Incident · 18 June 1979 · Treviso Sant'Angelo air base, Italy
Treviso G-91R interception and photographs (Italy, 1979)
Also known as Cecconi case, caso Cecconi, Treviso 1979
On 18 June 1979, an Italian Air Force reconnaissance pilot was directed onto an unknown target over Treviso and photographed it with his aircraft's cameras. The Air Force's own summary table confirms only the minimum: Air Force personnel reported a black, cylindrical object at about 3,000 metres that morning, and the event remains catalogued as unidentified.
The pilot, Maresciallo Giancarlo Cecconi, was named by the Treviso press in 1984 and later gave his account to investigators of CISU, the Italian Centre for UFO Studies. In 1984 the Defence Ministry reportedly told a researcher that its photo-interpreters had identified a balloon made of black plastic bags. Yet the Air Force's 1986 extract and its current archive both list the case as unidentified, and in 1994 the Air Force said it no longer held the photographs. The ministry letter is known only from CISU's reproduction, so both conclusions are kept here side by side.
Sources: Aeronautica Militare, Archivio OVNI 1972–1990, p. 106; Marco Orlandi, "Caso Cecconi: visto, intercettato, fotografato", UFO – Rivista di informazione ufologica (CISU) n. 17, February 1996
Facts and claims
- documented The Italian Air Force archive records that Air Force personnel reported a cylindrical black object at about 3,000 m over Treviso on the morning of 18 June 1979, and that the event was catalogued as O.V.N.I. Source: Italian Air Force OVNI archive, 1972–1990 (summary table of 208 reports)
- claimed In interviews with CISU investigators in September 1994, Maresciallo pilota Giancarlo Cecconi of the 14° Gruppo, 2° Stormo said that while returning to Treviso Sant'Angelo in a G-91R reconnaissance aircraft, the Istrana radar centre, which had the intruder on its screens, directed him to intercept it. He said he photographed it with the onboard cameras, about eighty frames, and described it as "una cisterna di almeno otto metri" hanging motionless at 13,000 ft. Source: arpnet.it (archived)
- unverified According to the same account, the Defence Ministry wrote to researcher Antonio Chiumiento on 2 November 1984 that the object had been photographed with the onboard cameras and "inequivocabilmente identificato dal personale fotointerprete in un pallone di forma cilindrica, realizzato con sacchi di plastica nera". In November 1984 a schoolteacher said a hot-air balloon launched by his pupils was the cause. In 1985 Epoca published three of the photographs, supplied by the Ministry. Source: arpnet.it (archived)
- unverified The same account says the Air Force General Staff told CISU on 11 October 1994 that it held neither the aerial photographs nor any further documentation on the case. Source: arpnet.it (archived)
Connected files
Documents
Mentioned in this file
- Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militare) (Organization)