When an unidentified flying object plummeted from the sky and crashed into El Taire Mountain on the border between Bolivia and Argentina on May 6, 1978, thousands of witnesses couldn’t believe their eyes. A cylindrical shape, trailing fire, hit the mountain with such an impact that the resulting sonic boom could be heard up to 150 miles away, shattering windows up to 30 miles from the impact site. The incident had all the makings of a case that would shake up both the public and the corridors of power.
What unfolded in the days following this unexpected event could be considered as puzzling as the crash itself. The object, described by numerous witnesses as “cylindrical and metallic,” immediately captivated the attention of not just the local populace but also military and government bodies from Bolivia and Argentina, and curiously, even from the United States.
In the immediate aftermath of the crash, people were talking. Juan Hurtado, a local police officer, described the object as resembling “a gigantic wine container emitting a trace of white smoke.” Hurtado was on duty and talking to three engineers when the object “flew directly above my head,” crashing into the mountain with an impact so strong “it threw me to the ground,” he said. Corporal Natalio Farfan Ruiz, stationed at the small village of La Marmora, confirmed the incident, noting the earth-shaking impact and pondering the devastation had the object hit a populated area.
Both Argentine and Bolivian authorities acted swiftly. Argentina dispatched the 20th unit of its border police to look for wreckage. Bolivia’s Air Force sent three AT6 planes, relics from World War II, to scout the area. Although they spotted the crash site, landing nearby proved impossible.
However, the story took a peculiar twist when Clarin, a Buenos Aires newspaper, reported that the mysterious object had been located and inspected. Citing the police chief of Tarija, Bolivia, the paper described the object as “a dull metallic cylinder, twelve feet long with a few dents.” The chief awaited instructions for further action, even mentioning that a NASA expert was due to arrive.
Despite initial claims, no NASA representative showed up. Instead, two U.S. Air Force officers, Col. Robert Simmons and Maj. John Heise, arrived on a seemingly secret mission. Both were linked to Project Moon Dust, a covert program concerning unidentified flying objects and space debris recovery. Documents later released by the U.S. State Department confirmed the officers’ mission to Tarija, further thickening the plot.
It should be noted that during this period, U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia, Paul H. Boeker, communicated with the State Department about the surge of UFO reports from the region. In a response marked “secret,” U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance declared no known space objects correlated with the event but mentioned ongoing examination of possibilities.
Compounding the uncertainty surrounding the 1978 Bolivia UFO crash was a subsequent CIA report, entitled “Bolivia Report Conflicts On Details Of Fallen Object.” According to this document, Bolivian authorities urgently sought assistance from NASA to help determine the nature of the mysterious object that had plummeted into their territory. The report also emphasized that Argentine and Uruguayan radio stations were increasingly covering the event, suggesting a level of regional concern that went beyond standard reporting. The involvement of multiple governmental agencies, including the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and NASA, raises additional questions about the international implications of the incident, and why, even after decades, straightforward answers remain elusive.
To this day, the incident remains an open-ended question. Despite exhaustive searches and multiple inquiries, neither Bolivian nor Argentine authorities have definitively explained the event. More intriguingly, the famed Smithsonian Institution, which meticulously tracks global scientific occurrences, has no record of a meteorite falling at that location during May 1978.
Adding another layer of intrigue, the U.S. Air Force, through Project Moon Dust, expressed more than just a passing interest in this case. Unfortunately, no more documents relating to the Simmons-Heise mission have been released, leaving us to rely on fragmented reports and speculation.
It’s been over four decades since that fateful afternoon on El Taire Mountain, yet the event remains fresh in the collective memory of Bolivia and Argentina. Thousands saw it, authorities investigated it, and some may know far more than they have revealed. One thing is certain: the tale of what crashed into El Taire Mountain in May 1978 refuses to fade into obscurity, serving as a constant reminder that the world around us still holds untold mysteries waiting to be explored.
And as readers and explorers on this journey with Breaking News Streams, we encourage you to keep asking questions. Keep your curiosity alight, as the quest for understanding continues to uncover new stories, fresh insights, and perhaps one day, the truth about that distant afternoon in 1978 when the sky over El Taire Mountain split open, and something extraordinary came crashing down.
CIA Report: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000015258.pdf
