Incident · 16 October 1978 – 31 December 1978 · Central Adriatic coast (San Benedetto del Tronto to Pescara), Italy
The 1978 Italian sighting wave: Adriatic fishermen, Coast Guard and Carabinieri reports (October–December 1978)
Also known as Italian wave 1978, Adriatic wave 1978, ondata 1978
In the second half of October 1978 fishermen of San Benedetto del Tronto, on the central Adriatic coast, began reporting strange things at sea: columns of water, then luminous discs at night and confused radar. On 9 November a Coast Guard patrol boat off Silvi Marina reported a light red, rocket-like object rising from the sea for about four seconds, with nothing on its radar. A deputy, Falco Accame, put a written question to the government on 20 November, and the Defence ministry sent minesweepers and patrol boats; the Navy patrols, by the minister's answer as transcribed by a private group, found nothing unusual and stopped on 21 November.
The reports then moved inland and spread across Italy. The Italian Air Force's own table lists 69 reports for 1978, far more than any other year, and 47 of them fall between 19 November and 31 December, most made by Carabinieri: pre-dawn lights over Sicily and Calabria on 11 December, eight reports on 14 December from Apulia to the Marche. They came from the whole country, Sicily most of all, so "Adriatic wave" fits only its beginning. Every entry is catalogued O.V.N.I., which records that the data in the archive did not identify the object, not what it was. The Air Force says that after this wave the Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti, made it the body that collects and checks OVNI reports.
No official explanation of the wave as a whole is on file. The harbour-masters said they had detected nothing beyond what the fishermen described, and one put the radar trouble down to more powerful land stations.
Sources: Aeronautica Militare, Archivio OVNI 1972–1990 (pp. 51–97) and its region-by-year table · Camera dei Deputati, sitting of 20 November 1978 and the record of question 4-06344 · l'Unità, 15 November and 14 December 1978 · the CUN's transcription of the Defence minister's answer
Facts and claims
- claimed From 16 to 26 October 1978 fishermen of San Benedetto del Tronto reported strange phenomena at sea. The local harbour-master (Capitaneria di porto), De Martino, told l'Unità that the reports came in two phases: first columns of water about thirty metres high off the coast, then, at night, luminous discs seen from fishing boats together with a “confusione” of on-board instruments and radar. He said he had learnt much of it from the newspapers and did not pronounce on whether the phenomena were real. Source: archivio.unita.news (archived)
- claimed The Pescara harbour-master's signal on the sighting of 9 November 1978 by Coast Guard patrol boat CP 2018, off Silvi Marina, as quoted by l'Unità: “un oggetto assimilabile ad un razzo, a circa 800 metri a dritta della nave, di colore rosso chiaro intenso”, lit for about four seconds, rising from sea level at 45 degrees for about 300 m; “Il radar non ha rilevato alcunchè sul proprio schermo”. A later search by CP 2018 found no vessel. Source: archivio.unita.news (archived)
- documented On 20 November 1978 Falco Accame (PSI), a member of the Chamber of Deputies, tabled written question 4-06344 to the Prime Minister on the state of alarm among the people of Abruzzo and Marche over “fenomeni non scientificamente spiegabili”, reported by the press and seen also by a Navy patrol boat, asking what would be done to establish their nature and reassure the population. Source: legislature.camera.it (archived)
- documented The Chamber's record of question 4-06344 shows that Defence Minister Attilio Ruffini answered it on 23 January 1979, the answer being printed with the record of the sitting of 29 January 1979. On 31 January 1979 Accame tabled a second question (3-03590) on information about UFOs held by the Ministry of Defence and on a thorough inquiry, also with other European countries. Source: aic.camera.it (archived)
- claimed According to the transcription published by the Centro Ufologico Nazionale (we have not obtained the printed answer itself), Ruffini replied that the Defence ministry had sent minesweepers and patrol boats after fishermen between San Benedetto del Tronto and Pedaso became alarmed, that the Navy then flew a surveillance service of 20 missions totalling 230 hours at sea, and that “Nulla di inconsueto è stato rilevato nel corso delle suddette operazioni”; the operations ended on 21 November 1978. Source: centroufologiconazionale.net (archived)
- claimed Both the Pescara and the San Benedetto harbour-masters stated that they had detected nothing beyond what the fishermen said they had seen; De Martino put the confused radar readings down to the magnetic field of more powerful land stations. Source: archivio.unita.news (archived)
- claimed By mid-December the reports had spread inland and across the south. l'Unità wrote on 14 December 1978 that reports of unidentified flying objects were multiplying by the day, from school classes, motorists, police officers, Carabinieri and farmers, above all in Abruzzo but also in Campania, Apulia and Sicily, mostly of luminous globes crossing the sky. Source: archivio.unita.news (archived)
- documented The Italian Air Force's archive table lists 69 reports for 1978, against 0 to 32 in every other year from 1972 to 1990; Sicily (13), Abruzzo (8) and Apulia (7) account for the most. Source: aeronautica.difesa.it (archived)
- documented The 47 entries of the Air Force table dated 19 November to 31 December 1978 (entries 23–69, pp. 51–97) were reported by Carabinieri personnel in 28 cases, by the State Police in 3 and by private citizens in 18 (two jointly). They run from Sardinia and Sicily to Liguria and Piedmont, not only the Adriatic coast. Eight were made on 14 December alone, among them Pescara (10:00, a white dome-shaped object, reported by Carabinieri). Every one ends with the same verdict: catalogued as O.V.N.I. on the basis of the data in the archive. Source: Italian Air Force OVNI archive, 1972–1990 (summary table of 208 reports)
- documented Entries 30–34 of 1978 (pp. 58–62): on 11 December 1978, between about 03:00 and 06:00, Carabinieri at S. Erasmo and Termini Imerese (Palermo), Pianecrati and Donnici (Cosenza) and Messina each reported a white or yellow light, most described as circular, four of them moving from north to south. Source: Italian Air Force OVNI archive, 1972–1990 (summary table of 208 reports)
- documented The Air Force's OVNI page states: “l’allora Presidente del Consiglio Giulio Andreotti designò l’Aeronautica Militare quale Organismo Istituzionale deputato a raccogliere, verificare e monitorizzare le segnalazioni inerenti gli OVNI”, following the wave of 1978. Source: aeronautica.difesa.it (archived)
Connected files
Documents
- Italian Air Force OVNI archive, 1972–1990 (summary table of 208 reports) (documented in) — Entries 23 to 69 of 1978 (pp. 51–97): the 47 reports from 19 November to 31 December 1978, 28 of them made by Carabinieri
Organizations
- Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militare) (led to) — The Air Force says that after the 1978 wave the then Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti, designated it to collect and check OVNI reports
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