1980: Bermuda Triangle UFO Claims Small Aircraft and Pilot

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1980: Bermuda Triangle UFO Claims Small Aircraft and Pilot
Posted On: July 14, 2022

The year was 1980. The place, Mona Channel, Caribbean Ocean near Puerto Rico. A small aircraft was harassed by a UFO with running commentary from the pilot. Both plane and pilot were never seen or heard of again and it's certainly one of the more intriguing incidents from the Puerto Rico/Bermuda triangle area. I would like to thank Axel Rivera for putting us onto this story.


The Disappearance of flight N3808H.


At 18:10 hours, Jose Antonio Maldonado Torres and his friend, Jose Pagan Santos, took off from Las Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in an Ercoupe aircraft marked N3808H.


The Ercoupe was owned by Santo's father Jose Pagan Jimenez, an Aero Police officer in Puerto Rico.


They were bound for home in Puerto Rico.


At 20:03 hours, the Las Mesas radar site and several aircraft picked up radio transmissions from N3808H:


Torres: "Mayday, Mayday, Ercoupe ocho cero, eight zero, zero, Hotel. We can see a strange object in our course, we are lost, Mayday, Mayday."


An Iberia Airlines flight IB-976 en route from Santo Domingo to Spain responded to the Mayday and received a reply:


Torres: "Ah we are going from Santo Domingo to ah San Juan International but we found ah a weird object in our course that made us change course about three different times we got it right in front of us now at one o'clock, our heading is zero seven zero degrees, our altitude one thousand six hundred a zero seven zero degrees, our VORs got lost off frequency."


Iberia Flight IB-976 then relayed a message from San Juan Center asking N3808H to turn on their transponder.


N3808H replied that the Ercoupe was not equipped with a transponder. At 20:06 hours, Iberia IB-976 asked for their call sign and estimated position and received this reply:


Torres: "Right now we are supposed to be a about thirty five miles from the coast of Puerto Rico but we have something weird in front of us that make us lose course all the time I changed our course a second (unintelligible) our present heading right now is three hundred we are right again in the same stuff sir."


They were not heard from again.


At 20:12 hours, the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range verified the last radar position of N3808H as thirty five miles west of Puerto Rico. A search that included Santos's father was then mounted which centered on this last radar position. It was discontinued after two days when no trace had been found.


No trace was ever found.


Source: karl 12 from abovetopsecret.com.


My Take: This is very similar to the Frederick Valentich case. Very tragic. Is it a case of a confused pilot crashing into the ocean? Or did he get kidnapped by a UFO for unknown reasons. It’s really hard to say for sure.



[BACK]
1980: Bermuda Triangle UFO Claims Small Aircraft and Pilot
Posted On: July 14, 2022

The year was 1980. The place, Mona Channel, Caribbean Ocean near Puerto Rico. A small aircraft was harassed by a UFO with running commentary from the pilot. Both plane and pilot were never seen or heard of again and it's certainly one of the more intriguing incidents from the Puerto Rico/Bermuda triangle area. I would like to thank Axel Rivera for putting us onto this story.


The Disappearance of flight N3808H.


At 18:10 hours, Jose Antonio Maldonado Torres and his friend, Jose Pagan Santos, took off from Las Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in an Ercoupe aircraft marked N3808H.


The Ercoupe was owned by Santo's father Jose Pagan Jimenez, an Aero Police officer in Puerto Rico.


They were bound for home in Puerto Rico.


At 20:03 hours, the Las Mesas radar site and several aircraft picked up radio transmissions from N3808H:


Torres: "Mayday, Mayday, Ercoupe ocho cero, eight zero, zero, Hotel. We can see a strange object in our course, we are lost, Mayday, Mayday."


An Iberia Airlines flight IB-976 en route from Santo Domingo to Spain responded to the Mayday and received a reply:


Torres: "Ah we are going from Santo Domingo to ah San Juan International but we found ah a weird object in our course that made us change course about three different times we got it right in front of us now at one o'clock, our heading is zero seven zero degrees, our altitude one thousand six hundred a zero seven zero degrees, our VORs got lost off frequency."


Iberia Flight IB-976 then relayed a message from San Juan Center asking N3808H to turn on their transponder.


N3808H replied that the Ercoupe was not equipped with a transponder. At 20:06 hours, Iberia IB-976 asked for their call sign and estimated position and received this reply:


Torres: "Right now we are supposed to be a about thirty five miles from the coast of Puerto Rico but we have something weird in front of us that make us lose course all the time I changed our course a second (unintelligible) our present heading right now is three hundred we are right again in the same stuff sir."


They were not heard from again.


At 20:12 hours, the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range verified the last radar position of N3808H as thirty five miles west of Puerto Rico. A search that included Santos's father was then mounted which centered on this last radar position. It was discontinued after two days when no trace had been found.


No trace was ever found.


Source: karl 12 from abovetopsecret.com.


My Take: This is very similar to the Frederick Valentich case. Very tragic. Is it a case of a confused pilot crashing into the ocean? Or did he get kidnapped by a UFO for unknown reasons. It’s really hard to say for sure.



1980: Bermuda Triangle UFO Claims Small Aircraft and Pilot

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