By Scott Corrales
Inexplicata-The Journal of Hispanic UFOlogy
UFO Digest Latin America Correspondent
By Guillermo D. Gimenez, Contributing Editor, Inexplicata
On January 6, 1981, around 10: 45 a.m., a photojournalist named Juan Carlos Lima and a staff writer, both from the El Atlántico newspaper (Necochea desk) headed toward a residential district under construction in the vicinity of Quequén’s Irurzun Hospital for an article regarding the progress on housing erected for victims of the 1980 floods, when the great Quequén River overflowed as a result of torrential rains throughout Buenos Aires, flooding and destroying homes, bridges and sweeping away animals and an array of objects.
Having secured photos of the neighborhood and the newspaper article completed, they returned to the lab to develop the roll of film. At the lab, Lima noticed that one of his photos presented a spot. Thinking that it was debris on the film, he redeveloped it, but was startled to see that it wasn’t a spot. Rather, he had photographed a UFO without seeing it.
Analyzing the Case
The photographer, Juan Carlos Lima, took the negative to a photo laboratory with a wider range of equipment to confirm the identity of the object he’d captured, studying it under powerful magnification with a colleague. Both men were able to make out its contours, shape and the resemblance to two plates joined at their edges (or a hat shape). This is the circumstance that determined the reality of the photograph. He had indeed photographed a UFO.
The next day, “El Atlántico” published the photograph, but providing an entirely incorrect version and twisting the information.
Troubled by what was published, the photographer wired the newsroom at the TELAM news agency and on 08.01.81, Buenos Aires’s “Cronica” newspaper published the story supplied by Juan Carlos Lima under the title “UFOs Also Enjoy the Summer”. Over many long years of research, ufologists have detected that the press – on certain occasions – provide another form of dissemination that differs from the events that truly occurred in order to provide a more sensational slant to the story.
The Photo
The photo was taken with a Pentax camera, using a 21 DIN black and white roll of film. Shutter speed was set at 1/240 and an f8 stop. Most of the other photos had already been used in journalistic pursuits.
The distance between the photographer and the building under construction, visible in the photo, is approximately 70 meters (230 ft.) with the sun visible high in the sky (bear in mind that the time was nearly 11:00 a.m.) with some clouds on a full summer day.
The Witness
The witness was interviewed four (4) times throughout the length of this investigation by this author, as well as a colleague from Buenos Aires, and was perceived as an honest and sincere person. He displayed no interest in the subject, but firmly believed that he had photographed a UFO.
Juan Carlos Lima’s sincerity is further evidenced in his interest in providing the accurate version of the events upon seeing a completely false version published by “El Atlántico” in Mar del Plata (on 07.01.81), prompting him to write a news agency with the exact story of how he had come to take a picture of the object (“Crónica”, Buenos Aires, 08.01.81).
Similar Cases
Throughout worldwide photo case histories we have come across incidents similar to this one, with three mentioned by way of example:
1. April 1, 1970: Mr. Eduardo Stukert takes photos at Urca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Upon developing the roll, he notices the presence of four (4) highly luminous and cigar-shaped objects (mother ships). The photographer had not seen them.
2. April 21, 1973: Palmar de Colon, Entre Rios, Argentina. Ms. Zulema Martorelli photographs birds flying in an unusual way, startled by this incident. Upon developing the roll, the presence of a large object that had been invisible to her was revealed.
3. November 11, 1977: Near Montevideo, Uruguay. Photographer Escribana Alicia Volante de Zito captures another UFO on film that was undetected by her eyes.
Other Sightings
That very same day (06.01.81) several local residents approached the newsroom of “El Atlántico” to report on a strange tubular object, bright yellow in color, which flew over the city that afternoon.
In downtown Necochea, three other witnesses (whose information is on file) saw a UFO the size of a coin, yellow-white in color, heading west at around 21:30 hours on the 6th of January. The object made an abrupt descent to vanish from the sight of witnesses. The event lasted only a few minutes. When sources were consulted about flights on 06 January by helicopters and/or airplanes, they indicated that no flights other than those proper to the city’s air facility had taken place.
(Translation (c) 2012, S. Corrales, IHU)
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