about playing a game, an “interaction” that could have jeopardized their safety. “No,” says Corimayo, “ that was exactly what we were doing.”
According to the story, it is clear that party invited to play the game of questions and answers was the ring of colored lights surrounding the anomaly. The lights appeared to extend to suggest a slightly elliptical shape to the main source of light.
The protagonists’ conduct had been overall serene. However, the most restless party was Sgt. Flores. There had been a nearly provocative attitude on the policemen’s part by repeating the luminous signals and even some words and gestures that were aimed at the object. They do not specifically mention it, but they have suggested making gestures, shouting and even showing defiance upon seeing that there was no danger. The object however, appeared to respond with changes and alterations to its luminous structure that cannot be attributed to casual synchronicity, according to them.
The Most Intense MomentAs soon as they realized that the end of the straight segment was at hand, Flores made a disquieting calculation. If it followed the course, parallel to the road, the object would reach the curve facing Los Cajoncillos, where the paved road comes to an end, turning into a dirt path. At that point, the phenomenon would cross in front of them and block the road.
And so it happened. The object crossed in front of them.
“...we weren’t thinking. When it happened suddenly, we were scared, first because we saw it at the side of the hill,” says Flores. I felt that our vehicle’s lights dimmed, because I never dimmed them. Later on, I threw myself onto the shoulder, because we were afraid that the object would land with our engine paralyzed.”
No sooner had they entered the curve, where the dirt road starts, that the object halted and the electrical interference began. The pickup truck was left on the road’s right shoulder no more than 100 meters from the light.
Flores and Corimayo descended from the car. It was then that they saw the object in all its glory. It was slightly oval, its size easily surpassed the road’s width, making it greater than ten or fifteen meters.
They noticed a slight pulsing within the luminous figure, a beating of the surrounding lights that hinted at a subtle modification of sphere to ellipse, “like something beating”.
Without any possibility of leaving the area, they were overcome by the sight. They could not determine if the object had landed, given they way it projected its light. The brightness extended no less than 100 meters around, casting its light on them. Moreover, just watching it made their eyes burn.
The main light was white, and the colored ones twinkled intermittently, making it seem as though flashes of color dominated the perimeter, quickly changing to another tone “as though it were a rainbow”. They were unable to pick up any odors, sounds or significant changes in temperature.
“It was like wanting to look at the sun’s structure, and you can’t. We got out of the vehicle to see if some noise could be heard, but nothing.”
The phenomenon’s striking beauty and its irradiation dominated the entire field of vision, and barely made visible any additional details to the ones already described. It remained there for five minutes until it made a graceful move to the right, remaining no less than 700 meters from the witnesses.
“As I left the car lights on, once the object pulled away, the headlights came on by themselves. At that moment I told Officer Corimayo that we should return to Cachi. The object ascended by remained there, over the mountains, and the road becomes difficult around Cuesta del Obispo. We were afraid that it would come close again on the downward road.”
The road ahead would lead them through the sinuous complexities of the descent through Cuesta del Obispo, over mountain cliffs and rift valleys. But the officers decided to continue their journey to fulfill the mission entrusted to them by the police.
“The object remained to the right of us,” Corimayo remarks, “some six hundred meters. We continued to Piedra del Molino, and the road begins to go down. That’s where it becomes Cuesta del Obispo. Up to there, the object was on our right, but from the moment we descended into Valle Encantado, I saw it above us, overhead. That is to say, I had to put my head out the window to see it. I saw it much higher up and smaller. After that, the fog on the downhill road became very dense and we lost it from sight. We stopped seeing it right in Valle Encantado.”
Corimayo adds something about the moment in which the object departed from the road: “It took off, how should I say...like a shooting star. As intense as a lightning bolt, tilted to the right, toward the West. There it went up and down. It escorted us a little bit further, maybe some 600-700 meters.”
“At that time I asked the sergeant: What do we do? Do we stay put? We’re going to have to go on because we’re expected early in Salta. Flores was saying we should stay until it became less dark.”
A while after they stopped seeing it, possibly half an hour, the witnesses began to feel some dizziness, headache and intermittent nausea that they attributed to the powerful light they had seen for such a long time. According to their description, these symptoms were passing. They had refreshments on the road and were able to continue to the city of Salta with nearly an hour’s delay. These symptoms were not medically treated, and therefore, there are no records to evaluate.
The reached Salta around 0815 hours, over an hour late.
The police officers state that the sighting -- from its beginning until the object vanished from sight – took approximately an hour and a half . This is based on following the story, knowing the road, determining the landmark moments of the experience...and entirely coherent and feasible time period, bearing in mind the terrain and distance involved.
(Translation (c) 2011, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Gaceta OVNI and Guillermo Gimenez, Planeta UFO)
