From: UFO UpDates - Toronto Subject: UFO UpDate: CURRENT-ENCOUNTERS - Filer's Files #36 Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 13:37:26 -0400 From: George Filer Subject: Filer's Files #36 To: CURRENT-ENCOUNTERS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Filer's Files #36 MUFON Skywatch Investigations >From George A. Filer: MUFON Eastern Director 11 September 1997 Majorstar@aol.com (609) 654-0020 After July slowdown for pilot's vacation, UFO reports have increased for August/September FLORIDA: Ray Pollock -from the Gulf Breeze Research Team writes. " Seems that we may have a flap going here in Gulf Breeze. It started with sightings (some spectacular) on Sunday night (9/7/97) followed by sightings last night (Monday 9/8/97) and then there were significant sightings again tonight (Tuesday 9/9/97). Checks with the Air Force and Navy show there were no flare drops either Sunday or Monday night. We have not checked on Tuesday night as yet, though all that witnessed say they bear no resemblance to flare drops we are familiar with." ----------------- There were also several sightings south of Pensacola at Fort Pickens on August 7, 1997 After all of you left the shoreline Sunday night, Elise and I and Beverly Pilcher and her daughter Lisa and friends, Mark and Anthony, Pat Gerbig, Judy Francour and her daughter Vicki and another unknown couple had very strange experience. Elise and I and Beverly and Lisa and friend Mark were sitting at the table where we were when you left and we heard an owl over in the woods close to 10:00 p.m. , maybe a little before, which called repeatedly. We felt like something was up and about that time, Pat yelled from their vantage point on the boardwalk that there was a red light near Fort Pickens. It was gone before we got to see it, but we ran up on the boardwalk with the others and missed a 2nd sighting on the way, but were witness to five more at very short intervals after we got there. There were a total of seven sightings in all. Of those we witnessed, one was a reddish orange pulsing light low over the Island near the parking lot at entrance to Fort Pickens. Pulsing occurred several times, with movement in between each time. Another red light over Fort Pickens Area. A brief amber light near San Souci apartments. All of the preceding were low on the horizon - maybe 2-4 degrees. Two other sightings just beyond the entrance to Fort Pickens - to the West - that were about 15 degrees up and were huge by comparison with the others. These were massive saucer shaped lights of reddish amber and yellowish color fairly evenly distributed throughout the lighted area of the sighting. From our vantage point on the boardwalk, these covered a diameter of a 50 cent piece at arms length with the 2nd of these being somewhat wider in diameter than the first. Thanks to Ray UFOPOLLGB and ANDROID2U GEORGIA -- State Director John Thompson reports. "Thought I would tell you that I did complete 8/30/97 disc-light case. Since then I have heard first-hand of two others seeing strange lights in the sky. One lady driving on West Point west of LaGrange on 8/28/97 saw a big whitish-yellow light that swoop and fluttered through the cloudless night sky. It was not a searchlight she said. Another on 8/30/97 in LaGrange at the "Callaway Clock Tower" said she saw something similar hovering and it was not the moon. Another said her daughter near Wadley, Alabama in Chambers County saw strange lights that their dogs barked out. She also said cows had been getting out of their pens from these strange lights. (The woman at the clock-tower said birds acted crazy flying everywhere at night to such a point that they wondered if the birds were going to attack them.) Finally, another man said he had two separate groups of people talking about seeing strange lights near LaGrange. Calls to the Troup Sheriffs Dept, the LaGrange Daily News, Randolph County Sheriffs Dept., and Wadley Police Dept. all prove to be negative regarding people making similar reports. The Wadley Police Dept did say helicopters had been spraying for unknown reasons in the daytime. The lady from Chambers County (just south of Randolph, where Wadley is in) said unusual military activity was occurring. She said jets were flying everyday low and that her husband said the "jets were armed." Randolph Sheriffs Dept. said they were from Maxwell Air Force base and they said normal. The women in Chambers said the frequency was not normal. Much, much higher than normal. The lady in Alabama says her daughter will do a report with us. I also will be sending you a photographic case soon.. The case involves a witness of the highest character along with wife and daughter. I have been given the negative and have made copies for Jeff Sainio to analyze. I will also send you two copies with report. I've gotten reports from several people now of seeing strange lights over and near LaGrange during last week. Did 8/30/97 report on luminous disc. Still checking search-light possibility. Also now have confirmation from the GROUND of others seeing strange perfect circles in the sky near LaGrange in June a that pilot talked about in 7/20/97 UFO Roundup. The witness said him and about 10 others saw two perfect circles through dark clouds with light shining down near dusk. They watched holes and lights for about ten minutes before losing interest. Witness said he had never seen anything like this before. They were on east side of LaGrange and the holes he said seemed to be over LaGrange. Georgia not only has numerous UFO reports, but John Thompson the MUFON State Director asks? "What did you think of my Big Bird reports. I can tell you nobody raised these babies. Also all the witnesses--including my son--are country folk who have had long experience with eagles, hawks, buzzards, and turkeys. All of them remain adamant after seeing these birds many times since their BB reports that the "birds" they saw were double the size of any of these creatures. I just talked to another man in my office that says where the old Beryl mines are (south Troup county) that before the mines closed they had the Sheriff out there all the time with reports of spooks and strange creatures. He said that doors would be found tore off trucks out there and long 4 inch strands of black hair would be found after these attacks. It go so bad that the people that oversaw the mine wouldn't live there anymore! A brand new 8 room house rotted because no one would live there. He says this probably still goes on now but the whole thing has been abandoned for 20 years or more. The police, by-the-way, always thought bears or vandalism. He says not so. He gave me names of some still living that might know more. I'm sure you know that Ellen Crystal says Pine Bush, NY has visits because of beryl there. Beryl is the mineral for beryllium which is used to make metals more resistant to heat; as in heat shields for entering and reentering our atmosphere from space. Also used in nuclear warheads." Thanks to John Thompson ISUR and MUFON State Director. NEW JERSEY Karin reports: "I just came back from vacation at Beach Haven, where I had a sighting along with two other witnesses.(my father and husband.) We were renting a house right on the ocean, it was Saturday the 23rd of August. At about 10:30 p.m. we were sitting on the deck facing the ocean(a clear night) when my dad and my husband both spotted something at the same time. Something came flying in from the east at a fast speed and it was driving like a drunk driver, going back and forth from left to right then made a quick turn north and was gone . The object looked to be of a circular shape with dim sort of yellowish lights, no noise was heard but whether this was because the object made no noise or because the ocean drowned it out we don't know, the sighting lasted only a matter of seconds. My dad who is retired military said he never saw anything like it, and my husband who is skeptical about UFOs, sat outside for another two hours that night hoping to see it again. Thanks to Karin Guan. NEW YORK We have a report of a triangular shaped object seen on 7/31/97 at 9:00 p.m. by a witness traveling east on Hempstead Turnpike on Long Island. The witness spotted the triangle with approximately eight steady white lights, 3 on each side, one in the middle and one at the point or apex of the triangle. The object appeared to hover as seen from the car window. It looked slightly larger than a small plane and moved away slowly to the north or northwest.. Thanks to SAL (SALGMARS) CONNECTICUT Mark Cashman has sent the following letter to Annastasia Wietrzychowska MUFON State Director. I have essentially completed my investigation into my sighting on August 19, 1997. I have been very reluctantly forced to declare it a possible unknown. I have been unable to identify any civilian or military aircraft either in the area or with the necessary characteristics. Ultralight pilots I have consulted indicate that the flight would have been suicidal, and in any event, no such formation would have been flown by ultralights, and they would not have been able to maintain it. I was able to perform triangulation and to lay out a flight path on the map. These results indicate a dimension on the order of 20', a speed of 25 mph and an altitude of 1200 - 1300 feet. At this point, I am out of leads.) Under normal circumstances, I believe that an investigator should not investigate his own sighting. If I had not been so convinced this had a conventional solution, I probably would not have gone so far on my own. At this point, I would have no problem with having another MUFON investigator check my work, and do whatever might be appropriate. Of course, this sighting is of no major evidentiary value, so it may not be a good place to deploy resources. Thanks to Mark Cashman at mcashman@ix.netcom.com and Annastasia(mufonct@aol.com UFO ROUNDUP Volume 2, Number 35 September 14, 1997 Editor: Joseph Trainor TRIANGULAR UFOs SEEN IN OHIO AND UTAH On Wednesday, August 20, 1997, at 12:40 a.m., a woman driving on Route 53 in Hardin County, near Kenton, Ohio (population 8,576), spotted a triangular UFO overhead. The witness told Tri-States Advocates for Scientific Knowledge (T.A.S.K.) that she "observed a triangular- shaped object with three white lights in a triangle configuration. The sighting lasted for one to two minutes as the object moved from the northeast to the southwest. The object moved at a steady pace slightly faster than an airplane. The object's altitude was bordering the cloud ceiling (8,000 feet), the lights occasionally dimming as it was obscured by clouds. There was a light rain falling at the time of the sighting." (Many thanks to Kenneth Young of T.A.S.K. for this report.) On Saturday, September 6, 1997, at 5 a.m., two men driving on Interstate Highway 15 in Clearfield, Utah (population 17,982), about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Salt Lake City, sighted "a triangular craft with white lights at each point and a red light on top." The UFO was flying over Hill Air Force Base, a salt desert area just west of the Wasatch mountain range. (Many thanks to Ed Adcox, Utah state director of Skywatch International for this report.) STRANGE FIREBALLS SPOTTED IN REDDING, CALIFORNIA On Sunday, August 3, 1997, at 2 p.m., Ted Toal was standing on the deck of his home in Redding, California (population 41,995) with his 12-year-old son and the son's 8-year-old friend "when we saw a very bright fireball" rising in the southern sky at "maybe 60 degrees elevation." The UFO "moved across a good portion of the sky (maybe 80 degrees), passing roughly straight overhead." As the fireball reached a point "maybe 45 degrees elevation" in the northern sky, "it suddenly disappeared." "My son said that it appeared to him that the object had exploded because he saw streaks of light coming from it in all directions the moment it happened," Ted reported. "About five to ten minutes later, a second very bright fireball streaked across the sky, this time from the north-northeastern portion of the sky to the western portion, moving roughly at a 100-degree angle and reaching an elevation of 70 degrees. Its trajectory was roughly at right angles to the first fireball." "As it reached the western portion of the sky, I could no longer see it because of a hedge near me that blocked it, but my son and his friend could still see it. They saw it suddenly turn at a 90-degree angle to the right and streak off. They are certain of that." (Email Interview) UFO SHOWS UP AT THE GARTH BROOKS CONCERT Thursday, August 7, 1997, saw the Garth Brooks outdoor concert at New York City's Central Park, which drew a capacity crowd of 300,000. But a handful of country music fans spotted something else in the area. "A few of us noticed a strange object in the sky to the east of Central Park," J.D. reported. "Right after Billy Joel played his first song, I glanced at the sky and saw a yellow or amber light over the trees to the east. It seemed to be staying still so I watched it a little longer. I noticed a light that seemed to sparkle or flare downward. At that point, I pointed it out to the people I was with. >From then on, we all watched it move up and down in the sky. It also seemed to hover behind the trees." "At one point, it seemed to change color to a light green, then back again. Soon after this, it rose in the sky and then zigzagged back down again at the same time" a light blue UFO appeared. The newcomer "seemed to come from behind, then disappeared to the left. At 9:15 p.m., it went below the treeline and stayed there. Before we left, we noticed that it was still visible in the sky but was hard to see with the lights from the concert." (Many thanks to Mike Broussard of CNE for forwarding J.D.'s report.) UFO HOVERS OVER TOWN ON THE BERKSHIRE-SURREY LINE On Saturday, August 30, 1997, at 7:50 p.m., residents of Sunningdale, Berkshire, UK gathered on Cobham Common to watch a bright light hover over the nearby town of Camberley, Surrey. "Its altitude was at cloud level (10,000 feet or 3,030 meters--J.T.)," one witness reported. "The sky was broken cloud and dry at the time." The UFO "appeared as a very bright, magnesium-white cylindrical object of about the same size and speed of an aircraft. It was far too bright to be a conventional aircraft. It was pointing at 45 degrees going down and travelling north. It then changed shape and elongated to over twice its original size." The UFO continued its northward descent and then "began stretching until it formed a crescent moon shape--like a C." After that, it disappeared. (USENET report.) ROTATING BLUE UFO STARTLES COUPLE IN IRELAND On Saturday, August 30, 1997, at about 1 a.m., Chris Maher and his wife were driving from Kenmare to Rosslare on Highway N72 in County Kerry, Eire when they spied a UFO. Kenmare is near Eire's Atlantic Ocean shore, 125 miles (190 kilometers) southwest of Dublin. "Shortly after passing Rathmore on the road to Mallow," Chris reported, "I began noticing an array of hexagonal- shaped lights which appeared to be between 400 and 600 feet (off the ground--J.T.). The lights were first observed to the right of the road and then passed over the road, hovering for a few minutes over the center line. They then passed to the left of the road over open country" and paced the Mahers' car on a parallel course. Chris said he wanted to stop, but his wife, who was terrified by the UFO's appearance, insisted that they continue on to Mallow. Chris pointed out that the night sky was clear with unlimited visibility. He described the UFO as "the array, whitish/light blue in color, seemed to be rotating in an eccentric pattern on two or more levels." Unknown to the Mahers at the time, the newspaper Irish Mirror had reported a sighting of glowing "flying crucifixes" over Kerrystown. (See the Irish Mirror for August 30, 1997. Many thanks to Chris Maher for letting UFO ROUNDUP quote from his report.) UNUSUAL METEOR RAISES A FLAP IN CENTRAL ITALY On Sunday, September 7, 1997, at 12:20 a.m., a fireball flew over central Italy and was seen by hundreds of people. Witnesses described it as a "bright light" in the sky, which changed into "a column of light, bluish white in color." Although the description is typical of a bolide, or detonating meteor, no sound was reported by the witnesses. The object was seen in the provinces of Liguria, Emilia, Toscana, Umbria, Marche and Campagna. The case is being investigated by the Centro Italiano di Studi Ufologici (CISU). (See the newspapers La Nazione, Il Tempo, Corriere Adriatico, Corriere di Arezzo, and Gazzetta di Palma for September 8, 1990. Grazie a Edoardo Russo of CISU for this report.) UFOs SIGHTED AT DESERT ARMY BASE IN CHILE During August, a daylight disc visited a base operated by the Ejercito de Chile (Chilean Army) in the Atacama Desert, not far from Antofagasta, the site of last month's UFO encounter. According to Agrupacion de Investigaciones Ovniologicas (AION), the well-known Chilean UFO group, a Chilean Army platoon went on patrol in the afternoon and left one man behind on sentry duty. When the patrol returned, they found the soldier "scared to death." While the platoon was gone, the unnamed soldier "saw a metallic oval-shaped object about 100 meters (330 feet) away and suspended about two meters (7 feet) from the ground. The object was 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter." AION is also investigating the reported crash of a UFO at Osorno in southern Chile in January 1997. "Some farmers and cowboys saw a bright object fall from the sky. At first they thought it was a meteor, but when it slowed down and made a movement like a falling leaf, they started doubting. The object landed and could be seen with binoculars. The object was bright and metallic-looking." The following day, however, when a curious witness tried to reach the site, he was halted by a fully-armed Chilean Army patrol about one kilometer from the spot. According to AION president Rodrigo Fuenzalida, the platoon "told him to leave and said that they had orders to shoot, if necessary." For the next two days, people in Osorno reported seeing many helicopters fly over the town, heading for the reputed crash site. "The retrieval operation took two days to clean up whatever was there." (Muchas gracias a Luis Sanchez Perry para esas noticias.) BLACK HELICOPTERS VERY ACTIVE DURING AUGUST Black helicopters were very active during August, and one of them even intruded upon your editor's vacation in the USA's upper Midwest. On Friday, August 29, 1997, at 3:30 p.m., a black helicopter was seen flying low over Albany, Oregon (population 26,546). According to an eyewitness, Mrs. Robert Walker, the machine had a strange-looking antennae array on its nose and flew over West Albany High School. Another witness, Lee Wise, described the chopper as "a praying mantis." Others identified it as a CH-54 Sky Crane. (See the Albany, Oregon Democrat and Herald for August 30, 1997.) On Saturday, August 23, 1997, at 3:25 p.m., your editor was walking down Lake Avenue in Duluth, Minnesota (population 90,000). Right in front of the Subway sandwich shop, I heard a loud helicopter sound and, turning to my left, spotted a charcoal gray helicopter hovering at an estimated altitude of 500 feet above the building across the street. Although the sky was overcast, the chopper had no running lights and no identifiable insignia. It was not an American chopper. I know the configuration of all USA military helicopters, from the UH-1 to the AH-64 to the MD-520, and it wasn't any of those. The helicopter coming closest to the one I saw is the German MBB BO-105, but the fuselage was a bit longer than the BO-105, and its skids were a bit longer, too. The helicopter hovered in place for a full three minutes, and then it took off at high speed in a northeasterly direction, heading for the Hunter Park section of the city, with me kicking myself for leaving my Olympia camera back at the motel. On Thursday, September 4, 1997, at 8:53 p.m., I was driving south on County Road 4 in Beaver Bay, Minnesota (population 300), on the north shore of Lake Superior. This time I had my fully-loaded camera in my jacket pocket. The sky was clear and cloudless, and the quarter-moon was just about to set. Only the planets were visible--the lingering sunset glow obscured the stars. Suddenly, a strange greenish-white light exploded in the sky about five miles (8 kilometers) north of me. The flash was approximately 20 degrees above the forested horizon. Immediately I pulled over to the side of the road. As I opened the car door, a second flash-- identical to the first--exploded on the southeast horizon. This flash was right over Lake Superior, about ten or fifteen miles south of Shovel Point in Tettegouche State Park. As you can imagine, my heart was really pumping. Hands quivering with adrenalin shock, I aimed my camera at the horizon and waited. And waited. And waited. Forty-five minutes went by, and the phenomenon did not repeat itself. (Aaaaarrrgh!--J.T.) A few days later, I talked to a woman at the Dewitt-Seitz Marketplace in Duluth. She told me that she had seen a black helicopter on Saturday, August 23, at 12:15 p.m. She had been taking her grandsons rollerblading in the municipal park/beach at the southern end of Park Point. The black helicopter came out of the southeast at a very high rate of speed, she said, flew over Park Point Beach, crossed St. Louis Bay and then "went like a bat out of hell over the ridge" in the Piedmont Heights section of the city. Her sighting took place three hours before mine. On Monday, September 8, 1997, at 4:50 p.m., James D. and his girlfriend, Lillian R., were driving south on Post Road, aka Route 1, in the Davisville section of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, when they saw a black helicopter fly from east to west over the highway. Jim described the chopper as "a Huey" (UH-1), and Lill said its color was "coal-black." The helicopter made a 90-degree turn southward after crossing the highway, Jim said. It then flew for "a half mile or so" in that direction, made another 90-degree left turn, and flew due east toward the old Quonset naval base. "We lost sight of it when we stopped for a red light," he added. (Editor's Comment: As near as I can tell, Jim and Lill sighted their black helicopter two hours after I talked to my DeWitt-Seitz eyewitness. I left Duluth the following day to fly back to Rhode Island.) NOSTRADAMUS PREDICTED DI'S DEATH AND FUNERAL Like everyone else, your editor was shocked and saddened by the death of Princess Diana and her friend, Emad (Dodi) al-Fayed, in Paris two weeks ago. While most modern psychics seemed to have missed the boat on this tragedy, I wondered how the Babe Ruth of prediction, Nostradamus himself, had made out. Turns out the Old Master has hit another home run. Check out this item--Century 2, Quatrain 28 "La penultieme du surnom de prophete Prendra Diane pour son jour et repos Loing vaguera par frenetique teste En deliverant un grand peuple d'impos." ("The last son of the man with the Prophet's name Will bring Diana to her day of rest. At a distance they wander in frenetic grief Delivering a great people from ruin.") The father of Dodi al-Fayed, the owner of Harrod's department store, is named Mohammed, the name of the Islamic Prophet. The rest of Nostradamus's prophecy is self-evident. It's strange how his prophecies always become perfectly obvious after the event. (See the book NOSTRADAMUS--COUNTDOWN TO APOCALYPSE by Jean-Charles de Fontbrunne, Owl Edition, Henry Holt & Co., 1985, page 418.) From: "Vikki Wright" Newsgroups: alt.ufo.reports Subject: BIG green light sept 13th..anyone see it??? Date: 16 Sep 1997 22:34:52 GMT a huge green light soared across the Dallas Tx sky about 10 pm or so Sept 13, at first thought it was just a "shooting star" but instead of going out it got bigger and brighter all the way across the sky to the horizon. Did any one else see this besides my husband and myself????please respond. UFO ROUNDUP Volume 2, Number 36 September 21, 1997 Editor: Joseph Trainor MUFON IOWA INVESTIGATES SIOUX CITY SIGHTING MUFON Iowa is currently investigating a UFO sighting that took place in a rural area near Sioux City, Iowa, 200 miles west of Des Moines, the night of August 7, 1997. Three people were involved in the sighting-- a 50-year-old woman, her 22-year-old son, and her 11-year-old grandson. At 9:30 p.m. on August 7, the boys were driving home when the younger one spotted a triangular UFO in the sky. "The first triangle was 500 feet away and about 200 feet (in) altitude," Beverly Trout, Iowa MUFON state director reported, "and moved parallel at about 20 miles per hour. The 60-foot triangle moved in a generally easterly direction for about two miles, as the boys drove through Stone Park, a heavily wooded area of hills, deep ravines and winding roads. Eventually it crossed the road just behind the vehicle and headed back to the west." When they turned onto the road leading to their farmhouse, a "strange animal" bumped into the car's passenger door. "The boys described it as reminding them of a hyena." Arriving at home, the boys told their mother/ grandmother. She responded that there were "no such things" as UFOs. "Just then," Ms. Trout added, "the 11-year-old pointed to the southwest of their house, and there was another triangle about 300 feet in size about 3/4 of a mile (1.2 kilometers) and only about 500 feet (in) altitude, moving very slowly." The UFO hovered for 15 minutes. To the west of the house, the family noticed an "amber-colored globe of light" in the sky, "with an apparent size of a little less than a full moon, from which three globes emerged (same size as the original globe), darted around, then re-merged with the original, then faded." Since the sighting, the younger boy has had repeated dreams featuring "large heads with no faces." Also, the boys did not arrive home until 10:45 p.m., after what should have been a 15-minute drive. The case is being investigated by Beverly Trout, Irene Barnes, Dr. Lawrence Lacey and MUFON consultant Robert Lyon. (Editor's Comment: The previous night, August 6, the Sioux City Police Dept. received multiple reports of a Bigfoot on 17th Street in the city's Northside section. See the Sioux City, Iowa Journal for August 9, 1997.) UFOs SIGHTED IN AND NEAR ROSEBURG, OREGON On Saturday, August 23, 1997, at 1:30 p.m., eight people, including an officer of the Oregon State Police, spied a daylight disc hovering over the Green district in Roseburg, Oregon (population 16,644). Roseburg is 178 miles (285 kilometers) south of Portland, the largest city in Oregon. "The residents stood out on the street and watched a large silver disk floating directly overhead," reported Autumn Shepperd and Bob Williams of ProjectLink. "When one of the residents looked at the object through a scope, he could see colors moving around on the bottom of the disk--yellow,red, blue, green." "The object made small rapid movements from side to side but stayed directly overhead for approximately 30 minutes. The witnesses claimed that it looked like it was 'jumping back and forth'...When the craft left, it streaked away at a very high rate of speed and faded out of sight." Two weeks earlier, on August 11, 1997, two hikers camping out near Red Butte, near Three-Finger Jack, in the Cascade Mountains reported a UFO sighting at 3:30 a.m. One hiker saw a "weird-looking" bright "star" on the eastern horizon. "He pointed it out to his friend. The light was greenish-red in color and eventually moved up, left, down and then dipped below the horizon. He said that the light appeared to be 50 to 75 miles away, and he calculated it to be north of the city of Bend (population 17,263), out in the desert." On Sunday, August 31, Autumn and Bob set up their own skywatch at Cottage Grove Lake, north of Roseburg. "We chose a clearing that would offer a clear view of the night sky and the horizon and set up the tent. At exactly 8:59 p.m., a red light appeared 300 to 400 feet above the horizon to the west-southwest. Bob, my partner, looked at it through the binoculars," Autumn reported. "I turned the camcorder on it. It remained stationary and pulsed, changing colors from white to red and back again, then to blue and finally to green. Finally, it blinked out and was gone." Autumn added that she and Bob spotted two UFOs at Cottage Grove Lake in 1995. (Many thanks to Autumn Shepperd and Bob Williams of ProjectLink for this report.) UFOs APPEAR OVER TOWNS IN SOUTHERN COLORADO On Friday, August 22, 1997, at 8:30 p.m., people living in Mesita, Colorado (population 900) reported "watching several lights of some craft" flying over the South Pinyon Hills, along the Rio Grande River, just north of the New Mexico state line. Three witnesses saw two bright lights, "like huge car headlights, with one intermittently visible to the west in a 'large thunderhead' (cloud). "Then they watched a golden light that appeared low to the south, near the Colorado/New Mexico border." On Thursday, September 4, 1997, at 8:30 p.m., two Mesita witnesses "observed two large craft, each with a row of six whitish-orange lights, slowly drifting around over the South Pinyon Hills." The UFOs moved in unison and were described as being "a little larger than a (U.S. Air Force C-131) transport plane." "After traveling north for about ten miles, they slowly began drifting west across the San Luis Valley between Antonito (population 1,103) and Romeo (population 308). At no time did the objects travel faster than an estimated 40 miles per hour. The sighting lasted about 40 minutes." On Friday, September 5, 1997, at 11:30 p.m., two witnesses at the Baca Grande development, about 90 miles (144 kilometers) north of the New Mexico state line, claim to have seen "a large craft hovering over the center of the San Luis Valley. They described unblinking red and green lights that seemed to be arrayed around the object." On Saturday, September 6, 1997, at 3:30 a.m., a man resting in his car on County Road T near Crestone "was awakened by a roaring sound that sounded like an old train." At first he thought it was a jet flying over. But when the sound did not diminish, he rolled down his car windows, hoping to get a fix on the source. The noise, which he described as "clanking sounds," seemed to be coming from the southwest. But he saw nothing but open range in that direction. (Many thanks to UFO author/ researcher Christopher O'Brien and Mike Lindemann of CNI News for this item. These stories originally appeared in CNI News, volume 3, number 14, part 2 for the date September 16, 1997.) TWO UFOs SIGHTED OVER DULUTH, MINNESOTA On Saturday, September 6, 1997, at 9:30 p.m., Van D. was sitting at home in the Morgan Park section of Duluth, Minnesota (population 92,811), watching a wrestling match on TV. "I looked out the window," Van said, "And all of a sudden, I saw this triangle-shaped aircraft. It had bright white lights at the end of each of the corners. And in back of the aircraft, it had red lights, sort of like the engine. So I watched it fly across the sky not far from my house." "I heard nothing, absolutely nothing, no noise or anything. So then I turned and saw this other aircraft, more like the flying saucer type. It had bright red lights encircling the craft, and a bright white light on top. So I watched it fly across, too. No sound at all." Van ran upstairs to get a telescope. But, by the time he returned, "the spaceships seemed to have disappeared." Then, about 20 minutes later, he "saw the saucer-shaped object flying far beyond my backyard, but it was moving too fast for me to see anything with the telescope." (Email Interview) (Editor's Comment: Van's sighting occurred 48 hours after I spotted two mysterious "green flashes" along the shore and over Lake Superior near Beaver Bay, Minnesota, 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Duluth, at 8:53 p.m. on Thursday, September 4.) MIRAGE JETS HUNT SAUCERS OVER EASTERN FRANCE A UFO flap is rocking eastern France, with sightings around Metz, Nancy and Pont au Mousson. The first incident took place on Sunday, September 7, 1997 at 10 p.m. M. and Mme. Patrick Rapp were attending a late-evening banquet in Metz, a city in the department of Moselle, "when they saw a strange ball of light close by the Metz cathedral." Immediately M. Rapp grabbed his video camcorder and began shooting. The camera was fitted with an X30 zoom. "While looking through the viewfinder, M. Rapp saw an oval shape, light yellow with some traces of green." He managed to get 10 seconds of video before the UFO zipped away. M. Rapp called the Metz city police, who turned the matter over to the Gendarmerie. In France, the Gendarmerie takes charge of all official UFO enquiries. (See the French newspaper Le Republican Lorrain for September 10, 1997.) On Monday, September 8, 1997, at 1:43 a.m., a Parisian man "saw a triangular shape over Boulogne, in the department Haute de Seine." The UFO "had a blue-green light on each corner." On Thursday, September 4, 1997, at 11:17 p.m., "Three researchers on a UFO watch close to Thionville, in the department Meurthe et Moselle, saw a big triangle with three green lights when a lightning bolt illuminated the sky. The object's size was about 300 meters (990 feet) long for each side. This large construction was flying very slowly near Metz." On Friday, September 5, 1997, at 4:30 a.m., a man saw a green lightning ball near Val et Chatillon, in the department of Meurthe et Moselle. The ball was followed by an orange line. This object was also seen in Jarville, a suburb on the northern side of the city of Nancy." On Monday, September 8, 1997, "a green ball was seen" at 9 p.m. "above Pont au Mousson, in Meurthe et Moselle. Ten minutes later, the area was overflown by a squadron of Mirage 2000s, the Armee de l'Air's (French Air Force--J.T.) top-of-the-line jet fighters. Observers counted no fewer than 10 Mirage jets over the Metz/Nancy region, flying what appeared to be a combat air patrol. The Armee de l'Air made no comments about the maneuvers, and there was no mention of the incident in the French news media. On Tuesday, September 9, 1997, at 10 p.m., a "bright white light" was seen at Buxy, in the department Seine et Loire, by four witnesses. "They saw the light hovering close to their house. The light appeared to belong to a large shape. Only one side of it could be seen, the one illuminated by the strange light." (Merci beaucoup a Robert Fischer pour ces nouvelles.) TRIANGULAR UFO MAKES A FAST FLYBY IN BELGIUM On Sunday, September 14, 1997, at 10:30 p.m., Kim M. "saw a triangular-shaped UFO" outside her home in Bruges, a city in Belgium. "I was looking to the sky, and I saw the big triangular UFO," Kim reported. "It had one flashing white light on each corner and in the middle was a red light, on the top. It flew over our house and flew away. It was a weird sight, but this is not the first time that I've seen a UFO. Once a triangular shape came so close we thought it was going to fly in the bedroom window." (Many thanks to John Hayes for forwarding this email report.) BRAZILIAN INSTITUTE BEGINS INVESTIGATION OF ONGOING SAO PAULO SAUCER FLAP A recent spurt of UFO sightings in Vale de Paraiba, approximately 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of the city of Sao Paulo, has prompted a Brazilian scientific institute to study the matter. According to the newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo, researcher Ricardo Varela Correa of the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (National Institute for Space Researches), INPE for short, in Sao Jose de Campos, S.P. In the last three months, Varela said, "luminous forms" have been seen over Vale de Paraiba "more than ten per month." "A resident of Sao Jose de Campos telephoned, terrified, to tell the institute that he had seen, flying inside his residence, a sphere of approximately 15 centimeters in diameter, of a silver-blue color," Varela said. "The object emitted light, quickly entered each room and then disappeared." Months earlier, a woman told Varela that "a mysterious light had invaded her house and lit up every room. After scaring her family, the light disappeared without leaving any vestiges." On May 21, 1997, he added, the institute itself received a UFO visitor. "A red light appeared about 9 p.m., hovered over the (INPE) administration building, and then, suddenly, it moved in various directions and overflew other buildings of the institute." (See the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo for September 15, 1997. Muito obrigado a Eduardo Castor Borgonovi por eso caso.) UFO VIDEOTAPED BY TV CREW IN THE ANDES OF BOLIVIA On Wednesday, September 17, 1997, at 8:30 p.m., a UFO appeared and hovered over the village of Ceja de El Alto, not far from La Paz, the national capital of Bolivia. The village is high up in the Andes at an elevation of 4,080 meters (13,464 feet). According to the newspaper Ultima Hora, the UFO consisted of an object with "four bright lights" that "hovered for several minutes and then flew away to the west 'at fantastic speed.' The UFO alarmed many people and was filmed by Canal (Channel) 4, a TV station in La Paz." The sighting lasted about seven minutes. Channel 4 in La Paz aired its video footage the following day. (See the newspaper Ultima Hora of La Paz, Bolivia for September 18, 1997. Muchas gracias a Eduardo Castor Borgonovi para esas noticias.) TWO YOWIE INCIDENTS REPORTED IN AUSTRALIA Two sightings of the Yowie, a tall, hairy hominid similar to North America's Bigfoot, were reported in north central Australia during August. According to Tim Bull of the Australian Centre for Mystery Investigations, a Mr. Evan claimed to have seen "a 9-foot-tall (2.8 meters) black creature covered with short hair on the side of the road about 15 miles (25 kilometers) southwest of Alice Springs." Upon seeing Mr. Evan's vehicle, "the beast jumped sideways and lumbered off into the sparsely vegetated desert." The second incident took place in Australia's Tanimi Desert, about 400 miles (640 kilometers) south of Darwin, Northern Territory (N.T.) A farmer was awakened at 3 a.m. by "a terrible screeching noise... like nothing she had ever heard before just outside her bedroom window." When she went to check it out, "she was overwhelmed by a disgustingly foul odor that made her dry reach (nearly vomit--J.T.). At the same time, she saw a '7-foot-tall dark-coloured creature with his hair about the length of my hand, no neck and long arms crash through her back fence." The following morning, Australian police found numerous Bigfoot-type tracks on the property and a two-inch irrigation pipe that had nearly been chewed through. Some in Australia theorize that the recent drought has forced the Yowie population of the N.T. into inhabited areas in search of water. On September 10, Tim Bull said, "Althought it is hard to believe that such a creature could exist in the harsh conditions that prevail out there, I do, however, feel that there is overwhelming evidence to suggest that a number of Bigfoot-type creatures are roaming in the interior of Australia. (Many thanks to Errol Bruce-Knapp and Tim Bull of ACMI for this story.) BOAT-SHAPED UFO SEEN IN CENTRAL ITALY On Wednesday, September 10, 1997, at 10 p.m., a UFO shaped "like a huge aerial boat" was seen over the provinces of Parma, Pavia and Massa Carrara. Witnesses, who numbered in the hundreds, said they saw "a luminous glow around the object." The case is being investigated by the Centro Italiano di Studi Ufologici (CISU), whose investigators include Renzo Cabassi, Umberto Cordier and Roberto Labanti. (See the Italian newspaper La Republica for September 11, 1997. Grazie a Edoardo Russo di CISU.) ROUNDUP CORRIGENDA: In UFO ROUNDUP, volume 2, number 27, we reported a UFO sighting in the Persian Gulf, off the shore of Bahrain. The item mistakenly identified our source, M.L. Adwani, as "a local ufologist." Mr. Al-Adwani writes, "I am neither a ufologist, nor am I a local. I have not interviewed anyone, and I did not see the phenomenon myself. I merely sent you a brief note on what was reported in the local newspaper." UFO ROUNDUP regrets the error. From: jpogorman@intranet.ca Newsgroups: alt.ufo.reports Subject: possible sighting Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 15:04:28 GMT My girlfriend and I were on our way to Florida for vacation in late March of this year. We had stopped for the night in North Carolina and decided to take a walk along the beach. At approximately 8:45 p.m. I looked to the north trying to find Hale-Bopp, what I saw was a group of 8 or 9 lights in a "v" formation I turned to tell Sue what I saqw be she was already looking at the same thing, the lead object then dropped down among the pack to form a "w" before they all scrambled and disappeared. We both saw the same thing, to this day we have no clue what it was. Does anyone else have a similar experience or idea as to what we may have seen? ufo,military,? I would like to hear from anyone with a similar experience or solution. Thanks