Request to Investigate UFO Sighting - Aranda, Colombia

This document file details the investigation into a reported UFO sighting in Aranda, Colombia, on July 6, 1956. The incident began when a cemetery worker named Luna reported hearing eight violent explosions and observing a blue cloud, subsequently recovering metallic fragments. The report was initially brought to the attention of the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) via a letter from a correspondent in Bogotá. ATIC requested that the U.S. Air Attaché in Bogotá investigate the matter, specifically seeking to obtain physical specimens for analysis. The Air Attaché's subsequent investigation revealed that the 'SIC' mentioned in reports was the National Colombian Security Police, who had no information regarding the event. The Attaché determined that the Colombian Army Calvary Group had been conducting light artillery practice in the vicinity of Aranda and Pasto around the date of the sighting. Colonel G.W. Crabbe, the Air Attaché, concluded that the fragments were likely remnants of 40mm or 20mm tracer ammunition used during these military exercises. The investigation was hampered by the inability to locate the original witness, and the Attaché noted that local Colombian newspapers had begun publishing articles mocking the reports as figments of the imagination. The file includes the original record card, correspondence between ATIC and the Air Attaché, and translations of the local newspaper report from 'El Intermedio'.