Strange aerial phenomena in Ancol, North Jakarta

The photos displayed are taken by a photo hobbyist in Ancol beach, North Jakarta on November 1 at around 06:49 AM. The photo of the strange aerial phenomena was first reported to the BETA UFO group on November 3 while the photos (including the cropped ones) were e-mailed a few days later.

According to the photographer, the photos were made while he was out hunting for good scenery to photograph, using a Canon EOS 400D camera with a shutter speed of 1/100 seconds. The photographer said he was also standing with the sun at his back when the photos were taken.


Out of the many photos he had taken, only two frames showed the strange aerial phenomena. The photographer also didn’t notice it until he uploaded the photos days later.


So far, BETA UFO’s analysis of the photos is that the object captured in the photos is probably not a UFO. The group’s experts in photographic analysis suggest it might be a bug or even a speck of dust that flew right in front of the camera and reflected the blitz light. It is, however, still open to other analyses.

Indonesian Ufology Timeline – Part 2 (1971 – 1979)

This is the second part of the Indonesian ufology timeline articles that I have started back in May. As can be seen many details are added to expand the original timeline featured in the BETA UFO 2007 book, including the expansion of the article length into a three-part series. Time has been and will always be the major constraint in doing these articles yet hopefully there is enough interest to be triggered by it to bring about better documentation in the future.

January 1970
A popular science magazine in Jakarta, Intisari, published an article written by S. Kamah about a series of strange phenomena that had been taking place around lake Poso, Sulawesi island since 1965. The article dealt with a series of possible USO/UFO phenomena observed by multiple witnesses encompassing both local villagers as well as government officials. The phenomena involved sightings of unidentified glowing objects seen both underwater and on air around the lake.

Note: This entry, not included in the original timeline presented in BETA UFO’s book, was added for the subjective assessment that it highlighted a significant ‘international’ attention/recognition for the country’s UFO phenomena. The case was published in the Flying saucers Review case Histories (Vol. 1-18) in April 1971. First reference to it was found in the voluminous archives of waterufo.net

1971-1972
Senior politician/diplomat, Adam Malik was elected president of the UN General Assembly. During his term Malik was supposedly assisted by a ufologist named Farida Iskiovet in the investigations of the Mojave desert UFO sightings. A certain ‘obscured’ document found in the archives of bibliotecapleyades.net stated that the two had actually supported the setting up of a diplomatic relation with the extraterrestrials contacted by Iskiovet in Mojave desert.
Note: The authenticity of the document is still a mystery. Most of the searches I have done on the net for UN related UFO deliberations usually focus more on the November 27 1978 UN special hearing of the UFO phenomena, during its 33rd General Assembly. On the other hand, nothing else has so far been found about Malik and Iskiovet’s alleged involvement with the Mojave desert sightings or EBEs.

1974
Suara Karya newspaper published a series of articles deliberating the works of Erich von Daniken on ancient extraterrestrials/astronauts. This might well marked the first newspaper coverage on topics related to the UFO phenomena.

December 1976
Renown American ufologist, Prof. J. Allen Hynek visited Indonesia in response to an invitation extended by Foreign Minister Adam Malik. On December 16 the national television network (TVRI) reported a speech given by Hynek to the country’s Armed Forces top brass. On December 20 TVRI aired a special talk show discussing the UFO phenomena in Indonesia. The show featured Hynek accompanied by the country’s pioneering ufologist J. Salatun and engineer Tony Hartono Rusman -- the person who had sighted and photographed an unknown aerial object in the Cilamaya coastal region, West Java back in September 1975.
The show seemed to be quite successful in stirring up public interest and attention to the subject of ufology as later described by Salatun in his letter to Hynek a year after the televised show. During the show Salatun also supposedly encourage viewers to report any UFO related phenomena to the National Space and Aviation Agency (LAPAN) that he was heading.
Note: It is not known whether TVRI’s archive still carries the documentation for this talkshow. Such footage would definitely be an invaluable documentation to preserve regarding the development of ufology in the country.

February 1977
J. Salatun wrote a lengthy letter to Prof. Hynek, elaborating on the then current development of UFO sightings in the country. The letter, titled J. Salatun communiqué # 1, is available as a pdf file from The Sign Historical Group. Among others, the letter disclosed some intriguing cases such as the sighting and close encounter case in Alor and Pantar islands, East Nusa Tenggara, in 1959 and the discovery of physical traces from a reported UFO landing site in Mount Lawu, Central Java, in 1971.

1978
Mekatronika, a popular science magazine based in Bandung city, West Java, published a special edition (#5, 1978) dedicated to the UFO phenomena. This particular event mark the beginning of a much more intense local media attention to the subject of ufology.

December 18, 1978
Indonesian engineer Ahmad Padang, working as one of the UN’s Space Application expert, attended the 33rd General Assembly that discussed the subject of global UFO sightings and measures to coordinate efforts to monitor it.

1979
Popular Jakarta-based youth magazine, Hai published a special issue on ufology while Mekatronika magazine published a special issue on exobiology. In the same year, Desmond Leslie and George Adamski classical book “The Flying saucers Have Landed” was translated into Indonesian by Bandung-based publisher Harapan Baru. Also published was Daniken’s seminal “Chariots of The Gods” by another Bandung-based publisher Yayasan Tanadi under the title “Adakah Mahluk Lain dari Angkasa Luar?”.

1979
Painter maestro, Sudjana Kerton was allegedly abducted by UFO at his home in Dago Pakar, Bandung city, West Java.
Note: The story has never been thoroughly investigated although there are claims that UFO sightings have continued in the area.

June 30 1979
Publisher Yayasan Idayu held a special event in Jakarta’s National Awakening building where J. Salatun presented his paper on the current global UFO problem. The material would later be published as a book by Yayasan Idayu.

The Salatun Files - A Brief Background

As a fellow Indonesian, Air Vice Marshall (Ret.) J. Salatun's book - 'Menyingkap Rahasia Piring Terbang' (Unveiling the Flying Saucer's Secret) published in 1960, is truly an intriguing literature to behold. On the one hand, it is the first ever 'indigenous' literature on ufology to be published in Indonesia. Furthermore it is also written in a highly serious manner pertaining to the most sophisticated 'scientific' efforts of the time to explain the UFO phenomena. It wasn't just a catalogue of 'western' UFO-related cases, from someone who simply believed in everything others' have to say about the phenomena. It was more likely a quite meticulous analysis done by an active Air Force officer (still a Lt. Col. by then) who is concerned about the potential security threat as well as technological edge connected to the UFO phenomena.

On the other hand, Salatun's monumental work has (strangely enough) never stirred up a widespread interest on ufology in Indonesia. At least not until quite recently. One could even say that the book practically remained in relative obscurity for the past 4 decades. Was it because political turmoils has pretty much predominate Indonesians' life in the 1960's? Did the book itself simply fail to hold any interest for the majority of Indonesians at the time? Whatever it is, decades after it was published, the majority of Indonesians still consider the UFO phenomena as an exclusively 'western' (if not 'American') issue. At times, it even seemed easier for Indonesians to accept the possibility of UFO cases when it happens elsewhere rather in their own homeland.

One could speculate that Salatun's book and its relative 'alienation' from the local public up until now might also account for the somewhat slow development of ufology in Indonesia. Perhaps, providing an online repository of the book's excerpts as well as some personal analysis regarding its most intriguing contents would change the situation for the better. Such an effort has actually been done by the country's most active group in ufology : BETA UFO, through their website (although the focus is more to collecting and analyzing cases). In light of that one does believe that an online English data base, focusing on Salatun's original book/writtings, is the logical next step to take.

This is the reason for starting this series of writting entitled "The Salatun Files". How much will this effort actually affect the development of ufology in Indonesia? One could only hope it will not be diminutive nor futile.

The BETA UFO Gathering, December 2008 (An Outsider's View)

First Impressions

I had only made contact with BETA UFO's director - Nur Agustinus for about 2 or 3 months when I found out about the group's planned gathering in Jakarta. The venue was quite conviniently accessible for me so I asked Nur Agustinus if it would be OK for me to drop in on their meeting. To cut a long story short, he gave me the green light and granted me a very intriguing up close look at the group's members & activity.

To be fair & square I didn't exactly get to the venue (in ITC Senayan shopping mall, downtown Jakarta) on time & missed most of the scheduled events. I only learned more about it a few weeks later from an article (journal?) written by Nur Agustinus (links on Reference, below). It was also quite surprising to know that he made a special note of my visit in that article. Nevertheless, disgression aside, I did manage to see some interesting aspects & details from the gathering which I don't think I would've otherwise paid attention to if I hadn't been late.

The first positive impression I got is from the venue itself. It was a relatively small food court place, somewhere on the mall's upper floors, highlighted by BETA UFO's banner & merchandises. All and all, it didn't tingle my suspicious nature for most money-making scams n' hoaxes. Despite the well prepared banners & merchandises I can immediately feel the informal atmosphere of an honest, grass-root kind of community effort that is more concerned about sharing a common interest on the subject of ufology rather than about cashing-in from people's gulibilities.

Almost everyone present was dressed casually with the BETA UFO 'managing' crew all clad in black T-shirts that quickly brought back fond memories of some late 90's underground headbanger gathering. There were no seating 'arrangements' and -as I later found out- no protocols whatsoever when it comes to approaching the director - Nur Agustinus, for a friendly chit-chat.

Meeting The Man
After signing up the guest book & getting some free brochures in return I asked the lady sitting over the guest book table to help point me to Nur's whereabouts. It turned pout to be a quite easy process. The man was obviously busy talking with some other people, including some journalist, and yet he immediately approached & welcomed me with open arms. Soon enough, we end up sitting down together with some other members of the BETA UFO community joining us later on.
As the discussion lingers on I quickly noted an interesting fact of the director's personality. He never tried to speculate beyond what he really knows nor tried to dominate a conversation even when he actually knows more about the subject. Even when sharing his personal experience of a possible sighting the first thing he stressed was the fact that it could simply be the ISS (International Space Station) passing on its orbit around the earth. As subjective as it is, experience has thought me that such down to earth humility hardly ever goes hand in hand with shallow motives for fame & money. Of course, people do change with time & circumstances but I still have high hopes that BETA UFO & Nur Agustinus in particular will not degenerate should they ever be in the limelight.

All photos are taken from Nur Agustinus' personal recount (in pdf file).

Indonesian Sightings 2008 : The Photographic Evidence Case Files

Jakarta, Cipinang Baru road, East Jakarta district, January 5th 2008. A reddish star-like object, seen flying a west-northeast course by 3 witnesses. The long arrow is supposed to point out the object's flight path as well as the object itself (at the end of the arrow) while the smaller arrow points out an electrical pole. Unfortunately, the low quality of the photo does make it problematic to see anything peculiar.

Jakarta, Kembangan Utara Sub-District, West Jakarta region, January 19th 2008. Seen by 3 witnesses (husband, wife & their 8 year old child). No actual photos were taken (artist sketch is provided by BETA UFO) but all 3 witnesses testify that the strange craft was box-shaped and moving slowly overhead when they saw it.

Photographed by 'EA', a commercial flight pilot that (according to BETA UFO) wished to stay anonymous, during a drive to Pacitan city, East Java Province, on March 23rd 2008. The photo shown here has been cropped and enhanced by BETA UFO for analysis. Original size photo can be seen on the BETA UFO website (under sightings, 2008).

The area around Darma dam, West Java Province, on April 5th 2008. The object (originally three in number) which is highlighted by a red arrrow in the photo, was witnesses by 2 youth doing a cross country tracking around the area. Witnesses also claimed that 2 of the 3 UFO's seemed to have landed in a nearby hill.

Photographed with an old Sony Ericsson S 700 HP, on April 12th 2008. The object was seen & photographed by a single witness, in the Karawaci area, which is part of the Tangerang Regency, Banten Province, Java island.

Photo taken in the Ponorogo, East Java Province area, on April 13th 2008, at around 9 in the morning. Photo taken by the same 'EA' that took the photo in Pacitan, on March 23rd 2008. He believed that it is actually the same object.

This photo was taken by 2 brothers in the Pondok Kelapa residential area, east Jakarta, on October 3rd 2008. The object was seen as 4 blinking red spots, that stayed together in a vertical formation, for about 15 to 20 minutes.

This remarkable photo was taken around 6 in the evening, near the city of Tuban, East Java Province, on October 5th 2008. The photo was taken by a Jakartan, on the way home from a traditional Ramadhan family-gathering (mudik), in the ever busy northern Java coastal road (Pantura). The sketch below is made later on as part of the photo's analysis by BETA UFO.

Indonesian Ufology Timeline - Part 1 (1959 - 1967)

Back in November 2007, the BETA UFO community (by far one of the most reliable ufology group in Indonesia) published a book titled "A Decade of BETA UFO Community Indonesia - Tracking The UFO Phenomena". The book was written and compiled/edited by the group's Director - Nur Agustinus and BETA UFO's chief archivist - Gatot Tri R.

The 200 something pages book, written in Indonesian, is quite an interesting read. Other than just revealing the 'colorful' history of how BETA UFO first got formed, the book also highlighted some less known facets of the Indonesian ufology history. One of which, which is also my personal favorite, is the Indonesian ufology timeline featured on page 67 until 72, under the heading of '"Garis Waktu UFO Indonesia" .
Being a detail-minded freak I had honestly hoped that the timeline would've shown more detailed information than it was. Regardless, it is still an intriguing & commendable effort to track the development of ufology in Indonesia. Because of that I have decided to try translating it into English & added -whenever I could find it- more 'details' here n' there to make sure I don't just copy-paste other people's hard work (which is also why it ended up being a 2 part article). I have also tried to point out any possible details that might merit further researching should anyone care to do so. The result of this effort is as follows.

April 1959
Indonesian engineer - Kusudiarso Hadinoto visited the USAF Project Blue Book office at the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC), Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton OH. The seemingly semi-official visit was made with the company of Let. Col. Soedjono, of the Indonesian Air Force (TNI-AU) [at the time, Soedjono was TNI-AU's official liaison officer at teh Indonesian embassy in wash. DC]. Both men were met by Project Blue Book's C.O. at the time - Maj. Robert B. Friend Jr. who gave them the opportunity to look at more than 5,000 UFO-related case files from the Project's archive. The Major also debriefed them about several evidence that supposedly came from UFO's and has since been proven as hoaxes.
The visit itself was made following the suggestion of TNI-AU's Let. Col. J. Salatun - the pioneer of Indonesian ufology. A foreword by Mr. Hadinoto on Salatun's seminal book about ufology, published about a year later, also revealed that the visit was made in connection to the writing of that particular book.

July 1959
A strange series of close encounters and sighting occured in the region of Alor & Pantar islands, In Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province. The phenomena included an abduction of a local child by the name of Pangu, plus several amazing encounters between local islanders and a group of odd looking, reddish-skinned, silver-haired, blue-uniformed men as well as sighting of an oval shaped UFO prior to the disappearance of the "Men in Blue".
The story itself didn't get revealed until 17 years later when former Alor-Pantar regional police chief - Alwi Alnadad told the whole account to Indonesia's pioneering ufologist - J. Salatun.
It is interesting to note that the islanders, despite being quite traditional & reclusive, are actually not unaware of both foreigners as well as modern military uniform. {The confession given by the supposedly abducted child- Pangu, that his abductors were slightly taller than the German doctor who visited their village, and the fact that there has always been a Military territorial Command post (Kodam) in the vicinity of both islands are the facts I'm noting here.}

1960
TNI AU's Let.Col. - J. Salatun published his seminal book on ufology titled "Menjingkap Rahasia Piring Terbang" (Unveiling the secret of Flying Saucer). The book was published in Jakarta by local publisher - Pustaka Rakyat, and set the milestone for being the first ever locally written ufology book, in Indonesia. The book featured a quite detailed recount of major UFO sightings/EBE encounters from USA & Europe, as well as local cases from all over Indonesia. In total, there are 23 local cases filed in the 350 pages book. Something else worth notifying about this book is the fact that it was formerly endorsed by Indonesia's Prime Minister at the time - Djuanda & TNI AU's Chief of Staff - Air Marshall S. Suryadarma. The book also received a special mention in the NICAP's "The UFO Evidence" report/book.

October 1960
Indonesia's National News Agency (ANTARA) reported a UFO sighting around the city of Makassar, South Sulawesi. The sightings reportedly happened about 3 times a day, from the end of September until early October. ANTARA also tried to interview officials from the city's Hassanuddin (called 'Mandai' back then) airport regarding the sightings but it is not known whether it yielded any plausible "explanation" or not. All in all, this is basically the 1st ever news coverage of a UFO case by Indonesia's national mainstream media.

November 1963
Indonesia's National Aerospace Agency (LAPAN) was officially formed under Presidential Decree No. 236. J. Salatun, the nation's ufology pioneer, was then appointed as the agency's first director. Under his leadership, LAPAN (at least for a while, as it seemed to be) was also designated as a place for gathering/reporting data about UFO sightings in Indonesia.

September 1964
UFO sightings, visible both to the naked eye as well as in radar visuals, are reported from the 18th to the 24th of September. The phenomena occured around the skies of 3 cities in the east Jawa province - Surabaya, Malang & Bangkalan. The sighting also provoked the Indonesian military to open fire at the UFOs, since the country was -at the time- in anticipation of an all out armed confrontation with Malaysia (which was backed-up by its main allies - U.K. & Australia). The situation actually became so serious that, by October, Second Deputy-Prime Minister J. Leimena had to issue an official statement urging people to stay calm and not to stir up any kind of gossips or speculations regarding the sightings. The whole account itself was first disclosed by J. Salatun in his 1982 book - "UFO, One of the World's Current Problem".
Furthermore, J. Salatun also made a comment about this incident which has now been circulating in various UFO sites "Quotable Quotes" as can bee seen (among others) in bibliotecapleyades.net as well as in U.K's Prufos - police UFO database and The Ufo Evidence. The statement itself stressed that the incident was "...one of the most spectacular UFO incident in Indonesia..." as "...UFOs penetrated a well-defended area...for two weeks at a strecth, and each time were welcomed with perhaps the heaviest anti-aircraft barrage in history".
As an additional note, no known newspaper archive pertaining to this case has ever been found, although it is plausible that there must be some since it seemed to have stirred up such 'unrest' among the population that necessitated a formal statement from Mr. Leimena.

May 1967
TNI AU's ad interim Chief of Staff - Air Marshall Roesmin Nurjadin wrote a letter (dated 5/5/67) to one Yusake J. Matsumura, disclosing the Indonesian UFO phenomena. His official statement is that "UFOs sighted in Indonesia are identical with those sighted in other countries." He also added (seemingly in relation to the above mentioned incident) that "Sometimes they (the UFOs) pose a problem for our air defence and once we were obliged to fire on them." This statement can also be seen in the links to UFO sites above, although what I find very intriguing about the statement (that there are scarcely any mention about who Yusake J. Matsumura actually is) is not further corroborated on those links.

Strange Encounters : Alor & Pantar islands, Indonesia, 1959

For most people, the lesser Sunda islands in eastern Indonesia is probably better known for its two tourist magnets - Bali and Lombok. Few if any might know about the Alor archipelago, which is comprised of Alor and Pantar islands, at the easternmost end of the lesser Sunda cluster. Fewer still would probably know about the strange close encounter phenomenon that occurred in those islands, way back in 1959.

It took about 17 long years before the story itself was retold by the then retired Alor islands regional police chief – Alwi Alnadad, to Indonesia’s pioneering ufologist – R.J. Salatun. It has since then been documented in Salatun’s seminal book ’UFO,Salah Satu Masalah Dunia Masa Kini’ (UFO, One of The World's Current Problem) from which most of the following information is based upon.

Strangers in Blue

Somewhere in early July 1959, residents of Alor and Pantar islands begun their shocking discovery of a group of strange looking visitors on the islands. They were reportedly humanoid-looking beings, with an average height of 1,80 meters, who had reddish skin hue and silvery-white wavy hair. The visitors were also reported to be wearing a ‘peculiar’ attire that consisted of dark blue uniforms, with long sleeves and high collars, and black boots. They were also seen carrying grey metallic cylinders which were tugged in on their belts.

With such uncanny appearance, it was obvious that the strangers would attract attention and curiosity from the simple islanders. Unfortunately, the interaction that henceforth ensued between them were quite fearful (if not even violent) rather than just strange or bewildering…
In one event, one of the strange visitor was seen investigating something which prompted suspicious islanders to surround and attacked the entity with arrows. It turned out that the arrows couldn’t injure the visitor at all, who then escaped without a trace simply by jumping high over the heads of the surrounding islanders.

The strange visitors were also seen in the neighboring island of Pantar, west of Alor. Here, a whole village was practically terrorized by a small group of the blue uniformed strangers. It all begun when six of the strangers came prowling around into the village after sunset, seemingly in search of something. One of them, a bearded figure, went so far as to open one of the villagers’ house window, just to observe the situation inside. Their presence caused so much fear among the villagers that none dared leave their houses all through the night.

Up Close and Personal

Erstwhile in the eastern part of Alor, a few islanders reported a much more up close interaction with the blue strangers. One such case was recounted by a villager, living to the east of the island’s capital, Kalabahi, who had an intriguing personal encounter with the visitors. The unsuspecting man found himself surrounded by a group of blue uniformed strangers, right after he had climbed an Enau tree. They were talking among themselves in a language unknown to the man, and had paralyzed him with one of the metallic cylinder that they carried on their belts. One of them later stepped forward and showed the man a clock-like gadget that amazed him, since it was able to show a scenery that was not only far from where they were but also blocked-off by dense forest and towering hills.

Elsewhere in the east of Kalabahi, a 6 years old child, by the name of Pangu, gave his account of an abduction, after he went missing for 24 hours. The child was first found in a confused state, in the middle of a field, before being able to tell the story. He later said that he was taken to the forest by a group of the strange blue-uniformed visitors. He also claimed to have undergone medical examinations while he was in the woods with the strangers and that they had, at one point, offered him to have any kind of food he wanted. Pangu also recalled an interesting point about the visitors' height as being slightly taller than a German doctor that once visited his village.

Shooting Thin Air

Reports and stories of the strange visitors finally caught the attention of Regional Police Chief – Alwi Alnadad. Taking a group of policemen armed with Garrand riffles and Thompson machine guns, he then set out to investigate the site, east of Kalabahi, where the strangers supposedly appeared. There, Alwi and his men prepared an ambush.

Alas, at around midnight, the strangers did appear and Alwi men’s fired their shots from a distance of about 13 meters. Strangely enough, they later found no traces of blood let alone a corpse on the scene. All that was left were bullet ridden trees and footprints that vanished after trailing for 5 meters.

Following the shooting incident, many residents on both Alor and Pantar Island witnessed what could possibly be the blue strangers ‘farewell’ flight. It was a strange white glimmering egg-shaped object that was seen flying across the sea, from West to East. Ever since that sighting the stranger in blue were never seen again in the vicinity of both islands…

A Note On Sources

The strange EBE/UFO encounter and sighting in the Alor archipelago, as fascinating as it is, was never an easy ‘story’ to corroborate independently. Other than just the time factor, there is also the problem of supporting documents. To put it plain and simple, other than the account given personally and orally by Alwi Alnadad to J. Salatun, no police document/report was ever found. Nevertheless, there are some things that lend some credibility to the story.

First and foremost is the credibility of J. Salatun himself. The man is a historical figure in the Indonesian aviation as well as Air Force history. He has joined the ‘embryonic’ national air force since its conception in 1946, before ending his military career as a Vice Air-Marshall (Major General) of the Indonesian National Air Force (TNI-AU). He was also once a minister in the Indonesian 2^nd Dwikora-cabinet (March-July 1966) and founder of the National Institute of Space and Aviation (LAPAN) in 1963. He was also the first person to wrote a serious book concerning UFO phenomena in Indonesia – “Menjingkap Rahasia Piring Terbang” (Revealing the Secret of Flying Saucer) back in 1960, when he was still an Air Force Colonel. A book that also received a special mention in the NICAP document, published in 1964.

Secondly is the sad yet historical fact that Indonesia has never been very keen in keeping a good measure of its historical documents preserved. Most of the best historical documentations about this country are available elsewhere, in Europe, Australia or even North America (such as the Ohio University’s archives). Other than that, Alor & Pantar Islands were also quite remote back in the 1950’s (if not even up till now). In those days, proper government/military agencies documentation is already ‘rare’ in the less remote areas, such as in Java Island, let alone in the Alor Archipelago. Which would also account for the lengthy span of time before the story was finally revealed by Alwi Alnadad to Salatun.

Another point to note is that Salatun’s book that was printed in 1982 (it’s out of print now) would’ve otherwise been lost in oblivion if it weren’t for the keen & diligent effort to preserve it online, by a group of Indonesian UFO enthusiasts & researchers called BETA- UFO. In fact, the first online account of the Alor case in Wikipedia, was made by the group’s own Director - Nur Agustinus, who have also helped provide most of the documentary materials used in this writing. As brief as it was the Wiki account itself has managed to made its way into various UFO forums, including one in abovetopsecret.com/ATS (by the Alien & UFO forum's expert - Internos).

This article was first published in abovetopsecret.com, on 23/11/08. All drawings are artist's rendition from Kuncung magazine.

References:
J.Salatun's 1982 boook (in pdf file)
TNI AU's official account of J.Salatun last rank
The Dwikora cabinet list of ministers
Indonesian aviation pioneers
LAPAN official website
NICAP's The UFO Evidence
BETA UFO website
Nur Agustinus's Wiki entry
Internos' post on ATS

Indonesia's 1970s C8 Cases

Prelude

The following is an independent & hardly exhaustive recount of the first few C8 cases from Indonesia. All of the cases happened during the 1970’s, in the vicinity of Java & Bali islands, within the central & eastern regions of the country. These are basically the classics of Indonesian C8 sightings which also represent a milestone in the slow yet steady development of local interest for the UFO phenomena.

As most UFO researchers & enthusiasts would know, Category 8 (C8) is a simple concept expounded by NICAP for classifying UFO sightings with photographic evidence entailed to it. When it comes to Indonesia, such cases are basically non-existent (or perhaps yet to be found) prior to the 1970’s. Even by then, as can be seen from the time span between the cases presented here, they were quite far & few in between. A situation that hasn’t changed much even up until now.

Most of the material used in this recount are based on 2 main sources. First & foremost are the writings of Indonesia’s pioneering ufologist – Air Force Vice Marshall (Ret.) J. Salatun, who has been studying the phenomena independently since the late 1940’s. Second is the quite intriguing database of local cases collected by Indonesia’s currently prominent UFO research group – BETA UFO, which also include Salatun’s works. Additional data are collected from independent research on the net as listed in the reference list.

Gunung Agung, Bali, August 1973
Standing at an elevation 3014 meters, Gunung (Mount) Agung in the Karangasem district, Bali Island, has always been considered as a sacred & mystical place by the Balinese. As is the case with other major volcanoes in the island (such as Mount Batukaru, Batur & Abang) Agung has always been traditionally revered as the holy abode of Godly entities. In Mount Agung’s case, it’s believed to be the home of Batara Agung – the supreme representation of Shiva. Curiously enough, this site then also become the place where the 1^st known photograph of a UFO sighting in Indonesia was made.

Perhaps in testimony of how little do most Indonesians care about UFO sightings, the photo itself wasn’t made by a local. It was taken by a Japanese tourist – Ryo Terumoto, on August 17^th 1973, as he was traveling in the vicinity of Mount Agung. He supposedly took the shot from a car at around 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Mr. Terumoto himself apparently didn’t notice the odd lens-shaped aerial object (to the left of the frame) until the photo was printed.

The photo has since been published in the Japanese magazine – Hito To Nippon March 1974 edition under the heading “UFO Above Bali Island?”. It is also said that the photograph has undergone some kind of analysis, although no further details have yet been found about it, and proven to be a genuine object shot from a far away distance. Up until now, the

case has also been featured in several UFO related websites as can be seen in the reference list.

Cilamaya coastal area, West Java, 1975

Three years after the photo in Mount Agung was made, another unknown aerial object was caught on camera in Indonesia. This time it happened around the coastal area of Cilamaya, in the Karawang regency, West Java Province. The photo itself was taken by an Indonesian engineer – the late Mr. Tony Hartono Rusman, on September 22^nd 1975.

At the time, Mr. Rusman was taking photographs with an Olympus camera on board an offshore oil platform owned by ARCO Indonesia, the company that he was working for. Located about 83 kilometers from the Cilamaya coastline, the platform was still under construction by then & the photos were made as part of a report on the construction progress.

The event itself took place at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon, as Mr. Rusman was wondering what else he should photograph to finish up the last shot in his film roll. Suddenly, his attention was drawn to a tiny speck in the sky which was growing bigger as it rapidly approached the platform. According to the man’s testimony to Salatun, the object appeared to be oval shaped with a dark-reddish color & emanated a faint spinning sound. Mr. Rusman himself managed to take a shot at the object, with ARCO’s Arjuna tanker visible in the background, just before it made a sharp turn away & disappeared within a minute on a vertical climb.

About a year later, the photo found its way to Salatun’s possession who in turn passed it over to noted Ufologist – Prof. J.A. Hynek on his visit to Indonesia, in late 1976. Although it is still unclear how Rusman got in touch with Salatun, the passing of the photo was clearly documented in Salatun’s 1982 book & 1977 letter to Prof. Hynek. It was also through Prof. Hynek that the photo was then analyzed with the result later documented in Salatun’s book, as quoted below (with translation).
"Dr. J.A. Hynek telah membawa foto dari UFO Ir. Tony Hartono Rusman yang kemudian dianalisa oleh Dr. Fred Beckmann, ahli analisa foto UFO yang terkemuka dari Universitas Chicago. Pendapatnya ialah : foto UFO tersebut dapat juga disebabkan oleh kerusakan film. Untuk dapat dianalisa dengan baik, rupa-rupanya mutlak perlu tersedia negatif-negatif aslinya disamping dibuatnya beberapa foto UFO yang sama dengan sudut pandang yang berbeda-beda.
[Dr. J.A. Hynek has taken engineer Tony Hartono’s UFO photo which was then analyzed by Dr. Fred Beckmann, a noted UFO photo analyst from the University of Chicago. His opinion is that : the UFO photo could have also been caused by a defect in the film roll. Apparently, to have a better analysis of the photo, it is absolutely necessary to have the original negatives as well as to have several shots of the same UFO made from different angles.]"

Porong area, East Java, 1977

The area known as Porong is actually a sub-region within the Sidoarjo district, in the East Java Province. It is also the location of one of the main access road/highway that connects the province’s capital – Surabaya with the southern regions. Since May 2006, the area has been infamously known as the “ground zero” for a catastrophic mud flow which has inundated most of the surrounding region. About three decades ago it was made famous for a different reason : as the place where the 3^rd known Indonesian C8 case took place.
The case itself happened on June 27^th 1977, at around 18:15 in the afternoon, involving three Indonesian engineers – Dr. Aryono Abdulkadir, Rudianto Ramelan & Ananda Soeyoso. At the time, the three colleagues were driving south from Surabaya to the city of Malang. Somewhere down the road, around Porong, they caught sight of an interesting object in the sky to the west of the highway. Dr. Aryono, who has always been interested with astronomy, thought at first that it was a meteor. He then convinced the other 2 men to make a short stop & tried to photograph it.

Strangely enough, the “meteor” then made a 90 degrees turn towards the south shortly after the first photo was made. Mr. Abdulkadir then proceeded to take more shots of the object that behaved unlike any meteor he had ever known (interestingly, Salatun later noted that Mr. Abdulkadir did admit of accidentally shaking his hand while photographing the object’s “weird” 90 degrees turning). The three men then watched as the strange object moved slowly & silently across the sky, for about 6 minute long, before it disappeared from view while heading further south.

References:
J. Salatun's online (pdf) Book (in Indonesian)
NICAP’s C8 brief outline
BETA-UFO website
The Gunung Agung case in an Italian web
The Gunung Agung case in French Ufologie.net
The Gunung Agung case in Malay
Salatun’s letter to Hynek in The Sign Historical Group archive(look under Foreign Contributions, page 114)
Background info on Mount Agung’s traditional reverence
Background info on Mount Agung’s topography and location
Cilamaya map & assorted infos
A Google map of the Cilamaya region
Wiki’s entry about Karawang regency
Indonesian MSM recount of the Cilamaya case
Wiki’s brief entry about Porong area
Online pdf files on the Porong mud flow disaster

This article was first submitted to be published in abovetopsecret.com, on 11/01/09