Case · C-038
Canary Islands 1976: the luminous phenomenon of Gáldar, later attributed to Poseidon missiles
Gáldar (Gran Canaria) and other Canary Islands · Spain · Jun 22, 1976
In flight Mixed witness types
Explained
- What happened
- On the evening of June 22, 1976, a luminous phenomenon was observed for more than 40 minutes by hundreds of people on Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera, Gran Canaria and at sea, including the crew of the corvette Atrevida off Fuerteventura. In Gáldar a taxi driver and his passenger, a doctor, said they had seen occupants inside an object; the military judge who conducted the inquiry and the Air Force general who had appointed him cast doubt on this detail. The Ejército del Aire (Spanish Air Force) file, 107 pages long, was declassified on July 13, 1994 and can be consulted in the Biblioteca Virtual de Defensa.
- Proposed explanation
- According to the reconstruction reported by Diario de Avisos, the phenomenon coincided with the launch of Poseidon ballistic missiles from a U.S. submarine; at the time the Ejército del Aire (Spanish Air Force) did not know of this explanation. Missiles of the same type are also indicated for other sightings in the Canary Islands between 1974 and 1979.
- Official investigation
- Ejército del Aire (Mando Operativo Aéreo, Sección de Inteligencia) with a military investigating judge
Official documents
- Avistamiento de fenómenos extraños en Canarias: 22 de Junio de 1976 · Ejército del Aire – Mando Operativo Aéreo, Estado Mayor, Sección de Inteligencia · 1976
Sources
- Diario de Avisos, “El Ejército desclasifica expedientes OVNI en Canarias” (October 2016) (press)
- Wikipedia (en) – UFO sightings in the Canary Islands (other)
Open in the interactive archive The whole section: Map of UAP and USO cases
UAPgrade's entries are compiled with artificial intelligence (three verifiers with opposing roles) and checked against the sources listed above: how we work. Have a document that changes this entry? Bring it to the Investigations Unit.