Incident · 17 October 1966 · San Damiano air base, Piacenza, Italy
San Damiano air base F-84 chases (Piacenza, Italy, 1966)
Also known as San Damiano 1966, Stella di San Damiano, Golinelli case, caso Golinelli
On an October afternoon in 1966, dated by the researchers who recorded the witnesses to the 17th, pilots of the Italian Air Force's 50° Stormo at San Damiano, near Piacenza, saw what looked like a star shining in the daytime sky. Two F-84 pilots climbed towards it. Dante Golinelli, returning early from a low-level exercise, says he reached about 33–34,000 ft and saw a large, bright, metallic isosceles triangle hanging motionless far above him, which he put at 50–60,000 ft. The air-defence radar would not scramble F-104 interceptors to that height. A second pilot on a test flight went higher, and the object stayed for hours before drifting east.
The tower controller that day, Paolo Gianassi, remembers the chase differently: the young pilot he heard on the radio, Sottotenente Vittorino Bocca, said the bright, silvery object drew away each time he closed in, until his F-84 reached its ceiling, and Gianassi puts the whole episode at ten to fifteen minutes. Neither man says the object was tracked on radar. Both accounts were given more than fifty years later to Alberto Negri of the Piacenza association Spazio Tesla, and they are the only sources the archive has: no Air Force record has been found (the Air Force's published UFO tables begin in 1972). Nor has the contemporary article, which Gianassi places in the Gazzetta di Parma and Spazio Tesla in the weekly Tribuna Illustrata. Text searches of l'Unità's national edition for 18–22 October 1966 and of La Stampa's archive for 17 October–30 November 1966 found no report of it.
The only explanation on record came from the pilots' command, which, Golinelli says, told them it had been a balloon and ordered them not to talk. Golinelli rejects this, since the object stayed still for hours before moving off. A high-altitude balloon has not been ruled out by any investigation, so the case stays open.
Sources: Spazio Tesla interview with Dante Golinelli (recorded 29 June 2018) · testimony of Col. Paolo Gianassi to Alberto Negri (Spazio Tesla, 2022) · searches of the l'Unità and La Stampa archives
Facts and claims
- claimed Spazio Tesla, which recorded the testimony of the San Damiano tower controller, dates the event to 17 October 1966 over the military airfield of San Damiano, Piacenza. Source: youtube.com (archived)
- claimed Fighter pilot Dante Golinelli says that before a low-level training sortie the pilots of his formation had noticed a star shining in the afternoon sky over Piacenza; he broke off the mission with a fuel-transfer fault and headed home at about 20,000 ft. — Dante Golinelli Source: Dante Golinelli on the San Damiano object of October 1966 (Spazio Tesla interview, 2018) at 5:50
- claimed Over Piacenza, Golinelli says, the "star" was in the same place but much larger: "Da terra si vedeva una stella, un punto luminoso"; from 20,000 ft it was an isosceles triangle of metal that "brillava come fosse una lastra di acciaio". (The archive's translation: "From the ground you saw a star, a point of light"; "it shone like a sheet of steel.") — Dante Golinelli Source: Dante Golinelli on the San Damiano object of October 1966 (Spazio Tesla interview, 2018) at 6:40
- claimed Golinelli says he climbed his F-84 to about 33–34,000 ft, the triangle growing larger and slightly tilted, before fuel forced him to dive back to base. — Dante Golinelli Source: Dante Golinelli on the San Damiano object of October 1966 (Spazio Tesla interview, 2018) at 7:14
- claimed He estimated the object at 50–60,000 ft and says the Ferrara air-defence radar ("Pioppo") declined his request to scramble F-104s because the crews "non avevano la tuta spaziale". (The archive's translation: "didn't have pressure suits.") — Dante Golinelli Source: Dante Golinelli on the San Damiano object of October 1966 (Spazio Tesla interview, 2018) at 8:36
- claimed Golinelli says his three companions saw it on their return, and that a second pilot on an aircraft test flight climbed higher than he had and reported the same bright metallic triangle at about 50–60,000 ft. — Dante Golinelli Source: Dante Golinelli on the San Damiano object of October 1966 (Spazio Tesla interview, 2018) at 10:47
- claimed One of the other pilots thought he had seen a dome at the centre, Golinelli says; he himself did not. — Dante Golinelli Source: Dante Golinelli on the San Damiano object of October 1966 (Spazio Tesla interview, 2018) at 11:36
- claimed Golinelli on its size: "Minimo, minimo, minimo, 20 o 30 metri." (The archive's translation: "At the very, very least, 20 or 30 metres.") — Dante Golinelli Source: Dante Golinelli on the San Damiano object of October 1966 (Spazio Tesla interview, 2018) at 12:20
- claimed Golinelli says the object stayed still for hours, then drifted slowly east towards Bologna and disappeared. — Dante Golinelli Source: Dante Golinelli on the San Damiano object of October 1966 (Spazio Tesla interview, 2018) at 14:16
- claimed The tower controller on duty, Paolo Gianassi, says he heard Sottotenente Vittorino Bocca, alone in an F-84 on an engine test flight south of the airfield, report a bright, silvery object and go to look. — Paolo Gianassi Source: Paolo Gianassi, tower controller at San Damiano on 17 October 1966 (Spazio Tesla, 2022) at 2:21
- claimed Gianassi recalls Bocca's commentary on the radio, "adesso mi avvicino, si allontana, mi avvicino, si allontana", until the F-84 reached its ceiling and Bocca lost sight of it; he puts the episode at ten minutes to a quarter of an hour. (The archive's translation: "now I'm getting closer, it moves away, I'm getting closer, it moves away.") — Paolo Gianassi Source: Paolo Gianassi, tower controller at San Damiano on 17 October 1966 (Spazio Tesla, 2022) at 3:34
- claimed Gianassi says the tower had only radio and no instruments that could detect the object, and that he does not know whether the radar controller saw anything. — Paolo Gianassi Source: Paolo Gianassi, tower controller at San Damiano on 17 October 1966 (Spazio Tesla, 2022) at 5:16
- claimed Gianassi recalls an article in the Gazzetta di Parma a few days later, and says Piacenza's Libertà published nothing; the narrator of Golinelli's interview names the weekly Tribuna Illustrata instead. Neither article has been found for this file. — Paolo Gianassi Source: Paolo Gianassi, tower controller at San Damiano on 17 October 1966 (Spazio Tesla, 2022) at 6:10
- claimed Golinelli says the command ordered the pilots not to discuss it and, after the story reached the press, told them it had been a balloon: "Ci hanno detto che era un pallone". He rejects that: "per me non era un pallone." (The archive's translation: "They told us it was a balloon"; "to me it was not a balloon.") — Dante Golinelli Source: Dante Golinelli on the San Damiano object of October 1966 (Spazio Tesla interview, 2018) at 12:42
Connected files
People
- Dante Golinelli (witnesses) — Chased the object in an F-84 to about 33–34,000 ft
- Paolo Gianassi (witnesses) — Controller on duty in the San Damiano tower; followed Sottotenente Bocca's chase on the radio
Videos
- Dante Golinelli on the San Damiano object of October 1966 (Spazio Tesla interview, 2018) (subject of)
- Paolo Gianassi, tower controller at San Damiano on 17 October 1966 (Spazio Tesla, 2022) (subject of)