BALLOONS NOT UFOsDear Friends of INEXPLICATA, Researcher Luis Eduardo Pacheco from Argentina has kindly given us another "heads-up" regarding atmospheric balloon launches which will undoubtedly unleash an entire wave of misidentified UFOs. "Aside from the Ultra Long Duration Balloon or ULDB," writes Pacheco in his e-mail, "to be launched by NASA momentarily from Alice Springs, and which will circumnnavigate the world barring any unforeseen events, France's CNES is returning to South America with its MIR balloons, the true "masters of deception" when it comes to producing UFO reports." "I do not yet have confirmed dates, but it is very likely that this week will witness the launch of the first of these balloons under the HIBISCUS program. Said initiative has the goal of measuirng ozone concentrations in tropical regions and obtaining data aimed at validating several instruments aboard the ENVISAT satellite." "The launch site," Pacheco continues, "shall be the same one used in the 2001 campaign: the balloon launching field belonging to the Instituto de Pesquisas Meteorologicas de la Universidade Estadual Paulista outside Bauru, Brazil. As you may recall, between November 2000 and April 2001, the Southern Cone experienced a veritable "flap" of sightings caused by these devices. "Historically, the MIR series has been responsible for several famous cases of UFO misidentification, most notably the July 22, 1985 sightings in Zimbabwe (resulting in ZAF interceptors being scrambled); August 17, 1985 (a mass sighting in Santiago de Chile, related to the "Friendship Island" myth); and September 17, 1985 (a massive sighting over Buenos Aires Province)." "It is therefore likely," he concludes, "that we will have UFO sightings similar to the ones we experienced exactly two years ago." We wish to thank Mr. Pacheco for keeping us informed about these developments, and for keeping an eye out for those pesky IFOs. Scott Corrales UFOINFO Note: INEXPLICATA : The Journal of Hispanic Ufology can be found at: http://www.inexplicata.com UFOINFO would like to thank Scott Corrales and UFO UpDates for granting permission to use this article. You can subscribe to UFO UpDates by writing to Errol Bruce-Knapp at: ufoupdates@virtuallystrange.net |
