UFOs: A Mortal Peril
by Javier García Blanco

Despite contactee assurances that ufonauts are our kindly older brothers, there are hundreds of cases within ufology that tell us about witnesses who experience, in their own bodies, the effects of close proximity to the mysterious UFOs and their occupants. Effects which have even been the cause of deaths.

I felt chills...and what else could be expected? Ana Gonzalez's words were far from reassuring as she told us of the experience that her parents had undergone in the summer of 1980, when they found themselves at the center of an incredible encounter with two unidentified flying objects.

It was three o'clock in the morning and as in many other occasions, Luis González Pellicer and his wife Bienvenida López Larrosa, residents of the small Zaragozan town of Mediana, were driving their old station wagon in order to reach Mercazaragoza (a large food wholesaler located in the region's capital) in order to supply their small family business in the town. But something was waiting for them as they left town.

"They left the house, and upon reaching the top of the hill, two of those gadgets flanked each side of the station wagon. They were terrified, but they kept driving. Nor could they turn back, since the panic they felt kept them from reacting. They saw no one, nor did they see any cars or people [along the road] for a very long time, and...there they were, almost flush with the station wagon...My mother always told us: "They were like some kind of silver bells, with strange colors..something inexplicable and beautiful.."

The startled and frightened witnesses continued driving toward Zaragoza without ever losing sight of the two silent objects which "escorted" their vehicle at a separation of a few meters. After driving several kilometers, they reached an old army barracks--now inactive--and upon encountering another car coming from Zaragoza, the mysterious "flying bells" suddenly disappeared as if they had never been. Still frightened by the unexpected disappearance of the objects, Luis and Bienvenida continued their drive to Zaragoza and then returned home without any further delay. Back in Mediana, they recounted the ordeal to their children. "After visiting the market, they came home and told us about it. Later on they told other people in the village. Some believed them...others laughed at them..."

"These Things Like Solitude"

But that incredible experience was not to be the last one on the lives of the hapless Zaragozan couple. The experience would repeat itself three days later when the witnesses, this time feeling a certain measure of apprehension and fear, boarded their station wagon once more in order to engage in what had hitherto been a quiet and uneventful drive. "Three days after the first event, the same thing happened again. They left town and there was the light. They waited quietly at the entrance to town until another car drove by from the road to Belchite and caused the light to disappear. I recall them telling us at one time that: "These things like solitude, these things like solitude," because during their first encounter, the lights disappeared when they reached the old army barracks...right there, on the hill, the moment another car appeared. The minute [another car] appeared, they would disappear. They didn't realize that the minute another car appeared from the direction of Zaragoza, that the things would disappear."

On that occasion, they experienced no unpleasant surprises during their journey and returned home normally. There was no follow-up to the second encounter and their lives went on as they had. Until 1987, when in January of that year, Bienvenida López began to feel ill.

"It was then that she got sick. She couldn't eat, she would gag, she was seen by a bunch of private doctors..." But it was useless: in May 1987, Bienvenida passed away in the M.A.Z. hospital, succumbing to a cancer that invaded her entire body. Physicians were unable to do anything for her as the cancer metastasized. The family, devastated by the unexpected loss, did its best to carry on, but misfortune had not left the family from Mediana just yet. Shortly after his wife's death, Luis began to feel ill. A doctors' visit confirmed he was suffering from the same malady as his late wife. Three month's after Bienvenida's passing, Luiz González died after receiving treatment in Zaragoza's Miguel Servet Hospital. Since then, the family remains convinced that those strange luminous bells caused the cancer that would in later years claim the lives of the witnesses. Many of the townspeople share this belief, and remain convinced of the honesty and seriousness of the departed couple.

The area in which the unfortunate witnesses' encounter took place is well-known to local researchers. Only a few days following Luis and Bienvenida's encounter, a number of UFO events took place in the vicinity of Zaragoza, not too far from Mediana. In the early hours of September 1, Juan González Misis, a photographer for the Heraldo de Aragón newspaper, headed toward the location after a number of phone calls to the daily claimed that a number of strange lights had been seen. Along with several drivers who circulated through the area at the time, the photojournalist managed to take several photos of the object through a telephoto lens. On September 3, the images occupied part of the paper's cover page. Weeks later, in the early hours of September 23rd, the photographer was again notified of the presence of lights in the region's skies. On this occasion he headed for the highway leading to Castellón, and was again able to photograph the strange object.  

Shot by a UFO

On July 17, 1975, Emiliano Velasco underwent an experience that would mark him for life. It was in the mid-afternoon, and the sun burned hot in the Pedrosa del Rey (Valladolid) field which Emiliano was working on his tractor. Everything was normal, and nothing hinted at what was about to happen.

The witness suddenly became aware of the presence of a strange object that drew his attention: the mysterious artifact, described by Emiliano as "a tin of preserves with a kind of hat on top of it, [standing] on "V" shaped legs", moved in a circular motion around the tractor, getting closer with each subsequent orbit. The object came within three meters of the eyewitness, and issued an odd whistling sound along with a double flash.

When Emiliano was able to react, he discovered that the glass on the tractor's cab presented a small hole scarcely 0.6 cm in diameter. Terrified by the event, the eyewitness ran back to town as fast as his legs could carry him. Shortly after, he started to complain about a variety of physical ailments, including loss of hearing and of eyesight. He later became paralyzed on the left side of his body and ultimately died in 1978 from a brain tumor. Once again, cancer killed the protagonist of a close encounter, and as in the Mediana case, Emiliano Velasco's wife was convinced that the "thing" slew her husband.

But the most disquieting fact is that cases similar to the one at Pedrosa del Rey do not take place exclusively in the wilderness or in remote areas. In the spring of 1997, another strange object, this time very small in size, staged an appearance in the courtyard of a building in downtown Zaragoza. As in the Valladolid incident, the object left its "fingerprint" on one of the building's windows.

The sun had already set, and the couple residing in one of the apartment buildings on Tenor Fleta street was getting ready for bed when "M.T." became aware of a strange glow reflected in the bathroom vanity mirror. Turning around to determine its source, she was able to see a small sphere of light fluttering around the courtyard. Visibly upset, M.T. ran toward the bedroom and summoned her husband "J.M.I.", a respected Zaragozan doctor. The witness calmed his wife down, thinking that she had been the victim of a harmless mistake.

Precisely at that moment, both witnesses heard a strange sound coming from the bathroom. Running to see what had occurred, they discovered that there was now a small perforation on the glass of the window through which M.T. has gazed at the small luminous sphere. Fortunately, both the physician and his wife are in perfect health, but the similarity to the Valladolid case is still disturbing.

Burned by a UFO

Not few are the occasions in which a UFO encounter degenerates into a frantic highway chase. These "car chases" sometimes end up causing physical effects on the witnesses. This is something to which Toribio, a retired Zaragoza policeman, can attest, since he sustained an incredible encounter with a strange light during the summer of 1996 while traveling across the province of Teruel.

On that day, Toribio had left Zaragoza headed toward the village of Tornos, where he tends to spend his vacation. Halfway along the drive, in the vicinity of Puerto de Santed, he picked up an unexpected companion: a powerful light settled behind him and followed him for a good part of the journey, until it suddenly became dangerously close to the car. The terrified witnessed stepped on the gas in an effort to put some distance between himself and the menacing light. The light suddenly placed itself in front of him; Toribio, speechless with astonishment, saw how a beam of light was fired against his vehicle from the infernal light, bathing the car in a strange glow.

The light disappeared shortly thereafter, and a visibly shaken Toribio finally reached Tornos, where he would discover that those parts of his body which had received the direct impact of the light issuing from the UFO (his arms, hands and face) where as red as if they had been subjected to burns similar to those produced by solar radiation.

Unquestionable Physical Evidence

Close encounter cases in which witnesses suffer from a variety of injuries represent evidence of the physical reality of the UFO phenomenon. Despite opinions to the contrary, there are cases all over the world which show that UFOs and their occupants can be harmful to human beings.

Nonetheless, there are still those who deny the phenomenon's existence. For the unfortunate UFO victims, the experience is all too real, and their stories represent still another page in the "black book of ufology".

It isn't my intention--though it may seem so--to frighten the reader with a list of negative events. Fortunately, the number of cases in which some type of injury occurs represents a minority, and on certain occasions are the response to a hostile move from the onlooker. But if so, what is it that the intelligence behind the UFO affair is after? Perhaps it is just another one of its many ways of leaving a record of its existence. Perhaps some day we shall learn the answer.