Richard Emblin, the editor-in-chief of major Columbian newspaper The City Paper, had clicked pictures of a mysterious object hovering in the skies of South America. He apparently believed it was a shape-shifting UFO, but netizens proved him wrong.
Emblin has been at the receiving end of some serious mockery online because after he published the photos, it turned out that what he believed was an extraterrestrial craft was actually just a balloon!
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Emblin had clicked three pictures from the balcony of his home. The object seen in the image appears to be in the shape of number "8".
The pictures were then published on the website of his newspaper. The photos left people baffled and even created a stir amid UFO-related websites.
Conspiracy theorists, Ufologists and alien hunters speculated the pictures to be possible evidence about Earth being visited by extraterrestrials.
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Some seemed to agree with Emblin. "A shape-shifting UFO has been caught on camera by a newspaper editor in Chile. That doesn't sound like balloons to me," said UFO hunter Tyler Glockner from the YouTube channel secureteam10.
But according to the report by Express.co.uk the Emblin were apparently a child's golden birthday balloon which was shaped in number 8.
"Ever seen a balloon they sell at the graduation/party store with different numbers and letters? This is one of them! Post something credible," one of the commentators was quoted by the Express as saying.
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"Aww some poor little eight-year-old lost his birthday balloon," posted another commentator.
"It's a number 'eight' mylar balloon, you can buy silver and gold ones at any party shop. Some kid isn't going to be happy!" said another commentator.
Emblin took umbrage to this. "I take my journalistic ethics very seriously. I do not manipulate my images. On Sunday, April 12 (2015), I stepped out onto my balcony, which faces East, and is located in the Rosales neighbourhood of Bogotá," the Express quoted him as saying.
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Emblin is a pilot and also has published articles in TIME, Der Spiegel, and The New York Times. He said the mysterious object he caught on camera is not any kind of plane, hot air balloon flight or drone.
"I know my planes. Up close and at great distances. I know how to distinguish the sound of an Airbus A 340 to a Boeing 777. I have studied flight maps, flight routes and flightaware. I understand these machines. I admire them. There was no fuselage, no winglets, no sound. This was no plane," he said.
"It was very evident to me that this was a UFO. No drone. No Sunday morning balloon flight over a capital in which only official helicopters (police and army) can patrol. I could discern that the object shifted its shape. Could rise and fall quickly, and zip from one end of the city in a matter of seconds.
"The black dot seemed to have rings. It then tilted, shifted to one side, and disappeared."
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