UFO ROUNDUP Volume 1 Number 12
Volume 1 Number 12
May 5, 1996
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
We've had a record-breaking week for UFO sightings. Let's start off with a case that's still going down. This one's hot off the phone, readers, and it's happening (where else!?) in Colorado's San Luis Valley.
WEEK-LONG UFO FLAP ON BLANCA PEAK
From Friday night, April 26, to Friday night, May 3, 1996, a solitary UFO appeared over the eastern side of Blanca Peak, a 14,345-foot mountain in Colorado's Sangre de Cristo range. The object was visible each night between 8:30 and 11:30 p.m.
The UFO was first seen April 26 by Mrs. Helen W., who owns a ranch two miles east of the mountain, just off Colorado Highway 160. Mrs. W and her husband, an Air Force officer, described the object as a "very bright white globe." The UFO returned each night last week and reportedly performed aerial maneuvers, "moving from side to side and back and forth."
On Thursday, May 2, veteran paranormal investigator Christopher O'Brien visited the couple's ranch and watched the mountain for four hours. He said he felt they were witnessing the planet Venus, which sets behind Mount Blanca this week. He added that the bright light he saw turned "amber or dull yellow" as it disappeared behind the ridgeline, an effect he attributed to redshift.
Although O'Brien said he saw no moving light on Thursday night, the husband claimed he had seen the UFO and Venus in the sky at the same time on Wednesday night, and he was certain it wasn't Venus.
O'Brien has been collecting data on UFO sightings in the Alamosa area for years. His book, THE MYSTERIOUS VALLEY, will be published by St. Martin's Press in July 1996. This is "the book" on phenomena in that part of Colorado.
Note: Blanca Peak is sacred to the Dineh people, also known as the Navaho, playing an important role in their Creation story. The Dineh call it Sisnaajini, meaning "the Black-Belted One." White corn kernels are its sacred symbol among the Dineh. There have been UFO sightings in the area going all the way back to 1917.
SLOW-MOVING UFO STARTLES FOLKS IN BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS
On Tuesday night, April 30, 1996, a large, dark diamond-shaped UFO appeared over White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, surprising a few of the residents. The UFO flew east along Highway 60, passing first over Callaghan and then over Covington.
An eyewitness reported, "I was leaving my parents' house and going next door to my apartment when I looked up at the full moon and saw a diamond shape low to the ground. It had yellow outside lights resembling a diamond and inside flashing red and green lights. I watched it heading east for about two minutes until it disappeared over the mountain behind my house...The object made no sound whatsoever. No jet or engine noise. This was truly an unforgettable experience."
FAST FLYBY OF A UFO IN MINNESOTA
This sighting took place somewhere in the dairy farm country betweenMinneapolis and Duluth. The eyewitnesses were a farm wife and her six- year-old daughter. The sighting took place on Saturday night, April 27, at precisely 8:50 p.m. Central time.
Mrs. X and her daughter were standing on their back porch, having just finished with their evening chores, when they spotted the UFO. Mrs. X described it as "a bright white light, round in shape, passed over our silo at a very high altitude. It moved in zigzag."
Mother and daughter kept the UFO in view for 10 seconds, and then it vanished over the western horizon.
NATIONAL UFO REPORTING CENTER LISTS APRIL SIGHTINGS
Last week the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle released information on three unusual incidents that took place during April. Here they are:
April 12, 1996 - At precisely 11:55 p.m., several airliners circling New York City reported visual and radar contact with "a large UFO." Six airliners in all reported contact. The sightings were confirmed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) control center in New York.
April 14, 1996 - Across Michigan's Upper Peninsula, from Sault Sainte Marie to Ironwood, Michigan, people reported seeing "a gigantic object with four to seven blinking amber lights on the side and a squiggly plume of pure white light coming out of the aft end." The UFO was seen by six Michigan state troopers along Route 28 in Alger County.
April 15, 1996 - A large blue-green UFO rocketed from south to north over California, travelling from Los Angeles to Santa Clara. Eyewitness Susan Thomson of Novato, California said it "was the size of a softball" as it flew over Lucas Valley Road off Highway 101 at approximately 5:12 a.m. The UFO was also seen in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Monterey, Fresno and Tulare. Many witnesses reported a loud sonic boom. Scientists said the object was a "bolide" or an exploding meteor.
GIANT UFO REPORTED OVER EASTERN ONTARIO
On March 21, 1996, at 8:30 p.m., two boys in Welland, Ontario, 21 miles west of Niagara Falls, N.Y. spotted a gigantic UFO over their neighborhood. Ryan, age 9, and Greg, age 11, were looking at the night sky through a bedroom window when they saw the UFO drifting slowly through the Big Dipper constellation. They estimated that the UFO was 200 feet above ground. The boys reported, "The UFO was triangular, with lights at each point of the craft. We heard a low-frequency humming coming from it. The UFO flew from east to west in a straight line."
In addition, Ryan and Greg told the newspaper in St. Catharine's, Ontario that they saw a conventional airplane "following the UFO at a distance, right on the same course."
"SIGHTINGS" TO COVER 1994 NORTHWEST UFO FLAP
The May 19th edition of the Fox TV show "Sightings" will run a segment on the UFO flap in Idaho and Washington in February 1994.
According to the newspaper Idaho Statesman, on February 10, 1994, an explosion flared briefly over Fairfield, Idaho, knocking out the town's street lights. Mark Johnson, formerly a Camas County deputy sheriff, told the Statesman, "It was bright enough to trip the photo sensors on the street lights. They went off. The explosion rattled the entire building."
The previous night, February 9, 1994, a UFO was seen in Redmond, Woodinville, Bellevue and Granite Falls, Washington and also over Whidbey Island in Puget Sound. The UFO was described as "a long, slender, black, tubular-shaped object with at least four lights on the side. It streaked in all directions, dipped its nose down and disappeared behind the horizon of the Olympic Mountains" on the other side of the sound, somewhere west of Port Angeles.
That's it for this week! Keep those UFO reports coming in!
