1977 Yaniarina UFO Encounter: Miners Witness Three Rotating Metallic Discs in Peru

UFO Sightings are often reported in coastal areas, as beaches are among the locations most frequently associated with these unexplained phenomena. One of the most notable UFO cases occurred in the 1970s on Yaniarina Island in Peru. More than forty years later, researcher Rafael Mercado brought renewed attention to this forgotten incident through interviews conducted with the last surviving witnesses.

The UFO Sighting encounter event took place in the early hours of November 18, 1977, when four friends, miners Francisco Rodríguez, Ricardo Palomino, Benjamin Mardini, and Mario Coito along with his son, went fishing on the remote beach of Yaniarina in the Arequipa region of Peru. Around 1:30 a.m., they noticed three metallic, saucer-shaped UFOs in the sky, rotating and surrounded by colored lights, most commonly yellow and red.

When Mario shone a light toward them, the objects stopped rotating, while the lights around them continued to move. The three objects then slowly descended toward the ocean, astonishing the group, who watched the entire scene under a clear sky.

Interestingly, Francisco usually carried a camera, but he did not have it with him that night. Confused, Ricardo wondered aloud about what they were seeing, to which Mario responded without hesitation: "Flying saucers." Despite their amazement, they continued fishing as usual. Around 5:00 a.m., they changed their location and eventually fell asleep due to exhaustion, until Benjamin later awoke to a strange sight on the shore.

According to Ricardo’s account to Mercado, Benjamin shouted, "What is that, Mario? Did the army arrive?" To their surprise, a silver object resembling a tank appeared about 50 to 70 meters away, shining in the darkness with reflections from the sea. Mario, known for his courage, decided to approach the mysterious object despite Francisco’s warning: "It’s dangerous, maybe it’s from another planet."

As he approached, the fishermen noticed three tall, human-like beings standing in the nearby water. Ricardo Palomino described them as "giant men." Despite their human appearance, their exceptional height was unmistakable. They wore shiny silver suits that covered their entire bodies, along with boots and gloves. Ricardo recalled, "We couldn’t see their faces, everything was silver… they walked like robots."

Even stranger, their movements suggested they were fishing. They raised their arms as if casting nets, although they had no visible fishing equipment. The witnesses also heard whistling sounds resembling fishing lines being thrown into the water, despite the absence of any tools. The rough waves did not affect them; they remained steady in place. When one of them stepped onto the wet sand, Ricardo noticed what looked like smoke coming from its feet, while Coito’s son reported that the sand appeared to be "boiling" in small bursts.

Despite his astonishment, Mario Coito continued advancing toward the mysterious craft. One of the beings turned toward him and shook its head in a warning gesture, but Mario did not retreat. When he approached closely, he looked through a window and saw a fourth being inside, sitting and eating something resembling a tortilla, pinkish in color like watermelon. 

After the being threw the food remnants out of the window, Mario picked up a piece and tasted it, but immediately vomited on the sand due to intense nausea. He then returned to his companions in poor condition.

Suddenly, after Mario experienced nausea, all members of the group were overcome by extreme fatigue and fell into a deep, unexplained sleep. When they awoke, the craft and the beings had completely disappeared. The fishermen hurried to inspect the area during low tide, searching for any traces, but found no footprints or evidence indicating the presence of the beings or the craft. Strangely, all traces of the incident had vanished without explanation.

Ricardo described the craft to researcher Rafael Mercado as a sealed silver “tank,” about two meters high and three to four meters long, resembling a military vehicle but without wheels. Even more unusual, Mario Coito’s chronic stomach ulcer pain, something he had suffered from for years, completely disappeared five to six months after the incident, following his consumption of the tortilla-like food, leaving doctors unable to explain the recovery.

According to Ricardo, the Peruvian newspaper Última Hora published a brief report about other fishermen in Huacho who claimed to have encountered "silver giants" around the same time. Despite this striking coincidence, the witnesses of the Yaniarina incident remained silent for decades, fearing ridicule or skepticism.

The 1977 unidentified flying object incident on Yaniarina Beach illustrates how strange encounters that leave no physical evidence can remain unexplained, leaving witnesses with an extraordinary experience whose details seem to vanish as if it had never happened at all.

Source: Area Fifty-Human: UFO/UAP News. F.B