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This article was published in the daily newspaper La Cuarta, Chile, December 30, 2002.
You had to be very out of your mind not to see a UFO in Chilean skies in 2002, say ufologists.
According to the accounts handled by unidentified flying objects researchers of the Ovnivisión Chile group, the Chilean that have not seen one saucer circling in the sky must have been completely disconnected from current events. "According to our reports, in 1968, 40 sightings in the country were received and in the 2002, this number grew to 150", claimed Cristian Riffo.
Together with Jorge Anfruns, Riffo made a count of the most worthy cases accompanied with concrete evidence by credible witnesses that the Chileans made to their organization and the statements made by former military officials giving their account of very strange objects sighted between the clouds of the northern, central and austral skies.
Among the sightings, they talked about the mysterious lights that were present during the maneuvers of a Panther Mirage of the Chilean Air Force and the F-16 of their American peers in FIDAE 2002, which took place Los Cerrillos airfield.
The recorded film was caught by three different cameras from Claudia Cabezas, her brother and a third witness.
Another of the noticeable sightings there was the observation in the sky above the city of San Gregorio, at 120 kilometers of Punta Arenas, a rectangular mass of more than 70 meters of diameter which was recorded on a camcorder on February 17 of 2002.
But without a doubt, the most spectacular observation was carried out by the former chief of staff of the FACH, general (ret.) Hernán Gabrielli Rojas, then captain, that in 1978, with another elite pilot, Danilo Catalan, have witnessed a very strange ship as they were patrolling and inspecting near the northern border.
It was only after he reitred that this high official decided to speak, indicating that while in a training flight and in broad daylight, they could not believe their eyes: they observed the greatest and colossal flying ship, of a size equivalent to about 10 to 15 times the size of an aircraft carrier, something as large as of 15 blocks of length.
Not just their senses were witness of the extraordinary apparatus, but also the early acquisition radars of their combat aircraft and of the Cerro Moreno airfield.
The investigator Jorge Anfruns indicated that the reports of this and of other types of UFOs have been increasing more than three times, adding that the most seen are discoid objects, in 30 percent of the observations; followed by oval shaped ones, 20 percent, and sphericals, 18 percent.
About the Raelian sect, which announced the cloning of a human being, the investigators of Ovnivisión did not credit this information, signaling only that "there are persons who intend to use the phenomenon in a sensationalistic way. Their claims are impossible to check."
