From Farmland to Deserts to Mountainsides: Lesser-Known UFO Crashes from Around the Planet

Most of us, even those outside of the UFO community, will almost certainly have heard of the Roswell UFO crash in July 1947, even if there is debate as to whether it was an otherworldly vehicle that crashed in the desert in New Mexico. The fact is, though, there are many other claims of vehicles from elsewhere crashlanding on Earth, and what’s more, these mystifying and baffling events are not at all limited to the United States but are on record in locations right around the planet.

As is usually the case with such a huge subject, while we will not have time nor space to explore every alleged crash of an alien vehicle – even briefly – we will examine some of the most intriguing and thought-provoking, not to mention some of the most credible. Ultimately, what will become apparent as we negotiate our way through these remarkable and enthralling cases is that something out of the ordinary has been taking place around the world for decades, if not longer, and it could very well be in our collective interests to find out what that something is.

A good place to start is with an apparent legitimate case of a downed UFO that came to light through forged documents. It is one of several intriguing cases investigated by the late British UFO investigator Tony Dodd. The account was detailed in Dodd’s book, Alien Investigator: The Case Files of Britain’s Leading UFO Detective, and is one that Dodd claimed was at least as important as the more famous Roswell crash that occurred four decades previously. Moreover, as well as the wreckage, which was seemingly recovered by the South African military, the craft’s occupants were also recovered, each of which was still alive.

According to Dodd, in the summer of 1989, an envelope with a South African postal mark arrived with him. Intrigued, he opened the envelope immediately, finding several documents inside from a sender who claimed they wished to remain anonymous out of fear for their safety. Dodd claimed that as soon as he saw the documents, he strongly suspected they were forgeries, not least due to several spelling errors within the text. However, although he couldn’t later explain why, he felt compelled to read them in their entirety. Unlike other forged documents he had seen during his time investigating UFOs, these contained a remarkable amount of detailed information. Not only did the documents provide details on the incident itself, but also detailed information about the make-up of the craft, as well as the two occupants. Eventually, Dodd spoke to several contacts in South Africa and the United States and told them of the information in the documents he had received. To his amazement, all of them came back, stating that the details were accurate.

According to the documents and the confirmation from Dodd’s contacts, on the evening of May 7th, 1989, an unidentified aircraft entered South African airspace. Moments later, several Mirage fighter jets were scrambled to investigate and intercept. Upon locating the object, they received orders to engage and open fire on the craft. Ultimately, the anomalous object crashed to the ground as a result of the aerial assault in the Kalahari Desert, around 80 miles from the border of South Africa and Botswana. Further according to the documents, only minutes later, a unit from the South African military was at the crash site, with a fighter jet having continued to circle the downed craft until they arrived. The documents described how the area immediately around the crash site was so hot that “sand and rocks had fused together!” Of more concern, many of the military’s electronic equipment malfunctioned or failed to work entirely, which was eventually discovered to be down to a massive increase in radiation in the area.  

The object itself was made from a “polished, smooth, silver” material which had no visible seams or joins and was seemingly very hard and durable. Around the side were several unevenly spaced portholes, and what looked like landing gear was also visible, which suggested the craft was attempting to land when it ultimately crashed to the ground. There was also some kind of hatch visible that the unit eventually forced open and discovered two “crew members” inside, both of whom were still alive. Both were removed from the crippled craft. Each wore a “tight-fitting grey suit” and was between four and five feet in height. Their bodies appeared slightly frail, although, under their suits, their abdomens appeared ribbed and scaled. Their heads, meanwhile, were much larger than their frame suggested they should be, and their eyes were also particularly large. We might note that this description is what most of us would recognize as a grey alien.

The unit retrieved the wreckage, and, along with the two occupants, it was transported to a secret, unknown military base somewhere in South Africa. At some point, a short time after that, the object was sent on a “one-way passage to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base” in the United States.

Dodd was more than perplexed as to why someone had gone to the trouble of sending him forged documents of a genuine encounter. He persisted in correspondence with the mystery sender, eventually convincing them to travel to England to speak with him further. The witness eventually revealed himself as James Van Greunen, and it didn’t take long for Dodd to become convinced of his credibility. While staying with Dodd, Van Greunen received several heated phone calls from the South African Embassy, some of which were bordering on being threatening (phone calls, incidentally, that Dodd recorded). Moreover, as soon as Dodd had met Van Greunen at the airport he noticed that he was being followed. Now, he just needed to find out why he had sent fake documents to him in the first place.

Using further contacts, as well as contacting several military bases using codes and document names to gain the trust of the person he was speaking with as an “internal employee,” Dodd began to put together a bigger picture of these startling events. Moreover, different sources, unaware of each other, began corroborating each other’s statements and pieces of information.

Dodd eventually discovered that the South African government – fully aware of what they had and exactly who would be interested in it – quickly made a deal with the United States to “trade” the wreckage in return for “nuclear technology” – something which international law prevented them from owning. In a further twist, Dodd also discovered that it was American intelligence that had alerted the South African military about the object entering their airspace, which perhaps forces the question of who might have instigated the alleged trade for the wreckage.

There was, though, a further twist to the account. According to one of Dodd’s contacts in the South African military, while the two alien occupants were transferred to Wright-Patterson along with the wreckage, another, third alien – unknown to the Americans – remained at the undisclosed location in South Africa, with some reports stating this facility was called Camp 13 and was said to be located somewhere in the Kalahari Desert.

Several months went by before Dodd was able to meet with Van Greunen again, this time in Germany at a UFO conference he was speaking at. It was during this meeting that the full truth was revealed to Dodd as to why Van Gruenen had faked the documents he had sent to him. Ultimately, following Dodd’s talk, in a small backroom at the conference hall, Van Greunen revealed himself to be an amateur UFO researcher who had happened to have come into possession of top-secret documents through a friend in the South African military. This friend knew of Van Greunen’s interest in UFOs, and so managed to sneak the documents out for him to look out. However, while he was welcome to read the documents, he couldn’t keep them, nor could he make copies of them. After he had read them, his friend then snuck the documents back onto the base before anyone realized they were missing. Realizing he had been privy to a monumental case, Van Greunen then made up the documents from what he had managed to commit to memory, trying to make them appear as official as possible due to the serious nature of the content.

Despite the bizarre nature of the events that had led Dodd to investigate the alleged crash, he believed Van Greunen’s version of events. Even more so when he received several death threats following his speaking of the case publicly. Contacts told him that he was safe as long as he remained in the United Kingdom due to other governments not desiring any kind of political fallout from assassinating him in his own country. However, he was told – very seriously – that he should not travel to South Africa for any reason and that he should attempt to avoid traveling to France.

Just as unsettling was a warning Dodd received while in Arizona in the United States in 1991, where he was due to speak at a UFO seminar. One evening during the event, Dodd, along with his wife and two other UFO researchers also due to speak at the seminar, was enjoying a drink in one of the nearby bars. As they did so, two men dressed in smart suits approached their table. Each looked directly at Dodd, which caused the other two UFO researchers to leave. During the conversation that followed, Dodd received a warning that he should “be careful” about what he spoke about. The conversation lasted several minutes, and while the men remained polite throughout, they ultimately stated they would kill him if they were ordered to. Dodd met the two gentlemen the following morning, where they repeated their “friendly warning!”

As we might imagine , both the American and the South African governments deny any knowledge of the events. However, we should keep in mind how respected and credible Tony Dodd was regarded in UFO circles. We also know that the South African military take UFO sightings very seriously, most of which are classified as “Top Secret – Not To Be Divulged!”

Although it happened in the Kingdom of Lesotho, another UFO crash a little over half a decade later, in September 1995, also involved the South African military. In a twist to a bizarre incident, the crash site was within the farm boundaries of a South African citizen but on the land of Lesotho, an independent country from South Africa that borders it at all corners.

According to the account, at around 9:15 pm on September 15th, 1995, farmer Peter Lachasa heard a “strange sound” coming from the sky over his property just outside of Leribe, which not only disturbed the quiet evening but also his cattle and livestock, whose anxious cries he could hear from his home. Just as he was making his way to the window to look outside, he heard a “dull explosion,” which caused him to stop momentarily. Then, a moment later, he ventured outside. By the time he had done so, he could see that several of his neighbors had made their way to his property. They told him they had been watching a strange light for some time before it began to descend toward the Lesotho foothills. However, instead of landing, it appeared to crash into the ground, exploding and “giving off a series of blinding flashes!”

The group of neighbors, along with Lachasa, quickly made their way to the crash site, noticing a strange “electronic humming” sound as they did so. By the time they were within sight of the crippled vehicle, it was clear the strange sound was coming from the craft. They could see the object had a dull grey metallic exterior but other than that, the mangled remains combined with the intense heat made it difficult to make out any other details. In fact, the heat was so intense that several patches of dry grass began to burn despite being a considerable distance away from the burning wreckage. Although he wasn’t certain, at one point, Lachasa thought he saw something moving inside – perhaps an occupant – and he decided they had to report the crash to the authorities in case there were any survivors.

It was around 10:20 pm by the time Lachasa arrived at Leribe Police Department. He spoke with Sargent Thobo, who was the officer on duty that evening, telling him that a “strange aircraft” had crashed on his farm which could contain surviving crew members. Moreover, he required the police – or some other authority – to remove the wreckage as the events were profoundly disturbing his cattle. After taking details from Lachasa, Thobo, along with Constable Nandi, accompanied him back to his farm.

In their report, they stated that a “large, round, disc-shaped object lay within the boundaries of Mr. Lachasa’s farm!” This object, they estimated, was around 60 feet across and approximately 10 feet high. They couldn’t make out any windows or portholes, nor could they see any obvious point of entry into the strange vehicle. Although the site itself was ablaze, from their point of view a short distance away, the craft itself appeared to be largely intact.

At this point, realizing he was dealing with a truly out-of-the-ordinary situation, Thobo radioed back to the police department for advice. He was told to return to the station and prepare an immediate report, which he duly did. Then, around an hour after that, an official internal report was sent from the police department to a Lesotho government official, who, in turn, sent a report to the South African intelligence department. It seemed, without anyone realizing it, action was already underway to recover the remains of the craft.

According to leaked South African military reports, they received a report on the suspected crash from the Lesotho Ministry of Defense at precisely 17 minutes past midnight. The exact location of the crash site was given as the land of a cattle and livestock farmer near the Madibamasto River around eight miles west of Leribe. After confirming there was no military or civilian aircraft in the airspace, aside from the Air Force Puma helicopter that performed routine patrols along the South Africa/Lesotho border, two Alouette rescue helicopters were dispatched to the location. Just under three-quarters of an hour later, at just after 1 am, Captain Manie Louw reported back to base from his helicopter that he could see around 400 square meters of land that was “engulfed in fire!” However, much like the two police officers believed, the “disc-shaped metallic object” was completely undamaged. In response, Louw received orders to maintain a patrol over the immediate area.

As the Alouette helicopters patrolled the skies immediately above the crash site, a military retrieval unit was on its way, while a “sterile area” of a mile on all sides of the crash site was put into effect. At some point between 2 and 3 am, South African Intelligence had taken control of the operation, and by 3:47 am, the entire area was locked down. Just to demonstrate the seriousness of the situation, ground forces received permission to use lethal force in order to maintain security around the crash site. At 5:55 am – now the dawn of September 16th – the Foreign Technology Recovery Unit arrived at the crash site.

Leaked documents state that, as well as the craft itself, three occupants were discovered inside the downed vehicle (we might recall that there were said to be three occupants in the recovered craft from the Kalahari desert, perhaps suggesting a vehicle from the same intelligence!). Even more remarkable, all three of the crew members were alive. Further according to the report, the wreckage and occupants were taken to a top-secret “research unit” at Swartkop Air Force Base in Pretoria. The occupants would then undergo “extensive medical examinations” before being moved to “Delta-Level,” an alleged underground military facility.

Perhaps what makes the Paihuano UFO crash intriguing is that as well as it sharing many of the details that can be found in other UFO crash accounts, it has also been put forward by authorities, much like Roswell, that the incident was nothing more than a “crashed weather balloon!” Moreover, despite the object – whatever it was – landing in Chile, when recovery teams arrived in the region, many witnesses believed there was a “discreet American feel” to them.

According to the account, at around 4 pm on October 7th, 1998, multiple residents of the small village of Paihuano noticed the sudden appearance of a strange, disc-shaped object, approximately 50 feet in width - over the Las Mollacas hill. The object remained motionless for several moments before it suddenly rose into the air. Then, it made a sudden sharp turn that appeared to “split it in two!” The shocked and perplexed villagers looked on as the object then came crashing to the ground, one piece landing on top of the hill with the other landing a short distance behind it. After several moments, several of the villagers then descended on the crash site. From later reports given to reporters and UFO investigators by these locals, the object was of a solid, shiny silver metallic exterior that reflected the sun brilliantly and brightly.

The wreckage remained where it was undisturbed for several days following the crash. Interestingly or not, during this time, several minor earthquakes were registered. At the same time, several random blackouts hit the region and several of the neighboring towns experienced interference to their television and radio broadcasts.

After the object had been on the hill for two days, a military-type unit suddenly arrived, and, ultimately, they would retrieve and remove the wreckage.

It would later come to light through the efforts of several UFO investigators who traveled to the region that the Chilean military was more than aware of the incident and even sent a discreet unit on horseback to observe the crash site from a distance. After deciding they couldn’t reach the crash site on horseback, the unit returned and reported back. And it is at this point, it would seem, that a cover-up was put in motion.

From what investigators managed to find out, the unit’s communications had been intercepted by local police, who had issued orders for the unit to vacate the area. Shortly after they received these orders, another unit arrived – a “uniformed military” unit. This unit immediately cordoned off the area and then went about removing the wreckage. They then conducted interviews with as many of the villagers as they could, even speaking with residents of the nearby towns about what they had seen. Interestingly or not, during this time, several hotels in the region had a “sudden surge of American tourists” at their establishments.

Investigators also learned further details from local residents. A local goatherder, for example, who knew almost all of the routes in and around the restricted area of the crash site, claimed to have seen several black, unmarked helicopters in the region. He elaborated that these unmarked helicopters would “work tirelessly from midnight until the early hours of Friday, 9th March!” He further claimed that these helicopters carried away pieces of the wreckage in their military nets.

It appeared as though whoever was in charge of this recovery operation very much preferred to operate under the cover of darkness. Local researcher Patricio Diaz also spoke to several locals in the days and weeks that followed the incident and filed several intriguing accounts. Many of these villagers also spoke of a nightly helicopter presence in the area, as well as operations taking place on the ground.

One witness who spoke with Diaz was Omar Prieto, who managed one of the town’s tourist resorts. He claimed to have seen the wreckage “with his own eyes,” describing it as looking “something like the wing of a plane!” He further stated that after the initial surge of activity on Thursday evening (March 8th), all of the wreckage had seemingly been retrieved. All that remained at the crash site now was clear evidence of heavy-duty military trucks, as well as many boot marks from the personnel on the ground.

By Monday (March 12th), it appeared to those paying attention to the events that followed the crash that disinformation was being actively spread around the local community, and a cover-up was unfolding right under the local residents’ noses. Many villagers reported finding large stones that had been painted with a bright, silver paint that reflected the sun seemingly in an effort to convince locals that what they had seen was some kind of silver stone or rock, and not a metallic mechanical craft. Moreover, several apparent explanations were beginning to leak into the public arena. Arguably one of the strangest came from the El Tololo Astronomical Observatory, which offered that the “crashed UFO” was, in fact, an “out of control weather balloon!”

The Committee for the Study of Anomalous Air Phenomena (CEFAA), however, very publicly refuted this idea, pointing out that no weather balloon launches had taken place anywhere near the location at the time of the incident. Moreover, Gustavo Rodriguez (a high-ranking member of the CEFAA) also pointed out that he would have had to have been given 48 hours' notice of any such weather balloon flights, which he had not received.

There were, though, other potential explanations, at least as to why the object – whatever it was or wherever it came from – might have been in this specific area in the first place. Perhaps one of the most interesting details is that the soil in the region is said to be mineral-rich, specifically with valuable uranium deposits. What is interesting about this is that uranium often shows up in various ways in UFO reports. What’s more, uranium is also used in space travel in nuclear reactors and propulsion systems. As bizarre as it might sound to some, could it be that this otherworldly vehicle – as well as the many others that are reported in this part of the world – was attempting some kind of refueling mission when it crashed into the ground?

What is even more eyebrow-raising is that several months before the crash, in June 1998, there were tentative reports of what could be an earlier crashed UFO in the same region. According to reports, the village was awoken late in the night by a “deafening noise” that coincided with a bright flash that made it appear as though “night had turned into day!” At the same time, whether coincidence or not, the region also experienced a strange and intense storm. We might recall that in the hours following the UFO crash in October, the region experienced several small earthquakes. Could it be that the arrival of these otherworldly crafts – however they might be getting here – has atmospheric and seismic consequences here on Earth?

That something highly unusual occurred that afternoon in October 1998 is without doubt – after all, there were official explanations issued (even if most dismissed them). Of course, whether the object – if that is what it was – was a top-secret military vehicle (perhaps even an American one) or it was indeed a craft from another world remains open to debate. One other thing of interest to take note of here is that during the time of the encounters, joint military UNITAS exercises were taking place between none other than the United States and Chile. Make of that what you will.

Two decades previously, in May 1978, near the Bolivian-Argentine border, an incident unfolded that has been described by some as “South America’s most credible UFO crash incident!” Furthermore, it is yet another case that appears to not only show signs of a cover-up but also the discreet presence of the United States military and intelligence agencies in the immediate aftermath of the events, something that leaked and declassified papers appear to corroborate. Even more remarkable, and further adding credibility to the whole affair, was that there were multiple witnesses on both sides of the border.

Reports state that around 4:30 pm on May 6th, 1978, over the Tarija Department in Bolivia close to the border with Argentina’s Salta Province, a strange, shiny, cylindrical-shaped object came screaming out of the late afternoon skies with thick, black smoke “spewing” from it, and, ultimately, crash into the El Zaire Mountain close to the Bermejo River. The explosion was so loud that not only did people in the immediate vicinity hear it, but so did people over 100 miles away. Some of those closer – although still at least 30 miles away – suffered shattered windows to their homes, while others could clearly see thick, black smoke rising high into the sky.

Juan Hurtado, a Border Intelligence Agent, was just one of the witnesses to the bizarre events that May afternoon. He later stated that the object looked “like a huge wine container” that was “spewing smoke” into the air as it moved through the sky. He was standing with three other people at the time, all of whom also saw the object. Then, as it crashed into the mountainside, the impact was so strong that it threw him to the ground. He elaborated that it felt as though “the whole Earth trembled!” Another witness was Corporal Natalio Farfan Ruiz of the Bolivian military. He stated that as he watched the object zip across the sky, he “thought the end of the world was coming,” adding that he shuddered to think “what would have happened if the UFO had fallen on their houses” instead of crashing into the mountain.

As we mentioned earlier, there were witnesses on both sides of the Bolivian-Argentine border. Two of these were Argentinian border police officers Eduardo Salmon and Bienvenido Ortega. They were on patrol duty at a local football match that had attracted an unlikely crowd of several hundred people in the village of Aguas Blancas. Out of nowhere, they noticed a “luminous flash” appear overhead, causing them to look upward. When they did, they could see a metallic, disc-shaped object with thick smoke emanating from it. Moments later, a huge explosion was heard, and moments after that, thick black smoke was visible rising into the air. Only moments after the two Argentinian police officers first noticed the object streaking across the sky, back on the other side of the border in Bolivia, an engineer, Velez Orozco, saw the silver cylindrical object pass by, quickly followed by the huge explosion that he later stated was much louder than an explosion caused by a meteorite.   

It wasn’t long before the Bolivian Air Force scrambled several fighter jets to the area in order to locate the crash site. They reported seeing what looked like a “rockslide” where the object had slammed into the mountainside. It was soon discovered that the crash site terrain was much more treacherous than they imagined, and while several search units were deployed to the region, only one, led by Major German Cellejas, reached the wreckage. Newspaper reports stated that Cellejas’ unit recovered a large “metallic-dull cylinder” that was approximately 15 feet long and significantly dented. Perhaps of more interest, though, it was also reported that “NASA would take charge” of the wreckage.

Whatever the truth of the matter, it would appear certain that something did suddenly come screeching out of the sky that afternoon in May 1978 and crash into the mountainside, triggering a huge explosion. Of course, whether that object was a vehicle from another world or not remains open to debate. There was, though, intense media interest in the case, not just in South America but around the world. And perhaps because of this, whether intentional or not, a certain amount of confusion began to surround the incident. For example, while some news stations reported a UFO crashing (with some even blatantly saying the object was an alien vehicle), others reported as fact that a meteorite strike was responsible for the explosive events. There were even discrepancies regarding where the object – whatever it was – had crashed to the ground, with some outlets offering it had crashed on the Bolivian side of the border (which it had) and others insisting it had crashed on Argentinian land.

As we mentioned a moment ago, it was reported that NASA would be taking charge of the wreckage, and only days after the incident, it was reported in media outlets that “NASA experts” had arrived in the region. Perhaps of even more interest – or indeed suspicion – were two American military officers who had arrived in the area “on vacation!” However, according to the journalist who photographed them at the airport, they appeared more like plain-clothed on-duty intelligence operatives. Rumors quickly began to spread that these American operatives and NASA experts had located and recovered several fragments of the wreckage, as well as a larger capsule, and had them discreetly taken out of the country on a United States Air Force Hercules cargo plane and back to the United States.

Corroborating these rumors were later-released documents from the United States that confirmed their operatives had played a part in recovery efforts of the wreckage, with the missions coming under the umbrellas of Project Moon Dust and Operation Blue Fly, both programs that officially recovered space debris such as Soviet satellites so they could be studied. However, it has been suggested, and is highly likely, that these projects were used to retrieve debris of an otherworldly nature – specifically, UFOs. Even more remarkable, due to these released documents, the two American “tourists” were eventually identified as Colonel Robert Simmons and Major John Heese, who both, incidentally, worked on Project Moon Dust. A CIA report also stated that the agency had received intelligence of a downed craft in Bolivia that the “Argentinian and Uruguayan radio stations are reporting on!” The document also suggests that the “Bolivian authorities have urgently requested assistance from NASA!”

A Freedom of Information Act request eventually revealed another interesting document, this one written by Colonel Robert Eddington of the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans, International Environment, and Scientific Affairs on May 18th, 1978,  that stated they had “checked with appropriate governments” regarding the rumored crash and had found “no direct correlation with known space objects that may have reentered the Earth’s atmosphere,” although they were “continuing to examine any possibilities!” More intriguing, though, the document then went on to say that agents working in the US Embassy in La Paz should familiarize themselves with “State Airgram A-6343,” which would “provide background information and guidance for dealing with space objects!” It concluded that operatives working out of the Embassy should note “information pertaining to the pre-impact observations, direction or trajectory, number of objects observed, time of impact, and a detailed description (of the object), including any markings!” Needless to say, to say the agency was prepared in full to record details of anomalous objects would be an understatement.

As well as intelligence operatives, the region was also visited by multiple UFO investigators and journalists. Perhaps an unlikely pair was Charles Tucker of the International UFO Investigating Bureau and Bob Pratt of the National Enquirer. They conducted interviews with multiple witnesses, including several members of the Bolivian retrieval teams. Pratt even attempted to reach the crash site himself but was unable to do so due to the potentially deadly nature of the landscape. He did, though, come to some intriguing conclusions. He offered it was his belief that both the Bolivian and United States search efforts had proven fruitless, and that the object likely remained “buried under the landscape it created!” He also stated that a lot of misinformation had been spread regarding the incident, perhaps purposely so.

Although the account sounds outlandish to some, this particular case appears to be very credible, not least because of the consistency of the witnesses themselves, who, apart from each other, told almost identical versions of events. Moreover, many of these witnesses were in positions of authority, such as police officers or military personnel. Even more convincing, of course, are the many leaked and declassified documents concerning the strange events that day. However, while we know that something almost certainly did crash to the ground that afternoon in Bolivia, just what it might have been remains a mystery. Was it a genuine vehicle from another world, or could it have been a top-secret United States aircraft and does that explain their immediate presence in the region and knowledge of the incident? Several years later, though, new information surfaced regarding the incident.

According to CIA documents obtained by veteran UFO researcher Nick Redfern, there had been several more sightings in the region around the same time as the crash. According to one document, several “people in the San Luis and Mendoza provinces reported seeing a flying saucer squadron flying in formation!” Moreover, “the general region has had more than its share of reports of UFOs” during this same time. Even more remarkable is information Redfern relayed from fellow UFO researcher Leonard Stringfield, which he obtained just under a year later in June 1979. According to Redfern, Stringfield had been contacted by an Argentinian UFO investigator, Nicholas Ojedo, who claimed that he had come across reports of a “group of investigators who (had) vanished mysteriously in the area!” He elaborated that these same rumors suggested that “something big” had taken place and that a United States cargo plane had “carried something from the area!”

These claims of the wreckage – at least some of it – being transported out of Bolivia to the United States on an American military cargo plane were seemingly corroborated by another UFO researcher, Bob Barry. He claimed that a source in the CIA had confirmed to him that the flight had indeed operated when it was claimed it had. However, when Barry asked his source what exactly was on the flight, all he would respond is, “No comment!”

A little over a decade and a half later, this time in neighboring Argentina, again in the Salta province, yet another apparent vehicle from another world crashed to the ground. Much like the alleged crash in Bolivia, the events were witnessed by dozens of people, all of whom reported seeing a silver, disc-shaped object scream out of the skies and impact on the ground below.

On the afternoon of August 17th, 1995, at around 1:45 pm in the Serrania Colorado region of Joaquin V. Gonzalez, Tony Galvano – a commercial airline pilot - was eating lunch when he saw “a sort of flying saucer” that was a “bright metallic color” zip across the bright blue skies. As Galvano watched the object move across the sky, he noticed two smaller objects following it, which he quickly determined looked like missiles. Indeed, a moment later, these two objects impacted against the larger craft, and it suddenly “began to fail!” A moment later, it fell to the ground, and a second after that, a “powerful explosion” rang out, quickly followed by “intense seismic movement,” the aftershock of which was felt almost 200 miles away.

Moments later, multiple residents of the area noticed a “column of thick, black smoke” rising into the sky. At this point, many of the witnesses ran toward the apparent crash site in order to get a closer look. Galvano, on the other hand, ran towards a nearby airstrip where he quickly took to his Flystar plane, leaving the runway only moments later looking to investigate the crash site from the air. He made several rounds of the area but couldn’t locate the crash site due to the smoke. He eventually abandoned the mission and returned to the airstrip. Although he had only been in the air a short time, much had happened on the ground during that period.

Local radio stations were running reports of the incident, each one putting as many witnesses on the air as they could, each eager to tell what they had seen. All said that the object looked like nothing they had seen before, and all were insistent that it had been brought to the ground intentionally. Realizing that many people had witnessed the events, Galvano quickly organized a search of the area with several other members of the community. Their efforts, however, went unrewarded, and they were unable to locate the site. Two days later, however, Galvano would take to his Flystar aircraft once more – and this time, he would have luck on his side.

On this afternoon, with much better flying conditions, he quickly spotted an esplanade with what looked like an “impact print” on it that was around three miles long and at least 1500 feet wide. Given his knowledge of aviation and the consequences of potential crashing, it was clear to Galvano that the area had experienced some kind of “intense friction heat” from a “giant, heavy object!” He carefully lowered his altitude in order to get a better look. As he did so, he could see several of the heavy trees had been tossed aside by the impact, with some looking as though they had been completely ripped from the ground. Even more perplexing, there were strange markings on them “as if they had been sprayed with acid!”

Then, without warning and for no obvious reason, Galvano’s plane’s engine began to sputter and the aircraft began to lose altitude. He quickly realized the plane was failing and that he had no chance of guiding it back to the airstrip. Instead, he prepared for impact. The plane crash-landed on the mountainside, and although he was considerably shaken up and “battered” from it, he was essentially uninjured. He quickly freed himself from the plane and walked closer to the crash site, bending down to pick up some of the dirt below. When he brought the dirt closer to his face to inspect it, however, he claimed it appeared “like strange dust” and that he had “never seen anything like it!” The dirt was sent for analysis at the University of La Plata. It was found to contain 98 percent potassium and “two percent unknown material!” Incidentally, this substance level and ratio is not found anywhere on Earth.

Around two weeks after the incident, Galvano was leading several of the villagers in the woodlands around the crash site, looking for any other signs of debris. As they were doing so, several heavy-duty black all-terrain vehicles arrived seemingly out of nowhere and several heavily armed men in dark suits exited the vehicles. They informed Galvano and the rest of the group, in no uncertain terms, that they were taking over the search area and that they were to vacate the area immediately. After issuing these orders, despite protests, the men refused to acknowledge the group – except for one of them, who stated to Galvano that he should, “Forget it! What’s coming down is very heavy!” Although he wasn’t sure what was meant by that, it was something Galvano never forgot.

Even more unsettling, Galvano began to receive strange, mysterious phone calls in the days that followed the encounter in the woods. And while the person on the other end never spoke a word, the menacing silence was enough to tell Galvano that there was a very definite presence on the other end of the line. These phone calls often came late in the evening or even in the middle of the night, and they continued for several years. In fact, so disturbed was Galvano by these repeated silent phone calls that he temporarily left the area. He eventually returned several years later, still looking for answers to what had happened that afternoon in 1995.  

Another mind-blowing encounter unfolded five years earlier on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean over Megas Platanos in Greece in the early hours of September 2nd, 1990. On the morning in question, at a little after 3 am, several people – mainly shepherds and local villagers – witnessed several brightly lit crafts moving across the sky in complete silence. As these different witnesses watched from their different vantage points, all became aware that one of the objects began moving erratically. One of the local shepherds – Trantos Karatranjos – stated to investigators that not long after the single object began moving erratically, it “crashed to the ground” in a freefall. He estimated that it came to the ground around 1500 feet from where he was standing. He could see flames seemingly coming from the object – flames that were spreading to the nearby bushes. He contemplated getting a little closer but quickly decided against it.

At this point, the remaining five objects had stopped their progression across the sky and were now hovering directly over the downed craft. After several moments, two of them began to descend calmly but with obvious purpose. They stopped a short distance above the crippled craft. Karantranjos suddenly realized that the flames were no longer visible and the fire had seemingly been extinguished, something he attributed to the two crafts that had descended. The strange events, though, were not over.  

As the respective witnesses watched the events for the rest of the night until dawn, they saw the lights seemingly taking turns “diving” down toward the crash site from the sky and then back again. Although they were not at all sure what they were doing, their movements and actions appeared very purposeful. When investigators were told of this activity, they theorized that this was some kind of retrieval mission. In fact, while only several people witnessed the start of this strange encounter, many more local residents, waking early in order to go to work, witnessed this apparent alien rescue operation.

As daylight took hold, several of the locals decided to venture to the area of the bizarre activity they had witnessed during the night, and upon arriving, they discovered a dark, burned oval shape on the ground. Even stranger, the edges of the oval were extremely acute, “as if it had been made with a knife!” Moreover, they also saw multiple pieces of small “metallic remains” and “small wires,” some of which were taken home by the residents as souvenirs.

Things turned even more intriguing several hours later when the Hellenic (Greek) Air Force arrived at the location. They retrieved some of the small wires and metallic remains, taking them to an unknown destination. They later issued an official statement claiming that what had come down to the ground was a “Soviet satellite” or a “small plane!” Needless to say, those who had witnessed the events through the night dismissed this apparent explanation outright. They knew that they had witnessed something altogether stranger and potentially otherworldly than a satellite or small airplane.

There have also been several (at the very least) UFO crashes in more recent times, many of which are documented in the book Crash: When UFOs Fall from the Sky: A History of Famous Incidents, Conspiracies, and Cover-Ups by Kevin Randle. Without a doubt, one of the most thought-provoking of these unfolded in May 2004 in Venezuela. According to UFO researcher Scott Corrales, who first put the account into the public arena, the extraterrestrial vehicle came to the ground close to the Raul Leoni Hydroelectric Station, approximately 90 miles from the Orinoco River.

According to Corrales’ investigation, several dam workers in the region reported seeing the bizarre object over the hydroelectric station. Their reports led to a full security alarm at the facility, with other residents later telling Corrales that they saw several black, unmarked helicopters in the area at the time of the supposed crash. In the days that followed – as we have seen in other UFO crashes in South America – a discreet “American presence” was noted in the region, with Corrales suggesting these tourists were most likely intelligence operatives. Also of interest, at the estimated time of the crash, a university in Caracas recorded “significant seismic activity” in the region. Rumors swirled that a military unit had managed to secure the crash site and remove the wreckage. Even more remarkable, it was claimed that at least one alien entity was recovered also. The case remains shrouded in secrecy.

Almost exactly four years later, at around 10 am on May 27th, 2008, a bizarre aerial object suddenly exploded over Phu Quoc Island just off the coast of Vietnam. The explosion sent debris scattering in all directions. Initial reports appeared conflicting, with some stating that the members of a commune on the island had retrieved the wreckage, while others insisted that a military unit had been dispatched to the island to recover the remains of the unknown object. A news article in the state-run Vietnam News Agency stated that officials had investigated whether the object could have been a commercial or military aircraft, but all of their aerial vehicles were accounted for. Moreover, they reported that residents in neighboring Cambodia had reported seeing what looked like a “fire in the sky” moving overhead a short time before the apparent explosion over the island.

Whatever the object might have been, one of the pieces of debris – a small piece of metal shrapnel – was examined. It was quickly noted that this piece of metal had strange symbols etched into it, very similar to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, a detail that often shows up in UFO closer encounter reports. It was claimed that the Vietnamese military recovered 14 pieces of significant debris, while various residents of the island also claimed to have secured pieces of the apparent craft. What the object might have been and just what happened to it, however, remains unknown.

Much more recently, on the evening of May 20th, 2021, “thousands” of people witnessed an anomalous object crashing to the ground in the municipality of Mage just to the north of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. According to an article on the crash, thousands of residents reported seeing multiple “glowing lights in the sky,” with many of them even managing to capture video footage of the strange glows. Many of these videos were quickly uploaded to social media and do indeed appear to show a “flashing, circular orange light moving through the night sky” before it came crashing to the ground. As we might imagine, while there were plenty of people who thought the videos in question showed an otherworldly craft, others believed they were seeing nothing more than a satellite returning to Earth, the orange glow possibly being the last reflection of the early evening sun. The incident, at least for now, remains a mystery.

As we can see, then, UFO crashes, if we accept that only a small percentage of such claims are true, happen much more than many of us might think. And we have only explored a small number of such cases on record. Indeed, to explore them all would take up an entire volume, perhaps even two. The fact is, if there is any truth to any of these claims, then it suggests that the government – predominantly, the American government – has not only one or two recovered alien vehicles but many of them, as well as it would seem, multiple occupants, some of whom were alive, at least at the time of recovery. Where are these vehicles and occupants now? What information has been learned from the presumed study of them? And what does this all mean for the collective reality of humanity? As usual, we are left with many more questions than answers and a lot to collectively contemplate.