Unexplained submerged objects in Greek waters.
An article by Nikos Apostolopoulos
Are we alone in the universe? Recent discoveries and other developments in the endless and uncharted waters of our planet have rekindled interest in this question, moving it to the depths of our oceans.
The possibility of alien lifeforms inhabiting the Earth's underwater kingdoms is not just a topic of science fiction. I has become the object of serious scientific research.
The intrigue surrounding unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP, formerly UFO) has spread from the skies and sunk into the marine abyss. Reports and declassified archives suggest that UAPs have been observed diving into the oceans with remarkable speeds, reaching depths that remain largely unexplored by humanity. With approximately 80% of our oceans being uncharted and mostly unexplored, these sightings offer a tempting suggestion that our planet's waters could possibly offer a home to alien civilizations.
Little-known records of UFOs in Greek waters.
Are there cases of UAPs entering Greek waters? Indeed, there are some mysterious cases of unexplained underwater phenomena that have to do with "ships", but we don’t have the high profile cases like those abroad. It is also important not to forget that the Aegean Sea and by extension the Eastern Mediterranean, is a region very sensitive from a political and military perspective, which means that any kind of unidentified submarine activity is by definition the subject of an investigation by the authorities but at the same time subject of a cover up. After the first barrage of reports about UFOs in the Greek skies in the mid 1940s, there were also some reports about strange objects that "dived" into the sea and disappeared. References of lights coming from the depths of the sea witnessed by aircraft pilots, flying objects reported crashing on sea regions without any wreckage ever being found. There was even talk of strange flashes and explosions, whose origins were never identified. Following the first such reports on record, is the mention of a phantom explosion that was said to take place 31 January 1947 at 10:55 pm somewhere in the Argo-Saronic Gulf. Many people from Piraeus to Vouliagmeni saw a blinding flash of light coming far from the Saronic Gulf, east of Aegina and Fleves. A deafening explosion followed, which was heard especially loudly in Piraeus and the Lipasmata district further west.
Following an order issued in response from the Ministry of Naval Affairs, two vessels departed immediately from the port of Piraeus. Those were the Coast Guard’s Diastron and the Mykonos, a minesweeper of the Navy. Both ships aided by powerful floodlights during the night, moved to the sea region between Aegina and Fleves to investigate, but the search was without any results. The following morning, the Port Authority of Piraeus ordered all salvage tugboats in the harbor to remain on high alert.
The Police Directorate of Piraeus contacted the coastal stations of the gendarmerie in the affected area, who all reported that they did not notice anything unusual. Τhere was no shipwreck, nor were there any castaways naturally. Mr. P. Kanelopoulos, minister of Naval Affairs and Public Order, announced to the press that "there has been no relevant information regarding the strong explosion that occured last night..." and as would be expected the case was closed. A similar incident with a strong flash and explosion, but not on the sea this time but over it, happened in the coastal region of Neromilos, off the island of Karpathos the 4 February 1958. An island we will get back to later on. According to the island's police station report: "at 9:00 am yesterday, a large bright body was spotted moving rapidly on a high altitude above the village. As soon as it arrived in the above coastal region called Neromilos, it exploded with a blinding flash of light. And as would be expected "The authorities are conducting an investigation to find the remains of the object that exploded". The same year, there was an article in the newspaper Vima dated March 6 1958 which reports: "According to information from Parga, the inhabitants of this small coastal town saw today, with the naked eye, a black object moving with the speed of a meteor on the surface of the Ionian Sea. During its movement it did not make any sound. A flash and a rattling sound would be noted a year later, December 9, in Kalimnos too, when a flash of blueish light which lasted about 30 seconds would be visible to the locals on the island, followed by a loud crack sounding for more than one minute which according to reports "shook the island".
November 1963, a large flaming object followed by a bright flash was spotted moving in the sky, then dropping in the sea in the region of Skalochori, 58 kilometers from the island capital of Mytilene, between 7:00 and 8:30 PM. This event was recorded by two individuals: Mr. T. Sarikas, an Athens based lawyer and his partner Mr. Sarlas. Both of them noticed a flying object moving from the southwest to the northeast, quite slowly compared to meteorites, then disappearing behind the mountain on which they were walking, as it was gradually descending toward sea. On 16 February 1966, according to an article from the newspaper Apogevmatini dated 7/02/1966 "an aircraft of unidentified nationality crashed burning" 2-3 kilometers off the coast of the Gulf of Myrtos in Cephalonia. In fact it was about the crash of "bright objects" that were detected by two locals who thought it was an airplane. The search turned out fruitless and the occurrence was attributed to "flares or fireworks". In Mytilene again, five years later, July 18 1968, there was one of the largest mobilizations recorded. Eleven vessels combed the waters off Neapoli for two hours searching for an airplane that, as it turned out, had never crashed. According to the newspapers of the time, during the early hours of the morning, the children and the teacher of a summer camp in the area, spotted an aircraft which, after losing altitude, crashed into the sea. Despite that, the air traffic control tower of the area's airport did not receive any distress signal, while searches yielded no results. According to the rumors, since there was no official investigation, the teacher and the children were all victims of mass hallucinations! Giorgos Balanos, in his book Other Oceans, Other Worlds, mentions the case of an individual who was fishing with a boat outside the town of Missolonghi in the summer of 1971 or 1972, when the waters were suddenly disturbed and surface fish started jumping in panic out of the water. In a short distance of twenty meters from the boat, a large object became visible under the surface of the sea.
The object stayed there for a few seconds, causing a disturbance and then sunk disappearing toward the seabed. In July 1972, responding to reports from civilians, Naval Headquarters announced that "16 July at 11:30 a 2.5 meter long object resembling a torpedo was reportedly sighted in the sea region of the Saronic Gulf west of the Petrokaravo islets". After giving the location of the object, the announcement ends, but not before advising caution to all sailors present in the area. No other announcement would be made the following days from Headquarters, just as there was no answer to the question: Why would a torpedo cruise around the Saronic Gulf?
The 1980s would see the most publicized case of a USO in Greece, which was reported in many newspapers and would be republished in many paranormal magazines. According to civilian eyewitnesses, Saturday 29 of December 1984, there were signs that a small aircraft crashed and sank in the sea, off the coast near a village named Myrtos in the vicinity of Ierapetra, Crete. More specifically, as printed in the Heraklion based newspaper Tolmi, the port authorities of Lasithi were mobilized to investigate the claims made by the locals of the village of Myrtos, according which at about 16:20 they saw an unidentified flaming object crash into the sea, 4 miles southwest of the village. They claimed that they saw the object fall at high speed, creating a 50 meter tall column of water upon impact. The Coast Guard station of Ierapetra was notified, along with the Port Authority of Aghios Nikolaos. A small fishing boat from the area tried to approach the site where the object was seen to submerge, but had to turn back due to poor weather out at sea. The air traffic control tower of the Heraklion airport was not aware of any flights at that time, while the local station of the Gendarmerie in Myrtos knew nothing more apart from what had been reported by the locals there. A few days later, January 17 1985 saw a new mobilization of the Port Authorities and the Ministry of Naval Affairs, because of a mysterious fire detected between Nisyros and Tilos.. First to spot the fire and ensuing explosion, was an airline pilot who notified the chamber of Search and Rescue of the Ministry of Naval Affairs. The chamber in turn alerted all the Port Authorities across the Dodecanese, nearby merchant vessels, and the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center which in turn sent an aircraft to search the area (without result) until 2:30 in the morning, assisted by illumination flares. The pilot's testimony was later corroborated by two young men present at the coast of Nisyros who saw the fire but without being able to spot its origin, at least according to the telegram sent to the Ministry from the Port Authority of Rhodes. Another possible case of USO which wasn't investigated much due to no witnesses turning up, is the following one, published by the newspaper Apogevmatini, dated 5 October 1989: Unidentified object in the sea around Milos.
The port authorities were set on high alert in the morning after a call made by the skipper of the freighter HOPE II, a ship sailing under the flag of Panama, which reported the crash of an aircraft into the sea. The captain of the HOPE II, Ioannis Galaris reported that, yesterday morning at 9:30 he saw something falling into the sea but he was unable to confirm if it was an aircraft, a meteorological phenomenon, or an unidentified object. Despite the extensive search conducted by the Coast Guard ship in the sea region south of the islet Agios Georgios, there was no confirmation of any crashed aircraft. The ship's second engineer said he saw something falling into the sea inside a storm, leaving behind two clearly visible contrails, which remained in the sky for about thirty minutes. On the other hand, the ship's radio operator Ioannis Kondogeorgakis, reported that for approximately ten minutes the sea was boiling, and after about 45 minutes he saw two Air Force planes flying toward Kimolos. 13 April 2000 the broadsheet Naftemporiki reported: Police, Coast Guard, and Fire Brigade in Chalkidiki went on high alert yesterday evening, following reports by two individuals about the possible crash of a military or small private aircraft in the sea. In the area of the village Agios Mamas, a woman saw an airplane flying dangerously low, emitting smoke, and a man in the monastery of Vatopedi reported seeing "an airplane, probably a fighter, diving over the Kassandra peninsula, heading toward the Thermaic Gulf”. Another much more recent sighting was reported from a local in Pigadia, the island capital of Karpathos on the 21st of December 2012 at 20:55. This account comes from an international organization, NUFORC, titled Big white shining thing crashed in the Aegean Sea between Karpathos and Rhodes.
According to the account: "One moment I saw something white and shining flying over the island town (i.e. Pigadia of Karpathos) It was moving low and silently, about 1200-1600 meters above the ground and was about the size of an airplane. It came directly from the southwest and had the typical shape of a meteor, but I don't think it was a meteor. It was white bright, very fast and seemed to be on a collision course with the promontory north of Pigadia. However it passed over the top of the promontory, and there, at an altitude of 500 meters a bright red light came off and fell on the eastern side of the island. The main body continued on its course and it must have crashed in the sea between Karpathos and Rhodes. I was expecting to hear some sound the moment of impact with the water, but nothing was heard. In any case, a moment before the red part fell off, the main body seemed to rotate about 90 degrees and then fly downward and sideways”.
Could it be then that humanity's greatest mystery is hidden under the waves and not beyond the stars?
Maybe we are not so alone as we think in the universe? Perhaps "aliens" are everywhere around us? It is possible that some have studied humanity's existence long enough to have been able to find a way to live among us by creating their new home under the sea.
Newspaper Ethnos 1/2/1947
Newspaper Athinaiki 5/2/1958
Newspaper Apogevmatini 10/12/1959
Newspaper Acropolis 6/11/1963
Newspaper Acropolis 19/7/1968
Newspaper Vradini 20/7/1972
Newspaper Eleftherotypia 31/12/1984
Newspaper Ta Nea 17/1/1985
