Uruguay: Was It A UFO?

Source: PLANETA UFO and ElPais.com
Date: May 8 2018
An Article by Magdalena Martinez

Uruguay: Was it a UFO?

National authorities mobilize the Flying Object Report Reception & Investigation Committee (CRIDOVNI) after receiving several phone calls. The strange light turned out to be a commercial flight.

The live rebroadcast with which Channel 30 (Punta Cable) of Punta del Este, Uruguay interrupted its transmission displayed a light moving along very slowly, displaying a bizarre shape. A genuine unidentified flying object. The news made the rounds of social media and gave rise to the question: Have aliens reached Uruguay?



A few hours elapsed before the Flying Object Report Reception & Investigation Committee (CRIDOVNI) of the Uruguayan Air Force issued a communiqué on Twitter: it wasn't a UFO, but rather a commercial flight from Austral Airlines out of Buenos Aires heading toward the Laguna del Sauce airport. The equipment, an Embraer 190, had been picked up by radar and the control tower, following the same trajectory and schedule as the luminous flying object that had piqued public curiosity. The odd shape and intensity of the glow had been caused by the cloud cover.

"According to reports received yesterday pursuant to a UFO seen in a video transmitted live on "Canal 30 Punta Cable" we report that the UFO was identified as an Austral Airlines Embraer 190, flight number AUT2346."
-- Uruguay Air Force (@Fuerza_aerea_uy) 25 April 2018

CRIDOVNI mobilizes dozens of people whenever incidents of this sort come about, explains Lt. Col Gerardo Tajes of the Uruguayan Air Force. In this case, "while a team from Montevideo traveled to Punta del Este, Air Force Command checked its radars and also mobilized the operators of the Laguna del Sauce airport."

Detection of unidentified flying objects is not taken lightly in Uruguay: "The Air Force is the arm of the State whose mission is the vigilance of national airspace. Thus, we have full control; we know what comes in and goes out. It's very different from air traffic control handled by civilian aviation. With our radars, we are able to pick up craft that do not wish to be detected. In this way we can also generate a cooperation databank at the international level," explains Lt. Col. Tajes.

The military man admits that some cases are unsolved, but a rational answer is found for the phenomenon in most instances. A good example can be found in what occurred last year, when three Google helium balloons fell on Uruguayan soil. These devices, measuring 12 meters tall and 15 meters wide, are part of Google's Project Loon, aimed at providing rural areas with Internet service. The landed without warning, causing some shock in scantily populated areas of Uruguay.

Equipped with three fighters (Cessna A-37s from the 1960s), five transport craft, small planes and nine helicopters, the Uruguayan Air Force is modest, but falls into a military tradition that makes no concessions to territorial sovereignty. A country of 3.4 million people, surrounded by giants like Brazil and Argentina, has a clear doctrine: in the event of an invasion (terrestrial, extraterrestrial or otherwise), the first thing is to sound the alarm and then organize resistance in urban centers until allied forces arrive. Luckily, for over a century, Uruguay has not suffered any threats and its military activities have been aimed at defending both its neutrality and territorial integrity.

The Uruguayan Air Force reports on the operations of its helicopters and aircraft through its Twitter feed: transferring premature babies, senior citizens, the injured and accident victims from the remotest places in Uruguay to hospitals in Montevideo, as well as peacetime operations, since Uruguay is one of the main contributors (when measured by population) to UN missions.

[Translation (c) 2018 S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to Guillermo Giménez, Planeta UFO and Magdalena Martínez]