Source: Café Ufológico Rosario and Planeta UFO
Date: 05.01.2020
An Interview with Capt. Daniel Perissé Regarding UFOs in the Antarctic
July 3, 1965 marks the sighting of an unidentified flying object - also seen from Chilean and British facilities. Captain Daniel Perissé discusses the event in detail.
1st Interviewer: We are in the city of Buenos Aires at the home of Captain Daniel Perissé, one of the main eyewitnesses to UFO events in the Antarctic.
2nd Interviewer: A case occurred in Argentina in 1965 that had worldwide significance. Captain Perissé, what was your involvement in the events of July 3, 1965?
Perissé: Well, throughout that year, I was the commander of the Decepción Naval Facility on the island of Decepción, in the Antarctic. I held the rank of frigate lieutenant, and had a crew of 14 men under my command. On the evening of July 3rd, we had a sighting event that started with an observation made by [a crewman] in charge of keeping meteorological records. Then, uh, he went out to the weather station, saw the unusual phenomenon, came back inside and said to me: "There's something unusual going on. You should come and see." I went out - several of us went out - and practically the entire crew, except for one who was manning the radio - plus three members of a Chilean base on the same island, and who were [at our base] for medical reasons - witnessed the maneuvers of this unknown phenomenon.
2nd Interviewer: And what were the characteristics of this unusual phenomenon you witnessed?
Perissé: Specifically, we saw a light. The fact is that the sighting took place at 19:40 hours. Given that nightfall begins at around three in the afternoon in those parts - by which I mean, it's pitch black by three. Four and half hours later, if you will, it's even darker. It was a nocturnal light, and the sun was well behind the horizon. And due to the tension and the location on the horizon, and other elements that can be added to this conversation, allowed us to classify this event in the realm of unknown phenomena. We couldn't associate the light with a satellite which passed by at a very specific time elsewhere on the horizon; we couldn't say it was an airplane on account of its maneuvers; we couldn't say it was an astronomical phenomenon, say a very bright star, a meteorite...
2nd Interviewer: You had knowledge of the sky on account of the duties you were carrying out there, sufficient to avoid such confusion...
Perissé: Yes, in fact, we had two meteorologists who observed the phenomenon, and who had the task of making observation every three hours.
2nd Interviewer: Perissé, this case you're telling us about, was the only one, or did others occur previously?
Perissé: Well, there are precedents to this. There were several cases during the months of June, July and August, if we associate these cases on Decepción Island with the Laurie Island incident in the South Orkneys. Regarding the Decepción cases, the first of them took place on the seventh of June. It was a sighting made by one of the two weather officers at the base, and it took place at eight at night, being one of the three-hourly observations, that is to say, the observations that these people had to make every three hours. The second case, briefly summarized, involved the same person who had made the observations hours earlier, at two in the morning. What he saw had characteristics similar to the previous one...
1st Interviewer: Was a single object always visible, or were there two?
Perissé: It was always a sighting of an isolated object. There was an exception to this, which is a case, precisely the one in late August of that year, which took place at Laurie Island in the Orkneys, and four objects were reported. This is a case which can be summarized.
1st Interviewer: Very good. The bases at this location, belonging to other countries, also have records about this situation?
Perissé: Well, there's a Chilean base, which is the [name], which like the Argentinean one, and the British one I'll be making reference to, had been deactivated because the volcano erupted. This island is, in fact, a volcanic cone whose caldera has been flooded by the sea. Sightings were made at the Chilean base and the British one as well.
2nd Interviewer: Did this sighting prompt the Argentinean government or the navy to issue an official statement is this regard?
Perissé: Yes. Two statements were issued, essentially consisting in a rebroadcasting of the information I was providing from the Antarctic, confirming these facts, in a way, and the eyewitness information provided by other members of the base. But this had to do exclusively with the July 3rd sighting, not in regard to the earlier cases which became known to the public.
1st Interviewer: Were photographs ever secured?
Perissé: On one hand, the wind was blowing at around 80 kilometers per hour; we set up a camera on a tripod, but it wouldn't keep still...
2nd Interviewer: So it was impossible to take...
Perissé: ...we tried taking a photo from within. There was glass, and double glazing, that hindered the taking of photos. Moreover there was a lot of surface wind, kicking dusty snow that made taking the picture even more of a challenge. Lastly, we were using 21 DIN film, that is to say 100 ASA, which is hardly the sensitivity for taking nocturnal photos.
[A pointer picks out a spot on a map of the Antarctic]
Perissé: The Argentinean base is here. This is Primero de Mayo Bay. And this you can see here [pointer indicates another geological feature] is called Bahia Inutil, a name probably owing to the fact that it's an enclosed bay which is practically unusable for navigation. Chile's Pedro Serra base was located in Caleta Pendulo, which is in the place I'm pointing at [moves pointer] and the British base was located at Caleta Balleneros, this location. We made the July 3rd sighting from our outpost in this general direction [moves pointer], covering this arc on the horizon. The sighting had an approximate duration of one hour, and the light or UFOs final maneuver was to rise until it became lost in the sky. [Perissé moves the pointer to another location on the map]. The sighting made by the Chileans in mid-June, June 18, was made practically over their outpost. The object maneuvered over the witnesses' heads. The practically simultaneous operation with the Argentinean facility on July 3rd was made from a northern sector looking southwest, also with various kinds of movement and changes of color. The object was truly unique. The sighting made by the British the day before, July 2nd, was made as the UFO maneuvered practically overhead, with various movements.
1st Interviewer: Were magnetic anomalies reported during the sighting?
Perissé: Well, in regard to that, we lacked the proper equipment, the so-called magneto-variometers. This equipment was on Laurie Island on the [South] Orkney archipelago. The information given to me by Lieutenant Sosa, was that two meteorologists had made a sighting at 17:02 hours, precisely on the same day in July. They saw a light flying across the horizon for 15 seconds, a very brief sighting .But, uh, the technicians - highly experienced people - did not believe it could have been a meteorite. The fact is that they took readings of Earth's magnetic field with their devices. When the readings were completed after several days, they removed the tapes, examined them, and for that day, the 3rd of July, the graph showed that at 17:02 there had been a significant jump in an otherwise normal display. Such was its magnitude that it even went beyond the limits of the tape. The readings later returned to normal. This allows us to associate the presence of the UFO seen by the onlookers with that reading, establishing an apparent cause-and-effect relationship. That is to say, the UFO flew past and disturbed the local magnetic field, recorded at that time on their equipment.
2nd Interviewer: On the local level, has there been an agency devoted to the study of UFOs in Argentina?
Perissé: The Argentinean Navy, to which I belong, created a permanent UFO research commission under the command of Omar Pagani, who held the rank of frigate captain at the time. It operated from the year 1962 or 1963 until practically 1974, at which time Pagani retired from the Navy. I understand that the Air Force carried out - and still carries out - research in this field.
1st Interviewer: Is there currently any ongoing research by an official body?
Perissé: I suppose the only one belongs to the Air Force, and I am not aware of any other agency involved in this sort of research.
2nd Interviewer: Our question is why is there such secrecy around the results of the investigations being conducted?
Perissé: Well...I am a Navy officer, and I am currently devoted to this line of research. I can tell you that there is no concealment of information, at least in matters concerning the Navy. Uh, in other words, there's no aim to hide or cover up any secrets. What happens is that some cases have occurred, and they were followed by a research period under Captain Pagani's purview, and then matters were left as they were, half dead. No further research was carried out.
2nd Interviewer: Before we end, we would like to thank Captain Perissé for his time [unintelligible formalities]
[Translation © 2020 Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology, with thanks to Café Ufologico Rosario and Planeta UFO]