UFO ROUNDUP Volume 3 Number 24
Volume 3
Number 24
June 14, 1998
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
UFO SEEN BY HUNDREDS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
A spherical blue UFO was seen by hundreds of Britons Friday night, June 12, 1998, as it flew over the UK from Cornwall to Staffordshire.
According to the Daily Mirror, "Fire in the sky triggered a big UFO scare early yesterday. Hundreds of sky watchers bombarded (authorities) with calls about a flaming blue ball hurtling towards Earth. Pilots alerted control towers about the fiery object. Eight police forces launched probes. Experts said last night that a shower of meteors caused the drama." (See the Daily Mirror of London for June 13, 1998, "UFO alert as fireball flashes across sky.")
The mass sighting followed nights of intense UFO activity in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk.
On Tuesday, June 1, 1998, "a Cambridge resident was...at a bonfire at about 11:30 p.m. when he noticed some lights in the sky. There was a white light with a red light separated by some distance. The witness reports that they seemed to be moving together and at a high altitude and speed, and that after 15 seconds, the white light rapidly faded."
"His judgement is that what he witnessed was a single object, and that it was also large (because of the separation of the lights) and too high to be a helicopter."
According to researcher Dave Piggott, "a check of possible objects responsible shows that both the shuttle (Discovery) and Mir would both have been passing overhead between 11:05 and 11:20 p.m. They would not, however, have looked like a single object since they had different trajectories."
The sighting was confirmed by Dave Roberts, who lives in Brandon, 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast of Cambridge. Roberts reported, "At around 11:30 last Tuesday night (June 1), I was sitting out in the back of my house, having a night cap with some friends, when I pointed out a point of light coming from the direction of Cambridge. It was moving too fast to be an aircraft, too bright to be a satellite. One of my friends is an old colleague from my days in the RAF, and we started talking about when we were over on exercises in Germany, how we used to watch satellites go over at night...My wife went indoors to get the binoculars. I managed to get (focus) them on the source but could not make out any discerning features."
""At the rate it was traveling, and assuming it would keep its present course, it should have passed over North Walsham (in Norfolk) around 4 to 5 minutes later and south of Mundesley on the north Norfolk coast 20 to 30 seconds after that."
The object "traveled in a straight line through approximately 50 degrees arc of light," he added, and "after a few moments swapping tales, we all reached the same conclusion--it must be Mir...its speed remained constant throughout, and there was no sound."
North Walsham and Mundesley are about 110 miles (176 kilometers) northeast of London. (Many thanks to Dave Piggott, Dave Roberts and Errol Bruce-Knapp for the Cambridge reports.)
CROP CIRCLE APPEARS IN AN OLIVE GROVE IN CROATIA
On Tuesday, June 8, 1998, a crop circle appeared on Hvar Otok, a large island in the Adriatic Sea just off the shore of Croatia. The formation was found beside an olive grove on a farm in Poljica, near Jelsa.
The "ellipse" was found in a hillside field of grass by Marko Huljic, owner of the olive grove. "Based on the opinion of the discoverer Marko Huljic, that kind of trail couldn't have been made by a car, or an agricultural machine."
"On the relatively straight meadow with the overgrown grass, two continuous ellipses in the range of 40 centimeters (20 inches) are there. The ground with the bent grass is one meter (3.3 feet) in diameter. The length of the external ellipse is 4.8 meters, and the width is 3.6 meters."
"The trail of this unexplained phenomenon has been confirmed also by Ivo Zupanovic, Vladimir Huljic, Nikola Zenchic and others." Meanwhile, "fantastic stories" about the crop circle "are circulating around Poljica."
Hvar island is 256 kilometers (160 miles) south of Zagreb. It's also 112 kilometers (70 miles) southeast of Sibenik, Croatia, the site of a reported UFO landing back in January 1998. (See the Croatian newspaper Free Dalmatia for June 9, 1998, "UFO at olive field near Jelsa?" Many thanks to Mirko Crnchevic for forwarding the newspaper article.)
ANOTHER UFO SIGHTING IN GMUNDEN, AUSTRIA
A second UFO has been reported in Gmunden, a small city on the Traunsee (lake) in Austria. The witness this time was Christian K.'s 15-year-old brother, Thomas.
On Saturday, June 6, 1998, Thomas and another youth were outdoors at the base of the Grinberg, a mountain on the outskirts of Gmunden. "The whole thing was gleaming," Thomas reported, "It could have been a light spot but the rest of the object was just a glow."
The sighting took place "at about 11 p.m. The object was headed southwards. Then it departed to the east. It was about as big as a small-range plane --like a Boeing 767 or smaller--flying about 6,000 feet high."
The UFO took off "straight up" and the boys "followed it until it reached an estimated altitude of 100,000 feet, when we lost sight of it." (Email Interview)
ORANGE SPHERICAL UFO FLIES OVER BERMUDA
On Monday, May 31, 1998, at 10:15 p.m., Jay and Vangie A. were sitting in their backyard at Somerset Bridge, Bermuda, when "skywatching, we watched, straight up, between the last two stars of the Big Dipper's handle, a small, dull, orangeish-coloured light similar to a satellite. It was traveling due south at a speed slightly faster than a satellite or an airplane. Then, suddenly, it flashed like a huge strobe light and became the size of a dime held at arm's length."
"It was an extremely bright flash, much brighter than any of the stars, though it faded out. The UFO continued to flash intermittently four or five times before it disappeared over the southern horizon. The strobe effect did not seem to have a regular rhythym to it. This sighting--our first!--lasted about four to five seconds in total. It was no airplane because about five minutes later an aircraft passed over Bermuda going west, with its typical flashing red and white lights." (Email Interview)
(Editor's Note: Five seconds to the horizon works out to an estimated speed of 2,880 miles per hour.)
ANOTHER UFO SPOTTED IN CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE
On Sunday, June 7, 1998, at 9:55 p.m., Patricia B. and her 8-year-old stepson "saw a strange object coming out of the southern sky (from Georgia--J.T.) traveling east at a rapid rate of speed."
From their hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee (population 152,466), they observed that "the object headed for the handle of the Big Dipper and it appeared to brighten significantly and then dim out and disappear."
"I waited and approximately three to five minutes later, two or more objects appeared," Patricia reported. "Again from the south traveling at great speed, and appeared to slow down, then speed up several times before reaching the same destination as the first object--handle of the Big Dipper. They both slowed down, glowed very intensively for a few seconds and then faded out and disappeared. I watched for another hour to see if more objects appeared but no success."
Chattanooga is in southern Tennessee on Interstate Highways I-24 and I-75 approximately 128 miles (205 kilometers) south of Nashville, the state capital.
(Editor's Comment: Interesting, no? Two cases of brightening UFOs headed for the handle of the Big Dipper, also known as Ursa Major. The two stars at the end of the "handle" are Alkaid (magnitude 1.86) located 110 light-years from Earth, and Mizar (magnitude 2.09), which is 88 light-years from Earth. Could there be a cloaked mothership parked in geosynchronous orbit up there?)
UFOs, BLACK HELICOPTER HAUNT SKY OVER MONTREAL
Since May 12, 1998, the Association Quebecois de'Ufologie (Quebec Ufology Association) has received "many reports of UFO sightings along the St. Lawrence River," according to Gilles Millot and Patrick Tremblay of the AQU.
UFO sightings were reported from Three Rivers, Que. (population 48,419), located 150 kilometers (90 miles) east of Montreal, to the city of Chateauguay (population 41,423), located 10 kilometers (6 miles) southwest of Montreal.
According to Milot, "In one case, in the city of Berthierville (population 4,300), 60 kilometers (36 miles) east of Montreal, the witness took one picture of a triangular formation of lights." (Merci beaucoup a Gilles Milot de AQU pour ces nouvelles.)
On Tuesday, June 9, 1998, at 9:45 p.m., just south of Montreal, Marie G. "saw two bright discs or broad spheres--about four times the size of a star--flying between 10,000 and 50,000 feet (3,030 to 15,152 meters) and at least twice as fast as a satellite."
The luminous discs flew from east to west. "One was longer than the other. They took about five minutes or less" to cross the sky. "The glow was always the same, which precludes the reflection argument. The first disc was caught by the second, which proceeded steadily until out of sight." Merci beacoup a Mike Broussard pour ces nouvelles.)
On Saturday night, May 30, 1998, Kayla and other witnesses spotted "a sleek black helicopter" hovering over Lac St. Louis, west of Montreal, "It was about 20 feet above the water. It was also an unmarked helicopter."
According to Kayla, "For the last three weeks, there have been many black helicopters seen in and around the west end of the island" in the St. Lawrence River where Montreal is located. "The night helicopters are usually seen between 1 and 4 in the morning," flying around the Montreal suburbs of Hampstead, St. Laurent and Lachine. (Email Interview)
V-SHAPED UFO SEEN IN CENTRAL ONTARIO
On Friday, May 29, 1998, Sally Svenningson spotted a large, low-flying V-shaped UFO over her home on River Road in Bancroft, Ontario, Canada.
"I was sitting in my living room at 10:30 p.m. and saw bright lights flashing across the sky," Sally reported. "I ran outside, and a V-shaped object with bright lights flew by our house and up the lake. My car lights and the outside spotlight went on and stayed on. I have had sightings before but never at such a low altitude or with the lights being turned on."
Bancroft (population 2,383) is at the intersection of Provincial Highways 62 and 28 about 130 miles (238 kilometers) west of Ottawa. (See Filer's Files #23 for 1998. Many thanks to George A. Filer, Eastern director of MUFON, for this news story.)
UFO SEEN NEAR NEWCASTLE, NEW SOUTH WALES
On Thursday, May 28, 1998, at 7:30 p.m., Hugo Starri, 55, an accountant, was at his home at Buff Point, New South Wales, near Newcastle, when he spotted three UFOs.
"Mr. Starri used binoculars for a major part of the observation, and he was able to give a very accurate description of what he saw. The object was described as three deep orange-coloured balls of light approximately the size and luminescence of 'the Morning Star'"
"One of the objects took approximately 10 minutes to traverse the visible arc of the sky, and it seems as if the other balls were 'playing with it.' They seemed to approach at a very fast pace. One of them traversed one-quarter of the visible sky in approximately 1.5 seconds. The two balls of light traveled in several different directions in variance to the direction traveled by the more steady light. The general direction of travel was from north to south."
Starri estimated that the UFOs were "six or more times as large as a passenger airliner." He added that he "has never seen anything of this type before and is not particularly interested in phenomena of this type."
Newcastle, N.S.W. is on Australia's Central Coast 170 kilometers (102 miles) north of Sydney. (Many thanks to Barry Davidson and John Thompson of ISUR for this report.)
UFO SIGHTED IN DESERT NEAR INDIO, CALIFORNIA
On Sunday, June 7, 1998, at 8:58 p.m., Jack L. Curtis was driving east on Interstate Highway I-10, heading home to Arizona, when he spotted something strange in the sky just outside Indio, California (population 36,793).
"I noticed a bright blue-green meteorite traveling eastward," Jack reported. "It was extremely brilliant, traveling rapidly but slower than a real meteorite. As it approached the eastern horizon, it appeared to burn out as it turned orange, then yellow, then disappeared from sight. The night was clear with dust limiting visibility slightly, and the moon was really full and bright."
"The object was in a straight line. I was driving directly east, and it was slightly to the left and dead ahead, so would have been about 080 (degrees) from from first view to disappearance. First view was also 45 degrees of (up from) the horizon...As I was traveling at freeway speed, it was impossible to hear anything but the engine...I estimate that it was about six to eight seconds from first view to disappearance."
Indio is at the intersection of I-10 and California Highway 86 approximately 115 miles (184 kilometers) east of Los Angeles. (Email Interview)
UFOs RETURN TO ELK CITY, OKLAHOMA
On the heels of last week's UFO sighting in Elk City, Oklahoma (population 10,428) comes a new report of an unidentified flying object.
Skywatch vice president Jim Hickman reported that he "was providing security for a Mediflight helicopter" due to arrive at the hospital in Elk City when he spied the UFO.
"I had a few minutes to skywatch, so I checked out the sky. At about 10:40 p.m. (on Tuesday, June 9) I observed a small but not very bright object that appeared to be very high. Its angle from the ground was about 70 degrees. It was moving west at a very fast speed. It then turned extremely bright, brighter than the landing light of the helicopter that had just arrived."
"The object was white, star size, much brighter than the full moon that was in the southeastern sky. It appeared to be several orders of magnitude brighter than any other stars visible. It then moved 120 degrees to the southwest...It was a very sharp course change."
"It continued with the bright light thing during the turn, then two to three seconds after the turn, it 'turned off' the light. You could still see the lights burning on the object. It then faded to black with nothing else seen afterward."
"Last week I wanted to have seen my wife's sighting," he added, "Well, last night I saw it, and I'll never wish for a thing like that again." (Many thanks to Jim Hickman for sending us his report.)
NEW SIGHTING IN THE PITTSBURGH SUBURBS
On Wednesday, June 10, 1998, at 10:20 p.m., a witness "first observed a bright red light with a yellow color around the outside edge, moving from the northwest to the southeast" over Bethel Park, Pennsylvania (population33,823), a city six miles (10 kilometers) south of Pittsburgh.
"A few minutes later, it (the UFO) was followed by an identical light that went in the same direction. Then, seconds later, a third similar light followed the same path, then disappeared in seconds just like the other two."
"About five minutes later, a fourth similar light went from west to east, then disappeared in seconds."
"And then was followed by a fifth light, which also went from west to east and disappeared also in seconds. The strange thing about this observation, to the witness, was that all five lights seemed to disappear in the same direction of the sky." (Many thanks to Stan Gordon for this report. Stan's UFO Hotline can be reached at (724) 838-7768.)
ROUNDUP CORRIGENDA:
Barry Taylor, founder of Australian UFO Researchers Network, writes, "I am trying to fix up the information that was posted on UFO Roundup" last week (Vol.3, #23) "re the sighting reports supplied to you by Robert Frola." Barry invites all Roundup readers to read the original New South Wales sighting report at this website--go to http://ufoinfo.com/news/aus1998_3.html UFO Roundup apologizes for any embarassment that may have been caused by the headline.
Also in last week's issue, Patricia B. of Chattanooga, Tenn. and her 8-year-old stepson were the eyewitnesses to the sighting. UFO Roundup apologizes for the misidentification.
from the UFO Files...
1790: A UFO LANDS DURING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
A very strange UFO incident took place in Alencon, a city in France's department of Sarthe, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Paris on June 12, 1790, at about 5 a.m.
When word reached the Committee of Public Safety, they sent an agent of their secret police named Liabeuf to investigate.
"The witnesses, a group of French peasants, told him that an enmormous globe had appeared that morning, moving with a rocking motion, and that it crashed into the top of a hill, uprooting the vegetation. Heat from the object started grass fires, and the peasants rushed to put them out before they spread. The huge globe was warm to the touch."
"'The eyewitnesses of this event were two mayors, a physician, and three other local authorities who confirm my report,' Liabeuf writes, 'Not to mention the dozens of peasants who were present.'"
"As the crowd gathered around the mysterious object, 'a sort of door opened, and there came out a person, just like us, but dressed in a strange manner, in clothes adhering completely to the body, and seeing the crowd of people, this person murmured something incomprehensible and ran into the wood.'"
"The peasants backed away from the object fearfully, and a few moments later, it exploded silently and nothing was left but a fine powder. A search for the mysterious man was launched, 'but he seemed to have dissolved in thin air,'" Liabeuf wrote. (See OPERATION TROJAN HORSE by John A. Keel, Manor Books, New York, NY, 1970, page 66.)
(Editor's Comment: The UFOnaut policy on forced landings seems to be similar to downed pilots in our era. Destroy the aircraft, avoid contact with the indigenous population and wait for rescue. However, I guess old Willermoz, the Illuminatus of Lyon, had to change his satin knee breeches after reading that report.)
Today is the birthday of Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, one of the fathers of modern physics. He was born at Angouleme in France on June 14, 1736 and spent many years in the Caribbean as a military engineer for the French Army. In the late 1780s, he discovered what we now call Coulomb's Law, that the force between two electrical charges is proportional to the product of the charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. The Coulombic force is one of the principal forces involved in nuclear reactions. He died in Paris on August 22, 1806.
If anything, this was the week of "UFOs that brighten intermittently as they cross the sky." What's next? Find out next Sunday from "the paper that goes home--UFO ROUNDUP." See you then.
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1998 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post items 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 issue in which the item first appeared.
