Jawa & Bali – The 1970’s C8 Cases

Prelude

The following is an independent & hardly exhaustive recount of the first few C8 cases from Indonesia. All of the cases happened during the 1970’s, in the vicinity of Jawa & Bali islands, within the central & eastern regions of the country. These are basically the classics of Indonesian C8 sightings which also represent a milestone in the slow yet steady development of local interest for the UFO phenomena.
As most UFO researchers & enthusiasts would know, Category 8 (C8) is a simple concept expounded by NICAP for classifying UFO sightings with photographic evidence entailed to it. When it comes to Indonesia, such cases are basically non-existent (or perhaps yet to be found) prior to the 1970’s. Even by then, as can be seen from the time span between the cases presented here, they were quite far & few in between. A situation that hasn’t changed much even up until now.
Most of the material used in this recount are based on 2 main sources. First & foremost are the writings of Indonesia’s pioneering ufologist – Air Force Vice Marshall (Ret.) J. Salatun, who has been studying the phenomena independently since the late 1940’s. Second is the quite intriguing database of local cases collected by Indonesia’s currently prominent UFO research group – BETA UFO, which also include Salatun’s works. Additional data are collected from independent research on the net as listed in the reference list.

Gunung Agung, Bali, August 1973

Standing at an elevation 3014 meters, Gunung (Mount) Agung in the Karangasem district, Bali island, has always been considered as a sacred & mystical place by the Balinese. As is the case with other major volcanoes in the island (such as Mount Batukaru, Batur & Abang) Agung has always been traditionally revered as the holy abode a Godly entities. In Mount Agung’s case, it’s believed to be the home of Batara Agung – the supreme representation of Shiva. Curiously enough, this site then also become the place where the 1st known photograph of a UFO sighting in Indonesia was made.



Perhaps in testimony of how little do most Indonesians care about UFO sightings, the photo itself wasn’t made by a local. It was taken by a Japanese tourist – Ryo Terumoto, on August 17th 1973, as he was traveling in the vicinity of Mount Agung. He supposedly took the shot from a car at around 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Mr. Terumoto himself apparently didn’t notice the odd lens-shaped aerial object (to the left of the frame) until the photo was printed.



The photo has since been published in the Japanese magazine – Hito To Nippon March 1974 edition under the heading “UFO Above Bali Island?”. It is also said that the photograph has undergone some kind of analysis, although no further details have yet been found about it, and proven to be a genuine object shot from a far away distance. Up until now, the case has also been featured in several UFO related websites as can be seen in the reference list.



[edit on 11/1/09 by KembaraLangit]

Cilamaya coastal area, West Jawa, 1975

Three years after the photo in Mount Agung was made, another unknown aerial object was caught on camera in Indonesia. This time it happened around the coastal area of Cilamaya, in the Karawang regency, West Jawa province. The photo itself was taken by an Indonesian engineer – the late Mr. Tony Hartono Rusman, on September 22nd 1975.



At the time, Mr. Rusman was taking photographs with an Olympus camera on board an offshore oil platform owned by ARCO Indonesia, the company that he was working for. Located about 83 kilometers from the Cilamaya coastline, the platform was still under construction by then & the photos were made as part of a report on the construction progress.
The event itself took place at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon, as Mr. Rusman was wondering what else he should photograph to finish up the last shot in his film roll. Suddenly, his attention was drawn to a tiny speck in the sky which was growing bigger as it rapidly approached the platform. According to the man’s testimony to Salatun, the object appeared to be oval shaped with a dark-reddish color & emanated a faint spinning sound. Mr. Rusman himself managed to take a shot at the object, with ARCO’s Arjuna tanker visible in the background, just before it made a sharp turn away & disappeared within a minute on a vertical climb.



About a year later, the photo found its way to Salatun’s possession who in turn passed it over to noted Ufologist – Prof. J.A. Hynek on his visit to Indonesia, in late 1976. Although it is still unclear how Rusman got in touch with Salatun, the passing of the photo was clearly documented in Salatun’s 1982 book & 1977 letter to Prof. Hynek. It was also through Prof. Hynek that the photo was then analyzed with the result later documented in Salatun’s book, as quoted below (with translation).

Dr. J.A. Hynek telah membawa foto dari UFO Ir. Tony Hartono Rusman yang kemudian dianalisa oleh Dr. Fred Beckmann, ahli analisa foto UFO yang terkemuka dari Universitas Chicago. Pendapatnya ialah : foto UFO tersebut dapat juga disebabkan oleh kerusakan film. Untuk dapat dianalisa dengan baik, rupa-rupanya mutlak perlu tersedia negatif-negatif aslinya disamping dibuatnya beberapa foto UFO yang sama dengan sudut pandang yang berbeda-beda.
Dr. J.A. Hynek has taken engineer Tony Hartono’s UFO photo which was then analyzed by Dr. Fred Beckmann, a noted UFO photo analyst from the University of Chicago. His opinion is that : the UFO photo could have also been caused by a defect in the film roll. Apparently, to have a better analysis of the photo, it is absolutely necessary to have the original negatives as well as to have several shots of the same UFO made from different angles.