Two Engineers Watch Bright Object Hover Over Puerto Rican Peak in 1973

MARICAO, PUERTO RICO — Amid the great American UFO wave of 1973, Puerto Rico had its own contribution to make, according to a post on Inexplicata, the journal of the Institute of Hispanic Ufology. The account concerns October 26 of that year, in the mountainous interior of the island.

Guillermo Bonet, described as a communications engineer, and Jorge Silvestri, a technician, were reportedly at work on Monte del Estado, a summit in the Cordillera Central. The post says the peak housed radio broadcast transmitters, repeaters and antennae, and lies within the Maricao State Forest.

At about 11:00 in the morning, the post states, the two men were testing radio systems when they became aware of a blinding white source of energy. The object was self-luminous and, the author writes, remained motionless for three or four minutes while the witnesses discussed what it might be.

It then began, in the post's quoted words, to "descend and rise abruptly" while moving westward at a leisurely pace. Its apparent size is given as twice that of a house. The men are said to have watched for between twenty minutes and half an hour.

The author adds that the forest is a known magnetic anomaly with a reputation for UFO sightings, and that it was studied by Ralph Sierra, an engineer and prominent UFO researcher of the period. The post offers no mundane explanation for the light, and none is advanced here.