The Maracaibo Incident was reported in a letter printed in the December 18, 1886 issue of Scientific American, page 389. Hereby reported the US consul of Venezuela in Maracaibo a UFO sighting. A bright object, accompanied with a humming noise, appeared during a thunderstorm over a hut near Maracaibo. A few time later the occupants of the hut got ill and showed display symptoms similar to radiation poisoning, a desease, which was unknown at those days ( radioactivity was discovered later). Nine days later the trees surrounding the hut withered and died, which is also typical for strong radiation.