A merchant ship reported 8 UFOs coming out of the ocean in Argentina

[lockedupsafe]

From this Reddit thread:


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/167lq6e/a_merchant_ship_reported_8_ufos_coming_out_of_the/


Relating to this link:

https://partedepesca.com.ar/d/un-bu...stamiento-de-ovnis-cerca-de-peninsula-valdes/

Translation here:

Executive Summary:

The text describes a report from the merchant ship San Matías I to the Argentine Naval Prefecture about sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) off the coast of Península Valdés. The ship reported seeing orange-red lights emerging from the sea and moving quickly across the sky in zig-zag patterns. The Naval Prefecture has an audio recording of the communication between the ship and the coast guard.

Key Points:

1. The merchant ship San Matías I reported seeing UFOs to the Naval Prefecture on August 19, 2022 around 3 AM.
2. The objects were described as orange-red lights coming out of the sea and moving rapidly across the sky.
3. The ship captain notified the coast guard and attempted to photograph the lights but was unable to capture clear images.
4. Nearby ships did not report any emergency signals related to the lights.

Full Text:

The merchant ship San Matías I (LW 9727 - MAT. 02440) reported sightings in position: 42°25'6"S and 62°45'0"W of 'unidentified flying objects' which were described as "red-orange lights coming out of the sea," so the captain was notified at that time, "he presents himself on the navigation bridge and notifies L4S," indicates the report from the Naval Prefecture accessed by PARTE DE PESCA.

The report adds that "the navigation and communication systems did not identify any distress signal. These lights in the sky continue to be sighted like stars moving swiftly without course in constant zigzagging directions," indicates the document textually.

This occurred on Saturday, August 19 at 3 in the morning when the captain of a merchant ship that was located several miles from Península Valdés communicated with the Argentine Naval Prefecture to report what was happening in the sky over the Atlantic Ocean. They were spotting unidentified glowing objects that moved swiftly.

In the last few hours, the audio of the communication between the oil tanker merchant ship San Matías I (LW 9727) when it notified station L4S of Puerto Madryn has come to light.

"There were eight orange lights that came out of the sea one after another over the horizon. That's why L4S and L3A were notified. Now they can be seen again in the sky," continues reporting the first officer of the merchant ship in communication with the Naval Prefecture of Puerto Madryn. "They cross each other, come and go, disappear and reappear. There were eight orange lights," he adds as the radio operator asks him to update what they were observing. "Now only three can be seen and sometimes two that come and go," the crew member of the tanker ship continued recounting.

Given the possibility of taking a photograph of what was being sighted, the captain reported that a cadet was working to take a picture with a cell phone and binoculars, although he emphasized that it was impossible to take an image of what was happening.

"There are no ships nearby, the ships are to the south. We tuned the radars and there is no emergency warning and nearby ships did not receive a request for support or anything," the Prefecture of the city of Chubut was informed.

My comment:

This could actually be Starlink. Please bear with me.

The lights were coming out of the ocean "over the horizon," i.e. the point at which they left the ocean's surface was not visible, just the rising lights.

The event was "happening in the sky over the Atlantic Ocean". Putting the ship's location into Google Maps, it was just a few miles East of the Argentinian coast, meaning it must be looking in a generally Easterly direction for the observed lights to be both "over the horizon" and "over the Atlantic Ocean".

https://www.google.com/maps/place/42%C2%B025'36.0%22S+62%C2%B045'00.0%22W/@-42.3436176,-70.8250809,4.67z/data=!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d-42.4266667!4d-62.75?entry=ttu

It was 3am in the morning. Sunrise in that part of the world is roughly 7am at this time of year. 3am is roughly in line with when satellites are most visible to the naked eye - when the Sun is below the horizon, the sky is dark, but the satellites are still fully illuminated by the Sun. 3am is a bit early, but this is also out at sea with no terrain to block line of sight, so you can potentially see brighter satellites earlier before sunrise / later after sunset.

They "cross each other, come and go, disappear and reappear" like satellites on different trajectories and passing in/out of the Sun's light and/or rotating.

It really sounds like a big Starlink deployment. Starlink Group 3-3 was launched on August 12th 2022, and Starlink Group 4-27 was launched on August 19th 2022, the same day as this event. 4-27 was launched at 8:21pm GMT, or roughly 4:21pm in Argentina, so it likely wasn't 4-27 even though that was the same day.

https://www.spacelaunchschedule.com/2022-launch-schedule/page/8/

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[Creamy Pasta]

Looks like another "win" for Starlink. Not bang on 3 am but close. It's likely that over time between launch and sighting better TLEs became available as they began to maneuver. But I don't have historical Starlink data for Aug 2022.

The G3-3 pre-launch stack data is available from here

 

[flarkey]

Looks like another "win" for Starlink. Not bang on 3 am but close. It's likely that over time between launch and sighting better TLEs became available as they began to maneuver. But I don't have historical Starlink data for Aug 2022.

See Attached. I downloaded it using the ink below (account needed).

https://www.space-track.org/basicsp...AT_ID,EPOCH/format/3le/OBJECT_NAME/STARLINK~~

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Regarding investigating the lights, lets not confuse Starlink trains with Starlink flares. The trains are visible for a few days after launch, the flares are visible when the conditions are right and in the diection of the sun over the horizon

 

[Creamy Pasta]

See Attached. I downloaded it using the ink below (account needed).

https://www.space-track.org/basicsp...AT_ID,EPOCH/format/3le/OBJECT_NAME/STARLINK~~

---

Regarding investigating the lights, lets not confuse Starlink trains with Starlink flares. The trains are visible for a few days after launch, the flares are visible when the conditions are right and in the diection of the sun over the horizon

Thanks for the heads up. I have an ST account. The problem is the sheer number of records you get. Space Track isn't that useful unless you use it to manage sets (such as G3-3) and that requires manual effort. I'm not that into keeping records at that level of detail. Here's the view with all those satellites loaded up (2000+ satellites). Maybe I'll put some effort into launch specific catalogs, it may well be worth the effort.

The basic takeaway is, as designed, Starlink pretty much covers the sky.

 

[flarkey]

The problem with cases like this is that the only evidence is witness testimony. Whilst it might be possible or likely that the sailors saw starlink (train or flares) without a video or photo we can't objectivly counter their claims.