Grand Canary Island, Spain UFO
On the night of June 22, 1976, a significant unidentified luminous phenomenon swept across the Spanish Canary Islands. Media headlines announced that the following day, "thousands of people" had witnessed a "spectacular luminous phenomenon" lasting twenty minutes and visible from Tenerife, La Palma, and La Gomera. Among the most extraordinary accounts was that of a medical doctor and his taxi driver, who described observing a transparent sphere containing two tall entities. Prompted by these events, on June 25, 1976, the Commanding General of the Canaries' Air Zone appointed an "Investigative Adjutant" to delve into the case. Some of the depositions from this investigation, though technically confidential, were later disclosed by a Spanish Air Force General to journalist J.J. Benitez in October 1976. Benitez subsequently published them in his book, "Benítez, J.J., OVNIS: Documentos Oficiales del Gobierno Español," Barcelona, Plaza & Janes, 1977. The Air Force file, encompassing over 100 pages of questionnaires, evaluations, appendices, and illustrations, was officially declassified in June 1994, as part of the ongoing public release of the Spanish Air Force UFO files, which began in 1992. This extensive file contains depositions from fourteen witnesses, categorized by reliability, ranging from high credibility (pilots, aeronautical engineers, astronomers) to very unreliable (illiterate, mentally impaired, or under the influence of alcohol or drugs). The observations are classified into four levels based on the number and quality of additional witnesses, radar evidence, and other factors. The Investigative Adjutant's final report reconstructed the sequence of events, with the first observation made at 21:27 hrs. on June 22, 1976, by the crew of the Spanish Navy corvette Atrevida, located near Punta Lantailla on the coast of Fuerteventura Island. Following this, at 21:30 hrs., a very similar phenomenon was observed by many people on the Grand Canary Island. The Investigative Adjutant considered various explanations, including aircraft, missile tests, auroras, and meteor falls, but each was dismissed in turn. The report also ruled out weather balloons and meteorological phenomena, ultimately concluding that the phenomenon's nature was "totally unknown." However, the Investigative Adjutant had reservations about accepting the reality of the Close Encounter of the Third Kind (CE-III) described by some witnesses. He believed that their accounts were based on what they "believed" they had seen, influenced by each other's experiences. Despite these reservations, the Investigative Adjutant's final conclusion was that the phenomenon observed in the Canary Islands on the night of June 22, 1976, was indeed an "Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon." It is worth noting that this incident was one of several UFO reports investigated officially in the Canary Islands, indicating a recurring presence of unidentified phenomena in the region.