Is Mount Teide a magnet for UFOs?

Are aliens from outer space fascinated by our dormant volcano? Does it have an aura around it which can be seen from another hemisphere? Or perhaps there is a more sinister appeal? Is there perhaps an alien base deep down inside the crater?


It's an interesting theory which skeptics will obviously scoff at but one which believers of extra-terrestrial encounters will want to believe.

Certainly, new recent sightings of so-called UFOs have got people talking again and the magnetic appeal of Mount Teide and the mysticism surrounding the history of the Canary Islands makes a link even more plausible.

Only last week, several alleged sightings of an UFO in Gran Canaria made the headlines, with a number of people calling the police and the media after spotting a large bright object floating in the sky. And last autumn, an American couple living in Tenerife watched in disbelief for four hours as a wedge-shaped object hovered near their home in the La Laguna area. And no, they hadn't been drinking!

Believe it or not, it's surprising how often Mount Teide crops up in stories about UFOs or close encounters of the third kind.

One of the most celebrated cases concerns the cult which was broken up by police on Tenerife in the 1990s. The semi-mystic UFO group was led by a German pyschologist, Dr Heide Fittkay-Garthe. The official report says they were planning a trip to the summit of Mount Teide intent on making contact with a visiting spacecraft. If it failed, it was alleged they had drawn up a mass suicide pact. Neither the suicide or the UFO encounter happened.

Between August 2004 and December 2005, three separate sightings of UFOs also hit the headlines and each concerned a photograph. When the three independently-taken pictures were developed, a strange flying object was seen in each but had not been visible with the naked eye. All were in the flight line of Mount Teide, including by the cliffs at Los Gigantes. This particular picture suggested the disc-like object was flying at high speed and had banked sharply on approaching the cliffs.

A managing director on holiday in Tenerife from Barcelona also took photos of Mount Teide itself and her subsequent picture showed a similar UFO type object glittering in the skies.

It's said that unexplained lights have soared above the volcano throughout history and there are constant reports of commercial liners being intercepted by brilliant lights which the bemused pilots have been unable to explain. In November of 1975, a commercial jet on its way from Austria to Tenerife had to make an emergency landing in Valencia after passengers claimed they had been trailed by pulsating red objects which zig zagged across the skies. They insisted they were unidentified flying objects and a number of people living in Valencia substantiated their story.

In 1975, a group of UFO believers from Santa Cruz even tried to make contact with outer space through an improvised ouija board after spotting a so-called spacecraft with occupants on board hovering near Mount Teide. They claimed they saw an enormous beam of light and, when looking at it with binoculars, saw a double row of windows emitting a purple glow. In 1976, a UFO was said to have landed on top of a farmhouse!

Perhaps the strangest of stories concerns an alleged incident around Mount Teide in 1992 which has never really been explained to this day. Witnesses claimed a mysterious aircraft fell from the skies but it was all hushed up by the Spanish military. Apparently, a group of friends had been walking near Mount Teide when they were told by soldiers to go home as there had been a landslide. Of course, they sneaked back and alleged they saw a powerful beam of light on the side of the volcano and later spotted a convoy of military trucks transporting a huge object.

Whatever happened, the force was enough to snap off a 450 ton lava projection from the side of Mount Teide. Were the trucks carrying the rock away - or was it something more sinister, like a flying saucer?

Stories about bright lights around Mount Teide persist today. One hunter insisted he saw a brilliant cloud around Mount Teide which came within six metres of the summit and then span round at great speed before vanishing.

And you may well remember our story of last year when we reported how a doctor visiting a patient in Tenerife and his taxi driver had seen a flying saucer descend in front of them with two huge figures dressed in red at the control panel. The patient had seen it too but fearing her fever had reached crisis point, she had ran back inside her home and started to pray!

This incident, however, coincided with a more believable prolonged and logged report from an armed Spanish navy escort ship whose crew observed yellow-blue lights in the sky - lights which were also seen by hundreds of residents of Tenerife, La Palma and Gomera. Was it just a natural phenomenon?

Of course, scientists pour scorn on the Mount Teide theory, saying there is absolutely no way there could be any sort of base inside the volcano, for the Spanish military or a starship fleet. But as for Teide being a magnet for UFOs who can spot it from outer space? The jury is out on that one as there are many things on this world which can't be explained and perhaps, just perhaps, Tenerife's appeal as a holiday destination has spread to an unknown dimension too!