Video footage captured by a local resident showed a luminous object hovering in the air near the erupting Cabulco volcano on Wednesday, 1,000 kilometres south of Santiago, Chile’s capital. Local authorities said it was a small civil aircraft.
However, according to the person who filmed it and placed the footage on YouTube (below), a small airplane would not hover in the air without moving forward for a prolonged period, and then disappear.
Authorities say it was a small airplane. (Image: YouTube)
According to local radio station Radio Agricultura, while the young man was filming the eruption, a bright light appeared moving back and forth. Then the light, for some time, remained stationary in the air. Then the UFO disappeared without trace. (Apareció una luz destellante que se movía de un lado para otro. De acuerdo al relato, la luz, por momentos, permanecía sin movimiento, quieto en el aire. La sorpresa se hizo presente cuando el objeto volador no identificado desapareció sin dejar rastro.)
TV station Chilevisión said the alleged UFO was a small airplane flown by a man called Vicente. The pilot, who claimed he flew up close to see the spectacle, added that his plane has some very bright lights.
YouTube viewers, especially UFO enthusiasts, are not convinced by the small aircraft explanation, commenting that airplanes do not hover and then vanish.
Video – bright object near Cabulco volcano eruption
This is not the first time a UFO has been seen near a volcano.
Horse-like UFO hovering near Mexican volcano
In February, somebody filmed a horse-like UFO hovering close to the Colima volcano in Mexico that had erupted several times. According to eye-witnesses, it looked like some kind of floating creature.
Mexican authorities were adamant it was not a UFO – they believe it was a drone.
Video – Mysterious horse-shaped object next to volcano