UFO ROUNDUP Volume 2 Number 17
Volume 2 Number 17
April 27, 1997
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
UFO LEAVES CROP CIRCLES IN NORTHERN CROATIA
On Wednesday, April 16, 1997, at 8:15 p.m., the Croatian national TV aired a strange report during the show Ziva Istina (The Living Truth). According to the announcer, a UFO appeared over the town of Zagorje in northern Croatia. He said, "It seemed like a giant cigar."
A Zagorje man was watching TV at 6:45 p.m. that evening when he suddenly noticed "red light streaming through the window." He left his chair, got dressed and went out in the yard to see what the disturbance was all about. About 160 meters (530 feet) away, in a farm field, a "fireball" hovered just above the ground. The witness described the UFO as a black sphere surrounded by a fiery red glow, approximately 12 meters high and 15 meters in diameter, with "three holes like windows."
After the UFO flew away, the man went to the field and discovered a crop circle measuring 28 meters (92 feet) in diameter. He also found a few strange footprints "larger than his own." The prints were Croatian shoe size #43 (Size 9 U.S.)
This is Croatia's second UFO incident of 1997. On February 20, Damir Nozica spotted "three orange fireballs" flying over Lokrum Island in the Adriatic Sea, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) south of Dubrovnik.
(Many thanks to Berislav Kucan for this story.)
DAYLIGHT DISC SPOTTED IN ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA
On Sunday, April 20, at 1:30 p.m., a girl named Laura was riding in the family car with her mother and her brother. As they neared the Wal-Mart at the corner of Euclid Street and Lincoln Avenue in Anaheim, California (population 221,847), Laura "looked through the windshield, and I saw a shiny thing that was about the size of a plane. But it was larger than a plane and was shiny."
Laura had the object in view for "a few seconds, like 5 or 10 seconds, I guess," and estimated its position at 45 degrees above the horizon.
She looked away for a few seconds, and "when I looked back, the frick'n thing was gone. I looked all over the sky, but I didn't see it anywhere." (Email Interview)
THREE UFOs SIGHTED OVER DES MOINES, IOWA
On Monday, April 14, 1997, at 12:10 a.m., a 34-year-old amateur atronomer was doing some telescope work in his backyard near 29th Street and Lyon in Des Moines, Iowa.
"Coming out of the west was what appeared to be a satellite," he reported. "Turned out to be the lead in a group of three UFOs. Their color was a dim, almost transparent hazy yellow. The group appeared to be traveling at the speed of a satellite in low Earth orbit."
The witness described the UFOs as "bulbous on the upper and lower side with a typical saucer outline...effortlessly skimming towards the east." The three UFOs flew in V-formation at 67 degrees above the eastern horizon. (Email Interview)
UFO SQUADRONS GATHER NORTH OF TWIN CITIES
A startling multiple UFO sighting took place in Minnesota this week, just north of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
On Wednesday, April 24, 1997, at 9:45 p.m., a boy living in the Twin Cities suburb of New Brighton, Minnesota (population 23,269) looked out a window and saw a bright, diamond-shaped UFO in the sky. Immediately he told his mother, and the two of them went into the backyard of their home, located not far from Long Lake Road and Silver Lake Road.
In a report to the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle, the woman reportedly said she counted 30 UFOs overhead between 9:45 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. The UFOs were described as "diamond-shaped" or "triangular-shaped craft moving at incredible speed, darting back and forth across the sky." She added that she and her son "saw the underbelly of one or more crafts and the light underneath."
New Brighton is located seven miles (11 kilometers) north of downtown Minneapolis, along Interstate Highways 694 and 35W. (Many thanks to Alana Ray and Steve Wilson Jr. for this report)
(Editor's Note: The U.S. Army's Twin Cities Ammunition Plant is in Arden Hills, Minnesota, just across Long Lake from New Brighton. A possible site of interest for the UFOs?)
MYSTERIOUS POWER OUTAGES PLAGUE SOUTHERN BRAZIL
During the evening of Wednesday, April 24, 1997, an unexplainable power surge flooded the transmission lines near the Furnas Centrais Eletricais substation in Ibiuna, in Sao Paulo state, Brazil. The surge knocked out electrical power in the cities of Foz do Iguacu, on the border with Paraguay, and Cascavel. Also affected were the towns of Capanema, Santo Antonio do Sudoeste, Barracao and Pato Branco.
On Thursday, April 25, 1997, at 6:20 p.m., a second unexplained power surge struck the Ibiuna substation. Again power was knocked out in the same cities but was restored by 8 p.m. Officials of FCE had no explanation for the sudden surges. (Muito obrigado a Mauri Konig da Agencia Estado e OVNI-Brasil)
QUEBEC MAN REPORTS A WEIRD ENCOUNTER
On March 9, 1997, at 7:15 p.m., Paul Dassault, 67, decided to go for an evening stroll near his home in St. Emile de Suffolk, Quebec. Suddenly, on his right, he spied "two bright yellow lights" about 200 feet (67 meters) into the woods.
Paul became very alarmed because, as he told the Quebec UFO study group CEIPI, "There is no road whatsoever in there and not even a snowmobile trail."
After a few seconds, Paul was able to make out a solid object, square, black, measuring 6 feet long, with two violently bright yellow lights on either end. Deciding to get a better look, he entered the woods. Just then, "an intense wall of light" poured out of the center of the UFO. "The wall expanded for 500 feet (165 meters)" on either side and rose to a height of 38 feet (11 meters). Shaken, he hurried back to the trail. The UFO remained hovering in place.
On March 29, 1997, Paul returned to the same area outside St. Emile de Suffolk. There was no sign of the square black object, but he did encounter a hovering "ball of light" four feet (1.3 meters) in diameter. The UFO floated through the trees at a height two feet (0.7 meters) above the snow. He halted and then left "when the ball began coming right at me at a slow pace."
According to Jean Casault of CEIPI, the witness is now under a physician's care for "nervous shock." (Merci beaucoup a Jean Casault pour cette histoire.)
LOCH SPORT BECOMES REAL LIFE "JURASSIC PARK"
The East Gippsland area of Australia's Victoria (Vic.) state is fast becoming a real-life Jurassic Park. A fierce predator dating back to the Pleistocene Ice Age and extinct since 1931 has been seen repeatedly around Loch Sport.
The predator is the thylacine, also known as "the Tasmanian tiger." The last recognized specimen died in the Hobart, Tasmania zoo in 1931. But since 1965, there have been over 40 reported sightings of the beast in the area around Loch Sport.
The most recent sighting was in February at Lake Reeve, near Bairnsdale, Vic. Samantha Humes, 19, said she saw a thylacine "sniffling along up on the road and popped its head up to look at me. It was about the height of a cattle dog, dark grey with tan and dark brown stripes and a greyhound-like face." She added that the animal "disappeared behind scrub 'in two hops.'"
Maurice Griffin, a retired crane driver, told the Melbourne Herald-Sun that he's seen three different thylacines on six separate occasions on his Loch Sport property.
Griffin, 66, leaves meat outdoors to attract the carnivorous animal and has rigged an automatic photograph system. "I've lived in the bush all my life, and I've never seen anything like it," Griffin said, "What I'm trying to do is coax it up to nearly level to my window so I can take a photo of it. I just want to prove what I'm saying is right." (See the Melbourne Herald-Sun for February 20, 1997. Many thanks to Lou Farish of UFO Newsclipping Service for this news story.)
NEW CATTLE MUTILATIONS IN NEW MEXICO
On Saturday, April 12, 1997, a five-year-old cow was found mutilated on a ranch near Arroyo Seco, New Mexico (population 500), a small town 57 miles (92 kilometers) north of Santa Fe.
The cow was found lying on its left side. Missing were its tongue, udders, anus and sexual organs. The site was investigated by Dr. Leroy Martinez of Cerolla, N.M., former New Mexico state patrolman Gabe Valdez and reporter Phaedra Greenwood of the Taos, N.M. News.
The Arroyo Seco case was the third cattle mutilation in New Mexico in two months. On March 6, investigator David Perkins visited a site in Pecos, N.M., 27 miles (43 kilometers) southeast of Santa Fe. Here a two-year-old cow described as "very healthy" was found dead and missing a circular patch of hide measuring 10 inches in diameter. The cut, 8 inches deep, removed the udder and teats. A V-shaped notch was also found on the cow's right ear.
On February 20, rancher John Mutz (pronounced "Mutes") discovered his prize bull dead. The animal was missing its tongue and rear end. Investigating the case was New Mexico cattle inspector Jerry Valario. (Many thanks to Christopher O'Brien, author of THE MYSTERIOUS VALLEY, for these reports.)
T.A.S.K. INVESTIGATES PUZZLING CASE OF THE "BOUNCING UFO"
The group Tri-States Advocates for Scientific Knowledge (T.A.S.K.) is currently investigating a bizarre "bouncing UFO" incident that occurred near New Vienna, Ohio (population 1,133) on the night of March 26, 1997.
At 8 p.m., on March 26, Mrs. Ed Brown of New Vienna observed brightly-lit UFOs overflying the town. At 11 p.m., she called her brother on the Phone, and her nephew said that "he had been outside playing basketball" when "he saw something drop from the sky and bounce back up off the ground in that area."
Other people saw the same phenomenon--a light dropping from the sky and bouncing back up-- between Highland and Leesburgh on Underground Road.
Steve Garen of the New Vienna Fire Dept. told T.A.S.K. that he was driving on Ohio Route 729 to Route 72 south when he spied the event.
"Before we saw it hit the ground, there were three triangle-type lights in order, not flashing...an exact pyramid shape in the sky," Garen said. "There was one object behind the three that was flashing. They just looked like a huge ball of light that kept getting brighter. You wouldn't see it and then all of a sudden it was there again. We headed for the area. It was towards Greenfield and Hillsboro. Have you ever seen a real bright, bright light? It just kept traveling real fast and then went straight down. We thought it was a shooting star at first, but it just dropped and hit the ground, and went straight back up the same way it came down. There was so sound or flash or anything we could see."
Also that night, Jaime Orme of Maysville, Kentucky (population 7,983), across the Ohio River and 25 miles (35 kilometers) south of New Vienna, received a phone call from a friend, who reported a UFO hovering above his farm field in Plumville, Kentucky, five miles (8 kilometers) west of Maysville. The witness said "three flare-like objects" first hovered above the house, then moved slowly into an adjacent field. A fourth UFO suddenly appeared "and then moved to merge with the other three." All four then vanished. (Many thanks to Kenneth Young, T.A.S.K. public relations director, for these reports.)
A-10 WRECKAGE FOUND
After two days of snowstorms, USAF rescue commandos retrieved wreckage of the missing A-10 fighter-bomber from the north face of Gold Dust Peak (elevation 13,365 feet or 4,100 meters), a mountain about 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Vail, Colorado.
The aircraft had been missing since April 2 when its pilot, Capt. Craig D. Button, inexplicably broke formation while on a training mission at the Goldwater bombing range in southern Arizona. Capt. Button's A-10 flew 800 miles to Colorado. Its last known position on radar was in the vicinity of New York Mountain, not far from Gold Dust Peak.
"Tethered by a 100-foot cable from a helicopter overhead, Sgt. Ishmael Antonio snatched a shard of jet engine blade and a bundle of safety-system cables and control wires from a snow covered mountainside" on Wednesday, April 24, 1997. "Stock numbers later identified them as parts from the lost A-10 Thunderbolt II." (See USA Today for April 25, 1997)
On Thursday, "a blinding, wind-driven snowstorm forced rescuers to halt their search" for the pilot. But the USAF Pararescue Team's MH53 Pave Low helicopter tried again on Friday.
The team "found body parts among the wreckage, indicating the pilot was in the cockpit when it crashed into the mountains." (See Providence Journal-Bulleting for April 26, 1997, page A6)
"What we found was fragmentary human remains," Maj. Gen. Nils Running said, "We are not positive whose human remains they are."
A military lab will conduct DNA tests on the remains to determine if they match the DNA profile in Capt. Button's USAF medical file.
Still missing are the four 500-pound Mark 82 GP (General Purpose) bombs the A-10 had been carrying before the crash. After the snow melts in June, the Air Force will send in another team to "locate and neutralize the bombs," Maj. Gen. Running told the media Friday.
SEARCH FOR MISSING LEAR JET RESUMES
Approximately 150 family friends and volunteers from all over New England climbed Smarts Mountain in Lyme, New Hampshire on Saturday, April 26, 1997, seeking the Lear jet which vanished last December.
The morning of December 24, 1996, a Lear jet flown by Johan Schwartz and Patrick Hayes, both 31, of Connecticut was told to "go around" by the municipal airport tower in Lebanon, New Hampshire. As the jet began to bank high above the upper Connecticut River valley, it vanished from Lebanon airport's radar screen just after 10 a.m.
An exhaustive air and ground search of the mountainous area around Lebanon, N.H. and White River Junction, Vermont failed to turn up any trace of the Lear jet or its two pilots. Since the official search ended, family members and friends have conducted ground searches every weekend. As of Sunday, April 27, 1997, the aircraft remains missing.
ROUNDUP CORRIGENDA:
Last week's issue (Volume 2, Number 16) wrongly attributed the sighting of a Black Triangle in Liverpool, England on April 15, 1997 to "Lee Liser and a few friends." The actual eyewitnesses were Liser Morgan and her unnamed companion. The ROUNDUP sincerely regrets the error.
Vigilia is an e-zine published by Jefferson Martinho, with some support from CEPEX. It is not the CEPEX Website. Also, you can drop in at Vigilia at this URL: http://empresa.com/vigilia/
from the UFO Files...
1897: AN AIRSHIP VISITS WINNIPEG
One hundred years ago, on Saturday, May 1, 1897, "a mysterious airship," as UFOs were then called, flew over Winnipeg, the capital of Canada's Manitoba province, then a city of 40,000 people.
Here are some excerpts from a news story of the period:
"Saturday night (May 1, 1897) was the date chosen for the appearance of the airship, and the lights of the mysterious machine were in full view of many citizens for a full fifteen minutes."
"The strange visitor" approached from the west, following the Assiniboine River, "out of a starry sky."
The boys at Howard's Drugstore watched the UFO "mystified by the strange vision...Only the bare outlines of some dark object could be seen besides the strange heaven light, evidently from the 'masthead' of the aerial craft. There can be no doubt about the presence of the strange vision on Saturday night, as its transit was witnessed by many reputable citizens," including Manitoba's provincial lieutenant governor.
After passing over St. Boniface Hospital, the UFO veered sharply to the north and "was lost from view" as it flew toward the town of Stony Mountain. (See the Vancouver, B.C. News-Advertiser for May 2, 1897)
(Editor's Note: By May 1897, the airship flap in the USA was winding down. But the Winnipeg sighting was the kick-off for a flap in Manitoba and British Columbia that reached its peak during July and August of 1897. If any Canadian readers have photocopies of those 1897 airship stories, please send them to the ROUNDUP's snail-mail address, so I can do some features this summer. Thanks!)
FUN UFO WEBSITES
For years, William A. Corliss has been entertaining readers (your editor, included) with true stories of unexplained phenomena taken directly from the scientific journals themselves. Now Science Frontiers newsletter is available at Science Frontiers Onlineat http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/
Veteran UFO researcher Scott Corrales just opened his Web page this week. Scott is the author of numerous articles on UFOs, a book on Chupacabras and is the publisher of the quarterly news magazine Samizdat. You can reach his site at http://www.bradford-online.com/np/samizdat/index.html. Also, don't miss Scott's great new article on El Yunque, Puerto Rico's UFO-haunted mountain in the Summer 1997 issue of UFO UNIVERSE magazine.
Don't forget to drop in at our parent site, UFOINFO. There are plenty of news and feature stories offered by webmaster John Hayes. You'll find it at http://ufoinfo.com/index.html
And, of course, there's our UFO ROUNDUP site, where you can download back issues, at http://ufoinfo.com/roundup/index.shtml.
(Editor's Note: Which reminds me...a hearty thank-you to the newsroom staff at the News Plaindealer in Sparta, Illinois for your mention of UFO ROUNDUP in the January 29, 1997 issue.)
If you come across a UFO story in your local newspaper, please clip it out and send it to this address:
Joseph Trainor
UFO ROUNDUP
2501 Leonard Street, Apt. 104
Duluth, Minnesota
USA 55811-2964
And if you have a UFO to report, contact us at Masinaigan@aol.com.
To our readers in Mexico, "Feliz Cinco de Mayo!" And, to the rest, we'll be back next Sunday with more news of UFOs. Till then, best wishes from "the paper that goes home...UFO ROUNDUP."
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1997 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post any item from UFO ROUNDUP on their Websites or in newsgroups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of the newsletter in which the story first appeared.