Two students at the University of Bogota were about to take a cab at 4 a.m. that night when they heard a metallic sound overhead. They reported seeing a disc, about 12 feet in diameter, swinging in the air as if it had difficulty maintaining its altitude of 3,000 to 3,500 feet -- obviously a very rough estimate since it is notoriously difficult to estimate the distance and size of luminous objects at night. Four other objects appeared, flying around the first one as if to provide assistance. Spouts of liquid were then ejected from the primary object. The witnesses took shelter under a tree and watched the liquid fall on the pavement, producing a vapor. The objects rose and disappeared into heavy rain clouds. After letting the material cool down for about ten minutes the witnesses were able to recover two metal chunks, about four inches by one inch and a quarter inch thick. The first analysis was performed in Central America by a mechanical engineer with a petroleum company. He concluded that the sample was an aluminum alloy with magnesium and tin. It was nonmagnetic and contained traces of unidentified materials. He also stated that the material was easy to cut and presented very fine granulation. In October 1985 the author was given a sample of this material by Mr. Ricardo Vilchez, a Latin American investigator, and brought it to the United States for analysis. Subsequent study led by Dr. Harold Puthoff and ourselves showed it to be formed mainly of aluminum (93.7%) with phosphorus (4.8%) and iron (0.9%) with traces of sulfur and an unexplained oxy-carbide layer.¹¹ The sample included no fluoride and no water, contrary to most aluminum samples: fluoride is a common by-product of aluminum production. One side of the specimen showed evidence of violent activity and bubbling, while the other side was flat, with some embedded material, possibly from the road asphalt. Its appearance was typical of an overheat and was indeed consistent with the blowup of a machine, although the hoax hypothesis could not be totally excluded.

     The sample was subjected to analysis with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) which produces an X-ray fluorescence spectrum, leading to the above composition findings. It was further analyzed with a scanning ion mass spectroscope (SIMS) which uses an electron beam in a vacuum, boring at various points into the material. This test found a surface layer of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, beyond which we encountered aluminum as well as magnesium (as reported by the initial analysis in Central America), with potassium, sulfur, sodium and silicon. Phosphorus and iron also showed up in trace amounts.

Case no. 9: December 17, 1977. Council Bluffs (Iowa) -- Classification: MA-2

     In this incident (which is described at more length in the next section) two residents of Council Bluffs (Iowa) saw an object that crashed to the ground in the vicinity of a dike in Big Lake Park on the northern city limits. The time

     ¹¹The analysis of the Bogota sample conducted with Dr. Puthoff was first published in Vallee, J. F.: Confrontations, 1990, pp.44-45.