UFO ROUNDUP Volume 3 Number 04
Volume 3
Number 4
January 25, 1998
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
TEN LUMINOUS UFOs HOVER OVER GLASGOW
On Friday, January 16, 1998, at 7:45 a.m., Gordon MacAndrews and his wife Fiona were waiting for sunrise in Glasgow, Scotland when they spotted mysterious lights in the southern sky.
"I viewed the lights from the top of a hill in the north of Glasgow," MacAndrews reported, "which overlooks the city, as the lights were some way off. As I mentioned in my post, my wife also saw the lights and was as mystified as I am."
He described the UFOs as "whitish-yellow" and "smaller than a small coin" held at arm's length. "They did not approach; they stayed in the same area," over the southern suburb of Busby.
From their observation point near Springburn Road, the couple "watched the lights for 20 minutes...As the sun rose, we were unable to see them any longer."
"As I saw them from the other side of the city, I was sure someone else would have seen the display but apparently not," he added.
Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, is about 55 miles (88 kilometers) west of the capital, Edinburgh. (Email Interview)
FAST FLYBY IN QUEENSLAND
On Wednesday, January 21, 1998, Steve Burrows and his two children were outdoors at their home in Brisbane, in Australia's Queensland state when they spied a fast-moving UFO crossing the sky.
The trio "watched a fast-moving single white light travel from directly overhead to 45 degrees (above the horizon) in the east and was then covered by low cloud."
Burrows described the condition of the sky as clear, adding "stars were clearly visible before the low cloud cover swept in from the south." They had the object in view for "no more than 30 seconds." (Many thanks to Steve Burrows and Errol Bruce-Knapp for this report.)
UFOs LINKED TO MUTILATED SWINE IN COLORADO
Three large pigs were found dead and mutilated Monday, January 5, on a ranch near Highway 159 in Costilla County, Colorado. The area is located just west of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, about 230 miles (418 kilometers) south of Denver.
Two ranchers found two of the swine that morning, then located the third a little later. According to Christopher O'Brien, investigator and author of THE MYSTERIOUS VALLEY (St. Martin's Press, 1996), the dead swine weighed "about 100 to 150 pounds, white in color and each with a cored-out rectum and other round holes in the abdomen."
Photographs of the crime scene were taken by Bob Green of the La Sierra News.
On January 8, O'Brien learned that a local teenage girl had told her mother that she and a friend "while coming home from basketball practice" had seen "two lights emanating from the sky in the approximate location where the carcasses of the three pigs were discovered."
The girl reportedly told this story before news of the mutilation made the rounds in Costilla County.
UFOs were also seen in neighboring Huerfano County, as well.
On Wednesday, January 7, 1998, UFOs were sighted over the La Veta Military Operations Area (MOA) in the large San Luis Valley. Witnesses in Farisita and Gardner, two small towns on Colorado Highway 169 approximately 155 miles (248 kilometers) south of Denver, spotted "extensive aerial activity by dozens of unknown objects, for hours, that did not appear to be conventional aircraft."
According to local investigator David Perkins, the UFOs were described by the witnesses as "large 'disco-balls' " and "small red lights/crafts which appeared to crisscross the Huerfano."
On Thursday, January 8, 1998, two witnesses driving north on Colorado Highway 17 about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Farisita and Gardner saw "a 150-foot (45-meter) diameter disk (flying) at between 1,500 to 2,000 feet in altitude" traveling "down the center of the San Luis Valley over the Baca Ranch two miles east of Highway 17 at Mile Marker 93. One of the witnesses, ex-military, estimated the disk's speed at between 500 and 500 miles per hour."
On Tuesday, January 20, 1998, a witness in Hooper, Colorado reported "seeing a 'big star doing big twists'" south of the Great Sand Dunes National Monument at about 6 p.m. He described the UFO as "flashing red-green and blue lights" and estimated its position at "five or so miles just south of Sand Dunes Oasis."
"At around 6:15 p.m., I witnessed low-flying jets headed from the east, over the Sangre de Cristos," the witness told O'Brien. The jets "were flying 3,000 feet from the Valley floor." He added that the UFO was not the star Sirius rising in the east but was "two times brighter than the brightest planet" and located "some 5 degrees south of Sirius." (Many thanks to Chris O'Brien for letting UFO ROUNDUP quote from his Winter SLV Update. Don't miss Chris's new book, INSIDE THE MYSTERIOUS VALLEY, on sale in May 1998.)
MORE UFOs SIGHTED IN CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA
Arizona's new UFO flap swept into its second week with hundreds of sightings reported in and around Phoenix and the city of Casa Grande (population 19,082), located on Highway 387 51 miles (82 kilometers) to the southeast.
On Wednesday, January 14, 1998, Village Labs in Phoenix received "hundreds of calls" from local residents who sighted "orange lights" and "spherical red-orange UFOs" over the Estrella Mountains.
The laboratory received seven amateur videotapes of the UFOs for analysis.
At 7 p.m., "two large orange lights" were viewed for 11 minutes over the mountain range.
Other witnesses described "a formation of orange lights" and a "giant triangle" of lights.
The Michigan Air National Guard issued a statement that their planes had dropped "military flares" over the area.
On Thursday night, January 15, 1998, Tom King, director of Arizona Skywatch, staked out the area. He reported, "I took a position halfway between Phoenix and Casa Grande. We sighted some of the orange lights fifteen to twenty miles west of our position (i.e. near the western border of the Gila River Indian Reservation--J.T.) We took photographs and two separate videotapes, including the ultra-high- speed Super camera. These objects appeared under 1,000 feet and did not have any sign of smoke," as flares normally do.
On Sunday, January 18, 1998, investigator Robert M. Collins "first observed" a UFO "while I was driving up past Casa Grande. I pulled off (Interstate Highway I-10) onto Route 387 north of Casa Grande. At that time I counted 9 to 11 orange globes all the way from west to east north of my position, over Phoenix."
"I had Bushnell binoculars and thought I could make out some sort of 'disc' structure on one or two of them. But because the light appeared to be so cohesive and (due to Phoenix's air) pollution, I was getting a lot of atmospheric diffraction effects from the lights."
Collins observed the UFOs from 7:25 to 7:55 p.m. "Two orbs were still visible" when he left the area. (Many thanks to Tom King and Robert M. Collins for these reports.)
UFO FLAP ERUPTS NEAR ATLANTA, GEORGIA
MUFON Georgia is investigating a number of UFO sightings around Atlanta during the past two weeks.
On Thursday, January 8, 1998, around 7:30 p.m., a couple driving down North Greenwood Street in LaGrange, Georgia (population 25,597), a city near the Alabama state line approximately 64 miles (102 kilometers) southwest of Atlanta, when they suddenly saw "a strange intense beam of light" coming from the clouds "down to the ground."
LaGrange was the site of intermittent UFO sightings throughout 1997.
On Saturday, January 17, 1998, at 7:30 p.m., a 38-year-old women and her parents "were driving south on (Interstate Highway) I-75. About 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Macon (population 106,612), they saw a circle of blue-white lights hovering just off the interstate. The lights formed a continuous circle and one solid (mass), like a piece of 'Swiss cheese.' The craft was the size of a small jet airliner. The lights were hovering over some nearby trees." Other motorists also saw the lights "and slowed down" for a better look.
At 8:45 p.m., as the family "was driving on (Interstate) I-16, twenty miles (32 kilometers) southeast of Macon, she saw a strange beam of light go to the ground. Then they saw a very bright light shooting across the sky in a 'strand' of flashes. Only one light was involved, but it darted across the sky going from north to south."
On Sunday, January 18, 1998, an elderly lady of LaGrange, Georgia phoned John C. Thompson, state director of Georgia MUFON, and reported seeing "a real shiny dot moving extremely fast" and zipping across the sky about a half-mile north of North Greenwood Street, site of the January 8 incident.
"The perfectly round ball had sunlight reflecting off it and was moving from north to south," she reported. "But at a high rate of speed at least twice the speed of a commercial airliner (meaning the UFO's airspeed was between 900 and 1,000 miles per hour--J.T.) It made no noise and disappeared in clear open air as I watched."
At 6:06 p.m. on January 18, about three hours afterward, a man reported seeing two UFOs over Conyers, Georgia (population 7,380), approximately 27 miles (43 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta. He described the UFOs as "two black circular objects flying west to east with no lights. The second pulled up and slowly disappeared. The first UFO kept going straight and disappeared." (See Filer's Files #3 for 1998. Many thanks to George A. Filer, John C. Thompson and Todd Ganas for these reports.)
MYSTERIOUS LIGHT FLASHES SEEN BY MOTORIST NEAR CHESHIRE, CONNECTICUT
On Friday, January 16, 1998, at around 6 p.m., Robert D. was driving home from work on Interstate Highway I-691 west of Meriden, Connecticut (population 59,479), about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Hartford, the state capital.
"I saw a very strange, very bright blue light off to the southern horizon," Bob reported. "It was after an ice storm" and the area "was without power."
He estimated that the light was 11 miles to his south, in a wooded area just beyond the town of Cheshire (population 5,759), near Sleeping Giant State Park and the Broad Brook reservoir.
"It was an unbelievably bright blue light. Hundreds of times more bright than lightning. It was so bright it left shadows of the trees to my right. It lasted for two seconds, then a 15-second pause, then another two second flash," he said.
"I'm an electrical engineer with a fascination for lightning, and this was definitely not lightning," he added. "Nor was it a transformer exploding, etc. High voltage lines would not show this intensity. What's strange is that where they were located there are no towns or people, just woods." (Email Interview)
(Editor's Note: Similar mysterious blue flashes were seen in Los Alamos, New Mexico last October.)
from the UFO Files...
1988: ATTEMPTED ABDUCTION IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Ten years ago, on January 21, 1988, the Knowles family had a very harrowing experience while driving on the Eyre Highway across the desolate Nullarbor Plain in southern Australia.
The Nullarbor Plain is an arid, flat desert 330 miles wide overlapping the states of South Australia (S.A.) and Western Australia (W.A.) The rainfall is so sparse that no trees can grow there, only saltbush and bluebush.
On January 21, 1988, Faye Knowles and her three sons, Sean, Wayne and Patrick were driving home to Perth, W.A. following a visit with relatives in Melbourne. Their car was a light blue four-door 1984 Ford Telstar.
"Before daylight, after the family had left the Madura roadhouse (near Mundrabilla--J.T.), as they were driving on the Eyre Highway, they noticed a bright white light ahead of them on their side of the highway. As they got nearer, they could see it was a large glowing object hovering just above the road. Sean, who was driving, had to swerve into the other lane to avoid colliding with the unknown object."
"Soon after the near collision, they passed another car that had a bright object following overhead. This time Sean's curiosity got the best of him and he made a U-turn and sped back toward the west to see what the light was."
"After following for a few minutes, the light changed course and started back toward the Knowles car. Sean again turned around and drove east."
"The object quickly overtook the car, which at this point was doing over 100 miles per hour in an attempt to elude the strange light. Suddenly, the object landed on top" of the car's roof "with a loud thud."
"'We were going silly, something was going into our heads,' explained Faye Knowles. 'It felt like we were dying, and our voices were distorted, as if we were talking in slow motion.'"
"Two dogs in the car became very agitated, and one of the sons, Patrick, said he felt as though his brains were pulled from his head."
Wayne yelled, "Get off the road!"
"I can't!" Sean replied, realizing to his horror that the Ford's steering wheel was locked or frozen by some irresistible force.
Just then, they saw the highway's centerline falling away from the Ford's headlight glow.
"Faye rolled down her window and looked out at the object, which she described as a bright white light with a yellow center 'like an egg in a cup.' Faye then reached overhead and touched the bottom of the object. 'It felt like a warm sponge.'"
Suddenly, the UFO released the Knowles' car. The Ford plummeted ten feet and hit the asphalt on its right rear quarter. The tire exploded on impact.
Instantly the car went into a shrieking skid. The steering wheel loosened in Sean's hands, and he turned in the direction of the skid. The Ford fishtailed all over the road, with Sean applying the brakes, and then screeched to a halt.
"The family jumped out and hid in the bushes along the side of the highway until the UFO was gone...The family changed the tyre and drove on to Mundrabilla where they discussed the experience with truck drivers."
The case was investigated by Paul Norman of the Victoria UFO Research Society. He found that the Ford's radio "was now operating perfectly even though it had been malfunctioning during the encounter. On the roof of the car they found an indentation matching the description given by the family. Of the tyre, it was in good condition and should not have blown but in fact was ripped all the way around its edge."
Laboratory analysis of the dust found on the car "revealed oxygen, carbon, calcium, silicon, potassium and a possible trace of astatine, which is a radioactive chemical that can only be produced synthetically." (See UFO Universe, Winter 1998 issue, "In Australia, Strange Things Are Happening" by Tim Swartz, page 33. Also, WORLD ATLAS OF UFOs by John Spencer, Smithmark Publishers Inc., New York, NY 1992, page 174.)
FUN UFO WEBSITES
For a look at strange events in Newfoundland, check out St. John's Haunted Hikes at this URL-- http://www.avint.net/hardticket
Don't miss our parent site, UFOINFO, with its marvelous array of features, photos and news. Check it out at http://ufoinfo.com
Back issues of UFO ROUNDUP are always available for downloading at our website. You'll find us at http://ufoinfo.com/roundup/
Talk about coincidence. Our lead story involves the biggest city in Scotland, and today, January 25, is the anniversary of the birth of poet Robert Burns in 1759.
Not only that, but there were two sightings in LaGrange, Georgia recently. Guess what? On January 25, 1736, mathemetician/astronomer Joseph-Louis LaGrange was born in France. LaGrange is the man who discovered the existence of points in outer space where the gravitational fields of the planets cancel each other out. Objects in these "Lagrangian" or "L-points" tend to float round out there, free of the Earth's gravity. Amazingly, LaGrange figured this all out mathematically, using a blackboard and a piece of chalk instead of a computer. Pretty impressive, huh?
Less impressive, of course, is our UFO ROUNDUP which will be back next weekend with the latest, up-to-date saucer reports. Here's wishing all our readers an enjoyable week from "the paper that goes home--UFO ROUNDUP."
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1998 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO ROUNDUP on their websites or in news groups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of the issue in which the item first appeared.
