Orlando Franceschi encounter — Ponce, April 18, 1975

Orlando Franceschi, a hospital worker in Ponce, Puerto Rico, reportedly encountered a small floating figure near his home during April 1975. Jacques Vallée's Messengers of Deception dates the episode to the night of April 18; a later retelling uses April 17. The image therefore uses the month rather than selecting between them. Franceschi said that he feared an attack and tried to strike the figure with a shovel, but experienced temporary paralysis. After returning home distressed, he became the subject of a police inquiry. A dead rooster was associated with the locality, although that association does not establish what caused the animal's death. Vallée also mentions other people's figure observations that night and a separate orange light seen by two women the next day. These reports should remain distinct from Franceschi's own encounter; they do not supply a craft that he personally observed. The plate depicts the initial backyard observation with the shovel lowered, omitting violence and any invented communication or abduction sequence.