2007: 4-Hour UFO Sighting Over the Canary Islands

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THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTING REPORT

Date: September 9, 2007

Sighting Time: 1:45 pm to 6:00 pm

Day/Night: Afternoon

Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands

Urban or Rural: Rural

Hynek Classification:  DD (Daylight Disc) Metallic or whitish object was seen in the day.

Duration: 4-Hour

No. of Object(s):  5

Size of Object(s):

Distance to Object(s):

Shape of Object(s): 1. Wedge-shaped     2. Stubby-bullet shaped   3. Elongated bullet shaped    4. Curved hot dog shaped   5. Dice shaped (cube)

Color of Object(s):

Number of Witnesses:

Source:

Summary: So, for about 5 minutes I watch this silvery looking blanket twisting object circle the sky. And I watched as this “blanket” folded in upon itself. As I continued to watch, with and without my binoculars, I observed a very bright oblong-shaped light arriving from the southeast. This light intersects the “blanket” object and continues to head northwest toward the city of La Laguna. 

Full Report

We are two American ex-pats currently living on the island of Tenerife, one of 7 beautiful islands located 250 nautical miles off the coast of Morocco, North Africa. Our home is part of a private residential area located at the southern edge of the old city of San Cristobal de La Laguna. La Laguna was founded in 1496 and is today declared a World Heritage Site, a designation given by UNESCO in 1999. It is protected by all the laws governing that honor. La Laguna is located high in the mountains overlooking the sprawling capital of Tenerife, Santa Cruz. Our home overlooks a portion of this huge city.

To our west, not more than a mile and a half distant, is the eastern air approach to the airfield at Los Rodeos Airport. On March 27, 1997, two Boeing 747s, one KLM, the other a Pan American, collided on the airfield killing 583 passengers. This stands as the worst single airline accident in aviation history.

Today most passenger air traffic arrives to Tenerife using Sophia Reina Airport, located to the south of the island, nearer to the ever-expanding tourist resorts that dot the south. However, some passenger and cargo crafts continue to use the northern airport of Los Rodeos. Incoming planes that land using the eastern approach to the airport fly almost directly over our home.

Our UFO sighting of September 9, 2007

Sunday, September 9, 2007, we woke up late and eased into the noon hour. At about 12:45 pm I went outside to do trimming work in our back yard. The afternoon was very warm, totally clear and devoid of clouds. There was a very soft breeze coming in from the east.

At approximately 1:40 pm I asked my wife if she could bring me a cold glass of water and some cookies. This she did and I sat in the shade on the back porch to rest.

While sitting there I began to feel restless and gazed at the sky. I immediately saw to the east of me, perhaps no more than a half a mile away, a silvery object floating over the freeway that links La Laguna to Santa Cruz. I watched this object for about 5 minutes, trying to figure out what it was. This object was moving slowly as it described a very large circle over the area east of where we reside. When the object reached the point where I first observed it, it continued to describe another circle following its previous path. I could see that there were no strong winds that could carry an object into the sky, and with that knowledge, I went into the house and grabbed my binoculars.

When I returned to the back porch the object was still circling the neighborhood east of me. I trained my binoculars on the object and immediately could see that this object was silver in color, it reflected the intense sunlight, and looked like it was a blanket of some sort twisting and folding into itself.

At that moment I remember thinking, “Okay, this is pretty strange. What´s keeping this object in the air. There´s no wind. It shouldn´t be maintaining the same altitude. It should vary.”

So, for about 5 minutes I watch this silvery looking blanket twisting object circle the sky. And I watched as this “blanket” folded in upon itself. As I continued to watch, with and without my binoculars, I observed a very bright oblong-shaped light arriving from the southeast. This light intersects the “blanket” object and continues to head northwest toward the city of La Laguna.

I immediately uttered the most well known and time-honored epithet on our planet: “What the _______ .”

I could see that something very strange was occurring and turned to enter the house to get our video camera. As I did so, facing north, I glanced toward the sky over the mountainous area that backdrops the northern edge of the city of La Laguna. What I saw was impossible.

My attention was focused on the clear sky over the mountains. The reason I focused there was because I saw a rectangular portion of the sky assume a different quality from its surroundings. What formed in the sky was a rectangular area, a window if you will, The difference between the ambient-environment and this “window” was that the area inside of this rectangle “rippled”. I could discern very clearly the border area of this rectangle because the visual quality of the “rippling” was so distinct from the stillness of the area surrounding this rectangle.

As I watched this rectangular area, from the west came 2 bright lights, oblong in shape, and they entered into this rectangle at a ferocious speed . . . one after the other. As they entered into this rectangular area, these two objects created a sine wave-shaped trail. The same kind of sine wave one would instantly recognize on a waveform monitor.

As soon as this “waveform” was created, it dissipated. The rectangular area also ceased to express itself and the area over the mountains returned to normal. This entire event lasted no more than 5 seconds at most.

This was serious, I thought. I ran into the house to grab our video camera. My wife could tell from my frantic behavior that something was up and asked me what was happening. I told her that I was seeing some strange objects from the back and to follow me outside. This she did, and almost immediately we began to see the phenomenon that would occupy us for the next 3-1/2 hours.

From an elevated area at the north side of our house, but still part of the back yard, we observed an oblong-shaped light appear in the sky near the western edge of Santa Cruz. This light traveled in a straight line almost directly over our home. It was silent, traveled smoothly and was using the approach to Los Rodeos Airport.

For the next 15 to 20 minutes we observed these lights appearing out of the blue, heading west toward the Airport. These lights would appear every 30 seconds or so, one after the other. Their external oblong-shape never changed.

Shocked that we were witnessing an ongoing parade of anomalous objects, we moved to the front yard, in a position to watch these objects arriving and heading west.

We need to emphasize that these transiting objects were no more than 500-700 feet over us at all times. They never varied from this. We can approximate their height based upon visually watching passenger aircraft flying over our home as they prepared to land at Los Rodeos Airport. The direction that they were taking took them parallel to the landing field at that airport. In a few cases that we witnessed, these objects seem to have taken the corridor that would place them exactly over the landing field. The airport tower personnel had to be seeing these objects. It was impossible to miss.

Now, there were about a dozen other objects that we counted that came in from a southerly and northerly direction. They would all intersect with the objects heading due west and changed their course to a westerly one.

We observed these objects appearing from the east and heading west for about 2-1/2 hours. During this long period we observed each object visually by eye and with the aid of two binoculars. There was a very BIG difference between what we were seeing with our eyes, and what we were offered through the binoculars. We will expand on this momentarily.

Now comes a part that is difficult to disclose because it is so unacceptable to many. We decided to verbally and mentally ask these objects to stop and hover so that we could observe them better. Most of the objects ignored this request. But 5 of these objects did respond. Four of these objects stopped over the airport area, reversed their direction and headed directly to our home. They stopped and hovered a few blocks from our home. The fifth object directly over our home, in fact directly over my wife who was then asking them to do exactly that. I could see the object directly over her at about 500 feet. An oblong-shaped light. Silent. Obliging.

It remained in this position for a few minutes while my wife was almost bent backward with her binoculars observing this mysterious thing. She continuously dialogued with me about what she was observing. There was so much going on that I chose to direct my attention to another group of objects heading west. We didn´t want to miss anything.

At about 2 hours and 45 minutes into the sighting we sensed that things were slowing down. Since all things must end, we figured this was the case. We were wrong.

At about 5 p.m., as I watched the few remaining objects coming in from the east, I began to notice from the periphery of my vision objects heading in the reverse direction, west to east, as if they had completed what they had intended to do and were heading home. I was witnessing the beginning of a parade going in the opposite direction. Objects behaving just as before.

I mentioned this to my wife, but was beginning to suffer visually from the very bright sun and needed to get into the house to rest. This she did, leaving me to observe the remainder of the sightings.

Observing these returning objects, through binoculars I noticed a very marked difference in some of the objects. Something very unexpected. More on this shortly.

I observed that these returning objects were using a flight path slightly south of our home, which would probably put them over the area near to the pueblo of La Esperanza. This area overlooks the Los Rodeos Airport.

At the same time that I was observing these returning lights, I observed for 45 minutes a very interesting event. And I would not have seen it were it not for a large palm tree that grows in our front yard.

During the entire 4 hour event the sky remained clear, cloudless and blue. A soft breeze insinuated itself into our area. Since I dislike intense sunlight I sought the comfort of the shadow cast by the palm tree. As I did so the glare of the sun was obscured. I took this moment to relax my eyes and casually looked at the upper portion of the tree trunk. To my surprise I could see 5 glowing objects with the same oblong-shape, maneuvering in the glare of the sun. These movements showed neither rhyme nor reason. I would never have seen this event had it not been for the partial obscuring of the sun. No one else would be able to see them under normal conditions. It seemed to me that they were using the strong glare to hide themselves. But why hide themselves when they had just offered us 3 plus hours of strangeness. Talk about an embarrassment of richness.

Finally, after a little over 4 hours, the last objects were seen heading east. Those objects using the suns glare were also gone.

In the remaining moments of activity, I mentally asked the most obvious question: “What was all of this about. And why such a long sighting.”

What we observed through binoculars

When we watched these objects visually using our eyes, they appeared oblong and self-luminescent. A soft white light, not brilliant, and at no time did this luminescence vary in intensity. These objects appeared to slide through the sky effortlessly as if they were immune to resistance. There was never any sound. As for its speed, all we can say is faster than a landing passenger craft, but slower than a jet fighter.

But when we trained our binoculars on these lights we were stunned at what we saw. There were 5 different shapes that we observed during this 4-hour event:

1. Wedge-shaped

2. Stubby-bullet shaped

3. Elongated bullet shaped

4. Curved hot dog shaped

5. Dice shaped (cube)

The “wedge-shaped” object appeared periodically. It flew with the pointed end ahead. It appeared blue-grey in color.

The remaining objects were far different . . . and they morphed.

The “stubby-bullet shaped” objects tumbled as they flew. As they tumbled, they morphed short stubby fins from the side. We observed these fins developing out of, and returning back into the object as it continued its tumbling.

The “elongated bullet shaped” objects also tumbled as they flew. And like its short, stubby partner, they also morphed what appeared to be fins that appeared and withdrew into the objects.

The “curved hot dog shaped” objects were amazingly strange. I got to observe this morphing miracle as it went over our home (side view) and as it receded (side and back view). As with the others, these objects tumbled as they flew. They were shaped like a curved hot dog with the front end located at a shortly higher position than the back end. As it flew, the back end rose up and curved into its middle section. As it did this, the front portion, unaffected by the rear rising action, sprouted short, stubby . . . fins. These fins receded back into the objects when they assumed their normal hot dog shape.

The object that paused directly over my wife at about 500 feet was cube-shaped. It tumbled as it flew, very similar to rolling dice on a table. When the object was hovering over my wife, through binoculars she could see that it was also morphing, sprouting short fins, and other forms that are impossible to describe. But she could see very clearly three “lights” on the bottom of the cube shape. She described red, white and blue lights. When she was describing to me what she was seeing I remember responding to her, “Yea, red, white and blue lights.” Obviously made in America.” She wasn´t pleased with my sarcasm.

The reader must remember that we observed these objects for more than 4 hours. We observed 5 basic shapes repeated one after the other, but not necessarily in a particular order. Although we have told a few friends that we saw about 90 objects, the truth is that we simply lost count. Too much was happening.

Morphing objects are a big problem in today´s ufology. This seems to be a relatively new evolution with these objects and we´re simply going to have to accommodate it.

There were two things that bothered us greatly during this sighting and we need to elucidate them.

The first is that when the objects were seen visually with our eyes they appeared as oblong-shaped lights of no great size. But when we trained our binoculars on these objects we could see no glow, no suggestion that any overall illumination was present. What we saw were objects displaying enough definition for us to observe shape, structure and morphing changes. But still lacking in high definition. It seemed as if the objects were housed in a field that guaranteed that the objects would remain fuzzy.

Secondly, while we visually observed oblong-shaped glowing objects, when we trained our binoculars on these lights, we saw chaotic tumbling and morphing activity inside of that glow. And yet, when we removed the binoculars, the objects appeared steady, with no hint of distortion or change. The reason why we find this odd is because in the case of the bullet-shaped and curved hot dog-shaped devices, as they tumbled, their length would have exceeded the height of the oblong-shaped glow. Yet, when we watched this oblong object glide across the sky, no distortion or accommodation to the object inside of it occurred.

One final observation please! When I observed the objects returning, heading west to east, a number of the bullet-shaped objects appeared different. They appeared dirty, as if debris were sticking to them. I observed these silver-grey objects surrounded by a dark brown substance. It was as if these objects had an important duty to perform, and having performed that duty, they returned soiled from the work they had done. I thought about this for many days, trying to figure out a proper way to describe the “debris” that I saw attached to some of these objects.

About a week later it struck me: What I saw attached to some of these objects was very similar to what happens when you bring a magnet in touch with iron filings. If you place that magnet below a piece of paper with iron filings, those filings will stand out and follow the contour of the magnetic field.

That is the best possible description of what I observed.

Admission

I am an American UFO investigator of long standing. My wife is a singer and entertainer, but also a Spanish-language translator. We have both had a number of UFO sightings – together and separately. My sightings took place in Hawaii, Seattle, Denver and now, Tenerife. My wife´s sightings took place in North Dakota, Denver and now, Tenerife.

This means that we are REPEATERS. This admission will not settle well with the more conservative element within ufology. The broad-minded investigator may acknowledge that there is indeed a growing number of such people showing up in the UFO field. The debunkers will . . . well, they´d probably debunk their own mothers.

We understand the problem. Millions have seen strange objects in the sky. Millions more have not. So what makes us so damned special?

We´ve thought about this. Endlessly. We have no answer. We are as confused about this as anyone else could be. But there are two things we should mention about ourselves that may be contributing factors:

1. We look up! We make it a practice to scan the sky when we find a moment.

2. We anticipate. We´ve had numerous sightings. That means we MIGHT have others. Therefore, we anticipate the next event.

If there is anything more at work than this, we know nothing about it. We are clueless.

There is one more thing that needs to addressed. The claim that we have made that UFOs have stopped and hovered when we have mentally or verbally requested such action:

For many this is difficult stuff to tolerate. Think about how we feel. We asked . . . and they complied. This has happened to me on 4 occasions. It has happened on a few occasions with my wife.

Our concern is that this will be misinterpreted by the overenthusiastic. Those who will say that we are in communication with these . . . things. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Let me make this as clear as is possible. When the opportunity has presented itself, we have experimented. Simple as that. The question is simple. “Please stop!” On occasion they have. It´s not like we are asking them to dinner, or a game of chess.

Although it is kind of a “rush” to see them stop per our request, closely following is the feeling of “trepidation”. Trepidation because we have brought attention to ourselves. Trepidation because we are not interested in going the next step.

Finally, regarding our beloved video camera. I was unable to film these events, much to my anger and chagrin. It was impossible to focus the camera using the LCD screen because the intense sunlight washed the image out. I pointed the camera wildly, but no image showed up. I was so desperate to show the morphing of these objects that I had zoomed the lens instead of going for a wide-angle view. My fault.

Endnote:

We have seen nothing in the local newspapers to suggest that anyone else reported this event. We have called no one in authority at various venues to report this sighting. We have attempted to contact the leading ufologist here, Jose Gregorio Gonzalez, to inquire whether he had heard anything about a sighting in our area. He has chosen not to return our calls or inquiries. We received the same brush-off from the late Francisco Padron Hernandez, otherwise known as Paco Padron. He was the revered dean of anomalies research in the Canaries. He refused to see an American ufologist. His reason. He didn´t want to talk about ufo abductions, which he considered nonsense. We didn´t want to talk about abductions either. We had other reasons to want to speak with him. Surprisingly, in April 2000, he published a book, Luces de Medianoche, which spoke about his . . . abduction. Go figure!

Kalani and Katiuska Hanohano
Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain