Expediente Número 710223: Avistamiento de Fenómenos Extraños

This document is a declassified intelligence file (Expediente 710223) compiled by the Spanish Air Force (Ejército del Aire) regarding a series of sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena that occurred on the evening of February 23, 1971. The sightings were reported across a wide geographic area, including Barcelona, Huesca, Lérida, and the Cantabrian Sea. Numerous witnesses, including commercial airline pilots (Iberia flights IB-841 and IB-867), a fishing boat captain, and military personnel at the C.I.R. No. 10 training center, described a luminous object moving in a northerly direction, leaving a distinct, fan-shaped luminous trail before disappearing. The reports were initially treated with high concern, leading to an investigation by the military. The investigation involved collecting dozens of witness statements, radar data, and meteorological reports. The final conclusion reached by the military intelligence officer was that the phenomenon was not of extraterrestrial origin. Instead, it was identified as the re-entry of a 'Tibere' rocket launched from the Centre d'Essais de Biscarrosse in Landes, France. This launch was part of the 'Electre' operation conducted by the French Office National d'Etude et de Recherche Aéronautique et Spatiale (O.N.E.R.A.) to study radio-electric disturbances during rocket re-entry. The file includes detailed questionnaires filled out by military recruits and personnel, maps of the flight paths, and correspondence confirming the nature of the event. The document was eventually declassified in 1993, with the assessment that there was no longer any reason to maintain its classified status.