Catania, ITL being encounter — November 16, 1954

Four young men returning by car from an outing reported an unusual object near Catania’s Acquicella cemetery on November 16, 1954. The regional CUN review gives their ages as seventeen, twenty, twenty-four and twenty-eight. A later English catalogue supplies 11:30 p.m.; the fuller recovered Italian passage does not independently state that time. Their first concern was a strange noise that made them stop to check for a possible car problem. They then described a metallic circular platform, approximately six or seven metres across, descending to about fifty metres above the cemetery entrance near the Catania–Siracusa road. A bright flash preceded an opening through which a very small head appeared. The object reportedly accelerated away toward hills to the southwest. The Italian account assigns about twenty seconds to the event, in lightly clouded conditions with a weak northeasterly wind. The brief appearance does not establish a full body, unusual eyes, clothing or communication. The men’s presence in one car also should not be mistaken for four separately collected independent reports. The plate includes four representative young travellers, their stopped period car, the complete elevated platform and a tiny indistinct head at an opening. The setting and faces are illustrative; no authenticated photograph, recovered machinery or biological evidence accompanies the retrieved catalogue account.