Shape-Shifting UFO Caught On Camera Over Bogota By Newspaper Editor

Richard Emblin, the director and editor-in-chief of Colombia’s English-language newspaper, The City Paper, reported sighting a shape-shifting UFO on Sunday, April 12, from the balcony of his home located in the Rosales neighborhood of the Colombian city of Bogota.

Emblin, who has work published in top international newspapers, such as Germany’s Der Spiegel, TIME and The New York Times and has covered conflicts in Colombia and Angola, published three photographs of the “UFO” which he saw while sitting on the balcony of his home in Bogota.

Relating his experience in an article published on the website of the newspaper, Emblin said he stepped out onto his balcony in the Rosales neighborhood of Bogota for a coffee and cigarette on Sunday morning, April 12, when he looked up and saw a black object rising up into the sky.

He estimated the distance of the rounded object from his position at about 5 km.

Emblin, who is a pilot, insisted he is familiar with planes and can distinguish the sound of an Airbus A 340 from that of a Boeing 777.

He insisted that what he saw was not an ordinary plane or a drone but a UFO: It had no fuselage, no wings, and it made no sounds.

“As the Director and Editor-in-chief of Colombia’s English language newspaper, The City Paper, I take my journalistic ethics very seriously… I do not manipulate my images.”

The UFO appeared as a black dot in the sky when he first saw it, but it changed shape a number of times.

“The black dot began to unravel itself. It stopped… and darted south, where it shifted on its side. It was hovering West and moving between altitudes, over the Chapinero neighborhood of Bogotá…”

“I tried to look for it again with my eyes, but the black object had shifted in the sky above my building… I grabbed my Nikon 300s and tried to remember where I keep a 500 mm lens… I mounted the lens and went towards my kitchen which faces East. There it was, and now moving in a bizarre, erratic manner.”

“I tried to focus (had forgotten this vital skill with a 500 mm, fixed f.8) and pointed my lens towards the other side of Bogotá. The object was not one, but two it seemed.”

According to Emblin, when the object stopped over an area of the town not far from the airport, an Airbus A320 took off at about the same time. From his assessment of the position of the UFO relative to the Airbus, the pilots in the cockpit might have seen it.

Exploring possibilities in his mind about what the object could have been, he explained that only official police and Army patrol flights are allowed over the city. He also ruled out a balloon.

Expressing regret about his “rusty” photography skills, he said he noticed that the object changed shape and had the ability to gain and lose altitude rapidly. It could also fly from one end of the city to the other in a matter of seconds.

The photos show the “UFO” assuming an 8-shaped or double-ring form. The object also changed its orientation in space, shifting or tilting to one side before it finally disappeared from sight, according to Emblin.

“I left the kitchen and connected the Compact Flash card to my Mac. I opened Photoshop CS and zoomed in on my UFO. At times, it was black and rounded, then two rings were evident. With a closer look, the rings were golden.”

“The pictures are as they were captured, with shaky hands and guarded breath. Make your own conclusions. I am not here to convince you. That is not my objective. Just that this wet Sunday in Bogotá, something mysterious was seen over Bogotá and for which I have no answers.”

Emblin’s guardedness and caution was evident from his account. He was painfully aware that his reputation as a journalist was at stake. Yet he had seen something unlike anything he had ever seen. The sighting needed an explanation, and his duty as a journalist was to record the evidence.

“We understand this is a difficult subject to present… I apologize before hand to any reader who may take offense at this subjective matter and point-of-view article. We will be contacting the authorities in the days ahead to see if they can give us any insights as to what was taking place over the skies of Bogotá early April 12th.”

His account is evidently an attempt to present as accurately as he could what he saw without embellishing the facts.

Readers have contributed their views. It is indeed regrettable that Emblin was unable to capture a video of the object. The still photos are not sufficient to derive an accurate impression of what the object could have been.

A reader of the newspaper suggested that it could have been a Mylar balloon. But as another reader pointed out, balloons don’t zip across the sky in the manner Emblin described.

A reader, Amit Kumar, who suggested the object could have been a swarm of insects or a swarm of some other flying life-form. This suggests a perspective that appears worthy of consideration and brings us back to the earlier comment that it is regrettable that Emblin was unable to capture a video of the UFO.

The behavior of the UFO in motion could yield clues about what it was.

“[It] seems like a swarm of small insects hanging around. My speculation is also based on the two facts, first, that this object is said to be shape shifting, which is quite a generous spectacular view often presented by swarms.”

What do you think?

[Images: The City Paper]