Mysterious UFO that shone ‘fine rays of light’ onto Soviet city in 1977 revealed in declassified CIA report
DETAILS of a mysterious UFO that shined bright rays of light onto a Soviet city in the 1970s have emerged from a treasure trove of declassified CIA documents published online.
Multiple reports from terrified locals described “very fine rays” raining down from the high-speed object, which appeared like a “huge star” over Petrozavodsk in what is now western Russia.
Dated September 1977, the once top secret CIA file appears to be a copy of a story published at the time by Russia’s TASS news agency.
It was released earlier this month as part of a dossier of newly uncovered declassified records on “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” (UAPs).
Known as the “Black Vault”, the database is available thanks to a decades-long effort to access CIA records dating back as far as the 1970s.
According to one of hundreds of files in the vault, a peculiar UFO sighting above Petrozavodsk peaked the interest of agents almost 54 years ago.
“On 20 September, at about 0400 a huge star suddenly flared up in the night sky, impulsively sending shafts of light to the Earth” the report reads.
“The star moved slowly toward Petrozavodsk and spread out over it in the form of a medusa.”
The light then “hung there, showering the city with a multitude of very fine rays which created an image of pouring rain.”
After the rays ceased, the “medusa” turned into a bright semi-circle and moved in the direction of nearby Lake Onega.
A semi-circular pool of bright light, “red in the middle and white at the sides”, then formed in a shroud of grey cloud on the lake’s horizon.
According to citizen reports, the ordeal lasted between 10 and 12 minutes.
The CIA document states that what caused the phenomenon “remains a riddle”.
Russian weather experts reported having never seen anything like it, and no “technical experiments” were being carried out at the time.
“Many eyewitnesses” from various parts of the city reported sightings, meaning it was unlikely to be a mirage, the file says.
The document does not state whether the CIA followed up on the TASS report or simply filed it away for future reference.
It’s just one of a huge dump of CIA files uploaded to the free “Black Vault” database last week.
Campaigner John Greenewald Jr., who operates the website, says it contains what the CIA claims is all of its documents on UAPs.
UAP is the US government’s preferred term for aerial objects that experts cannot immediately identify or explain.
Many may turn out to be tricks of the light or a fault in a pilot’s instruments, but a handful are targets of investigations by The Pentagon.
Greenewald, who began investigating the US government’s UFO projects in 1996 at the age of 15, told Motherboard last Monday that he’s been suing the CIA to release its records for decades.
“Around 20 years ago, I had fought for years to get additional UFO records released from the CIA,” Greenewald said.
“It was like pulling teeth! I went around and around with them to try and do so, finally achieving it.
“I received a large box, of a couple thousand pages, and I had to scan them in one page at a time.”
Greenwald uploaded the files – the fruit of 10,000 Freedom Of Information Act reports, according to the UFO sleuth – to the Black Vault website.
Within the pages are a bizarre story of a mysterious explosion in a small Russian town which ripped off roofs, blew out windows and left a 90ft-wide crater.
Another file details a dispute with a Bosnian fugitive who claimed to have made contact with aliens.
Fermi Paradox – what is it?
Here's what you need to know...
- The Fermi Paradox isn’t strict evidence for alien life – but more of a thought experiment
- It’s a famous contradiction posed by physicist Enrico Fermi
- Fermi suggested that the enormous size of the universe – and the billions of Sun-like stars in the galaxy, and their planets – makes it highly likely that there is intelligent life out there
- Some of these civilisations may have developed interstellar travel
- But Fermi also noted that there’s a significant lack of evidence for life on other planets
- The chances of aliens being able to reach us are high, but there’s no evidence that aliens ever have
- This paradox has baffled scientists for decades
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In other news, UFO experts have hit out after it emerged a dossier into Britain’s most significant sighting is to be kept secret for another 50 years.
A researcher claimed last year that the discovery of alien life was not only “inevitable” but also “imminent”.
One Nasa scientist has admitted it’s entirely possible that aliens have already visited Earth – and we simply never noticed.
What do you make of the CIA’s UFO files? Let us know in the comments!
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