Argentina: Tucumán, UFOs and the Story that Inspired Spielberg

Source: Planeta UFO and La Gaceta (gaceta.com.ar)
Date: 10.26.17

Argentina: Tucumán, UFOs and the Story that Inspired Spielberg

One of the country's most notorious UFO sightings occurred in Tucumán. The incident took place at the ranch of the Moreno family only kilometers away from Trancas. According to their story, they witnessed the descent of flying objects from the night sky on October 21, 1963 over the General Belgrano Railroad Line located only a few meters from the family farm. The craft emitted lights until they rose into the air anew and vanished in the direction of the Sierra de Medina. The event was investigated by the Universidad Nacional de Tucuman (UNT) and served as the inspiration for one of the scenes in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Jolié Moreno is the only living witness to the event, and remembers it all in spite of being 77.

It was very cold that night. "Much too cold for October," says the woman, who was 21 years old at the time. Dora Guzmán, one of the family's maidservants, was about to wash the dishes after dinner and changed her mind, on account of the "strange lights outside the kitchen." It was then that Jolié's sister, Yolanda Moreno, who was asleep, woke up, threw on a robe, grabbed a .38 Colt and went outside the house with the servant to open the gate which led to the farm.

Strange lights were visible over the Belgrano railroad tracks, only meters away, looking like "when a fluorescent bulb has gone out," Moreno explained. "There was a tube covering the entire track, and you could see the silhouettes of people walking from one light to another. The silhouettes could have been our own. One could see arms, legs and heads in the distance."

Later, she said that when her sister wanted to turn on the flashlight to open the gate, a light "like flamethrower" knocked her and the servant to the ground, inflicting "first, second and third degree burns" to the servants face.



"The gun wound up in the garden and my sister ran into the house, frantically screaming 'mother, father! Wake up! We don't know what's going on!'," Jolié recalls.

The flying saucer that was near the garden and the ones on the track took off like a spinning top, she explained. "The siege lasted more or less 45 minutes. Then they issued another light that reached as far as Trancas. They went up, slid 80 degrees to the north, and that was the sign of their retreat to the Sierras de Medina, which were illuminated for two hours," she explained.

"The Trancas Case represented a before and after, especially in those days, when talking about UFOs was considered deranged," reflects Carlos Burgi, a ufologist with Tucumán OVNI. "It's a landmark case because the craft were seen not only by the Moreno sisters, but also by their parents, the servant, and neighbors." Furthermore, the alleged vehicles left some small white orbs and spots on the grass and the railroad tracks, Burgi adds. "The UNT came to investigate and analyze (one of the small orbs) which proved to be 98% pure calcium carbonate.

What happened that October evening changed Jolié's life. "Not many have seen what I saw," she stated.


One of the country's most notorious UFO sightings occurred in Tucumán. The incident took place at the ranch of the Moreno family only kilometers away from Trancas. According to their story, they witnessed the descent of flying objects from the night sky on October 21, 1963 over the General Belgrano Railroad Line located only a few meters from the family farm. The craft emitted lights until they rose into the air anew and vanished in the direction of the Sierra de Medina. The event was investigated by the Universidad Nacional de Tucuman (UNT) and served as the inspiration for one of the scenes in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Jolié Moreno is the only living witness to the event, and remembers it all in spite of being 77.

It was very cold that night. "Much too cold for October," says the woman, who was 21 years old at the time. Dora Guzmán, one of the family's maidservants, was about to wash the dishes after dinner and changed her mind, on account of the "strange lights outside the kitchen." It was then that Jolié's sister, Yolanda Moreno, who was asleep, woke up, threw on a robe, grabbed a .38 Colt and went outside the house with the servant to open the gate which led to the farm.

Strange lights were visible over the Belgrano railroad tracks, only meters away, looking like "when a fluorescent bulb has gone out," Moreno explained. "There was a tube covering the entire track, and you could see the silhouettes of people walking from one light to another. The silhouettes could have been our own. One could see arms, legs and heads in the distance."

Later, she said that when her sister wanted to turn on the flashlight to open the gate, a light "like flamethrower" knocked her and the servant to the ground, inflicting "first, second and third degree burns" to the servants face.

"The gun wound up in the garden and my sister ran into the house, frantically screaming 'mother, father! Wake up! We don't know what's going on!'," Jolié recalls.

The flying saucer that was near the garden and the ones on the track took off like a spinning top, she explained. "The siege lasted more or less 45 minutes. Then they issued another light that reached as far as Trancas. They went up, slid 80 degrees to the north, and that was the sign of their retreat to the Sierras de Medina, which were illuminated for two hours," she explained.

"The Trancas Case represented a before and after, especially in those days, when talking about UFOs was considered deranged," reflects Carlos Burgi, a ufologist with Tucumán OVNI. "It's a landmark case because the craft were seen not only by the Moreno sisters, but also by their parents, the servant, and neighbors." Furthermore, the alleged vehicles left some small white orbs and spots on the grass and the railroad tracks, Burgi adds. "The UNT came to investigate and analyze (one of the small orbs) which proved to be 98% pure calcium carbonate.

What happened that October evening changed Jolié's life. "Not many have seen what I saw," she stated.

[Translation (c) 2017 S. Corrales IHU with thanks to Guillermo Giménez]

[The 1963 Trancas Case is one of the landmark cases of UFO research, having been featured in a number of publications throughout the decades. Readers in search of further information on the case can consult two sources: https://inexplicata.blogspot.com/2011/06/argentina-1963-trancas-case-revisited.html and https://inexplicata.blogspot.com/2007/05/saucers-in-my-backyard-argentinas.html -- SC]