Peru: Air Force Investigates Strange Phenomena

Source: La República (Perú-newspaper)
Date: Wednesday June 15, 2011-06-15

Perú: Air Force Investigates Strange Phenomena in the Peruvian Skies
By Consuelo Alonso C.

UFOs? The Peruvian Air Force (FAP) acknowledges that there’s something going on in our airspace. The Dirección de Investigación Aeroespacial (DINAE), which investigates events that still lack a scientific explanation, has been in service for a decade.

Are we alone in the universe? This is the question that millions of human beings have asked themselves for centuries, and Peruvians are no exception. There is a department within the prestigious Peruvian Air Force (FAP) that was created in December 2001 and is devoted to the research of anomalous aerospace phenomena (to avoid calling them UFOs) and even now undergoes a restructuring phase to obtain a larger budget and more personnel.

There are three theories about the need for creating this office: The first one suggests that a decision was made to create it solely to keep up with our neighbors of Chile and Ecuador, who opened their respective agencies to research the subject. Second, that they wanted to investigate, in depth, a sighting that took place in the La Molina district, and finally, that part of the ministerial cabinet at the time saw a gigantic vessel fly overhead during an official visit to the jungle, and asked someone to tell them what was going on.

In any event, what was known as the OIFAA began its investigations with outstanding scholars, such as the recently deceased anthropologist Fernando Fuenzalida Vollmar.

However, despite the time elapsed, “they have no statistics or figures” on those “anomalous aerospace phenomena”, according to Abraham Ramírez Lituma, advisor to the Dirección de Investigación Aeroespacial (DINAE), to which the department in question reports, adding that this does not dismiss that such events “undoubtedly take place (in the skies of Peru) and probably occur all the time in the rest of the world.”

What types of events is he specifically referring to? Ramírez Lituma indicates that in spite of the foregoing, nothing has been authoritatively ascertained, even after the earnest investigations conducted. But there can be no question that something is definitely happening, to the extent that at the official level within the FAP we find the eyewitness account of three of its members, claiming to having seen or pursued an unidentified flying object (UFO).

One of them is Cmdr. Oscar Santa María Huertas, who claims having had an encounter with a bulb-shaped craft on 11 April 1980 while stationed at the La Joya Air Force base in Arequipa. Another 1,800 men in formation at that military facility witnessed a motionless object some 3 miles distant.

His orders from the high command were to intercept it and shoot down. He boarded a Sukhoi fighter and when he was within firing range, fired 64 rounds at it with no effect.

After pursuing the vessel for several minutes – and watching it make sudden stops, in violation of all known physical laws – he noticed that it was a wingless object, lacking doors, motors, rivets or anything known to man.

“What am I up against?” was his first thought, as he recalls, before returning to base somewhat fearfully. Today, while not going as far as to say that he saw something alien, he is convinced that the technology displayed by that vehicle, measuring 10 x 10 meters, does not exist on Earth, and did not exist at the time.

Even the United States Department of Defense issued a document bearing the title “UFO Sighting in Peru” which describes the incident, indicating that the vehicle’s origin remains unknown.

Events such as this, 55 years ago, kicked off the aerospace age worldwide, adds Ramírez, and the Peruvian state also decided to create OIFAA, as there was the need (constitutionally mandated) to oversee and insure the safety of our territorial airspace against possible enemies, whether terrestrial or extraterrestrial. And what do you think? Are we alone?

Perú’s first official UFO research case, carried out by the OIFAA, was headed by researcher Anthony Choy, and involved the presence of a series of vessels flying over Chulucanas in Piura.

A religious procession witnessed the event, seeing how the objects engaged in a variety of maneuvers to form geometric figures for two and a half hours.

Unfortunately, despite the existence of videos, this event has not been explained. But there are two hypotheses: that either aliens are involved, or simply luminous electrical phenomena.

This research determined that mysterious Cerro Pilán was at the heart of these extraordinary phenomena, said Choy.

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