Spain: From Linares to Mulhacén - a '50s UFO Sighting

Spain: From Linares to Mulhacén - a '50s UFO Sighting
By Manuel Ramírez, Red Nacional de Corresponsales
From the collection of Ignacio Darnaude

The time was exactly ten minutes to five on the afternoon of February 2, 1953 when an object soared noiselessly over the skies of Linares (Province of Jaén) from north to southeast. The object flew at high speed and left black smoke in its wake at an altitude of three thousand meters. The speed - according to the CIFRA agency - was such that the object's shape could not be seen and the dense contrail of smoke lasted a few minutes. The next day - could it have been the same unidentified flying object? - another strange smoky wake crossed the skies over Bailén (Jaén) adopting an elliptical shape as it dissipated.

Certain time had to elapse before the media and the UFO research organizations recorded new sightings. Thus, in Cartaya (Huelva), on December 19, 1954, Messrs. Moral Bernal and Riquelme Camacho - according to a Barcelona paper - were at a place called "Tavirona" when they saw a circular craft on the ground, some fifty meters distant from their position. When they approached the object, they were startled to see that it lifted noisily into the air and flew off toward Portugal. Subsequently, in the month of May, 1956, in the Straits of Gibraltar, a mysterious radiant object was seen by numerous witnesses as it flew over this location. The object was shaped like a green sphere and was suspended for some ten minutes at an altitude of fifteen hundred meters, descending very slowly over the village of Benzú, vanishing at high speed.

These were not the only cases from the 1950s, or at least the ones to be known. At El Padul (Granada), on the evening of April 30, 1958, Messrs. Jimenez Leyva and Torcuato Sánchez witnessed a very bright craft, some ten meters in diameter, descending to the ground over a hill. Shortly after, the strange object began to rise into the air, disappearing at high speed toward Baza, leaving a yellow wake.

However, one of the most important cases of that decade was, without a doubt the one that occurred on pico Mulhacén (Granada), at the summit of the "Mojón Alto" peak, at an elevation of three thousand meters and an ambient temperature of ten to fifteen degrees centigrade, under clear and dry weather conditions, in August 1956. Three witnesses observed an object that rested on the ground for a quarter of an hour, some four kilometers distant from their position. The estimated its height at between eight and ten meters, and its shape was similar to a rocket on three legs. It was seemingly metallic (shiny like steel) and reflected light. It made no noise whatsoever - according to sources of the C.E.I. (Center for Interplanetary Studies) - and rose into the air, increasing its speed rapidly, heading toward Alvica.



It was precisely on New Year’s Eve, 1958, when a reliable sighting took place in Andalucía. Rafael Salas was on his way back to Seville in a truck rented from the Acha trucking company and ordered the driver to stop a kilometer away from Cuesta de las Doblas, to ring in the New Year. The driver pulled over to the shoulder. Before stopping -- as they subsequently told ufologist Manuel Osuna, also noted by the Red Nacional de Corresponsales - there was nothing visible on the ground. No sooner had the truck stopped than a pointed cylindrical object flies upward, a meter and a half away from the truck's passenger door. The witness tried to get out and opened the door; a second object with similar characteristics emerged from the ground, more clearly visible than the first. According to the information provided by Rafael Salas, it measured some thirty centimeters in diameter and two meters tall, with a dark phosphorescent red color, with a noise similar to that of a mixer in operation. Both objects vanished at terrific speed.

[Translation © 2015 S. Corrales, IHU, with thanks to Ignacio Darnaude]