UFO ROUNDUP Volume 4 Number 09
Volume 4
Number 9
March 1, 1999
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
NEW SATELLITE UFO PHOTO SURFACES IN ITALY A weather satellite photograph showing a very large discoidal UFO similar to the ones photographed by the GOES-8 satellite is being evaluated by ufologists in Italy. "We have an identical case here in Italy," said Adriano Forgione, a journalist with the magazine Notizario UFO. According to Forgione, "on September 3, 1993, at 6:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m. UTC), Vittorio Orlando, an amateur radio enthusiast with a hobby of meteorology, received from the METEOSAT-3 (weather satellite) an image...High above the left hand side, where the sky and the curvature of the Earth are joined, there is an unidentified flying object, with a lens shape, sitting in a geostationary orbit, with its main axis parallel to the ground." The METEOSAT-3 image shows a dark, featureless disc that is somewhat bulkier and with a smaller base circumference than the disc in the 1996 GOES-8 image. In the METEOSAT-3 image, the UFO appears to be positioned 22,000 miles (35,000 kilometers) above Canada's province of Alberta. The object also appears to be moving at the same speed as the METEOSAT-3, travelling from west to east at a speed of 6,696 miles per hour (10,713 kilometers per hour). (Grazie a Adriano Forgione per questo rapporto.) (Editor's Comment: The GOES and METEOSAT images raise some interesting questions. Are these discs simply very large star-hopping spacecraft that are merely "passing through" our solar system? Or are they large alien spacecraft in a permanent orbit around Earth?) ITALIAN UFO FLAP HITS A PEAK LAST WEEK UFO sightings in Italy hit a peak last week, with hundreds of sightings reported on Tuesday, February 23, 1999. On Sunday, February 14, 1999, a man spotted a UFO over Monte Serra mountain, near Pisa, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) north of Rome. He described the object as round, "its lights were blinking red and yellow. It was not moving. It was definitely not an airplane or a helicopter." On Friday, February 19, 1999, B.M., a teenaged girl living in Milano (Milan) "saw a light in the sky flashing many colours. It was moving right and then left, then up and down. I have never before seen anything quite like it." (Grazie a Fabrizio Monaco di CISETI per questi rapporti.) On Tuesday, February 23, 1999, just after 7 p.m., a rash of UFO sightings occurred all over northern and central Italy. The Aviazione Militare Italiana (Italian Air Force--J.T.) put two air bases, AMI Istrana and AMI Tessera, in Veneto province "on alert," according to Maurizio Baiata, editor of Notizario UFO. UFOs were sighted in Rome, Venezia (Venice), Genoa, Bologna, Torino (Turin), Cuneo, Ravenna, Novara, Pescara, Gualdo Tadino, Lucca, San Giovanni Valdarno, Civitanova, Porto San Elpidio and Castiglione. According to Baiata, "Witnesses saw two very bright lights in the sky, at varying altitudes and differing in size, either stationary or slowly passing by, at time touching together or intermittently linking up. While others described them as geometric formations totally different from a planetary phenomenon and mostly hovering at high altitude." In Novara, a city in Piemonte province located 125 kilometers (75 miles) northeast of Torino, "two bright lights headed toward Invorio, stopped for about 30 seconds, and right after that flew toward the horizon and Gozzano." In San Giovanni Valdarno, a local man, Filippo Bilazzi "in the presence of his relatives, video-filmed two stationary lights which intermittently appeared and disappeared." At 7:20 p.m., in Ravenna, a city in eastern Italy located 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of Venezia (Venice), Steffano Matteucci "observed with his binoculars a three-light formation" which appeared to be connected to the underside of "a darker, square-shaped object." In Lucca, a city 250 kilometers (150 miles) north of Rome, witnesses saw "a flying object with the form of a cigar that left a luminous trail like a comet." In Torino (Turin), newspaper offices and the Carabineri (Italian police--J.T.) received hundreds of telephone calls from alarmed residents. But "officials said Venus and Jupiter, with Saturn, nearby, launched the psychosis of the 'three UFOs.'" (See the Italian newspaper La Provincia de Cremona for february 24, 1999. Grazie a Maurizio Baiata, Alfredo Lissoni, Alessandro Chiandla, Nicolas Godelle, Matteo Scalabrini, Gigi Barone e Barbara Agosta per questi rapporti.) TWO-DAY UFO FLAP STIRS PERM IN RUSSIA On Tuesday, February 23, 1999, local TV station KIFEY in Perm, a large city in western Siberia located 550 kilometers (330 miles) northeast of Moscow, shocked viewers by broadcasting an amateur video showing a UFO hovering over the city. According to Russian ufologist Nikolai V. Subbotin, "The object slowly flew above the city for two hours. It looked like two lights flying at some distance from each other." The following day, Wednesday, February 24, 1999, Subbotin himself received a phone call from a friend in Perm, who "said they had all observed the same object." Grabbing his videocamera, Subbotin went to the spot and shot footage "for ten minutes. The lights danced and then zipped straight up. Sometimes they began to dim and then to light up brilliantly at an interval of approximately thirty seconds." (Many thanks to Nikolai V. Subbotin and Bill Hamilton of Skywatch International for this report.) GLOWING UFOs SIGHTED NEAR LEEDS AND LONDON On Monday night, February 22, 1999, witnesses sighted luminous UFOs or "mysterious lights" to the south and west of Leeds, a large city 160 miles (256 kilometers) north of London. According to the Yorkshire Evening Post, "Costas Lambropoulos, a computer consultant of Cromwell Rise, Kippax, could see them on the horizon as he drove up the (motorway) A-1, near Wetherby at about 8 p.m." "He had first seen them 90 minutes earlier and estimated that they were over the southwest of Leeds. 'They looked like stars,' he said, 'They were very bright early on but later dimmed a little.'" "Mrs. Val Walker, of Leysholme Terrace, Upper Wortley, Leeds, said she and several neighbours noticed them for some time." "'We get the police helicopter over here a bit,' she said, 'But there was no light shining down from this object, and there was no sound. They looked like huge stars.'" "Her neighbour, Paul Carey, also of Leysholme Terrace, said, 'They would have been noticed by hundreds of Leeds residents...They were west of Leeds and suspended unevenly one above the other. They were very bright and lower in the sky than aircraft. They seemed to move along very slowly...'" "Arthur Jenkinson, 59, retired, of Winrose Avenue, Middleton, South Leeds, watched the lights through binoculars and concluded they were over Pudsey." "'I saw something like this about 1964, and I was told then that it was two planets that were nearly in conjunction,' he said." (See the Yorkshire Evening Post for February 23, 1999, "Lights in the sky speed UFO calls" by Howard Williamson. Many thanks to Gerry Lovell of Far Shores for the newspaper article.) On Sunday, February 21, 1999, at 7 p.m., Niall S. was at his home in Muswell Hill, North London, where he was "watching two bright lights hovering in the sky to the northwest of London. They were too bright for stars but simply hung there, one higher and slotted to the left. Then, after fifteen minutes, one simply vanished. My mother came to watch, and a bright light came from its right side. The same happened five minutes later to the lower one," as it, too, disappeared. Niall reported that "they had the appearance of stars but much brighter. They were comparable to police lights but clearly at a greater distance. The higher one was about 45 degrees above the horizon, and the lower one about 38 degrees. Condition of sky--some light clouds. Its size was the size of the nail on my small finger." (Email Interview) UFOs SEEN IN QUEENSLAND AND SOUTH AUSTRALIA On Tuesday, February 16, 1999, Channel 9 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia broadcasted a 20-second segment of an amateur home video of a UFO. The encounter took place in Galen, Qlnd., about 900 kilometers (540 miles) northwest of Brisbane. According to ufologist Mike Farrell, "The video was shot in the late afternoon. The couple walked outside their home to see some friends off and watched a bright light hovering low in the sky. The lady ran back in and got the videocam and took just a couple of minutes of video before the object disappeared below the tree-line and disappeared from view." In South Australia, two men encountered a UFO on Roxby Downs, near Port Augusta, a city located 300 kilometers (180 miles) north of Adelaide, the state capital. On Friday, February 5, 1999, at about 10:25 p.m., Jeff Cook and Mick Cartwright of nearby Minlayton, S.A. "were riding south from Roxby Downs to Port Augusta" when Cook became "suddenly aware of what appeared to be the scene of an incident (automobile mishap--J.T.) about 1.5 miles ahead of us. There were many red lights and at least one bright blue flashing light. Within seconds, I realized that the lights were not stationary.but were moving along the road at a speed similar to us, an appeared to be weaving a few feet to either side." Cook pointed out the lights to Cartwright, who was driving, and, checking the speedometer, calculated that they--and the mystery object-- were traveling at a speed of 110 kilometers (66 miles) per hour. "After a few minutes, the lights of another car appeared to come from a left hand curving rise, heading north," Cook reported, "As it approached the spot where they should have been blocked by the other vehicle (UFO) we were following, they were not blocked in any way." "Also, a few seconds after their approach," the UFO itself "disappeared, and I assumed the vehicle had gone into a dip in the road and would reappear. But it did not reappear, and as our vehicle continued, there was no drop in the road, nor break in the trees on either side of the road. There was no dust stirred up from the side of the road to suggest it (UFO) had left the bitumen surface." (See the Australian newspaper Country Times for February 20, 1999. Many thanks to Diane Harrison of Australian UFO Research Network Hotline for forwarding the newspaper article.) UFO SURPRISES WITNESS IN MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO On Thursday, February 25, 1999, at 10:40 p.m., witness Aaron Warner was in Mississauga, Ontario (population 465,000), a large city 10 miles (16 kilometers) southwest of Toronto, when he spotted a UFO. "The UFO was a very intense bright white light that was 50 meters (165 feet) across, 50 meters high. It had a bluish gleam around it. It made a very high-pitched sound as it crossed the sky and disappeared after about a minute or so." (Email Interview) (Editor's Note: To Forteans, this city is best known as the site of the "Mississauga Blob" case. On June 16, 1979, a molten green flaming blob fell from the sky and landed on a picnic table in the witnesses' rear garden.) UFOs APPEAR FREQUENTLY IN SOUTHERN COLORADO On Thursday, February 4, 1999, two witnesses driving south on Colorado Highway 17 just west of Crestone, Colo. (population 400) "observed a 'brilliant orb of white light' hovering around 200 feet off the ground and to the east of them. At one point during the 35-to-40 second sighting, one witness, a retired U.S. Air Force officer, said the object shot a beam of light at the ground, 'like it was looking for a place to land.'" The next morning, Friday, February 5, 1999, the ex-USAF officer was outdoors at 7:45 a.m. and "observed a dark grey van with smoked windows and (light blue U.S.) government license plates" in Crestone. "He observed that the van had no other markings, which seemed odd." Christopher O'Brien, author of The Mysterious Valley and the newly-published Enter the Valley encountered the mysterious grey van later the same day at the Baca Grande housing development. O'Brien stated that he "attempted to get an interview" with the van's occupants. They reportedly "claimed they were with the National Weather Service and declined to divulge why they were in the area. I counted eight people in this particular van. They were dressed in dress shirts and slacks and looked like scientists." On Saturday, February 13, 1999, at 3:05 p.m., two witnesses north of Center, Colo. (population 1,963), located 235 miles (376 kilometers) southwest of Denver, spotted "an erratically-moving silver reflection that was visible three times--each time for several seconds. Object seemed to be below 2,000 feet in altitude and made many twisting turns. One witness described it as 'a fishing lure in the sky.' The second witness, who was able to focus a pair of binoculars on the object, described it as 'kind of rectangular-looking but with no wings.'" (Many thanks to Chris O'Brien for the above news stories. And don't miss Chris's great new book, Enter the Valley, from St. Martin's Paperbacks. If your local bookstore doesn't have it, send an email to Bufo Calvin at BufoCalvin@aol.com or log in at amazon.com. If you'd like to order the book through your local bookstore, ask your bookseller to contact St. Martin's Press and place the order. For ordering purposes, the ISBN number for Enter the Valley is 0-312-96835-3.) SPACECRAFT PERFORM NEW FLIGHT MANEUVERS While Earthbound onlookers were enjoying the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter last week, two NASA spacecraft were performing new flight maneuvers in deep space. Galileo, now on its way to Callisto, sent back data and images from its recent flyby of Europa. "Data from six observations were beamed to Earth this week," including important magnetic and electrical field assessments of Europa. Camera images from Galileo included views of the icy rolling plains near Europa's north pole, photos of an intiguing feature called Rhadamanthys Linea, a fracture zone caused by cryovolcanic activity, and three observations of Europa's Pwyll crater, described as "a region of mottled terrain and a region with a spectacular mirror-like appearance." With the data safely dispatched to Earth, for Galileo, it's now...on to Callisto! On Friday, February 19, 1999, at 2:20 p.m. Pacific time, the Mars Global Surveyor fired its main engine. The purpose of the "burn" was "to fine-tune its path around the red planet into a nearly circular, sun-synchronous orbit. The final 'transfer to mapping orbit' has lowered Mars Global Surveyor's closest approach over Mars from 405 kilometers (253 miles) to 367 kilometers (229 miles)." "We are all delighted to finally be able to do this mission as it was designed, in the proper mapping orbit with all of the instruments working at their full potential," said Dr. Arden Albee, MGS project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. (Many thanks to Guillermo Alarcon for forwarding the NASA news releases.) SECRETS OF THE BLACK PYRAMIDS Spain's Canary Islands are back in the news. Six step pyramids, made of black volcanic stones, were discovered late last year near Guimar, a town on the eastern shore of Tenerife Island, about 40 kilometers (24 miles) south of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. According to the London Times, "Spain's Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa hardly seem a place for pyramids, but there seem to be six of them on Tenerife." "The inhabitants have generally ignored these dilapidated piles of black volcanic stones. However, one perceptive native described them to Thor Heyerdahl of Kon Tiki fame and a leading proponent of cultural diffusion across all oceans." "Quick to respond, Heyerdahl perceived amid the debris six stepped pyramids of black stone. He persuaded a Norwegian businessman to buy the site, clean up the debris of centuries and found a museum." "One of the 'black' pyramids has now been restored, but some experts are still unconvinced. However, recent excavations under one pyramid have yielded artifacts identified with" the Guanches, "the pre-Spanish inhabitants of Tenerife." "Meanwhile, Heyerdahl has been checking out a rumored pyramid on Sicily." (See Science Frontiers #122, March-April 1999 issue by William S. Corliss, page 1 See also the Times of London for December 19, 1998, "Riddle of the Black Pyramids" by Robin Mead.) from the UFO Files... 1998: YELLVILLE, ARKANSAS, A TOWN OF MYSTERY On October 14, 1998, "law enforcement officials" in Yellville, Arkansas (population 1,181) "received several reports of low-flying helicopters." "Two were reportedly flying over" the area "sometime past 9 p.m. Wednesday. A law enforcement official in Baxter County saw two helicopters flying below 500 feet. The officer said both aircraft were painted dark green in the military style." "A dispatcher for the Arkansas State Police in Harrison said the state police had been trying to determine where the aircraft were from and what they were doing but as of 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, had not been successful." (See the Baxter Bulletin of Mountain Home, Ark. for October 15, 1998, "'Mystery choppers' fly low over area," page 1.) The mystery helicopter flights came just days after a UFO flap in the area. But this was by no means the first "weird event" to have taken place in little Yellville. "On the morning of Tuesday, March 19, 1996, a large flatbed commercial carrier was photographed as it passed through Yellville, Arkansas. The truck was traveling on (Arkansas Highway) AR 62. The cargo was three UN equipment items. At the forward station was a small trailer mounted generator set. Center was a Humvee rigged as an ambulance without any Red Cross markings. Aft was a Humvee with no right door visible in the photo. All equipment is painted white with black UN insignia." (See Black Helicopters II - The Endgame Stategy by Jim Keith, IllumiNet Press, Lilburn, Georgia, 1997, page 144.) One wonders what in Yellville could have drawn the attention of the United Nations. There are limestone caves in the area, possibly linked to the Mystic Cave system. Yet an intriguing incident took place during the Nineteenth Century at Devil's Hole Cave, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Yellville. "Deciding to find out what was causing all the commotion down in the cave. E.J. Rhodes, owner of the land containing its (the cave's) mouth, descended by rope to a ledge 200 feet below ground. The shaft was too tight to penetrate farther." "Later, several men probed the cave with a long rope. They tired a flatiron on it and let it down into the hole. At 200 feet, the iron struck something--evidently the ledge discovered earlier by Rhodes. A vicious hissing rose out of the hole, as if from some large, angry animal." "The men pulled up the rope and found that the handle of the iron had been bent, and was even thought by some to show teeth marks. A large stone was then lowered with the rope. Again the angry sibilance, and when the rope was drawn up, the stone was gone, and the rope was neatly bitten off." "Local people call the Devil's Hole Cave entity the Gowrow and believe it to be a gigantic, man-eating lizard. Stories of it have circulated since the turn of the century," i,e, 1900. (See Weird America by Jim Brandon, E.P. Dutton Books, New York, N.Y. 1978, page 15) Whether the Gowrow still prowls the limestone caverns under Yellville is anybody's guess. Still, within the past three years, two clandestine military groups have shown up in Yellville, looking for...what? FUN UFO WEBSITES Interested in those new images of Europa? Check them out at this website. Log in at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo The Jeff Davis Show will be featuring some UFO chat in the near future. With RealAudio, you can listen to Jeff's show. Tune in at http://members.aol.com/TFIJDSHOW/ Don't miss our parent site, UFOINFO, with its latest addition to the photo gallery-- the METEOSAT-3 image (above). Drop in any time and sample UFOINFO's wide array of photos, features, news stories and links. It's at http://ufoinfo.com Back issues of UFO Roundup can be accessed, read and downloaded at our webpage. Feel free to browse any time at http://ufoinfo.com/roundup/ That's it for this week. Just us in seven days for more saucer news from all around the planet, brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you then! UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1999 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.
