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Today's blog is about a historic event known to many as the Vela incident or the South Atlantic Flash.
On September 22, 1979 an aging American satellite known as Vela 6911 recorded a strange phenomena over an area where the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean merge. The satellite picked up two distinct flashes that resembled only one occurrence -- a nuclear detonation.
Today's blog is about a historic event known to many as the Vela incident or the South Atlantic Flash.
On September 22, 1979 an aging American satellite known as Vela 6911 recorded a strange phenomena over an area where the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean merge. The satellite picked up two distinct flashes that resembled only one occurrence -- a nuclear detonation.
These flashes caused chaos throughout the US government and by all accounts Jimmy Carter crapped his pants. The government held emergency meetings and checked the reports from other satellites. It was the height of the cold war and a nuclear test would violate the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty which was signed by The US, The Soviets and Great Britain. According to the other orbiting satellites however, no detonation had occurred.
It probably would have been written off as a malfunction, but astronomers recorded an atmospheric shockwave that could have only been created by a nuclear blast. Heads started to spin around on their axis' at the Pentagon. On top of that the US government's Hydrophone network detected a very clear echo of an explosion.
The explosion was said to be small, perhaps as small as three to six kilotons. The biggest mystery was that the most likely culprits of the test were South Africa and Israel, but both denied any involvement. This is from Wiki:
"Well before the Vela Incident, American intelligence agencies had made the assessment that Israel probably possessed its own nuclear weapons.[31] According to journalist Seymour Hersh, the detection was the third joint Israeli-South African nuclear test in the Indian Ocean, and the Israelis had sent two IDF ships and "a contingent of Israeli military men and nuclear experts" for the test.[1] Author Richard Rhodes also concludes the incident was an Israeli nuclear test, conducted in cooperation with South Africa, and that the United States administration deliberately obscured this fact in order to avoid complicating relations with South Africa.[2] Likewise, Leonard Weiss offers a number of arguments to support the test being Israeli, and claims that successive US administrations continue to cover up the test to divert unwanted attention that may portray its foreign policy in a bad light.[3] In the 2008 book The Nuclear Express: A Political History of the Bomb and its Proliferation Thomas C. Reed and Danny B. Stillman stated their opinion that the "double flash" was the result of a joint South African-Israeli nuclear bomb test.[32] David Albright stated in his article about the "double flash" event in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists that "If the 1979 flash was caused by a test, most experts agree it was probably an Israeli test".
Another theory that is popular among the Sci-Fi and UFO crowd is that this event was caused by a crashing or exploding UFO. The fact that no radiation was found is often the evidence used to support this claim. Also why didn't the other satellites pick up this explosion. It was either a huge red flag that other satellites didn't pick this explosion up, or a red flag that Vela malfunctioned. It's pretty scary to think that during a time of heightened nuclear security no one knew who detonated a bomb, if it was even a bomb or what exactly caused the large double flash.
What do you guys think? Is this an International cover-up? UFO crash?
In my opinion it was an Israeli test that was done with the aide and permission of South Africa.
It probably would have been written off as a malfunction, but astronomers recorded an atmospheric shockwave that could have only been created by a nuclear blast. Heads started to spin around on their axis' at the Pentagon. On top of that the US government's Hydrophone network detected a very clear echo of an explosion.
The explosion was said to be small, perhaps as small as three to six kilotons. The biggest mystery was that the most likely culprits of the test were South Africa and Israel, but both denied any involvement. This is from Wiki:
"Well before the Vela Incident, American intelligence agencies had made the assessment that Israel probably possessed its own nuclear weapons.[31] According to journalist Seymour Hersh, the detection was the third joint Israeli-South African nuclear test in the Indian Ocean, and the Israelis had sent two IDF ships and "a contingent of Israeli military men and nuclear experts" for the test.[1] Author Richard Rhodes also concludes the incident was an Israeli nuclear test, conducted in cooperation with South Africa, and that the United States administration deliberately obscured this fact in order to avoid complicating relations with South Africa.[2] Likewise, Leonard Weiss offers a number of arguments to support the test being Israeli, and claims that successive US administrations continue to cover up the test to divert unwanted attention that may portray its foreign policy in a bad light.[3] In the 2008 book The Nuclear Express: A Political History of the Bomb and its Proliferation Thomas C. Reed and Danny B. Stillman stated their opinion that the "double flash" was the result of a joint South African-Israeli nuclear bomb test.[32] David Albright stated in his article about the "double flash" event in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists that "If the 1979 flash was caused by a test, most experts agree it was probably an Israeli test".
Another theory that is popular among the Sci-Fi and UFO crowd is that this event was caused by a crashing or exploding UFO. The fact that no radiation was found is often the evidence used to support this claim. Also why didn't the other satellites pick up this explosion. It was either a huge red flag that other satellites didn't pick this explosion up, or a red flag that Vela malfunctioned. It's pretty scary to think that during a time of heightened nuclear security no one knew who detonated a bomb, if it was even a bomb or what exactly caused the large double flash.
What do you guys think? Is this an International cover-up? UFO crash?
In my opinion it was an Israeli test that was done with the aide and permission of South Africa.
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