Megaplatanos: The Greek Roswell

Megaplatanos is a small village located an hour and a half drive outside the city of Athens, Greece. Like most Greek villages, it is home primarily to shepherds and farmers who toil the fields and mountains from dawn to dusk.

On September 2, 1990, around 9 pm, half a dozen strange lights were seen in the sky by some villagers who were outside and looking up at the sky. It was a group of 5 or 6 unidentified flying objects coming from the north, with one of the aircraft flying erratically. Witnesses claimed to have seen strange lights being missed by the craft, forcing it to lose altitude and eventually crash into the side of a nearby mountain. The accident at Megaplatanos is known as Greece’s own Roswell incident.

Mysterious Lights Over Greece
The enigmatic lights were first noticed circling above central Greece. More than a dozen of these objects would be circling the sky at that time, according to sources. They were seen flying north near Mount Pentelicus past Thessaloniki. Eventually the ships changed course and headed south to the Peloponnese.

They turned around and headed back to central Greece. At that instant, one of the UFOs seemed to change color and began to fly erratically. The troublesome UFO quickly plummeted and landed in the southern portion of Tympristos, a small hill just a few kilometers from Megaplatanos, when these things took hold in Atalanti. The Church of Prophet Elias, a small church, is located at the top of this hill. The object is believed to have landed just a few meters from the church. Around 9:30 pm. on Sunday night, this incident occurred.

Witnesses of these objects said that the other UFOs quickly moved away from the one that fell after approaching it. Some others believed it was some kind of carefully planned recovery effort for the crashed UFO.

A Family Bears Testimony
The Karadratu family spent over fifteen minutes watching dazzling lights illuminating the night sky. Before they realized that one of the flying objects had become brighter and closer to them, they heard three loud explosions.

About a kilometer away from their home they witnessed the drop, the item appeared to be damaged or on fire. After the collision, the family claims to have seen black smoke. Furthermore, they mentioned that several UFOs crashed into the grounded plane and started circling it. The lights from the objects were so intense that they illuminated a part of the mountain.

The family clarified that they were just watching. So, to get a better view, they moved closer. The spouse saw activity in front of the burning object, such as shadows moving back and forth, but could not determine if they were humanoid or not. Furthermore, they claimed that something was being done by the shadows in the bright circle that formed around the massive object. They were there from about 10am on Sunday until about 3am on Monday.

According to Mrs. Karadratu, they didn’t feel safe approaching the crash site until after sunrise. They started looking and found some burnt pines and charred earth. The lower trunk of one of the trees was also burned. When Mr. Karadratu touched the tree, his skin immediately started to burn. Both spotted two small holes where the impact appeared to have occurred in the ground. A bizarre small spherical item with what appeared to be two antennae next to or in the holes was discovered by the Karadratus. There was a lightning bolt emblem on the item as well.

The creatures were visible to the Karadratus from a distance, but they could not determine if they were human or not because they were about a kilometer away and because it was practically difficult to distinguish some anatomical features due to the blinding lights and flames. However, they were aware that these beings or shadows began to move quickly in the area of the stricken ship.

Police And Scientists Investigate
Fast arrival from the Fthiotida Police Department. Strange lights were seen throughout the village and there may have been an accident near the church of the prophet Elijah. When they first surveyed the area, they could only see remnants of a forest fire. The round object they found was given to the police when they found Karadratus, who had been there since the beginning of the day.

With the exception of the scorched earth and the object given to them by the Karadratus, Mr. Panetsos, the director of the department, found no signs of a downed aircraft. He enlisted the help of Mr. Zisimopoulos, the deputy prosecutor, who insisted on a comprehensive examination of the alleged accident scene. Several other metals were discovered, but none of them were larger than 12 cm. Tanagra Air Base, about 90 kilometers south of the crash site, received the items.

Tanagra AFB came to the conclusion that the items were not something that had not been seen before and were likely pieces of an old fighter plane. But after investigating the area, the Aeronautics Research and Technology Center (KETA-ETHM) came to a different result. According to the incident report on October 19, 1990:

They verified that grass and vegetation within a radius of 200 meters was burned by the UFO. The wreckage contained the following items: A female copper plug, 11 cm in diameter with Arabic numerals in the middle, in pieces. The aforementioned plug connects to a set of copper multipin cables. Teflon, cloth and silk were used in the construction of the insulation for these cables. a burnt rubber cover in a circle. steel ring, constructed of. Each steel bar measured 10 cm. The fund had two regulators, each with the Greek letter F at its base.

The wreckage was of terrestrial origin, as indicated by the alphabetical and numerical clues. It used antiquated equipment, perhaps leftovers from an earlier satellite. This realization was made possible by the measurements, construction and wiring. As the metric system in centimeters and meters is used only in some regions of the world, the satellite was probably created in the Soviet Union or Europe. Given that they employed and still use this Greek letter in their Cyrillic alphabet and have access to the necessary technology, the Soviet Union is where the letter F is most likely from.

An Investigation Gone Wrong
Many Greek ufologists rejected notions of a crashed satellite or pieces of metal from an old fighter jet. And Socrates Ekaterinidis was one of them. He expressed his views on the tragedy on Greek radio and wrote for several newspapers. He claimed that KETA’s claims of a lost satellite lacked support because neither the wreckage nor even a small impact crater had been found.

He added that the Air Force Base disregarded the fact that one of the objects had a strange lightning bolt insignia. Their theories of a military cover-up or sub-par investigative work as to why they missed this find were strengthened. According to Mr. Ekaterinidis, the police did not find any writing on the metal objects, including the Greek letter F.

The director of the Astronomical Institute of the National Observatory of Athens made a statement implying that it was a meteor strike, which only served to increase the misunderstanding. Mr. Makris never went to the scene, asked about any witnesses or saw any police files. However, he made the following statement:

He claimed that the whole thing has no extraterrestrial origin. During this period (September 1990), Earth’s orbit approaches a bevy of meteors known as Persians. Due to their high speed, these meteorites produce significant friction and burn up when they approach the Earth’s atmosphere at a height of about one hundred kilometers. As a result, the entire planet witnessed flashes. When it comes to meteors, they could be man-made satellites. As more satellite fragments are destroyed, they burn up in the atmosphere. The phenomenon could potentially be caused by aberrant refractions or reflections of terrestrial light in the atmosphere. Even the lights of a fleet of cars can produce such a beautiful scene. He also added that any other theories are nothing more than nonsense and the result of imagination or mass hysteria.

The Atalanti Police claimed that no investigative body had ever taken the testimony of several witnesses who saw the strange UFO lights and the crash near the village of Megaplatanos when several UFO investigators questioned the Atalanti Police. The public has seen only a small number of photos that the Karadratu family and the authorities were able to obtain.

Roswell of Greece
Comparatively little media coverage was given to the reported UFO crash in Greece, in contrast to the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico incident. Since none of the early UFO researchers shared their findings with the rest of the world, this makes research more difficult. Greece, despite its ancient magnificence and extensive cultural and historical achievements, has not fully embraced the contemporary period.

These regions of Greece have demonstrated a resistance to modernity, which can be advantageous or harmful. So it makes sense that information about alleged UFO contacts and collisions in 1990 might have been completely forgotten over time. Most people don’t know that the Megaplatanos accident occurred. This is due to the fact that only a small number of people who still call the Megaplatans home are aware of the incident and can remember the time when strange lights lit up the Greek sky.