In early 1959, a UFO crash occurred in the Polish port city of Gdynia, which later received the official name "Gdynia Incident". The first news about this event appeared on the front page of the Gdańsk newspaper "Weczor Wybrzeza" No. 18 of 23 January 1959. It was a short article "Flying Saucer over Gdynia". In particular, it said:
We received intriguing information over the phone this morning. Our correspondent in Gdynia said that the readers of Vecherka, Pan Wlodzimierz and Mrs Jadwiga Plonczkers, who live in this city, saw a flying saucer in the northwestern part of the sky at 06:05.
The rounded object was large in size, its color was orange with a pink border along the outline. After a short period of time, the "dish" disappeared behind neighboring houses, leaving no trace in the sky. We leave this information on the conscience of the Plonchkers. At the same time, we ask everyone who may have also seen the "plate" to inform us about it.
The next day, the same newspaper published a note called "Plate" or a meteorite? A mysterious object fell into the sea. " In it, in particular, it was reported that the docker Jan Blok, who was on board a ship docked in the fourth (Polish) basin of a commercial seaport, noticed "… a large bright pink object falling from the sky." A moment later this "something" turned red and sank into the water with a noise near the pier.
In the following days, "Vechernee Vzmorie" published new information about the incident and new eyewitness reports. The aforementioned Pan Block clarified:
This happened on January 21 in the morning, at the beginning of the sixth. I worked unloading the steamer Dombrovsky. At that very moment, I bent down to get the crane slings into the hold, and as I straightened up, a blinding red light struck my eyes. The huge object that flew almost over my head was rather pink in color, and behind it was a short fiery train, shaped like a broomstick. When I came to, this thing had already disappeared into the water.
At this time, Jan Rochinoky, Tadeusz Mikusinsky and four other dockers were working in the hold of the same ship. Therefore, they did not see the object itself, but they heard it.
The sound that reached us was very strange. We are very familiar with the clang of iron and the noise of working mechanisms, and this sound was more like a creak, even a grinding that occurs when two metal objects rub against each other with great force. It did not last long, but it affected us very strongly.
Promotional video:
In turn, crane operator Stanislav Kolodzeisky saw “a luminous object of indefinite shape, which caught fire and fell into the water. And at the same time, waves formed in that place on the surface of the pool”. Another crane operator, Vladislav Kuchinsky, added:
… the unknown object was about a meter long, its shape was closer to semicircular, and the color, at first pink, then changed to red, which was becoming brighter. When the object fell into the water, a one and a half meter high splash formed.
An article in Vecherniy Vzmorye, from which the above statements were taken, also reported that "the storekeeper of warehouse No. 2, who was going to work from Orlov that day, saw an incomprehensible red object in the sky." At the initiative of the newspaper's editorial office, with the consent and assistance of the port administration, attempts were made to find the UFO that fell into the water and raise it to the surface with the help of divers. For this purpose, Bohdan Karczewski from the Vodolaz Center for Underwater Operations in Gdynia, Franchisek Bogushevich from the crew of the Tumak tugboat, and a team of divers from the Polish Navy went under the water at the alleged crash site.
Describing the details of the search, "Vechernee Vzmorye" in conclusion reported that, unfortunately, they ended in vain. Or rather, almost to no avail. The naval divers did find something. But what? On this score, the newspaper correspondent's report contained only vague hints: "The diver noticed something at the bottom that intrigued us all extremely." And again: "We will not believe it until we see the mysterious find with our own eyes." But the divers never showed the correspondent what they found, and did not tell her any details about the find.
In the next issue of the newspaper, in the fourteenth publication in a row, it was reported that a "twisted, burnt piece of metal" was raised from the bottom of the harbor, which was taken to the editorial office, and then sent to the Gdansk Polytechnic Institute for research. It turned out that this metal fragment with dimensions of 300x250x7.5 millimeters lay on the bottom for a long time and, therefore, could not have anything to do with the object that fell into the water several days ago. After that, the newspaper stopped writing about a mysterious object that fell from the sky.
Nevertheless, Polish astronomers and space explorers became interested in the mysterious celestial guest. One of them, Krzysztof Borun, a board member of the Polish Society of Astronautics, suggested that the object that fell in the harbor could be either a meteorite or a fragment of the last stage of the Atlas rocket launched by the Americans. However, the scientist added that the latter is unlikely, since the destruction of this stage was observed on January 21 in the sky over the Pacific Ocean near the island of Guam.
In their 1974 book UFO Behind the Iron Curtain, Bronislav Repetsky, Ion Hobana and Julien Veverberg argue that a few days after the UFO crash, some military men, whom the authors call "guards" in their book, during a round the city beach of Gdynia discovered an unusual male creature. This creature did not speak any of the known languages and crawled along the sand, obviously with the last of his strength, and his condition was very deplorable.
The face of this creature, like a little man, was badly burned. His body was tightly wrapped in a jumpsuit, reminiscent of a scuba diving suit, only made of some kind of heavy-duty metal-containing material. The mysterious creature was taken to the clinic of the University of Gdynia or Gdansk (there is no more precise information) for examination, where it was found that he had an "abnormal" number of fingers on his hands and feet, according to one version - six.
It was possible to undress the humanoid only with the help of special tools. When the bracelet, which hardly served as an ornament, was removed from the creature's hand, his health began to deteriorate sharply. A couple of days later, the little man died. Either because of the strong internal injuries received during the fall, and a complete breakdown, or because the bracelet was removed from his hand.
There is a version that the remains of a mysterious creature under increased protection were sent to the Soviet Union and there they were subjected to thorough and comprehensive research, the results of which are still classified. However, Polish ufologists did not find confirmation of this version, so they believe that the alien's remains can still be stored in the morgue of one of the Tricity clinics (Tricity is an agglomeration in northern Poland, consisting of Gdansk, Sopot and Gdynia, as well as several smaller cities).
According to Robert Lesnyakevich, another scenario is possible for the development of events in January 1959: early in the morning in the sky over the Gulf of Gdansk near the mouth of the Vistula, an unknown object was "spotted" by means of detection of air defense systems of Poland or the USSR. He did not answer the request "friend or foe", and then they fired a rocket at him from the ground or from a fighter-interceptor raised on alarm. When the missile hit the target and the object began to fall apart, the pilot managed to eject. And what fell into the water near the pier of the fourth pool in the port of Gdynia was either a pilot's seat or a life capsule, which was subsequently found and brought to the surface by divers of the Polish Navy.
In September 1996, the Japanese television company NHK TTS filmed a documentary about the Gdynia Incident in Poland. The film shows, in particular, interviews with several eyewitnesses of this event, which additionally confirms its reliability. In the process of searching for materials and information for filming the film, another version of events arose.
First, there was evidence that the humanoid was not found on the city beach and not by the border guards, but by the guards near the building that housed the naval port administration and which was located on the territory of this port.
Secondly, it became known that soon after the incident, another UFO was seen over the northwestern regions of Gdynia. The latter circumstance may indicate that after the first UFO was hit by the rocket, the aliens organized a rescue operation in order to find their brother. Ufologists are still investigating this whole story.