It is archived here for research purposes.

Background

This sighting is one of the best recorded in Argentina, but it is practically unknown to English-speaking ufologists as it has been published in Spanish magazines only. Expedia Argentina has traveling information if you are thinking of visiting Yacanto to learn more about this sighting.

Perhaps for that very reason it has escaped the attention of the professional debunkers, but a more likely cause is that it is an extraordinary case for which their usual hand-waving techniques simply would not work.

It is a single-witness case, but this witness is a high-ranking officer of the Argentinean Air Force (AAF), who by a fluke was able to obtain a remarkable photograph as supporting evidence of his encounter.

Even in Argentina, and perhaps due to the association of the witness with the AAF, the case was not given much publicity until 1977, when it finally was reported in UFO PRESS (ref. 1).

The Witness

The witness in this sighting is Hugo F. Niotti, then a captain of the AAF assigned to the Air Force School for Sub-officers located in the city of Cordoba. Contrary to what many would expect, his involvement in the case did not affect his military career, and seventeen years later, when finally interviewed by Roncoroni, he had risen to the high rank of vice-commodore, occupying a responsible position with the AAF.

The Event

On July 3, 1960, then Captain Niotti was driving from Yacanto toward Cordoba. The weather was inclement, typical of what one would expect for that area in the middle of winter. It was drizzling off and on, and the cloud deck was very low, perhaps 100-150 m.. The road was rather slippery, and Capt. Niotti was concentrating hard on his driving.

At approximately 4:30 PM, he was in the area of Villa General Belgrano, about 70 Km from the city of Cordoba. He had finished negotiating a wide S-curve, when he suddenly noticed a rather close and unusual object hovering near the ground to the right of the road.

Startled, he stopped the car, grabbed his camera, fortunately next to him on the seat, moved a few steps away, and proceeded to take a photo of the object, which was moving slowly. While he was engaged in winding the film to take a second shot, the object started to accelerate and disappeared into the clouds, which as stated, were very low.

The whole incident had lasted about 40 seconds and had developed into the most absolute silence. This eerie silence, coupled with the bad weather and the abruptness of the incident, gave Capt. Niotti a sense of irreality, which puzzled and confused him. In this mood, he jumped back into his car and continued his trip to Cordoba, where he proceeded to have the film processed.

Here is Capt. Niotti’s description of what he had seen. The object was conical in shape, with a height of 7-8 meters and a base diameter of 3-4 meters, with its axis almost parallel to the ground and its base facing the witness. It was at a distance of 80 to 100 meters from his location and moving very slowly toward the south, perhaps at 10 KPH, always parallel to the ground. It was rotating, also very slowly. It then accelerated very rapidly, attaining a speed of perhaps 200 KPH in 3 or 4 seconds, and disappeared into the low cloud bank. This sudden acceleration without any sound was inexplicable to the witness in view of his proximity.

The color of the object was a uniform dark gray. The surface was perfectly smooth without joints or rivets and had a definite metallic aspect.

The Photograph

As an officer of the AAF, Niotti was naturally reclutant to divulge his experience and initially told only a few fellow officers, who persuaded him to send the negatives and copies to the “Revista Nacional de Aeronautica” (RNA); the editors of this official magazine transmitted the photo to the “Servicio de Informaciones de Aeronautica” (SIA), a technical service available to the Air force.

The SIA gave a good bill of health to the photo, and the sighting was reported by the RNA in its issue of November, 1960. It is remarkable that never before or after have the Armed Forces made public the results of a UFO investigation.

In the years to follow, many examinations of this photo have been done except, perhaps, by the so-called debunkers, and no negative options have been voiced.

There are two interesting details in the photo which must be emphasized. When Capt. Niotti saw the object, his perception was of a uniform color; thus, he was surprised –after developing the film— that in the photographic image the base of the cone is a dull black, without any gradation of color in spite of being oriented toward the sun, which was hidden by the clouds. The rest of the cone appears much lighter, to the point that it is sometimes difficult to obtain copies showing it clearly, due to the high contrast between the base and the sky background. The edges of the base, in the original negative, appear sharp and well-defined, even more defined that other elements appearing in the photograph. It seems as if the base of the cone were a total sink of radiation, reflecting no light.

The copy of the photo presented in this report is from a second-generation negative, and its quality does not compare with the prints made from the original negative.

The other anomalous detail in the photo is the presence of a horse whose head is turned around, its attention apparently drawn by the object. As anyone familiar with a rural environment knows, horses kept in pastures near roads become totally indifferent to traffic and will not interrupt their grazing for the presence of a car. Nevertheless, the horse seems to be looking directly at the object, placed halfway between him and the road.

The existence of the horse is fortunate, as it has allowed some estimates of sizes and distances. The Argentinean investigators have performed some photogrammetry using the original negative, and report that the horse is about 80 meters from the road, which places the object at no more than 50 meters from Capt. Niotti. No wonder he was surprised by the absolute silence!.

On the basis of these estimates, the dimensions of the cone were 7 m. in height and 6 m. in diameter, and it was 17 meters above the ground, in good agreement with the numbers indicated by Capt. Niotti.

But the most interesting detail, which I have reserved for the end, is that Capt. Niotti was extremely surprised when he inspected the copies of the photo and saw the horse, as he had not noticed its presence during the incident. This is a clear indication of his concentration while taking the photo, and his disorientation after the sudden departure of the object when he just jumped back into his car and continued his trip.

Comments by the Author

A case with a single witness usually is not even considered for incorporation into UNICAT, but in this instance we have two circumstances that allow an exception to the rule.

First, we have a competent witness, trained by his profession to observe details, who did not lose his presence of mind when confronted with the unknown. On the contrary, he reacted promptly, snatching his camera and jumping out of his car to obtain a unique graphic document.

And second, the photograph by itself lends enough credibility to the case to make it deserve serious consideration. Not only has the photo repeatedly been shown to be genuine, but it is inconceivable that the Air Force officer would compromise his career with a fabrication that would bring him nothing but problems and discredit. For those who know Vice-commodore Niotti, this option is unthinkable.

From the UNICAT viewpoint, the case also offers some interesting characteristics which confirm its value. Among the many parameters searched for when studying the case, there are two that are considered as particularly significant because of their high statistical incidence. Both of them apply to this sighting:

DR: driving a vehicle LR: lonely road or place

The first of these parameters appears in the UNICAT data base with a frequency of 33.8%, while LR shows a frequency of 37.9%, both of them being included within the ten most frequent parameters.

A third parameter that is not so frequent, but that seems to occur in significant cases, is also found for this incident. It is the RC parameter, i.e., “rounding a curve”. It indicates that the witness suddenly notices the phenomenon when coming out of a curve in the road. REFERENCES:

1. Roncoroni, G.; FOTO DE ONVI AVALADA POR LA FUERZA AEREA ARGENTINA, in UFO PRESS #3, April 1977.

© 2005ufomiami@bellsouth.net

The post Yacanto, Cordoba, Argentina | July 3, 1960 first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post Yacanto, Cordoba, Argentina | July 3, 1960 appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

By Andrea Pérez Simondini

Thanks to our friend Marcelo Fasano we have learned of new cattle mutilation events in the locality of Reconquista, Santa Fe.

The story was covered by local station Radio Amanecer and is very interesting. It states that the animal’s owner found the animal in a state of nevers and trembling on Friday the 15th, and the found it dead with these injuries on Monday the 18th.

Two new cases occurred during this instance: one of them in Villa Adela, in the Villa Ocampo district, at the farm of Osvaldo Marega; another occurred at Km.20, jurisdiction of Tartagal, in a field owned by the Miranda family. In each of these, the are not only many similarities to be found, but also with other events that have occurred in different parts of this northern Santa Fe community in recent months.

[Translation (c) 2014, S. Corrales, IHU with thanks to G. Giménez, Planeta UFO]

The post Cattle Mutilation in Santa Fe, Argentina first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post Cattle Mutilation in Santa Fe, Argentina appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.

Witnesses in the area described the object as having glowing white light and apparently suspended halfway above the center, engaging in a swinging motion and shooting off beams of light against the ground.

Local residents, who saw its maneuvers clearly from their balconies and the way it fired off the beams, saw the object as early as 23:30. A second object, yellow in color, was seen later on, moving slowly over the city. The first object was seen again around 1:00 a.m. on January 31st.

The second object caused a commotion due to its low altitude, low enough to cause cars to stop moving. Eyewitness accounts suggest that the traffic lights appeared frozen on “red” and cellphones employed to photograph or record the object were left with grey screens and drained batteries.

All accounts agree that the object was nothing known to the witnesses, exemplified by the recording released a few days ago by a young Rosario resident taken in 2007, and which caused such public commotion.

Given the number of reports, the Vision Ovni team looked into the case, as it did with the recording from 2007, and through one of its researchers, Elias Kolev, contacted several witnesses to establish parameters regarding what was observed.

This case opens the possibility of obtaining specific evidence, since according to those who saw the objects, there is relevant information such as the interference with the traffic lights. In a conversation with expert Salvatore Carta, there is physical and mechanical action involved in the operation of these traffic control signals.

According to Kolev’s initial consultations with the Dirección de Control de Transito (traffic control office), when traffic lights are faced with a power shortage, they enter an “intermittent” (blinking) phase. A specialist from this state agency will be interviewed on Monday to secure details on the specific operating mechanism of these devices.

Moreover, cellphones were left blank and drained of power. This did not occur in all cases, only in some – a situation that requires specific study to ascertain these failures.

This case has acquired special importance for Visión Ovni and everything suggests the existence of elements of major investigative value in the region. We hope to provide you with the results of this research.

(Translation (c) 2009, S. Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Silvia Perez Simondini, Elias Kolev, Salvatore Carta and the members of Vision Ovni)

The post UFO shoots beam over Alto Rosario, Argentina first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

The post UFO shoots beam over Alto Rosario, Argentina appeared first on The Black Vault Case Files.