Canary Islands 'sphere', 22 June 1976
People on all seven Canary Islands, including a Spanish Navy crew and a doctor, saw a glowing sphere expand into a vast halo; it was a US Navy Poseidon missile test.
1976 CE · 28.29, -16.63 · status: explained
The account
Just after 9:30 pm local time a light rose and swelled into a transparent globe, which some witnesses said contained figures. The Spanish Air Force file was released in 1994 as unexplained. Researchers including Ricardo Campo and Manuel Borraz showed that a Poseidon missile had been launched from a submarine in the Atlantic that evening, and US records later matched other Canaries sightings to similar launches.
The sceptical view
The sunlit exhaust of a high-altitude missile matches the expanding sphere; reports of figures inside were added by a few witnesses.
Connections in the atlas
- Juan Sebastián Elcano sighting
- Los Cristianos and El Médano lights
- Spain declassifies its Air Force UFO files
- Manises 'UFO landing'
- 'Space jellyfish' rocket sightings