Chilean Air force Squadron Leader Capt. Danilo Catalan Farias, Flight Instructor of area F.5.E at the Cerro Moreno Base at Antofagasta, who affirmed having seen a gigantic UFO, has now added further details about the sighting he had while on a flying mission.

Capt. Catalan has been flying combat aircraft for 11 years, and has a brilliant service record. He says: "We were about to conduct a flying class, and took off normally round about 12.00 noon near the coast of Antofagasta in a south-westerly direction, and going through all the routine procedures, when ground control called to warn that a UFO had appeared on their radar. In this area there is traffic whose 'fly-over' permission usually arrives later, so we are quite used to referring to these as 'UFOs' or 'unidentified aircraft.' When we received the communication, my companion in another plane was ordered to seperate from us and head north. We calculated the object was doing a good speed, about 0.92 mach. which is near the speed of sound. As my companion to the north could not overtake the object, I, who was a bit more to the south, was ordered to pursue. I accelerated to 1.3 (above the speed of sound) at a height of 37,000 feet, then on the radar I had it at 20 miles distance, and its blip was a bit bigger than a normal plane's. I continued accelerating and at some 10 miles to the south I made visual contact, but suddenly there it was – only 2 miles away. I looked and saw a cloudy form.

"A pilot, at two miles distance is accustomed to identify a plane perfectly, even at 10 miles weather conditions permitting. I began relaying to ground control what I was seeing. I was very excited as this was an unexpected experience. I was unable to define what type of apparatus this was. I tried positioning myself parallel to it and so was able to make out some kind of black triangle with two small tails. When I came to within a mile and a half of it (which was quite near) the UFO veered off and accelerated violently.

"This manoeuvre was observed on radar by ground control. I calculated that it deviated at a speed more than 3 times that of sound. At this moment I thought this must be something unreal. I used to be a disbeliever – not now."

RETIRED CHILEAN GENERAL DISCUSSES HIS ENCOUNTER WITH A GIANT UFO

SOURCE: Ovnivisión (Chile) [Ovnivisión is a long-time UFO research group - WVU]
DATE: December 26, 2002

SANTIAGO DE CHILE.- In an interview with Terra.cl. ["Terra.cl." or Terra Chile is an Internet multinational company with headquarters in Spain - WVU], retired general Hernan Gabrielli Rojas mentioned that he had squared off against a gigantic UFO while engaging in a training flight in the skies of northern Chile.

According to the military man, the object was the size of 10 or 15 aircraft carriers, and its presence was picked up by the radars aboard two F-5 jet fighters as well as the Cerro Moreno airport in Antofagasta.

- What do you remember about your contact with the UFO?

Over 20 years have gone by (this was in 1978). I was a captain and was flying a mission with two F-5 fighters. It was noon and I was flying with captain Danilo Catalán - we were both flight instructors. Accompanying us was Fernando Gomez, an avionics tech, and another trainee. The F-5 is radar-equipped, and a line appeared from side to side - in other words, a trace throughout the bottom side of the screen. A trace for a surface ship, a cruiser, is approximately one centimeter long, but this line went from one side [of the screen] to another. I assumed the radar scope had failed, and told Danilo Catalán, but his radar also "failed". I then advised the ground radar at Antofagasta and they also picked up the line. We were engaged with these details when we looked toward the east: we were flying from north to south in the vicinity of Mejillones, and saw a deformed cigar-shaped object. Deformed, like a plaintain banana. It was swathed in smoke.

- What was the object's size?

It was large and must have been some 15 to 20 miles away. It moved in the same direction as us. We had no missiles, guns or anything. As you can imagine, the fright was more or less considerable. We could see a large thing surrounded in smoke, and from which a vapor issued. All of this situation must have lasted some five minues. We approached the UFO but it was motionless. It neither approached nor retreated - it merely sailed parallel to us. It was quite impressive, because it was truly something strange, and something could be seen in concealment behind the smoke.

- What happened later?

The object then disappeared toward Easter Island at an impressive rate of speed. The sky cleared and the lines on the radar vanished. However, there had been an object physically flying there. It's not a yarn, let me tell you. It's my only experience with UFOs.

FORMER AIR FORCE COMMANDER DISCUSSES UFOs

[Interview conducted by Alejandro Guillier; transcription by Rodrigo Cuadra Salazar]

Alejandro Guillier (journalist): UFOs, well...nothing better than to ask a war pilot about the experiences he's had if he's seen anything, but it turns out that I've heard talk about there being a military pilot in Antofagasta who toward the late Seventies -- '78 -- had been flying and ran into a very strange thing. It also turns out that the pilot became a general, retired general Hernan Gabrielli, and we're going to talk to him about this rather interesting experience. How do you do, general? Good morning.

Hernan Gabrielli Rojas (General-Ret.): Hello, Alejandro. Good morning to you.

Alejandro Guillier: This occurred in '78, according to one version, but what is the story about your running into a UFO while flying a warplane?

Hernan Gabrielli: We were two F-5s, dual training craft, and we were returning to base after completing our mission, Cerro Moreno, noon. From Mejillones to Antofagasta, at an altitude of some 35,000 feet - 40,000 feet. I suddenly detected a radar fault and saw a line that ran side to side on the scope, and my student, Danilo Catalán, also detected the same, and curiously enough it was the ground radar, which has a large screen, that also indicated a radar fault. At that time we looked toward [the part of the sky indicated on the radar screen] and we saw that UFO.

Alejandro Guillier: What was it exactly? What was it you managed to see? Can it be described?

Hernan Gabrielli: It was visualized as a smoke-covered, half- deformed banana, very large, in other words, very large in plain sight. We were between 15 or 20 miles away. It was tremendously large and surrounded by a fumarole which moved in our very same direction and at the same speed as our aircraft.

Alejandro Guiller: ...and you felt tempted to check it out.

Hernan Gabrielli: We approached it carefully and...but those were good instructions. We were heading back from Attack 1, which is a combat tactic involving gun cameras, no cannon, missiles or anything else. So we approached it with caution. Unfortunately the UFO did not go away toward a single minute, so we arrived in an instant.

Alejandro Guillier: But I understand that you had to ascend.

Hernan Gabrielli: No...

Alejandro Guillier: In order to approach, what was your position? Going upward..

Hernan Gabrielli: No...we shared the same altitude, between 30,000 and 35,000 feet.

Alejandro Gabrielli: But F-5s are swift airplanes. When you got near it scurried way so...

Hernan Gabrielli: Of course. It's a fighter that covers 10 nautical miles a minute, in other words, 20 kilometers a minute. That is the normal speed for that aircraft.

Alejandro Guillier: And this object you saw, how soon did it vanish? At what speed?

Hernan Gabrielli: Unimaginable, in other words, thousands of nautical miles a minute, because it toward the west suddenly and the screen cleared up. In other words, all three radar screens--the ground radar, mine and Danilo's -- were operating normally; it wasn't just a visual experience but a physical one as well, a material one, that materialized on the screen. Now, if you ask me what it is, where it comes from, don't ask me. I haven't the slightest idea.

Translation (C) 2003 Scott Corrales Institute of Hispanic Ufology