The Anomaly Foundation
Solves the "Manises" UFO Case
20 years of mystery are over
Original source of this mirrored page
http://www.anomalia.org/manisen.htm
On the 20th anniversary of the most infamous Spanish UFO
sighting, the
Spanish Anomaly Foundation (www.anomalia.org) has presented to
the press a detailed report written by engineer Mr. Juan A.
Fernández Peris from Valencia, which definitely closes this
emblematic aerial UFO incident, which occurred on 11/11/79 over the
Mediterranean Sea. After a scientific and painstaking investigation of
almost two decades, the 'Manises UFO' case has been solved.
On November 11th, 1979, a flight of the now
defunct TAE air company with 109 people on board made an emergency
landing in the Manises airport (Valencia) forced by the risk of a
collision with two weird red lights that were seen from the cockpit.
According to the statements by pilots, the lights were first observed
at 23:05, but then the lights appeared to come near the aircraft the
crew became very nervous. Barcelona's air transit control centre denied
that there was any other aircraft in the area, so pilot
Francisco-Javier Lerdo de Tejada decided to abort the flight and make
an emergency landing in Manises, where he arrived at 23:45. Consulted
the military radar, it did not confirm any anomalous traffic nearby.
Ground observers based on the airport reported a number of
strange-looking lights. Witnesses included the flight controllers and
airport staff personnel. Because of that, one hour later, at 00:40 of
November 12th, a Spanish Air Force Mirage aircraft was scrambled from
Los Llanos Air Force Base to find out what was going on. The combat jet
pilot observed various unknown lights that he pursued with his aircraft
over an extended period of time. Although he was unable to reach the
lights, some electromagnetic disturbing effects on radio communications
and weapon systems manifested during the flight.
The Spanish Anomaly Foundation granted its "Ricardo
Caruncho" research prize to Mr. Fernández Peris for his 200-page
analysis report on the circumstances surrounding this incident.
Investigation resolved that the original lights observed from the civil
airplane were prompted by flare-ups raised from two combustion towers
located in the major oil refinery of Escombreras, near Cartagena,
Spain. The direction of lights as well as their apparent angular size
matched exactly with the luminous flashes emitted from the chemical
industry complex. Their brightness and special features produced an
optical mistake, but the main culprit was a strong temperature
inversion developed that night, one with an exceptional visibility. All
factors together contributed decisively to the sighting distortion.
As far a the pilot was concerned, he had some important
familiy problems underway which unleashed an anxiety attack facing the
remote lights which he considered to be anomalous in nature. As
Barcelona's air transit control centre did not offer any solution, the
pilot took an obviously disproportionate decision, deviating the flight
off-route (it was scheduled Mallorca-Canary islands) and landing in the
Manises airport.
It is a noteworthy fact that during those days the Spanish
media was overflowed with UFO reports and the atmosphere was quite
favourable to believing that extraterrestrial crafts were flying our
skies. This sociological ambient took a weight on the pilot«s
reaction as well, no doubt.
The tight situation lived at the airport during the air UFO
encounter,
with much radio exchange with the pilot, moved the staff personnel to
start looking for any strange light in the sky. Afterwards those were
identified as stars and planets, but not at that precise time.
On the other hand, the Mirage aircraft manned by captain F.
Cámara returned to its base at 02:07, after and unsuccessful
pursuit of several non-defined luminous stimuli, which had not any
relationship with the lights seen from the TAE airliner. The most
amazing part of the incident, the EM interference suffered by the
military jet when flying over Valencia city, these were caused by the
electronic countermeasures adopted by US Navy helicopter's carrier
"Iwo-Jima", a US Sixth Fleet's ship sailing near the Columbretes
islands. The US Navy ship was at the highest alert due to Iran's
hostages' crisis developed at the time.
In summary, an extraordinary and unusual mixture of chance
circumstances lead to an exaggeration and distortion of events,
otherwise trivial.
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