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Newly-declassified government documents from more than thirty years ago reveal how officials concealed a potential UFO encounter at the South Pole.
Records released by Argentina’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs have validated an eyewitness report from 1991 about military personnel and civilian researchers in Antarctica encountering a gigantic flying saucer over their base.
A number of unusual measurements taken at General San Martín Base and the testimony of one of its key figures, meteorological sub-officer Miguel Amaya, have rekindled interest following the recent declassification of official documents obtained under the Law on Access to Public Information.
“These files were sought for more than 15 years,” said Andrea Perez Simondini, who runs the Victoria UFO Museum. “The interesting thing is that in this case, it wasn’t someone directly linked to our campaigns, but an ordinary citizen who dared to use the Law on Access to Public Information. This demonstrates that the tool works and that anyone can get involved.”
What happened on that night in Antarctica?
According to a report by UNO Entre Rios, the UFO encounter occurred at the start of the polar night in April and May of 1991. There were 20 crew members on the site, including both civilian and military scientists.
Around 1:15 a.m. one night, the electronics engineer in charge of ionospheric studies called Amaya. Minutes later, a scientific instrument known as a riometer (Relative Ionospheric Opacity Meter) began to record significant anomalies.
A riometer measures variations in the ionospheric absorption of cosmic radio waves. It enables the study of ionospheric changes, especially in polar regions. According to the testimony, the recording equipment began plotting identical lines simultaneously, which the engineer considered technically impossible. According to the account, the measurements lasted over four hours – an unprecedented length of time.
Amaya said outpost staff asserted that the readings could only have resulted from something generating a huge amount of energy. He compared it to something as large as a city floating over Antarctica or a nuclear aircraft carrier.
“At times, these ‘signals’ would cut out, and everything would continue as normal,” Amaya said in an interview with CEFORA, according to DailyMail.com. “Then, for periods of ten or fifteen minutes, it would start again, sometimes with such force that the needles would jump off the belt.”
A witness reported seeing ‘a huge circle of light’
About 16 hours later, a different base member reportedly noticed “a huge circle of light.” It was moving silently and slowly directly over the building.
“He noticed a huge circle of light, very dim due to the cloud cover, passing above the base, but still visible, and moving very slowly and silently towards the sea,” Amaya claimed.
Amaya said that his superiors instructed him and other members of the base to never discuss what they had witnessed.
The government has now made public for the first time formerly classified images. These images now prove the inexplicable interference with the base’s riometer did, in fact, occur.
This case now “raises expectations for the continued declassification of other files,” Simondini said.