User:BBB2021/sandbox
This is a list of alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects or UFOs in Albania.
1907
[edit]The first documentation of a UFO visit in Albania is found in the diary of Mihal Grameno. He was a distinguished journalist, writer, and activist of the patriotic and democratic movement, hailed as a Hero of the People. During the years 1907-1908, he fought alongside the guerrilla group of Çerçiz Topulli. In his book "The Albanian Uprising,"[1] war memories about the Çerçiz Topulli's guerrilla, Grameno recounts his memories of the long and difficult journeys of Çerçiz's fellow fighters through the mountains. "One night, while the fighters of Çerçiz were stationed at the top of a high mountain, a shiny object flew in front of us, stood suspended in the air for several minutes, and then disappeared." writes Grameno. Airplanes at that time were in their early stages, so it could not have been one. It also could not have been a meteor or a comet since they are known to fall immediately and not hover in the air.
8 July 1933
[edit]In 1933, in a list of abnormal reports addressed to the Prefecture of Milan, it is mentioned that on 8.7.1933, in the sky of Vlorë, two airplanes changed direction in a non-normal way for the technology of the time.[2]
18 July 1947
[edit]In an FBI report from July 18, 1947, it is written that: "Saucers have been observed in Mexico City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Halifax, Newfoundland, Paris, Milan, Bologna and Yugoslavia as well as Albania."
January 1963
[edit]In January of 1963, the residents of the village of Kallamishtëz in the Kurvelesh area reported seeing a bright object in the sky. Albanian authorities attempted to calm the population by telling them that what they had seen was not a UFO, but rather a new model of a jet plane being used by the Albanian Air Force.
1 August 1990
[edit]Gëzim Dapi, an environmental engineer born in Tirana, tells a strange event that happened to him during the summer of 1990 when he was serving in the military in Shkodër.
"In the summer of 1990, I was serving my mandatory military service in the village of Bardhaj in Shkodër. My military unit was responsible for anti-aircraft defense. We were all trained to identify types of planes during the day and at night, and our unit had military technology tools that could distinguish planes at close and far distances. On the night of August 1st, I was on duty.
At around 2:30 in the morning, a series of lights (100-150) arranged in a strange pattern, let's say in the shape of a diamond and about 20 meters in size, appeared in the sky at high speed with very little noise, as much as a flock of birds could make. It was neither an airplane nor any other flying object we knew of, moreover, it had a very high speed and made very little noise."
Gëzim reported this strange event to the central operator of the battalion at the time. There he learned that he was not alone.
"Five other soldiers from different anti-aircraft units who were on duty at that time had reported the same thing to me. The next day, the officers asked us about it, but neither any city nor any radar in Albania had identified it except us soldiers who saw it with our own eyes. It was not given much importance then because it was just after the opening of the embassies and other things were the order of the day. Two months later, the newspaper "Zëri i Rinisë" of that time published this event, but not in detail."[3]
12 July 1993
[edit]At around 8:00 PM, a glowing flying object appeared in the sky of Cërrik, Elbasan. According to eyewitness accounts, the illuminated object was making sudden and quick movements. The news that a UFO was flying around quickly spread throughout the town. Law enforcement was also notified, and they tried to limit the spread of panic among the population. The glowing object disappeared from the sky around 10:00 PM (according to eyewitness accounts).
4 May 2006
[edit]The most famous case of UFO encounters in Albania is the one in the village of Roskovec. Three eyewitnesses, an adult woman and two children, as well as all the residents of the village, believe that an unidentified object landed in their town, which they called a UFO. Three double banded black circles in the asphalt that were photographed by Halim Çepele were the big evidence of the object that touched the ground. According to the witnesses it was a clear day and suddenly everything became dark and misty, the branches of the trees bent down, and the place then was covered by a strong and cold wind. One of the women, named Sherife Kola, could only hear the noise and notice the darkness that was created in those moments. One of the kids that was 10 years old at the time, named Mario Çela, was the person that witnessed the UFO directly. According to him the object had a disc-like shape with a gray color and had a thin blue line and stayed on the ground only for about 4-5 seconds. According to Halim Çepele that talked to the boy just after the event occurred, the boy that witnessed the UFO was in a state of shock for 3 months and didn't want to get out of the house. A good part of the residents say they saw the marks left on the asphalt, while they said that the petals of the roses were burned when they had placed them on the spot where the object had landed. Everything happened on May 4th, around 7:00 pm, as far as the residents remember.[4][5]
6 March 2007
[edit]On the evening of Tuesday, March 2007, the coastguard officer Admir Jemishaj was on duty with his commander. Around 7:15 PM on that day, they reported that they had seen an unmoving object in space. The object was visible to the naked eye and they later saw it even clearer with binoculars. The object suddenly appeared over the coastal area of Seman in Fier and remained motionless in space for 20 minutes. The officers reported that it had a dazzling shine, changed colors and the shape of a disc, and they saw it both with the naked eye and with binoculars.
"We were on duty when we saw a completely unique object. It stayed on the horizon with the sea at one mile high. Its colors changed from green to blue and red. For a few minutes it was only red or blue. It was something scary, but at the same time beautiful," said the coastguard officer, Jemishaj, to the media.
24 December 2008
[edit]Four hunters from Elbasan reported that they encountered a flying disk on the night of Thursday before Christmas in 2008. According to them, at around 8:30 PM, in a village about 30 kilometers away from the city of Elbasan, they saw an extraordinary thing, from which they fled in terror. The four hunters set out for the village of Vidhas in the Municipality of Paprit, on the border with the district of Peqin. After leaving the center of the municipality, about 7 kilometers away, they took a forest road. After driving about 15 kilometers, they were surprised when their off-road vehicle's cabin shook from above, and the engine died.
"We were blinded by a bright blue light and a vertical red light. For a moment, I felt like the police cars were chasing us from behind", said Muharrem Kaçuli, one of the four hunters who experienced the incident for a few minutes. According to him, his 25-year-old son who was with them wanted to shoot at the shining object with his shotgun, but his father did not allow it.
21 July 2009
[edit]An unidentified flying object, also known by those who claim to have seen it as a flying saucer, was seen in the early hours of July 21, 2009, in Vlorë in the area behind Karaburun, precisely in a place called Gjiri i Dafinës, a quiet and uninhabited area. This flying object was seen by some fishermen who had set out in their fishing boat since the evening for routine activities in this area. The object had the shape of a satellite, with a diameter of about 3 meters, and was seen by the three members of the crew who were at sea to pull the fishing nets.
"I was pulling the fishing nets, when a large object passed over our heads, stayed only 5 seconds and immediately disappeared, moving away quickly. The object emitted a trail of smoke and its color was gray to white... even in these moments, I feel shocked, impossible. It really looked like a flying saucer," explained Shpëtim Alushaj, one of the fishermen.
7 August 2010
[edit]A woman confessed to the media that she had seen what she called extraordinary lights over Tirana. Rezmie Lulo said, "The time was 01:26 AM, my son saw in the sky 3 weird objects that were shining, he was baffled, quickly he got the camera and started filming them, even while he was filming them his hands were shaking from the emotions that were going through him. While he was filming he notified me and my daughter and we went to take a look. At that moment I didn't think twice about what they were and I enjoyed those two minutes. All three objects were orange, spherical in shape, and detached."
She also said, "At first the objects seemed close to us and as time passed they rose higher. The first object broke away at immense speed to the northwest. So fast that I saw the light moving far away at the blink of an eye. The other two objects disappeared immediately."
The Albanian Army refused to give a statement to the reporters.
Ilirian Ciko, Operational Director of the National Air Traffic Agency said that during that time there were no airplane departures or landings on Tirana International Airport and only 4 planes were flying overhead at high altitude.
Petrit Sulaj director of the Civil Aviation Authority said they had "No official or unofficial information about the mentioned objects from aviation companies or from agencies that are part of air navigation systems."
Rezmie Lulo one of the witnesses said "It is very likely that they were UFOs. The scientific world has talked about the possibility of them being real or maybe a fantasy of the human mind. With what I saw I was faced with the truth that they indeed exist." Rezmie Lulo was not the only one that witnessed this phenomenon but she was one of the few that agreed to give a statement to the reporters without the fear of the judgement that her testimony might provoke.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ Grameno, Mihal (1925). Kryengritja Shqiptare. Direttore.
- ^ "UFO-t në Shqipëri". top-channel.tv. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
- ^ "UFO në Shqipëri? Do t'ju duken vërtet të çuditshme këto që do lexoni!". Gazeta Tema. 17 January 2016. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
- ^ A janë ulur UFO-t në Roskovec?! Dëshmia tronditëse e fotografit, retrieved 2023-05-04
- ^ "Roskoveci, vendi i vizituar nga UFO-t". top-channel.tv. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
- ^ UFO-NE-TIRANE, TCH, retrieved 2023-05-04