Caso Collahuasi

The full file

In April 2013 a small group of technicians at the Collahuasi copper mine, some 4,300 metres up on the Andean plateau in Chile's Tarapacá region, watched what they described as a flat, shining disc hanging in a clear sky over the workings. One of them photographed it. The case reached Chile's official committee on aerial phenomena almost a year later, and its report in mid-2014 put the object among the small share of Chilean cases it could not identify. The photographs are the substance of the file; the witnesses themselves have never spoken on the record.

The sighting

The fullest account comes from the journalist Leslie Kean, writing in July 2014 after interviewing officials of CEFAA, the Comité de Estudios de Fenómenos Aéreos Anómalos, which sits within Chile's civil aviation directorate, the DGAC. She describes four technicians, specialists in electricity, electronics and fluid control, who saw a disc approach slowly, hover silently for over an hour at about 2,000 feet, and then leave. La Tercera, reporting from the same CEFAA material a few days earlier, gives the object as five to ten metres across, making short ascending, descending and horizontal movements about 600 metres above the ground. According to the witnesses, it looked at one point like un globo brillante, a bright balloon or sphere, though its most evident form was a fixed silver disc.

The other Chilean coverage tells it differently. An EFE agency report carried by El Mostrador, and a BioBioChile piece, both quoting the CEFAA director, retired General Ricardo Bermúdez, speak of 35 workers and professionals and of about two hours of observation. Both versions agree on the month, the mine, the clear sky and the rough height. No source gives an exact day.

The photographs

The evidence is two still photographs taken on a consumer camera, which Kean identifies as a Kenox Samsung S860. The witnesses kept the pictures to themselves for months, then showed them to the head of their group, who sent them to CEFAA on 22 February 2014. CEFAA published the images on its website when it released its findings in July 2014. The underlying report has been quoted in the press but a copy could not be located online for this write-up, and the original camera files have not been made public.

What CEFAA concluded

The photographs were analysed by a CEFAA analyst at the DGAC meteorological office. The DGAC's weather records showed a clear sky, and a meteorologist ruled out a lenticular cloud. Officials told Kean they had also excluded aircraft, experimental aircraft and weather balloons, and found no drones operating near the mine; the committee's international affairs director, José Lay, said it was "definitely not a drone". The report's conclusion, as Kean quotes it, called the object "of great interest" and said it "can be qualified as a UFO". Bermúdez told El Mostrador that it was classed as unidentified because it "no calza con nada conocido", it matches nothing known.

CEFAA was open about the limits. Bermúdez called it the finding of "only one" analyst among several and urged caution. The witnesses declined to cooperate, so nobody could question them about distance, timing or where the camera stood. La Tercera noted that the committee does not rule on whether such objects are extraterrestrial.

The case's best-known phrase came later. In April 2015 British and American outlets ran the story as an object "not made by man". HuffPost checked with CEFAA, and Lay said several reports had twisted the committee's statements; on the object's origin and nature, he said, "We do not know." The wording traced to CEFAA is narrower: not any known man-made object.

The conventional explanations

No independent analysis of the photographs has been published, so the leading explanations are the ones CEFAA itself tested. A drone or a cloud were the obvious candidates, and the committee rejected both on grounds it stated: no drones were known to be operating, and the weather office recorded a clear sky.

The explanation it could not fully test is a small, nearby object, such as a bird, an insect or windblown debris, photographed against an empty sky. A single still contains nothing to show how far away it is, and the stated size and height depend on witness estimates that could not be checked. La Tercera noted that the same CEFAA report closed two other photographic cases as insects and leaves. Against this reading, the witnesses described a sustained, slow, silent observation lasting an hour or more, which a passing insect would not produce; but that description reached CEFAA second-hand, from people who would not be interviewed.

What remains open

The disagreements are basic ones: four witnesses or 35, an hour or two hours, a disc or something that also looked like a bright sphere. The photographs exist and an official body studied them, but without the witnesses there is no fixed distance and no independent timeline, and without the full report there is no way to weigh its single analyst's conclusion. The case remains unidentified on CEFAA's own terms, and those terms say less than the 2015 headlines did.

Sources

• Chile Releases Official Study on UFO Photos (archived) — Leslie Kean, HuffPost, 2014. Four technicians, camera, submission to CEFAA, ruled-out explanations and the report's conclusion, with CEFAA's caveats.
• El extraño ovni de Collahuasi (archived) — La Tercera, 2014. Altitude of the mine, size and movements, the bright-balloon form, the 22 February 2014 submission, the insects-and-leaves cases in the same report.
• Difunden imagen de Ovni avistado en mina Collahuasi (archived) — EFE via El Mostrador, 2014. Bermúdez's account: 35 workers, about two hours, and the "nothing known" classification.
• Dirección de Aeronáutica Civil oficializa avistamiento de OVNI en el norte de Chile (archived) — Gabriela Ulloa, BioBioChile, 2014. Corroborates the Bermúdez account and publication of the images on CEFAA's website.
• Chile Investigates UFO Sighting In The Atacama Desert (archived) — Fox News, 2014. Independent English account of the four technicians, the drone ruling and the witnesses' refusal to cooperate.
• Did A UFO 'Not Made By Man' Hover Over Chile? (archived) — Lee Speigel, HuffPost, 2015. CEFAA's response to the 2015 "not made by man" coverage.