THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP ENCOUNTER REPORT

1975: Cilamaya, Indonesia UFO Photo | Arjuna Oil Field Case Archive

Relaxing after lunch on the Quarters Platform of ARCO Indonesia’s Arjuna offshore oil field, 83 km off the coast of Cilamaya, engineer Tony Hartono noticed a black speck racing in from the horizon. It grew into a dark red, yellowish-tinged oval, roughly the angular size of a full moon, humming low like a spinning top as it approached — then, about 10 km out, cut a sharp boomerang turn directly over the oil tanker Arco Arjuna, veered off, and shot straight up out of sight. The whole thing lasted about a minute. Hartono, with one exposure left on his roll, got the shot.

That photograph went on to become the cover image of Air Marshal Jacob Salatun’s landmark 1982 UFO book — the same source behind this archive’s 1959 Alor Islands entry — and one of the most reproduced Indonesian UFO images in the world. But the original record for this page had the date wrong by more than a year and the location garbled beyond recognition. This entry corrects both and restores a great deal of detail that had gone missing.

Date: September 22, 1975 — corrected from “November 11, 1976.” See Researcher’s Notes.

Sighting Time: Approximately 3:00 PM WIB per the original Indonesian-language sourcing (some English-language secondary sources give approximately 2:00 PM); see Researcher’s Notes

Day/Night: Day

Location: ARCO Arjuna offshore oil field, approximately 83 km off the coast of Cilamaya, Karawang, West Java, Indonesia — corrected from “South Herwang” / bare “Indonesia.” See Researcher’s Notes.

Urban or Rural: Rural (offshore industrial platform)

Hynek Classification: DD (Daylight Disc) — confirmed appropriate; this was a live, real-time witnessed sighting, watched and photographed as it occurred, not a photo discovered only afterward

Duration: Approximately 1 minute, from first appearance to disappearance

No. of Object(s): 1

Description of the Object(s): First seen as a fast-approaching black speck; resolved into an oval, dark red object with a yellowish tint, emitting a low-frequency humming sound compared to a spinning top; followed a boomerang-shaped path, approaching from the left, turning sharply near the rig directly above the tanker Arco Arjuna, veering right, then ascending vertically before disappearing

Shape of Object(s): Oval

Size of Object(s): Estimated at approximately 71.5 meters wide; appeared roughly the angular size of a full moon (about 0.52°) at its closest approach

Color of Object(s): Dark red with a yellowish tint (Bret’s original “yellowish” is accurate but incomplete)

Distance to Object(s): Approximately 10 km at the point of its sharp turn near the rig

Height & Speed: Estimated speed of approximately 8,400 km/h (supersonic), reportedly with no accompanying sonic boom or jet engine noise

Number of Witnesses: 1 (Tony Hartono, directly); a colleague, Dr. Ted Telsch, a physicist with Flour Ocean Co., Houston, Texas, reportedly witnessed a similarly shaped object about a week later — a separate, related sighting, not joint corroboration of this specific event

Special Features/Characteristics: Hartono had one exposure left on his camera roll and used it to photograph the object as it approached; the resulting black-and-white photograph later became the cover image of Air Marshal Jacob Salatun’s 1982 book on UFOs and was also featured in the international magazine UFO Investigator (1976); the case received renewed coverage in the Indonesian newspaper Kompas in 1992; later retrospective analysis by at least one source has suggested the object may have been a camera optical artifact or a cloud shadow, though this remains unverified

Case Status: Insufficient Data — see Researcher’s Notes for rationale

Source: Ir. Tony Hartono Rusman, ARCO Indonesia engineer; photograph later published as the cover of Jacob Salatun’s 1982 book UFO, Salah Satu Masalah Dunia Masa Kini, and covered in Kompas newspaper, October 11, 1992

Summary/Description: On September 22, 1975, ARCO Indonesia engineer Tony Hartono photographed an oval, dark red and yellow, humming object that approached his offshore oil platform near Cilamaya, Karawang, at high speed, executed a sharp boomerang turn directly above the tanker Arco Arjuna, and ascended vertically out of sight within about a minute. The resulting photograph became one of the most widely circulated Indonesian UFO images, later used as the cover of Jacob Salatun’s 1982 UFO book, though the object’s true nature remains disputed.

Related Cases: About a week after this sighting, Hartono’s colleague Dr. Ted Telsch reportedly witnessed a similarly shaped object separately. This case shares its underlying published source (Jacob Salatun’s 1982 book) with this archive’s 1959 Alor Islands entry. Not separately indexed in this archive.

Detailed Report

Tony Hartono, an engineer with ARCO Indonesia, was relaxing after lunch on the Quarters Platform of the company’s offshore oil drilling complex in the Arjuna field, roughly 83 kilometers off the coast of Cilamaya in Karawang, West Java. He had been taking photographs to document the rig’s construction progress and had just one exposure left on his roll when his attention was drawn to a small black speck on the horizon, moving toward the rig at considerable speed.

As it closed the distance, the speck resolved into an oval object, dark red with a yellowish tint, appearing roughly the same angular size as a full moon by the time it was an estimated 10 kilometers away. Hartono described it as emitting a low-frequency humming sound, comparing it to a spinning top. At that distance, the object cut sharply to one side — approaching from the left, turning directly above the oil tanker Arco Arjuna, then veering off to the right — before climbing vertically and vanishing from sight. The entire event, from first appearance to disappearance, lasted approximately one minute. Hartono raised his camera and used his last remaining shot on the object as it passed nearest the rig.

Later analysis of the photograph and Hartono’s account produced striking estimated figures: a width of roughly 71.5 meters, and a speed of approximately 8,400 kilometers per hour — supersonic — with no sonic boom or engine noise reported alongside it. About a week later, Hartono recalled that a colleague, Dr. Ted Telsch, a physicist with Flour Ocean Co. of Houston, Texas, had separately reported seeing a similarly shaped object at a different time.

The photograph itself went on to considerable fame. It was published in the international UFO Investigator magazine in 1976 and later served as the cover image of Air Marshal (Ret.) Jacob Salatun’s 1982 book on UFOs — the same Salatun whose work underlies this archive’s account of the 1959 Alor Islands case. Salatun reportedly first learned of Hartono’s photograph while preparing for a December 1976 television appearance in Jakarta alongside American astronomer J. Allen Hynek. The case resurfaced in Indonesian media as recently as 1992, when the newspaper Kompas revisited the story. Not every retrospective has been credulous: at least one modern Indonesian retrospective account notes that later analysis has suggested the photographed object may have been nothing more than a camera optical artifact or a cloud shadow, while also acknowledging that, like the sighting itself, this explanation has never been conclusively verified either.

RESEARCHER’S NOTES

The Arjuna Field Photograph — Indonesia 1975 and a Date Off by a Year

• Date Correction: The original page lists November 11, 1976, but this is contradicted by extensive, mutually consistent Indonesian-language sourcing — including the newspaper Kompas’s own retrospective coverage — all of which date the sighting to September 22, 1975. This entry adopts September 22, 1975, treating the original date as a significant error (wrong year and wrong month/day).
• Location Correction: The original page’s location field reads only “Indonesia,” with “South Herwang” in the page title — a name that does not appear anywhere in independent coverage of this case. The consistently documented location is the ARCO Arjuna offshore oil field, approximately 83 km off the coast of Cilamaya, in Karawang, West Java. This entry adopts that corrected location.
• Substantial Missing Detail: Independent sourcing describes considerably more than Bret’s original summary conveyed — a boomerang-shaped flight path, a low-frequency humming sound compared to a spinning top, an estimated size of roughly 71.5 meters, and an estimated speed of approximately 8,400 km/h with no accompanying sonic boom — all within a roughly one-minute sighting. This entry restores that detail from cross-referenced sources.
• A Minor Time Discrepancy: English-language secondary sources give the sighting time as approximately 2:00 PM, matching Bret’s original field, while the original Indonesian-language sourcing consistently gives approximately 3:00 PM (15:00 WIB). Both are noted here rather than silently resolved.
• A Documented Skeptical Counterpoint: At least one Indonesian retrospective source states that later analysis suggested the photographed object was most likely a camera optical artifact or a cloud shadow, while also noting the case remains unverified either way. This is presented alongside the sighting account rather than adopted as a conclusion.
• Related Context: About a week after this sighting, Hartono’s colleague Dr. Ted Telsch reportedly witnessed a similarly shaped object — a separate, related sighting, not joint corroboration of the same event. The photograph itself later became the cover image of Jacob Salatun’s 1982 book on UFOs — the same source underlying this archive’s 1959 Alor Islands entry — and Salatun reportedly first learned of Hartono’s photograph while preparing for a December 1976 television appearance alongside astronomer J. Allen Hynek.

Few Indonesian UFO images have traveled as far as Tony Hartono’s single frame from the Arjuna field — a book cover, an international magazine feature, decades of newspaper retrospectives — and yet the object itself remains exactly as contested now as it was in 1975, with a serious camera-artifact hypothesis sitting alongside the sighting account and neither ever quite settled. With its date and location now corrected, it is filed as Insufficient Data: one of Indonesia’s most famous UFO photographs, still unresolved on its own terms.

“A humming sound like a spinning top.”