The Fourth Kind
It was 1978 when the "Adriatic Triangle", a triangular area of sea between Ancona, Gran Sasso and Pescara, made half the world talk about it. In this sea triangle everything happened, in some cases thanks to exaggeration and imagination, in others without any real explanation. According to the fishermen themselves, columns of water about ten meters in diameter came out of the sea. The sea was boiling in some areas, especially north of Martinsicuro, and there were reports of glowing bodies in the waves. Sailors talked about compasses going haywire, sudden fog, and onboard radar picking up unknown objects. They reported noises, light explosions, and sudden currents that caused fishing boats to lose their course. On the night of October 14-15, 1978, a tragedy occurred at sea, off the coast of San Benedetto del Tronto, when two brothers from Martinsicuro died in the wreck of their fishing boat. "A strange death, too strange," said other sailors. There were dozens and dozens of sightings between the Adriatic and the Gran Sasso, from Pescara to Martinsicuro. Even apparently there was a "tidal wave" that reached the beach of Pescara, sending tourists fleeing, while orange lights appeared on the Gran Sasso and an "unidentified object" paralyzed a power plant in Pietracamela. Collective suggestion? Exaggeration - pure coincidence? It is a fact that the law enforcement authorities were also involved in numerous reports from citizens: the Harbor Master's Office, for example, repeatedly patrolled the stretch of the Adriatic Sea affected by the alleged sightings.
The "UFO" phenomenon in Abruzzo attracted television and journalists from all over the world. Teams of scientists also arrived to study in detail, sometimes undercover, what was happening and what the astonished witnesses were telling them. The conclusions for some were silence, for others denial, for still others "just gas bubbles". According to some ufologists, there is a kind of UFO route that crosses the Gran Sasso and the Adriatic Sea, and at one of the vertices of the triangle, the Conero near Ancora, UFO sightings are and have always been in the hundreds. After so many years, the mystery of the Adriatic Triangle continues to fascinate and stimulate debate. Abruzzo has been at the forefront of national and international news. Those who lived through those years recall, for example, a live river broadcast from Pescara by Emilio Fede, then with RAI. And fishermen vividly remember those months when, they say, he was afraid to go out to sea. But the mystery remains. There are those who say that there are too many players in this affair, on a chessboard too wide to suggest a simple series of coincidences, and that so far there are no comprehensive scientific explanations to dismiss the phenomenon as a collective suggestion.
