Description:
Four Chilean scientists were left on Roberts Island in Antarctica for a month to conduct studies. They observe two metallic objects suspended in the sky performing high-speed maneuvers. The objects remain there for two days while witnesses take measurements. As the objects approached, the ambient radioactivity increased. The scientists report the sighting upon their return. The photos of the objects and the expedition logbook are seized.
Witnesses:
From left to right: Celestino Castro, Abelardo Báez, Jorge Moder and Juan Adofacci.
- Celestino Castro, Marine Biologist and professor at the University of Chile, 45 years old.
- Abelardo Báez: Laboratory assistant at the Marine Biology Station of the University of Chile (Celestino Castro's assistant in this expedition), 18 years old.
- Jorge Moder: Glaciologist and professor at the Catholic University of Chile, 31 years old.
- Juan Adofacci: Nurse Sergeant of the Chilean Navy, 35 years old.
Abelardo Báez, being the youngest of the 4, is the only living witness today. Two years ago an article was published with his testimony in which he details the case and how he experienced it, among other things:
When and how did the sighting of the objects in the air occur?
“The four of us stayed there in a shelter called Coppermine, on Roberts Island, to be able to carry out the research tasks.
Celestino Castro, who was my boss, slept very little because he was very upset by that isolation and now I understand it, because we were very far from the Navy Base, which was the Arturo Prat Base, which was very far from Roberts Island, besides, the radio with which we communicated with the Base every afternoon was damaged and we could no longer do that, so we were practically isolated. We had to stay there for a month.
Then Castro, who was always half awake, went out one morning to get some air and came back to the shelter shouting in despair, telling what he had seen. The first one to get up was the Moder, Jorge Moder, who went out to check, then Sergeant Adofacci came out; I thought they were joking.
… when no one came back, I got up and went out to see what was going on. It was indeed true. There were two zeppelins, like pencils, with that shape, which were vertically in the sky and did not move, static in the air. They had no windows, you could see violet, purple and silver color changes. And that's where this whole story begins.”
What was your feeling when you came out of the shelter and saw the objects in the sky?
“It was something impressive. There is a kind of channel that forms between the island and the mainland and seeing these objects there, parallel to each other, left me impressed. As I already had the comments of those who had risen before, I didn't feel scared, but rather I was asking myself questions as to what this was all about."
What's going on then?
“Jorge Moder went crazy, he went back inside the shelter to look for his instruments to make certain measurements, he brought an altimeter, which for me, a layman, was something spectacular. With that he measured the height of the object and according to what he describes in the document it was practically 150 meters long. Both objects were located vertically, they looked like zeppelins.
The most shocking thing was when Moder arrived with a kind of mirror, a polarized lens, and began to make signals, he tried to communicate and there was a kind of approach of these objects, as if there was a distraction of these objects and they came closer. As Moder had already measured the radioactivity emitted by the environment where these objects were, he could observe how the radioactivity changed, and when he saw that the radioactivity continued to increase Celestino Castro got very upset, he got scared, he hit him with a stick and broke the mirror to the Moder so that the objects would not continue to approach, because as he communicated the objects came a little closer. Celestino was afraid that if they kept coming closer and the radioactivity kept increasing we would all die.
We went inside the shelter, commented on this phenomenon and asked ourselves what to do now, so we decided to leave."
What did you comment or reflect on at that time?
"At the beginning we thought that it was a phenomenon typical of Antarctic nature, a territory that we did not know, as if it were something similar to the aurora borealis or another phenomenon, for example, that kind of comments we made.
But they were two zeppelins so identifiable and located in a position that had nothing to do with the coast, with the sea, with the sky, so we had all those questions. As I was saying, later we went out to measure with the instruments and when we started to worry we saw that they were still there, so we decided to go to some caves to protect ourselves, because we thought that the shelter was very vulnerable.
We went to the caves, but in the afternoon it started to get very cold so we went back to the shelter and the objects were still there in the sky. The fact is that they were there static for 36 hours.”
Did the objects make some movements?
“Of course, the curious thing is that the objects begin to make some movements at a speed that was calculated at almost forty-five thousand kilometers per hour as described by Moder, they moved in zigzag and then stopped dead in their tracks. Human beings, at that speed, inside those objects, are crushed by inertia. That meant to him that they were not beings of this planet.
Now, another important detail that I remember is that the orientation of these objects was always towards the military base of the marines, the Prat Base, which was on Greenwich Island. They would zigzag, stop and come back.
Suddenly, one day in the morning when we went out, they were gone.”
Did you experience any physical change, or any strange sensation in those moments?
“It did not produce any physical alteration, only the impression, some were more altered than others. Moder, being a very moderate, calculating scientist, who acted as a leader in the emergency, nothing happened to him, nor to me, because at my age everything was an adventure; Sergeant Adofacci didn't seem very worried either. Celestino Castro, who was my boss, on the other hand, who was a very wise old man, an extraordinary man, had a more or less serious psychic alteration, he went into a state of anguish, of panic”.
Did anyone else know about this episode at the time?
“Of course. Then comes everything else when we get to the ship to tell the story. We were received by the Comandante, Commodore we called him, and he requisitioned everything, he requisitioned the rolls of photos, because Moder and Castro had very good photographic machines. It seems that there is an official secret that handles all that information. And, in addition, we were strictly forbidden to comment on the fact.
Later, according to Jorge Moder's account, who continued investigating because he remained very concerned about the situation trying to find out what happened to all this documentation, we learned that it was sent to the United States, by the Chilean Navy, apparently.”
How much time later were you able to tell this story?
“Now that this appears on television, I was there in 55, about 66 years later this episode has just come to public light.
We were all very shocked by this, so much so that when Moder was interviewed by Channel 13, many years ago (April 1968), he agreed to this interview, but he appeared with his back turned, without showing his face. Of course, because the Commodore, the Captain who was in charge of the whole expedition in Antarctica, strictly forbade us to comment anything, otherwise we would have to assume the consequences.
"One of the scientists used to get up at night to observe meteorological phenomena, however, the night of January 8 was different from all the previous ones he had witnessed. He rushed to wake up the second scientist of the team to accompany him to observe a phenomenon occurring outside the shelter.
According to what was described, they would have observed two metal cigar-shaped devices, in a vertical position, perfectly still, reflecting the sun's rays. Both witnesses decided to wake up the two companions of the expedition, so that they could become aware of the phenomenon by themselves.
The assistant also stood up and soon all four men were observing the phenomenon. At about nine o'clock, one of the objects suddenly took a horizontal position and flew to the west. It lost its metallic tint to become ultraviolet.
Images: No images.
Conclusion: In Chile this report was received by UFO-CHILE. The Air Technical Intelligence Center of the United States sent the witnesses an extensive questionnaire to fill out, with no results. No conclusion."
by Mordrenix