On the evening of 22 June 1976, a large luminous aerial phenomenon was observed simultaneously by hundreds of witnesses across multiple Canary Islands and from a Spanish Navy vessel at sea, lasting approximately 40 minutes.1 The Spanish Air Force launched a formal investigation, took depositions from at least 14 witnesses, and ultimately classified the event as an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon — ruling out all conventional explanations it considered. The investigation file was declassified in 1994, making this one of the best-documented mass UFO sightings in Spanish history.2
The Naval Observation
The first formally recorded sighting came at 21:27 local time from the crew of the Spanish Navy corvette Atrevida, positioned approximately 3 nautical miles off Punta Lantailla on the Fuerteventura coast.3 The ship's captain described an intense yellowish-blue light that emerged from the direction of shore, approached the vessel, halted, and then emitted a rotating luminous beam for roughly two minutes before expanding into a large stationary halo of yellowish and bluish light. The halo remained visible for approximately 40 minutes. Crucially, the ship's radar detected no solid object at any point during the observation.4
Civilian Witnesses Across the Archipelago
Hundreds of civilian witnesses on Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera, Gran Canaria, and Fuerteventura simultaneously reported a large luminous sphere or glowing halo in the night sky.1 The most dramatic account came from Dr. Francisco Padrón León, a physician from Guía, Gran Canaria, who was traveling by taxi to see a patient in Las Rosas, also on Gran Canaria, along with his taxi driver. They claimed to have encountered at close range a transparent, crystalline sphere of approximately 30 metres radius with an electric blue colour, through which stars were reportedly visible.25 The two men said they could see a metallic platform with consoles inside the sphere and two humanoid figures estimated at 8.5 to 10 feet tall, dressed in red. According to their account, the sphere then expanded dramatically before ascending and departing at high speed.
The Spanish Air Force Investigation
On 25 June 1976, the Commanding General of the Canary Islands Air Zone formally appointed an Investigative Adjutant to examine the case.2 The resulting inquiry collected depositions from at least 14 witnesses, who were categorised by credibility — military and professional witnesses ranked highest. The file grew to over 100 pages and included questionnaires, witness illustrations, and at least one colour photograph taken by a tourist.6 The Spanish Air Force officially designated the event an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon, ruling out known aircraft, missile tests, auroras, meteor falls, weather balloons, and meteorological phenomena as explanations.
Declassification and Public Record
The investigation file was formally declassified and released in June 1994, representing one of the first significant government UFO disclosures in Spain.2 The file had been partially accessible earlier: a Spanish Air Force general provided journalist and paranormal investigator J. J. Benítez with materials in October 1976, which Benítez used as the basis for his 1977 book UFOs: Official Documents of the Spanish Government. The combination of a multi-island civilian sighting, a credentialed naval crew observation, a formal military investigation, and eventual government declassification places this event among the most substantiated mass sighting cases in European UAP history.7
Skeptical Analysis
The most detailed counterexplanation was advanced by Spanish researchers Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos and Ricardo Campo Pérez, who proposed that the primary luminous phenomenon was consistent with the exhaust plume and fuel venting of a U.S. Navy Poseidon submarine-launched ballistic missile test fired from the Atlantic Ocean.8 At high altitude, atmospheric illumination of propellant gases can produce diffuse glowing halos and rotating beam effects similar to those described. No radar return was ever established, which is consistent with a non-solid gas or plasma plume rather than a structured craft. The Investigative Adjutant himself expressed significant doubt about the close-encounter and occupant claims made by Dr. Padrón León and his taxi driver, noting that the witnesses likely "narrated what their minds made them see" when confronted with an anomalous but physically mundane phenomenon; both the adjutant and Air Zone commander Lieutenant General Carlos Dols de Espejo considered the humanoid testimony doubtful.3