50 Years Ago: Puerto Rico's Flamingo Terrace Sightings
By Noel E. Rigau, CEOVNI (1976)
January 3, 1974: One of the most important cases in the annals of Puerto Rican ufology occurred shortly before 8 pm on this date. It involved children, adults and elderly residents of the Flamingo Terrace urbanization in Bayamón. Our investigation included interviews with 10 different families, amongst which were interviewed three children ages 7 to 10, 6 adults, and one senior citizen. Thus, eyewitness impressions and descriptions of all ages were collected.
At the time in question, Mrs. Lizzy Rodríguez de Maisonet was outside her home when she suddenly became aware of a round object. "It was flat in its lower section, with a protuberance on the upper, resembling an inverted soup dish. Upon seeing the UFO, she called her husband, a former commercial airline pilot, and her neighbor Iris Esther Rivera. They gathered together on Guillermina Street. The neighbor in turn alerted her children - Richard, 10, Raymond, 9 and Ronnie, 8 - who watched alongside the above mentioned adults.
All of these witnesses saw the object move from East to West at a speed slower than that of the aircraft commonly flying in the area as they landed or took off from the Isla Verde International Airport (today Luis Muñoz Marin airport - SC). The watched the UFO until it disappeared behind a tree-covered mountain some 300 meters distant. A brief description of the area is important at this point in view of the subsequent events that took place this evening.
Guillermina Street is the last one in the Flamingo Terrace development, adjacent to a ravine through which a small brook flows. Beyond the brook, a small hillock rises some 30 - perhaps only 20 - meters. This hillock is densely forested on its slopes all the way to the summit, where it flattens out into a small plateau. The Miguel Melendez School is located on this plateau.
After the first sighting, the witnesses returned to their respective homes, except the three Rivera children. At 8:10 pm these children saw the UFO again, from Guillermina Street. The object remained suspended in the air over the mountain in front of them, at an altitude estimated at 10-15 meters above the ground. It was thought at the time that the UFO was directly over the school. According to the children, the UFO looked "like a soup dish upside down" with "a row of brilliant lights on the lower side, which appeared to gyrate rapidly." As the object was stationary, a cylindrical and brilliant light, white in color (with a yellow tinge) came out from the object's lower center part. By this light, the children saw five apparently solid balls of a light-green hue, which descended, the first having the largest diameter. Ten seconds later, the light disappeared, closing the gap or aperture through which the orbs had come.
The children claimed seeing a square gap on the side of the object, through which a dot of blue light could be seen, "like a little light bulb", on or between a base of white light. At this point, the children yelled for their mother and other neighbors to come and watch what they were seeing.
Suddenly, "the square gap became solid like the rest of the surface" of the UFO and the craft began moving away at the same attitude toward the south. It stopped once more, and "a lot of white smoke" issued from the disc's lower section, which seemed to send up dust from the school grounds. This phenomenon lasted some 20 seconds.
At this point the UFO resumed a slow, southward movement, halting over a small house belonging to the Aqueducts and Sewers Authority. This maneuver was witnessed by Carmen Rivera Vargas, Iris Esther Rivera, Lizzy Rodríguez de Maisonet, Carmen Aida Saldaña, Antonio Pagán Saldaña -- relatives and neighbors who had gathered upon hearing the children's cries.
At all times this object moved slowly, as if it was "observing" things, and remained at an altitude of some 10 to 15 meters, and some 200-300 meters distant from the witnesses.
According to an unconfirmed report, a young boy saw an aerial object apparently over the same general area from the adjacent Sans Souci development. As of the time of this writing, it was not been possible to interview him.
[INEXPLICATA is honored to feature this report by the noted Noel Rigau. The Flamingo Terrace incident was also featured in the Ovnis Sobre Puerto Rico documentary produced by Marquina Associates in 1975].