Rome, Italy: Violet-orange flash lights the sky, power fails, cigar-shaped object at Rieti
Around 2:22–2:25 a.m. on 3 August 1958, a violet-orange brightness lit the sky over Rome and dimmed or cut the city's lights; a physician in Sgurgola lost his car radio and lights, and guards in Rieti saw a fast yellow-green cigar-shaped object.
Background
At 2:25 a.m., a sudden violet-orange brightness illuminated the sky over Rome, Italy, for about three seconds; lights in the city dimmed and failed completely in some areas. Physician Angelo Corsi witnessed it in Sgurgola, 37 miles southeast of Rome: after his car radio failed and the house and street lights went out, he saw a long whitish fan-like trail in the sky. At 2:22 a.m. in Rieti, a sergeant and some guards saw a yellow-green cigar-shaped object moving rapidly toward the southeast, leaving a luminous trail that lit up roads, mountains and houses for several seconds. A similar sight was seen in Naples. La Stampa Sera reported on the event on 4 August 1958. The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.