Arenda, Columbia, July 1956July 1956

Insufficient Data

Summary

In July 1956, a cemetery worker named Luna in the town of Aranda, Colombia reported finding pieces of metal after a series of loud explosions. The worker said the explosions happened around 8:30 p.m., and that a bright blue cloud filled the air so intensely that he had to shield his eyes. He collected the metal fragments and brought them to local authorities.

The U.S. Air Force learned of the incident through a Spanish-language newspaper article and a letter sent to the American Embassy in Bogota. Officials decided to investigate, hoping the fragments might turn out to be meteorite material from space, though they acknowledged the objects could be more ordinary in origin. They asked the Air Attache in Bogota to interview the observer and obtain samples of the metal pieces.

When the Air Attache's office looked into the case in September 1956, they found that the metal fragments had been handed over to the Colombian National Security Police. The investigators also learned that the Colombian Army had been conducting practice artillery firing in the Aranda and Pasto area on the day of the reported sighting. Based on this detail, the Air Attache concluded that the metal pieces were probably fragments from 40mm or 20mm tracer ammunition used during the military exercises. The office was unable to locate the original observer for an interview, and the pieces were never recovered for analysis.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 10 pages.

Reported location

Arenda, Columbia, July 1956

Date of incident

July 1956

State / country

? / XX

Page count

10 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 25

To APT We 0 RS 4 pr no ye yr - | | : PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD 4 | : 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS i ; 0 Was Bolloon 6 July 1956 Arenda, Columbia O Probably Balloon 0 Possibly Balloon 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION EY Pe SR Ge EY XBround- Visual O Ground-Radar 8 Probebly Alverats 4 GMT not reported 0 Air Visual 0 Air-Intercept Radar O Possibly Aircraft 5. PHOTOS : - SOURCE O Was Astronomical O Yes fyaical | a] Probably Anrenemicel XDNo TRS £2814) Civilian B Tossiby. Asirareminn 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE Ln —— , BX Insufficient Dota for Evaluation : : O Unknown not reported multipls fell on grouad ; ? BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING i 11. COMMENTS : Newspaper article stating that objects Letter dispatched to Attache in fell from sky and vere recovered in Bogata with request to recover Arenda, Columbia, South America, objects if possible. Reply indi- : | cated that the pieces of metal had been turned over to the Colun- | bean Security Police, Also there 1 had been artillery firings in the | | ar2a on date of rptd sighting & the possibility of objects being | | fm these shells was indicated. Oss | | not recovered, witnesses not feces Ad (could not be located). ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP §2) | / +4 |