Expediente — Avistamiento en EVA-4 Rosas, Gerona (13 September 1991)

Brief

At 04:12 on 13 September 1991, the Security Guard Commander at Escuadrón de Vigilancia Aérea N.º 4 (EVA-4), Rosas, Gerona observed a bright white spherical object approximately five meters in radius circling the main building of the installation at roughly 150 meters altitude and a 200-meter turn radius, completing one circle every six seconds without any audible noise. Two other guard members independently confirmed the observation; the SAS radar operator reported no anomalous echoes or equipment irregularities concurrent with the sighting. The object vanished instantaneously before a third summoned witness could exit the building, and a fourth data point emerged post-event when the control-post relief soldier independently reported seeing a white circle orbiting the installation. Originally classified CONFIDENCIAL and routed from MALEV through the Mando Operativo Aéreo to Air Force Chief of Staff level, the file was formally declassified at Torrejón on 20 February 1996.

Metadata

Agency

Ejército del Aire / Ministerio de Defensa

Release

1991-09-13

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

9 pages

Classification

CONFIDENCIAL (original); DESCLASIFICADO 1996-02-20

Programs

EVA-4 (Escuadron de Vigilancia Aerea N.4), MOA (Mando Operativo Aereo), MALEV (Mando Aereo de Levante)

Tags

sphere, luminous, silent, circular-flight-path, 150m-altitude, no-radar-return, instantaneous-disappearance, Spain, 1991, EVA-4, radar-installation

Key points

• Sighting occurred at 04:12 local time, 13 September 1991, at EVA-4 (Escuadrón de Vigilancia Aérea N.º 4), Rosas, Gerona — an active air-surveillance radar installation on the northeastern Spanish coast.p.2
• Object described as spherical, approximately five meters radius, bright white with a more luminous central portion, producing no audible sound throughout the observation.p.2
• Altitude estimated at approximately 150 meters (range given as 100-200 m by the primary witness); performing right-turning circles of approximately 200-meter radius.p.2
• Speed: approximately one complete circle every six seconds, sustained for approximately five to six minutes before the object disappeared instantaneously.p.9
• Three witnesses: Security Guard Commander (suboficial), Guard Corporal (Cabo de Guardia), and duty soldier (Imaginaria, Recluta 9). The third arrived too late — the object disappeared instantaneously before he reached the exterior.p.9
• The SAS radar operator, queried immediately after the event, confirmed no anomalous echoes or equipment irregularities during the sighting window — a clean sensor-negative case.p.2
• A fourth independent confirmation emerged post-event: the control-post relief soldier, unprompted, told the primary witness he had seen a white circle orbiting the installation.p.9
• The MOA Intelligence Officer proposed declassification on the grounds that no aspect warranted maintaining classified status; the DESCLASIFICADO stamp is dated Torrejón, 20 February 1996.p.3
• The case file was routed from EVA-4 through MALEV (Mando Aéreo de Levante) in Zaragoza to the MOA in Madrid and separately to the General Jefe del Estado Mayor del Ejército del Aire — confirming the sighting reached Air Force Chief of Staff level.p.5

Verbatim

• El citado suboficial describia el objeto como esferico, de unos cinco metros de radio y se encontraba como a unos ciento cincuenta metros de altura realizando virajes a la derecha, de unos doscientos metros de radio. No se oia ruido alguno.

  p.2

• Preguntando al operador de servicio de la Sala SAS si habia advertido alga anormal en el funcionamiento de los equipos o algun eco extrano, dijo que no.

  p.2

• El suceso fue observado asimismo par dos componentes de la guardia.

  p.2

• a una velocidad aproximada de 1 cada 6 segundos

  p.9

Most interesting

• Despite the sighting unfolding directly above an active air-surveillance radar station, the SAS operator detected no corresponding radar return — a clean 'sensor-blind' case where ground-truth visual observation and electronic record diverge entirely.
• The object disappeared instantaneously at the precise moment Recluta 9 was a few meters from exiting the building — the only point at which a full three-person simultaneous outdoor observation would have been possible.
• A fourth data point emerged entirely post-event: the control-post relief soldier, never directly told about the sighting, volunteered to the Guard Commander that he had seen a white circle orbiting the installation — an unsolicited corroboration.
• The analytical section (pages 7-8, originally CONFIDENCIAL) explicitly evaluated and dismissed two conventional explanations — cloud reflection from a nearby storm and advertising laser projectors — citing the clouds' far greater altitude and the complete absence of any radar signature.
• This case was opened just months before Air Chief Marshal Cabaleiro launched Spain's formal UAP declassification programme in 1992, making it one of the last expedientes processed under the old classification regime and among the first released under the subsequent review.
• The routing chain — EVA-4 acting commander to MALEV Estado Mayor (Zaragoza) to MOA (Madrid) to Air Force Chief of Staff — shows that a five-minute visual sighting with zero physical evidence and a negative radar result still triggered four bureaucratic layers of formal military reporting.