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