A recent
press release by
IRM claims that the Elohim (ETs, Raelians believe created life on Earth) have lent their support for the first ever South American
"Happiness Academy" because it can't be coincidence that a UFO just happened to have appeared and hovered for more than 2 hours over Lima’s Miraflores neighborhood while the Raelians were holding a press conference nearby on 10 February!
The press release includes a
video link released by
Eduardo Chávez Guerra of the alleged UFO. Here's an HD screen-cap of the UFO:
Incredible, you might think... and you'd be right since last year on 11 April, a similar UFO sighting occurred in the Netherlands, in the town of Maassluis, and captured on
video by a man named
Dick Smits. Here's a screen-cap of the UFO:
 |
| Screen-cap from RTV Rijnmond's report |
After some investigation by the good peeps at
Metabunk, it turns out that high-altitude kites, known as
rokkaku dako, have often been used for KAP (kite aerial photography) in the precise location. These large kites are pretty stable and so appear to hover in the ski. The kite in this incident was above the port of Rotterdam. A Dutch KAP enthusiast named
Hansel Elbers posted a pic of the port on his
Flickr taken from his kite:
 |
| Hansel's KAP of Rotterdam port |
This image is from the video claiming it's a UFO shows the very same cranes at the port:
 |
| Screen-cap from the video by Dick Smits |
An amused Hansel even noted that his kite has been misidentified and gone viral as a UFO in a
KAP forum. Here's a Google translated screen-cap (click to enlarge):
 |
| Screen-cap from Hansel's KAP forum |
Here's a tweet by Hansel to the media company that released Dick Smit's video:
 |
| Hansel's tweet to RTV Rijnmond |
And, here's Hansel's
rokkaku dako from his Flickr:
 |
| Hansel's rokkaku dako |
Pretty much case closed for this "UFO sighting". LOL
Now, what's interesting is how almost identical the Lima, Miraflores UFO is to the debunked Dutch case above except for the colors:
 |
| Bottom-left: Dutch kite - Center: Miraflores UFO |
Turns out, thanks for the investigation by the good peeps at
Above Top Secret, that a Peruvian kite enthusiast named
Aurelio Rodriguez spotted a
rokkaku dako on the day the Miraflores sighting occurred and left a comment under a You Tude
video of a TV report:
Edited Translation:
"Gentlemen, it is a large kite that was being flown from the Costanera Avenue, "at the foot of the cliff" of the Costa Verde, as Julio Ramón Ribeyro would say. I was lucky to be passing by this street at that same time, going from south to north direction airport, and I could see it up and close (I took a photo and video with my cell phone). I must admit that at first, when I saw it from afar (from a distance of at least four kilometers) I was struck by its large size and its stability (a cute kite, I think it's a version of the "Hergraves Box Kite" ). If you take a stroll along the fancy fair in Costa Verde (where they built the "Paris-Dakar Race Village" a few months ago) and ask the people working at the site, they will confirm my story, and perhaps you get to see the comet again. Excuse me for being a spoilsport but much of my job revolves around observing flying objects ..."
After being contacted, Aurelio provided the following screen-caps from his video of the kite:
 |
| Screen-caps from Aurelio's video |
The color scheme matches perfectly with the alleged UFO in the Eduardo video and Aurelio's rokkaku dako;
So, it seems the Raelians have made a big
faux pas on this one! LOL
Advocatus Diaboli
