Incident · 7 June 1965 – 3 July 1965 · Deception Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica
Deception Island, Antarctica: lights seen from Argentine, Chilean and British bases
Also known as Deception Island 1965, Isla Decepción 1965, Antarctic UFO 1965, Antarctica 1965 sightings
Partly explained. The University of Colorado study (Condon report) examined the Orcadas magnetograms and found the deviation well within normal daily fluctuations; a 2012 re-investigation by private researchers attributes the 3 July lights to a meteor, the Echo II satellite and Mars or bright stars. (source)
In June and July 1965 personnel at the three bases on Deception Island in the South Shetlands, the Argentine Navy detachment, Chile's Air Force base Pedro Aguirre Cerda and Britain's Base B, reported moving coloured lights in the winter night sky. The peak came on 3 July, when the Chilean base and then almost the whole Argentine detachment, with three visiting Chilean NCOs, watched a luminous object for 20 minutes to an hour, and the Argentine station on Laurie Island (Orcadas) reported a fast light and a disturbance on its magnetometers. Both governments issued official communiqués, and the story went round the world's press.
The Argentine Navy said the object was lens-shaped and solid, and its detachment commander, Lt. Daniel Perissé, said it was neither a balloon, a star nor an aircraft. The Chilean base commander, Cdr. Mario Jahn Barrera, called it "something real". According to the 2012 re-investigation, the light was too faint to show on the Chilean photographs.
The magnetic evidence did not survive examination: the Condon study found the Orcadas trace within normal daily fluctuations, and the British base commander described the British report as a joke. The La Plata Observatory pointed to the Echo II satellite at the time. A 2012 re-investigation by private researchers matched the lights to a meteor, Echo II and Mars or bright stars, an explanation not endorsed by any official body.
Sources: Argentine Navy communiqué of 6 July and bulletin no. 172 of 7 July 1965, and Chilean Air Force radiograms, as transcribed from the Buenos Aires and Santiago press in FOTOCAT Report no. 3 (2012) · AP, Boston Globe, 9 July 1965 · FBIS/ANSA report, 6 July 1965 (CIA) · U.S. Embassy Buenos Aires airgram A-208 (1965) · Condon report, Section III ch. 4
Facts and claims
- documented On 6 July 1965 the Argentine Navy Secretariat issued a communiqué, "Avistaje de objetos voladores no identificados en la Antártida Argentina": on 3 July at 19:40 the Deception naval detachment saw "un objeto volador de forma lenticular, aspecto sólido, coloración predominante roja y verde", moving generally east at about 45° elevation and an estimated 10–15 km, silent, varying its speed and at times stationary, for 15 to 20 minutes, seen by the detachment's weather observer and ten others, and photographs could be taken. It added that the Orcadas detachment saw the object the same afternoon. Source: ceticismoaberto.com (archived)
- claimed A second Navy press bulletin (no. 172, 7 July) relayed the detachment commander, Lt. Daniel Perissé, by radio: 17 people, including three Chilean NCOs from the Aguirre Cerda base, saw a bright object like a first-magnitude star, moving at varying speed, at times static, with sudden accelerations and changes of course; its characteristics "permiten afirmar que no se trataba de un globo sonda, ni una estrella, ni un avión". He said the photographs had little chance of success, and the bulletin reported that two variometers at Orcadas registered disturbances of the magnetic field at the time of the sighting. — Daniel Perissé Source: ceticismoaberto.com (archived)
- claimed On 5 July the commander of Chile's Pedro Aguirre Cerda base, Cdr. Mario Jahn Barrera of the Chilean Air Force, radioed that nine members of the base saw a white luminous body for 20 minutes crossing the island at 45° elevation during the routine weather observation on 3 July; the base had reported a similar luminous body on 18 June. Source: ceticismoaberto.com (archived)
- claimed Interviewed by radio, Jahn Barrera said it would be too much to say they had seen a science-fiction flying saucer, but "it was something real, an object that moved at amazing speed, manoeuvered quickly and gave off a blue green sheen." He said a corporal took colour pictures that could not be developed until the base was relieved. Source: ufology.patrickgross.org (archived)
- documented A U.S. government monitoring report of 6 July 1965, released by the CIA, carries the Italian agency ANSA's Buenos Aires dispatch that a group of red, green and yellow flying saucers had been seen over Deception Island for two hours by Argentine, Chilean and British bases, and also over the South Orkney Islands. Source: Antarctic flying saucers: FBIS Argentina report of 6 July 1965 (CIA)
- documented A U.S. Embassy airgram of 4 September 1965 notes a Defense intelligence report translating four messages received by the Argentine Navy Hydrographic Service about the sightings, and that the La Plata Observatory told the press it had no theory but pointed out that the sightings occurred while the Echo II satellite was orbiting over the Antarctic zone. Source: U.S. Embassy Buenos Aires airgram A-208 on a celestial body observed over Antarctica (1965)
- documented The Condon report, the University of Colorado study for the U.S. Air Force, examined microfilm magnetograms from the Orcadas Observatory for 3 July 1965: the deviation during the sighting was small, an order of magnitude below magnetic-storm deviations and "well within normal daily fluctuations". It concluded that the reports "offer little convincing evidence that an unidentified object caused a terrestrial magnetic disturbance." Source: files.ncas.org (archived)
- documented The same chapter reports that the British base commander on Deception Island, C. D. Walter, recalled that the Chileans placed their lights above the Argentine base and the Argentines above the Chilean base, that the one British report came from the base cook and was taken as rather a joke, and that no UFO observation on the island was made by scientific personnel; an Argentine Navy officer, Capt. José María Cohen, reported that the magnetic variations on the Deception Island instruments were within normal limits. Source: files.ncas.org (archived)
- claimed In 1968 the Argentine Navy's commander-in-chief, Adm. Benigno Varela, told a press conference, as reported by El Litoral of Corrientes, that the Antarctic phenomenon "hasta ahora no ha tenido explicación, lo cual no significa que necesariamente sean platos voladores". Source: ceticismoaberto.com (archived)
- claimed A 2012 re-investigation by four private researchers (Ballester Olmos, Borraz Aymerich, Janosch González and Victorio Uranga), using the Argentine Navy's sighting questionnaires, British base weather records and surviving witnesses, concluded that the three key sightings of 3 July "could have been caused, most probably, by observations of a meteor, the Echo II artificial satellite and astronomical stimuli like planet Mars or the stars Spica and Arcturus"; it attributes the 18 June Chilean sighting to Echo II as well. Source: ceticismoaberto.com (archived)
Connected files
Documents
- Antarctic flying saucers: FBIS Argentina report of 6 July 1965 (CIA) (documented in)
- U.S. Embassy Buenos Aires airgram A-208 on a celestial body observed over Antarctica (1965) (documented in)
- Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects (Condon Report, 1968) (documented in) — Roy Craig's chapter on indirect physical evidence examined the Orcadas magnetograms of 3 July 1965
People
- Daniel Perissé (witness)
Mentioned in this file
- Condon Committee (University of Colorado UFO Project) (Program)
- Central Intelligence Agency (Organization)
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