The Canary Islands UFO Sighting of 1976: Part 2
Both civilian and military witnesses spotted the Close Encounter of the First Kind account regarding the Canary Islands UFO sighting. In this article, we will explore some of the reports that came from residents, as well as details pertaining to the investigation that followed.
The first reports of the unidentified object that civilians are attached to deal with the 9:30pm local time, which hailed from the Grand Canary area. Residents from La Palmas, La Gomera, and Tenerife (all islands) also placed reports regarding the incident. One of the most controversial and noted of the reports deals with a doctor named Francisco Padron Leon.
When scanning the testimony that the Spanish Air Force gathered, Leon was traveling in a taxi from his residence in Guia to a patient’s home in Las Rosas, Grand Canary. He claims that he came across a glowing blue sphere that seemed to hover close to the ground, directly in front of the taxi. As he went on to describe the sphere, he stated that it possessed a radius the measured about 30 metes. He also made a claim that it was completely see-through and he could see two figures inside working at what he believed to be a console of controls.
According to the doctor, the occupants were about 2 ½ to 3 meters tall and wore red clothing. After some time, the sphere was then reported to have grown larger and then rose into the air before taking off towards Tenerife. Leon was not the only person to catch sight of the sphere , the taxi driver also saw the object, as well as a handful of residents from Las Rosas.
The Investigation
The Spanish Air Force investigated the incident that took place on the Canary Islands and came up with an assortment of possible reasons and scenarios. Some believed it was an aircraft that witnesses caught sight of, while others believed a missile test caused such a display. The possibility of a meteorological balloon came to light, while others focused on natural means as an explanation. Reports stated that the UFO sighting may have been something that naturally takes place in the world, such as an aurora or some sort of weather pattern. Meteor activity was also a theory that some stood by.
As the reports were filed and categorized, the range of details made it hard for officials to conclusively come to an explanation that would fully clarify what took place over the islands. Witness testimonies were erratic and quite strange to someone who doesn’t believe in such things. The investigating officer was bombarded with descriptions that boggled the mind.
Ruling out any possibilities was a difficult task to accomplish. Many of the reports were quite unusual, to say the least. Since trained and respected military personnel were among some of the witnesses, the angle of a hoax became less and less a concern. When scanning the official reports, the object is listed as “unidentified” and overall; the event is being left as an “unexplained” incident.
In Part 3, additional details pertaining to Leon’s account are mentioned, as well as the concluding opinion of the Anomaly Foundation.