In November 1967, many unidentified objects of various shapes flew over Eastern Europe. On November 21, the Zuddeutsche Zeitung newspaper published a note from its own correspondent from Belgrade:
“UFOs have been observed over the past few days over various regions of Southeast Europe. At the end of the week, an amateur astronomer photographed three of these luminous celestial bodies in Agram. But while experts were examining this photograph printed on many pages by Yugoslav newspapers, new UFOs have already been reported from the mountainous region of Montenegro, which allegedly even caused numerous forest fires. Messages come, first of all, from the town of Ivangrad, where residents categorically claim that in recent days they have observed strange, brightly lit celestial bodies every night. Although the authorities confirm that forest fires have occurred in this area many times, they still cannot indicate any reason for their occurrence."
On the day this article was published, something unusual was observed in neighboring Romania. This is what Marin David from Poenaria-Burchia commune, Prahova district reported:
“On November 21, 1967, at 4:40 pm, I observed an object with an apparent length of 2 m in the form of a tube, the color of sparks from fire, in the southwest direction. He stood still at an altitude of about 20-30 km. After about 10 minutes, it went up sloping, emitting a white tail … I saw that the object had a head of a more saturated color, indefinite shape. He moved away, moving at the speed of a transport plane, not very quickly."
Half an hour later, at 17.10, a UFO appeared over Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Among the eyewitnesses were Bulgarian and Soviet scientists, participants in the symposium on clouds. It was an object with a diameter of at least 130-150 m and had a shape close to triangular. It resembled a mercury lamp in color. By nightfall, the edges of the UFO turned red, and flashes were observed below, as in electric welding.
“The weather was clear on November 21, 1967,” said Ivanka Ivanova, a researcher at the Physics Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. - The sun was hidden behind the rooftops. At 17 o'clock (maybe at 17.30) I was on Skobelev Boulevard in Sofia. I saw people looking up. I also looked up. Approximately in the same direction where the Sun was setting, in the sky at an altitude of 40-90 degrees from the Earth, I saw a trapezoid-shaped body.
At that moment, the body was motionless. Against the background of a grayish-blue sky, it had a shine, its color can be compared with the color of a neon lamp (a very accurate comparison). The brilliance did not change, there were no sounds. The body looked like a flat sheet, like a kite, the volume was not felt. After watching for a few minutes, I went home.
At home I took military binoculars and went out onto the balcony and saw this body again. Now it has become smaller, its shape has changed, it was visible without binoculars, the color changed a little and became reddish. Now it could no longer be compared to the color of a neon lamp. The balcony faces east, therefore, during the time I walked home, the body moved to the eastern part of the sky. I walked home for 4-5 minutes. I watched from the balcony with my brother, he works at the same institute as me. The shape of the body changed, it was visible both with the naked eye and through binoculars. The color was not uniform, at the edges there was a kind of red "border", on the right it was wider, then the red "border" expanded up and to the left and occupied almost half of the body. This happened when the body began to rise. In the end, there was something like an asterisk in the middle, and the rest turned reddish. The shape of the body changed in the following way: from a circle to an ellipse, more and more elongated, but these changes did not occur continuously: sometimes the shape of the body returned to the previous one, no regularity in these "returns" was noticed. When the body was still round, far to the right, to the side parallel to my line of sight, a plane passed; between the body and its path, maybe 10 or more lunar disks would fit in. The plane was almost invisible, only flashed once, only its white trail, which usually remains from planes, was visible. was a military man, the pilot, apparently, was observing the body. When the plane departed, the body began to change shape and size … "While the body was still round, a plane passed far to the right, to the side parallel to my line of sight; between the body and its path, maybe 10 or more lunar disks would fit. The plane was almost invisible, it flashed only once, only its white trail was visible, which usually remain from aircraft. The plane was a military one, the pilot apparently observed the body. When the plane departed, the body began to change shape and size … "While the body was still round, a plane passed far to the right, to the side parallel to my line of sight; between the body and its path, maybe 10 or more lunar disks would fit. The plane was almost invisible, it flashed only once, only its white trail was visible, which usually remain from aircraft. The plane was a military one, the pilot apparently observed the body. When the plane departed, the body began to change shape and size …"
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Researcher at the Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Sharov saw not one, but two planes that were trying to intercept the mysterious object. At the same time, journalists from the trade union newspaper Trud were observing the UFO. Soon a small note appeared in it:
“The sun has just gone down. Above Sofia, against the background of a red sunset, a luminous object of an unusual shape appeared. At first, it looked like a ball, larger than the solar disk. But after a while it took the shape of a trapezoid. It should be noted that this flying saucer, if it can be called so, was moving extremely slowly, and for some time it was even in a motionless state.
We had at our disposal a spyglass "Lunet", magnifying 40 times. In its lens the flying object appeared to us in the form of a ball or, more precisely, a parachute. In its upper part it looked like a flattened dark disc surrounded by a wide light ribbon. The parachute balloon emitted a silvery-blue light, similar to a flame. Gradually this flame turned orange. Finally, this luminous and increasingly receding object disappeared into the darkening sky towards the east … "Trud correspondent Lyuben Donov was able to take a fairly clear picture of the UFO using a telephoto lens (Fig. 17) The journalists contacted the duty researcher of the Hydrological and Meteorological Institute Dimitar Simetchiev and asked for his opinion.
“I observed the object with a simple eye and therefore I cannot give exhaustive data,” D. Simechiev answered them. “But the indisputable fact is that he was moving in the direction opposite to the wind. This circumstance allows us to make the assumption that the object had its own engine. In my opinion, he flew at an altitude of 30 km from the earth's surface. It is also interesting to note that his presence did not cause any interference in the radio network."
Although the object did not interfere with radio communications, it nevertheless created some kind of interference. Iliya Iliev, an assistant at the Department of Physics at Sofia University, noticed that while the object was above the city, there was strong interference in the operation of the galvanometer, so the experiment had to be stopped.
Radar confirmed that the object was at an altitude of 33 km. Unfortunately, synoptic data on the strength and direction of the wind were known only up to an altitude of 24 km. Velko Piskov, forecaster of the Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, said that then “the meteorological situation was quasi-stationary. The wind direction was from north to south. The direction of body movement during the day was at UTC. Analysis of the synoptic situation on November 21 was carried out at 00 and 12 hours GMT and on November 22 at 00 hours. The wind direction during these periods remained constant from north to south. The wind direction up to an altitude of 24 km was established by the aerological method. The radiosonde was ascending at a speed of 350 m / min. On November 21, at 00:00 GMT, the wind was north up to an altitude of 24 km. At 12 noon, the wind direction did not change, the pressure was up to 50 mb. The wind was very strongup to 30 m / s.
Piskov himself saw a UFO from the balcony of his house. According to him, "flashes were visible under him, from time to time moving in turns from left to right." At night, the visibility was poor: the object flew much higher than the clouds, it "shone" through them, or, more precisely, cirrus clouds "veiled" the body.
Dimitar Simetchiev also saw these flashes - a short-term appearance of a spot that was brighter than the general background of the triangle. According to the BTA news agency on November 23, "the reflections of the body were similar to those from welding."
Scientific Secretary of the Astronomical Section of the BAN Bogomil Kovachev emphasized that “the mysterious body moved at times much faster than an ordinary satellite, and the light it emitted was much brighter than the light of the satellite. Changes in the shades of radiation of a flying object can be explained by the setting of the Sun. After his arrival, he disappeared into the darkness of the night and, as it were, went out in front of everyone."
November 21 was not at all a benefit performance of the shining "tetrahedron" over Bulgaria and its capital. On April 7, 1967, employees of the People's Astronomical Observatory in Stara Zagora and amateur astronomers observed the same object over the city. With the help of astronomical instruments, it was found that the UFO flew at an altitude of 60-70 km, had dimensions of about 100-200 m and its angular velocity was 3.17 'per second. It flew from west to east, and its apparent dimensions were equal to half or a third of the lunar disk.
The head of the observatory, Boncho Bochev, strongly rejected the version that it was an artificial satellite. "The satellites most distant from the Earth, which move in the sky much more slowly, can be observed for at most 20-25 minutes, and this body was observed for almost 1.5 hours, and everyone considered its shape," he said.
“It was a constantly luminous body of a triangular shape with triangular sides concave inward,” Stefan Stoinov described what he saw. “It cannot be confused with an airplane or with satellites that we often observe from this observatory through the same telescope …”
“I observed the body through the telescope of the observatory,” Nikolai Dushkov confirmed. - It had a triangular shape. Moved from west to east. We watched him for over 40 minutes. In the end it turned pale and disappeared”(Fig. 18).
Ivan Todorov saw it as "a purple-red disc with yellowish edges in the form of a halo", and to Ivan Belinsky it seemed like "three luminous balls connected to one another." However, the photo taken on April 7 by the observatory photographer Margarita Belinska shows that the body had a triangular shape with something like a tail.
On April 20, a tetrahedral UFO flew over the city of Ruse for more than three hours. He changed shape, color and direction of flight several times. Through a telescope magnifying a hundredfold, they saw him like this:
“In the eyepiece, the object looked like a crystal that gave off reflections from the edges, but inside it looked slightly transparent, like jelly. Three internal ribs were visible, like carved features. From above, two branches were visible, like antennas. The body was not clearly visible to the naked eye due to the glow. They began to observe him when the Sun disappeared behind the horizon. The body was then close to the moon. Then it slowly moved in a northeasterly direction and stopped in a stationary position for about a minute, after which it flew just as slowly, with stops and changes in direction. All the time, while the UFO was over the city, radio receivers worked with interference."
On April 22, the triangular object reappeared over Stara Zagora, and on April 28, the same observation took place in France. Two days later, a short report from Agence France-Presse appeared on the pages of Bulgarian newspapers:
“On Friday afternoon, a strange luminous body in the shape of a large triangle surrounded by a blue halo was observed in the sky over Croc (50 km west of Clermont-Fernand). After it hung motionless in the sky for 2.5 hours, the body suddenly departed and looked like a pale star. By 21 o'clock it was no longer visible in the sky."
Apparently the same object was seen by the Coast Guard in Brixham, UK. The Air Force immediately dispatched the plane, which circled near the UFO in front of the military, but made no attempt to fire at it. Judging by how small the plane looked compared to the UFO, the object was 70 meters high and 50 at the base of the tetrahedron. Subsequently, the Ministry of Defense denied what had happened, and eyewitnesses were hinted to keep their mouths shut.
On May 2, the "tetrahedron" first appeared over Sophia. Angel Bonov, an assistant at the Astronomical Observatory of Sofia University, observed the object through a telescope. From 10 to 14 o'clock it hung motionless or slowly shifting, its brightness changed, then the UFO began to move from northwest to northeast. This object was observed not only over Sofia, but also over many other points in Bulgaria. Letters came to the Astronomical Observatory, newspapers wrote about it, and from these data it was possible to establish that the object passed over Veliko Tarnovo, then over Ruse, changed the direction of movement again - turned to the northwest, crossed the Danube and went to Romania. Bonov heard that the height at which the body was moving was determined using radar and turned out to be 33 km. Airplanes climbed to intercept UFOs,but all reports about this are classified and kept in the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense.
Nikola Godev, a researcher at the Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, was on the Vitosha Mountain (height 1700 m) that day.
“The weather was sunny, the visibility was good,” he said. - I noticed the noise of the plane. I raised my head and wanted to look at the plane, but saw the “parachute.” After a while I noticed that the “parachute” was not falling. It was a clearly triangular body. The color is white, shiny, silvery.
When the planes took to the sky, a large number of people who were on Vitosha began to look at this object. I decided to estimate the height of the body and did it this way: I used a telegraph pole (10-15 m high) and a felled branch, placing them so that I could mentally build similar triangles. The height of the branch was about 1.5 m, the distance between the post and the branch was 10-15 m. I determined the height of the body as about 30 km. I decided to check if the body is moving or not moving. To do this, I observed the body for a long time, trying to notice its displacement relative to my sights, pillar and branch. For a long time the body was motionless.
The body changed shape - sometimes the triangle turned into a straight line - this was when the noise of the plane was heard (this was 3-4 times). A day later, when I came to work, I learned that the airbase officer on duty contacted our forecaster and asked him: “Is this your balloon? If not, we will take action. After 3-4 hours, the body began to move north-northeast, gaining altitude. Its height was probably 2-2.5 times higher than it was at the beginning. The assessment was made as follows: just at this time there was a passenger plane, which usually flies at an altitude of 7-8 km. I mentally raised its angular height above the horizon several times. When the plane was projected onto the body, it could be seen that the apparent size of the body is several tens of times larger plane, and the plane was visible as a circular dot.
The next day, Rositsa Selector, an employee of the Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology, saw the same body through artillery binoculars (magnification 30 times). But she describes the shape of the body a little differently: below the triangle she saw a horizontally located rectangle."
Among the newspapers that told about the new UFO visit was the Fatherland Front:
“On May 2, at about 11 am, the gazes of many residents of the capital were directed to a strange luminous body at a fairly high altitude. Some believed that it was a balloon hovering in the sky. But here is what an employee who observed the object through a telescope at Sofia airport told us:
- This is a luminous object in the form of an isosceles triangle with rods sticking out from one side, like an antenna. Flickering with a reddish tint was observed near him. The height of the object was over 25 km. The observation lasted until 13:00. During this time, the object changed shape several times. After that, he seemed to shoot to the north and disappeared from sight. Soon it was reported that he was observed in the Gorno-Oryakhovitsa area."
Only in January 1968, having come to their senses, the communist authorities in Bulgaria began anti-food propaganda to calm the people. The "debunking of the sensation" was organized at the very top, and soon a whirlwind of anti-drug publications passed through the pages of Bulgarian newspapers. Their apotheosis was an interview by Major General Simeon Simeonov to the Fatherland Front newspaper, dedicated to the November 21 observations:
“- Did you manage to see an unknown object flying over Sofia?
- Yes, I saw him. Our air defense was watching him even on the approaches to the border … It was not a "flying saucer", as it seemed to some of our citizens, but a reconnaissance balloon … They are mainly used to obtain data necessary for long-range missile forces, as well as for special military purposes. intelligence …
The cylinders are launched by NATO countries with favorable air currents. They fly at an altitude of 15,000-40,000 m. The speed of movement is equal to the speed of the air current, sometimes reaching 600 km / h … Military reconnaissance cylinders are equipped with special cameras for aerial photography. They are controlled through NATO intelligence centers …
From 1952 to the present, our air defense fighter aircraft shot down many of these cylinders. Our 1st class military pilot Colonel Savva Netsov has considerable experience in this. In all cases, he attacked the cylinders suddenly and from top to bottom, not allowing their warning system to receive the signal of an impending danger. Our air defense has the same operating surface-to-air anti-aircraft missile systems, which can hit any target at the lowest and highest altitudes.
Those countries are interested in using cylinders that seek to cover up their espionage activities with references to meteorological research carried out by all states. To achieve their expansionist goals, the imperialists do not disdain by any means …”.
This explanation was taken up by the Soviet newspaper Pravda: "It is not 'unidentified' and the object observed over Sofia In reality it was a large spy balloon launched by one of the NATO reconnaissance centers. wind ". After all, it is known that wind directions in the upper atmosphere and near the Earth's surface often do not coincide …"
No one ever asked whether this particular balloon was shot down and why the air defense allowed it to fly over Sofia and other strategically important areas, if it was being watched "even on the outskirts of the border." It seems that the references to "enemy intrigues" were just an excuse for the confused military, faced with something unknown (Fig. 19).
Indeed, the objects over Bulgaria were extremely similar to tetrahedral balloons of the "Zodiac" type, made using French technology from triangular patterns, but some features of the observations raise doubts about their trivial nature. In the drawings of eyewitnesses, one can clearly see some strange "outgrowths", which are not found in weather balloons. The flares on board, the dramatic increase in speed and the interference that UFOs created, also contradict the theory of a tetrahedral balloon. In addition, at high altitudes, the tetrahedron ball was supposed to swell, while the edges of the objects above Stara Zagora and Sofia were concave.
On September 5, 1968, thousands of people saw exactly the same UFO tetrahedron over Madrid. Two days later, United Press gave interesting details:
“The Spanish Air Force said that an unidentified flying object eluded one of their supersonic jet fighter-bombers … The appearance of a bright object in the night sky over Madrid caused monumental 'traffic jams', and F-104s were sent to figure out what it was … An official Air Force statement said the pilot had ascended to over 50,000 feet (15 km) and reported that the object was still higher than it was when it was necessary to return to base for fuel. The pilot of the second aircraft, which climbed to 36,000 feet, also saw this object Air Force radar tracked a UFO and it was reported to be flying slowly at an altitude of 90,000 feet (about 30 km).
Thousands of Spaniards flooded the streets of Madrid to look at the site, and traffic stopped for miles. One reporter sent to the Madrid Astronomical Observatory said it was emitting “blinding light.” A photograph taken through a telescope shows it to be a triangular object - apparently solid on one side and shining through in several places (Figure 20). The official conclusion of the Air Force says that they have no scientific explanation for this phenomenon, but suggest that the object may be a weather balloon. The Madrid Weather Bureau, however, said that they did not lose weather balloons …"
In the end, the UFO disappeared "at high speed," which is hardly the case with weather balloons. West German Institute. Max Planck responded to the inquiry that, as far as they know, the weight is suspended from the corner of the tetrahedral cylinders, so that they fly flat side up. Of course, if the cargo separated from the probe on a signal from the Earth and descended by parachute, nothing prevents the probe from flipping upward.
So what were the "Bulgarian tetrahedrons" of the 1967-1968 model - a real UFO or an unusual balloon? The answer to this question is still hidden in the secret files of the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense …
Mikhail Gershtein
