Spain: The Benacazón Humanoids (CE-3, 1976)
By Manuel Ramírez, Red Nacional de Corresponsales
From the Files of Ignacio Darnaude
“The object was shaped like a phone booth or something similar, with a sort of porthole or entrance on the upper part, from where it emitted some red and white flashes…”
The day was January 27, 1976. Miguel Fernández, a twenty-four-year-old laborer was heading toward Benacazón on a practically clear night with a waning moon. The time was one thirty in the morning, when suddenly…
“…I saw something like a star fly over me. Shortly after, it did it again, or perhaps it was another one, but this time closer to where I was. It all happened at twelve thirty in the morning. Around one in the morning I saw an object dropped vertically before my very eyes, only some five meters distant.”
At first, the case was very similar to one that occurred recently in Albacete as part of the UFO flap that seemingly took hold of Spain in recent months. Only a few weeks after unidentified objects were seen over that capital city, and according to a press correspondent, in the town of Chinchilla, near the Los Llanos Base and on the property of the military maneuvering ground recently acquired by the Army.
This new UFO presence was witnessed by three people: a married couple and A. Sanchez, who retold their experience with astonishment, much like the laborer from Benacazón.
“The time was around seven in the evening,” said one of them, “when I saw two objects, measuring some four meters, over the summits of the Sierra de Chinchilla. They were two discs about the size of a traffic light that gave off a bright orange hue. The disks hung in space for some four or five minutes before descending at high speed and hiding behind the mountains.”
The sighting by M. Sánchez, the young man from Albacete, occurred some twenty kilometers away in a road that leads to La Felipa.
“A half hour later, two other objects with the same size and characteristics showed up, coming in behind the others. They made the same maneuvers: they remained still for some minutes and then descended behind the mountains. But before this, the four objects gave off a powerful beam of white light aimed at the ground. It gave the impression that they were looking for something, or lighting the area as if hoping to land.
M. Sánchez watched the area and the objects’ maneuvers until nine o’clock at night. This all happened on Thursday, October 23, 1980. The strangest part of his story was the following: “Moments before nine o’clock at night, I saw a jet arrive. It was a clear, moonlight night and was able to see the plane’s wake. Well, no sooner did the jet arrive did the four objects vanish, and I didn’t see them again. I was also surprised to see them descend as orderly as they rose. One set would do it first, followed by the others.
In this Albacete case there were multiple unidentified objects, as we said, but there were no humanoid cases or anything that might lead one to think of such. However, in Benacazón on the evening of 27 January 1976, Miguel Fernandez – the 24 year-old laborer – would explain it thus:
“As I was telling you, a star flew over me, and shortly after another, or maybe it was the same, but closer to where I was. Its color was dark green, without markings or windows. Solid, metallic-looking, with an approximate size of two meters wide by three and a half meters tall, legs included. It was equipped with a door that opened as if on hinges. Its upper section had something resembling wings or ailerons, semi-circular pieces that looked like arms.
When members of the Olivares UFO Research Group reported to the site, they didn’t find any prints, since some days had elapsed since the sighting, according to the main witness.
“The noise,” remarked Miguel Fernandez “was very similar to that of a tractor’s treads, but with greater intensity. It also had a moveable ramp that extended when the door opened.”
What makes the Albacete case so different from the Benacazón one is what happened next, according to Miguel Fernández.
“It was then that two beings appeared. They wore suits similar to those worn by frogmen – close fitting and phosphorescent. They wore buckled belts, at whose center they had something resembling a light that projected soft, rhythmic red flashes.
Miguel Fernández was unable to discern heads, feet or hands. But he did hear them speak in perfectly human voices but in an unknown language. These strange beings were approximately two meters tall, and they spoke to each other without noticing the presence of Miguel Fernández, who fled at that moment, just as the object took off at the same time, producing a flash-like effect and projecting something like smoke that blackened and slightly singed Fernández’s beard hair and mustache. He was later seen to at a hospital, and the orderly who treated him, as well as Miguel’s sister had their hands stained. It appears that a sample of the product that caused the spotting was subsequently sent to Madrid for an in-depth analysis of its properties.
Miguel Fernández is not sure how he made it home, as he nearly fainted. He barely remembers anything about what happened. His relatives subsequently explained that he had been found around two thirty in the morning in the entrance hall to the house after having entered.
No human explanation can be found for this case. However, a 24 year-old laborer, not prone to fantasy, a man completely uninvolved with the UFO phenomenon, indeed had an unforgettable experience on January 27, 1976 as he walked to Benacazón. What started by seeing something similar to a star ended with the presence of two beings dressed like frogmen, speaking in human-sounding voices after descending from an allegedly phone booth-shaped UFO, with lights on their belts. After this, he came close to fainting and does not know how he was able to get home. But there he was, hours after the bizarre event, unable to remember what had transpired.
[Translation (c) 2015, S. Corrales, IHU]
Supplementary Note: INEXPLICATA contributing editor Manuel Carballal - one of Spain's leading researchers of the UFO phenomenon, aside from his interest in other fields like theology and criminology, where he has made valuable contributions - made the following observations on the Benacazón case well over a decade ago. There is a discrepancy in the dates of the event - one source says 1976 while Carballal's article gives 1978:
Miguel Fernández Carrasco's experience should occupy a privileged position in European ufological history: on the night of January 28, 1978, Miguel, who was then 24 years old, had dropped off his girlfriend, Carmen Alvarado Sáenz, age 20, at her house around midnight, and returned home from Sanlúcar la Mayor to Benacazón, some four kilometers away.
According to his report, he noticed a "shooting star" around twelve-thirty a.m. A few minutes later, the "star" turned in to an unidentified craft which landed some five meters away from the witness. The object had a parallelepipedal configuration, much like a telephone booth "but much larger" (some two meters wide by three and a half meters tall)--similar to the one described by Manuel Castro in Galicia, having a sort of dome on its upper section which issued read and white flashes. Near the upper edge of the vehicle's "trunk" were two appendages shaped like fins. A kind of door in the shape of a half-archway opened, spinning on hypothetical hinges. At that moment, a blinding light issued from the inside of the ship, and a ramp projected toward the floor.
According to the young man's story, he was frozen in terror as two humanoid beings standing some two meters tall emerged from the craft. They wore tight-fitting coveralls "like a frogman's wet suit", according to Miguel, and a thick belt whose buckle emitted soft, rhythmic red flashes. Despite his terror, Miguel managed to control his panic and broke into a run. The humanoids promptly returned to the object and it "took off". Looking behind him as he ran, the witness claims that the UFO rose in a great puff of smoke, heading toward him--which only served to increase his panic. The craft soon overtook him, and Miguel felt that he was hit with "a burning exhaust or emanation" from the UFO. The young man remembers nothing more until he appeared at the entrance to his house.
He was taken to the emergency room of Seville's Hospital San Lázaro where he underwent extensive tests. According to the report I found at said institution, he was found to have strange burns and ocular irritation "similar to having been exposed to a very powerful light". The most surprising fact about the case is that a Seville judge called Miguel to testify, giving place to the only court action ever taken in a case of UFO aggression in Europe. A legal action which, I might add, was lost in the shuffle of paperwork and took me many days to obtain, involving an adventure which touches the limits of the unimaginable. This legal action constitutes, without a doubt, one of the most extraordinary documents in European UFO history, and the strange premature aging of the witness over the past years should also be cause for reflection on the matter.