UFO ROUNDUP Volume 6 Number 13
Volume 6
Number 13
March 29, 2001
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
MIR SPLASHES DOWN IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC
The Russian space station Mir went out Friday," March 23, 2001, "in glory, blazing to a public, harmless death over the Pacific Ocean."
Mir (Russian for peace or world--J.T.) was the largest man-made object ever to re-enter Earth's atmosphere. The space station weighed a total of 140 tons.
""As it had while battling a series of near-disasters is space, Mir captured the world's attention with a re-entry that even Russian officials acknowledged had the potential to go very, very wrong. Instead, it went flawlessly."
'Guided by practiced hands at Mission Control outside Moscow, Mir broke from its orbit early Friday with a 30-minute burst of its engines that changed the station's trajectory and spelled its doom."
"The nearly 149-ton Mir crashed into Earth's atmosphere, breaking apart and burning up. Chunks that survived, some of them huge, gave onlookers in the South Pacific islands of Fiji a fireworks show they will likely never forget."
"'We saw five or six fragments with a huge smoke trail that lasted for 10 to 15 seconds, followed some time later by a couple of sonic booms,' said Reuters photographer Mark Baker. 'It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.'"
"The twenty tons of debris landed smack on target in a space junk cemetery of the Pacific, about 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers) southwest of Pitcairn Island."
"'It occurred in the exact area that the Russian space agency had predicted, between Australia and Chile,' said David Templeman, a civil defense official from Australia, one of several countries in Mir's potential flight path. 'I'm relieved.'"
"Russian officials hailed the operation as a triumphant end to Mir's 15-year mission. Not only did the Russians prove what they had been saying all along--that Mir hysteria was ridiculous--but they also burnished the image of a remarkable flying machine that had become the punch line of many jokes."
"'Mir proved that Russia cannot just build things but can operate them, too,' said Yuri Koptov, chief of the Russian Space Agency. 'Russia is and will remain a space power.'"
"'We want to show the world today that we could still do things well,' said Alexander Lazutkin, a former Mir cosmonaut who was one of more than 500 people who crammed into Mission Control to bid the station goodbye. 'For 15 years, Mir did a lot of important work, not only for us, but for the whole world.'"
"Vladimir Solovyov, the first commander on board Mir and now Mission Control chief said, 'Everybody wants me to cry but I won't.'"
"Russian television and newspapers gave Mir a fond and respectful send off. Cosmonauts served up anecdotes about life the so-called joys of life aboard a cramped and stuffy space vessel that was put together in pieces after its first module was launched in 1986."
"The station was supposed to last for 'no more than a few years.' But it survived for fifteen." (See the Chicago Tribune for March 24, 2001, "Mir's demise safe, stunning," page 3.)
TWO USAF FIGHTER JETS VANISH OVER SCOTLAND
Two U.S. Air Force F-15 C Eagle fighter jets vanished over the Scottish Highlands Monday, March 26, 2001.
Air controllers at the RAF Lakenheath air base discovered "that two F-15C fighters were overdue at their home base at Lakenheath in southern England," UK.
"The jets had been conducting low-level flight training over Scotland."
"Several hours later, the (U.S.) Air Force said there had been no word from the two F-15 pilots nor any confirmation of their fate. The lack of communication suggested a strong possibility that that they had crashed, officials said."
"The two single-seat F-15s left Lakenheath for a three-hour sortie over the Scottish Highlands. The jets were over the Cairngorm Mountains in the Scottish Highlands when they lost contact with ground controllers. at Lakenheath 75 miles (120 kilometers) northeast of London, Lakenheath spokeswoman Major Stacee Bako said."
"Air Force spokeswoman Captain Almarah Belk at the Pentagon said a search-and-rescue mission had been launched from RAF Kinloss in Scotland."
"A Royal Air Force spokeswoman said two RAF Nimrod reconnaissance planes and three Sea King helicopters were searching, helped by two RAF mountain rescue teams on the ground."
On Tuesday, March 27, 2001, according to the 2 p.m. report on USA Radio News, USAF and RAF search-and-rescue efforts in the Cairngorm Mountains "have been hampered by severe weather," including winds of up to 50 miles per hour (80 kilometers per hour) and heavy snowfall. Cold and fog in the area also "caused severe whiteout conditions, limiting visibility," the report stated.
As of this writing, the two missing aircraft have not been found. (See USA Today for March 27, 2001, "For U.S. military aviation, a dark day," page 10A.)
(Editor's Comment: Uh-oh! Let's keep an eye on this case. It sounds like another Sheffield case.)
(NOTE: This bulletin was obviously typed up before the discovery of the wreckage was found - J.H. UFOINFO)
CHUPACABRA KILLS CHICKENS IN MAYAGUEZ, PUERTO RICO
"Felix Rodriguez and Noris Lozada complained to police that in the early morning hours of Wednesday, March 21, 2001, they heard a noise coming from the chickens they keep in the backyard of their residence located in the Bonest sector of the barrio Miradero" in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico "and 26 dead birds were found in the dawn hours."
"Officer Wilson Montes of the Mayaguez police district responded to the scene where the dead chickens were found while Carlos Diaz and Ferdinand Avila of the Recinto Universitario de Mayaguwz (RUM) examined the animals carefully and even took one of them to perform a necropsy and establish a cause of death."
"Diaz told (the Puerto Rican newspaper) Primera Hora that it could be the handiwork of an ape weighing between 12 and 15 pounds, given that primate hair was found near the chicken corpses."
"Furthermore, the prints of a two-legged, hooved animal were found in the backyard, and one of the chickens displayed a bite mark from a rounded tooth in its breast."
"The residents' backyard is near the Mayaguez Zoological Gardens."
Diaz "explained that the scenario was not compatible with the attack of a wild dog but rather with the presence of a primate since the dead chickens were aligned next to each other, single file, and were not eaten."
"Several weeks ago, another resident of Mayaguez's barrio Miradero identified as Rodriguez Lozada complained to Officer Montes, who has become a 'Chupacabra researcher' as a result of years of investigating such cases, that she had seen one.
Last year, another resident of barrio Miradero complained that she had seen an ape looking into her window. It later turned out that apes had been jumping the fence at the Mayaguez zoo and stealing bananas and other fruit from the homes of neighbors.
(Editor's Note: A similar case occurred a few years ago near the Monkey Jungle just south of Miami, Florida.)
Montes's investigation is continuing. (See the newspaper Primera Hora of San Juan, P.R. for March 23, 2001, "Chupacabra exsanguinates chickens." Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales, autor de los libros Chupacabras and Other Mysteries and Forbidden Mexico para eso articulo de diario.)
DAZZLING UFO SEEN BY TWO IN CAGUAS, PUERTO RICO
On Monday, March 12, 2001, at 2 a/m., two men spotted a dazzling UFO near the intersection of Routes 1 and 172 in Caguas, Puerto Rico.
The two witnesses, men named Serrano and Leon, were sitting on a porch in the barrio Beatriz of Caguas, facing the intersection, "when they saw a bright light heading towards them from the mountains near Aguas Buenas and over Highway (Route) 1."
"The object's brightness increased as it approached. It flew at low altitude over a farm located some 15 meters (50 feet) from where the witnesses sat. The object was flying from north to south, and then vanished over Cerro Las Pinas (hill)."
"The witnesses did not notice any unusual smells related to the event, but reported that the sighting left an odd taste in their mouths, like 'holding a battery between one's lips.' They also heard an imperceptible buzzing sound , like that of bees, which accompanied the event."
Strangest of all, Serran and Leon saw that the object "appeared to have something like luminous mirrors clinging to the bottom section which seemed to rotate. They estimated that the size of the object was 10 meters (33 feet) in length."
The men complained that the UFO's brightness was "painful to look at" and therefore could not make out any definite shape. (Muchas gracias a Orlando Pla y Lucy Guzman, y tambien Scott Corrales, para esas informaciones.)
THREE UFOs RENDEZVOUS NEAR HONOLULU, HAWAII
On Sunday, March 18, 2001, at 7:43 p.m., Eben Lekson was at his parents' home in the Niu Valley near Honolulu, the state capital of Hawaii, when he spotted a strange bright light in the sky.
I was looking up towards the sky because it was such a clear night," Eben reported, "and I saw an object approaching from the west. So I swung around and saw another object approaching from the east. And then I saw yet another object approaching from the north."
"Immediately I told my parents, who came outside and saw the objects. I called my friend, whose parents are astronomers, and they were stumped because they had not heard of any meteor shower or the (International) Space Station passing over." Also it was not a plane because it had no lights flashing, and their altitude was at least just outside the atmosphere," about 100 miles or 160 kilometers overhead. (Email Form Report)
MYSTERY BOOM, UFO SPOOK WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
On Thursday, March 15, 2001, just after 9 p.m., residents of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, not far from Pittsburgh, were "jolted by a loud mysterious boom. Residents from Level Green, Pa. and Harrison, City, Pa. in Penn Township reported hearing and feeling what appeared to be an explosion."
"Emergency personnel responded to the area after Westmoreland County 911 began receiving reports from local residents. The event reportedly caused local people to run outside to see what had caused the event."
"No natural gas leaks were found by the local utility firm. The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh had located some lightning in the area between 8 and 9 p.m. but to my knowledge no active thunderstorms were occurring in the area at that time."
On Monday, March 19, 2001, at 7:50 p.m., a UFO was sighted in Homer City, Pa., southwest of Pittsburgh "A witness observed an odd light source in the sky towards the south and was described as 'a wide band of bright light,' This band of light began to move east. It then made a clockwise loop and it continued to rotate until it had returned to the point at which it had started the loop movement. At this point, the band immediately changed and became just a white dot, a steady white light which quickly turned to a red color. The red light then began a series of 10 to 12 zigzagging maneuvers as it moved towards the southeast. Suddenly the red light vanished." (Many thanks to Pennsylvania ufologist Stan Gordon for these reports.)
MAJOR EARTHQUAKE RATTLES HIROSHIMA, JAPAN
"A powerful earthquake jolted southwestern Japan on Saturday," March 24, 2001 "buckling roads, snapping power lines , damaging houses and killing two people with falling debris."
""Broken roof tiles and window shards littered streets in the city of Hiroshima, which has about one million people, and scores more in surrounding states (prefectures--J.T.)"
"The magnitude 6.4 (on the Richter scale) tremor caused damage in five Japanese states and was felt as far away as South Korea. Authorities reported 123 injuries, 12 of them serious, in the Japanese state of Hiroshima."
"Thousands of households were left without running water."
"Plates fell off shelves and waitresses screamed in panic,' said Koji Akimoto, who was sitting in a Hiroshima coffee shop when the mid-afternoon quake hit. 'I rushed outside because I was scared to be in a crowded area. It seemed like an eternity but it only lasted for a minute or two.'"
"An 90-year-old woman died in Kure, a city about 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Hiroshima, when she was buried under the rubble of a collapsed wall"
"In nearby Ehime state, a 60-year-old woman fleeing her home in the city of Matsuyama was killed by roof tiles that fell on her head."
The quake centered at about 38 miles )6- kilometers) below ground struck near Hiroshima, about 439 miles )688 kilometers) southwest of Tokyo," Japan's Meteorological Agency said.
"Water lines were cut in islands near the quake's epicenter, affecting 10,000 households. It was unclear when water would be restored, said local official Masaaki Fukuhara."
"In Hiroshima city, the quake set off a fire that burned down one home. Across the state, three houses were completely destroyed and several hundred were damaged."
"Train service" to Tokyo and Osaka "was stopped, and the airport in Hiroshima was closed for inspection. Telephone service was also disrupted."
"Aftershocks rattled southwestern Japan and officials worried that rains would trigger landslides after two" Saturday's earthquake.
"Residents spent a restless night as aftershocks continued following a magnitude-6.4 tremor hit Hiroshima and the surrounding area." )See the Duluth, Minn. News-Tribune for March 25, 2001, "Earthquake hits Japan; two killed," page 4A, and USA Today for March 26, 2001, "Aftershocks rumble through Japan," page 15A.)
(Editor's Comment: Amazingly, a seer predicted a strong earthquake in Japan just three weeks ago. Quentin Jessup of the Prophecy Club of Topeka, Kansas correctly predicted that an earthquake exceeding 6.0 on the Richter scale would hit Japan in the near future. However, he got the location wrong. Jessup said it would strike in the Tokyo-Yokojama-Kamakuta area and not Hiroshima. You'll find the story in UFO Roundup, volume 6, number 11, "Christian seer warms of a big quake in Oregon," page 7.
Jessup predicted that the Oregon quake, which will be bigger than the recent tremor in Seattle, will rock the seabed off the Oregon shore, which would cause tidal waves from Tillamook to Gold Beach. I hope he's wrong. And I hope the clock runs out on "Earthquake Season" BEFORE April 13, 2001, Jessup's predicted date for the event. It will be on Good Friday, which is also...gulp!...Friday the thirteenth.)
ARMY ELINT PLANE CRASHES NEAR NUREMBERG, GERMANY
A U.S. Army RC-12 twin-engine propeller aircraft "used to identify and locate enemy radar (i.e. gather electronic intelligence or ELINT--J.T.) and electronic communications crashed in a forest about 8 miles (13 kilometers) from Nuremberg," a city in Germany's Bayern (Bavaria) region. The crash, which took place on Monday, March 26, 2001, killed both Army pilots aboard, according to Army spokeswoman Hilde Patton from Fifth Corps headquarters at Heidelberg.
"German and American authorities at the scene were attempting to recover the pilots' remains from the crash scene, Patton said.
"There was no initial indication of what caused the crash." (See USA Today for March 27, 2001, "For U.S. military aviation, a dark day," page 10A.) (Editor's Comment: Two fighter jets missing in Scotland. An ELINT plane downed in Germany. It could simply be a coincidence. Then again, there may be something going on, saucer wise, in Europe.)
PREDICTIONS OLD AND NEW HOLD SURPRISES
New Age psychic Steve Jones has made his predictions for the year 2001 available to readers of UFO Roundup.
Jones is a researcher of UFOs, crop circles and other paranormal phenomena. He has a show, on the Psychic Growth channel.
And he has a "big bad bear story" for stock market investors.
"There will be panic in the world economy as one country has its monetary establishment on the verge of collapse," Jones wrote, "That country is Japan, and it will take the rest of the world to bring some measure of salvation to that economy. However, the seeds of fear will be deeply planted and many countries will shrink back from over-committing themselves."
There will be a worldwide collapse of the Internet sometime in June," he added, "due to the introduction of a near-invisible virus. The Internet will be forced to shut down until an anti-virus can be found."
Around the world, the weather will continue to cause concern , as droughts, foods and tornados increase. Doomsters will say that this is the beginning of the end, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Towards the end of the year, the weather will settle down and normal patterns will re-emerge."
Jones does see hope for the future.
""A young boy will appear during the coming year with a knowledge and understanding far beyond his years. He will become the new hope for the future. of the world and the environment. Could this be the Second Coming? In just a few years, I foresee him becoming the first World President. There will be those who want him out of the scene, but the public will take him into their hearts."
Speaking of "bears," last week's fall of the Russian space station Mir fulfilled an ancient Hopi prophecy.
The Hopi are an indigenous people of the southwestern USA. According to Chief White Feather of the Hopi's Bear Clan, there are Nine Prophecies that will be fulfilled before "the end of the Fourth World and the beginning of the Fifth World."
(Editor's Note: The Nokaig are the Bear Clan of the Anishinabe people. The words for bear are makwah in Anishinabe and mato in Lakota.)
Chief White Feather said, "The Fourth World will end soon, and the Fifth World shall begin. This the (tribal) elders everywhere know. The Signs over many years have been fulfilled and only a few are left."
For example, the Fourth Sign of the Hopi states, "The land will be crossed with snakes of iron."
This prophecy was fulfilled at Promontory Point, Utah in 1869 with the linkup of the first transcontinental railroad in the USA.
Amazingly, the Hopi elders seem to have predicted the coming of the chemtrails a couple of years ago. "This is the Fifth Sign--the land will be criss-crossed by a giant spider's web."
But the fall of Mir clearly fulfills one of the last Signs.
"And this is the ninth and Final Sign--you will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star. Very soon after this, the ceremonies of the Hopi people will come to an end."
Finally, during the past couple of weeks, your editor has had two identical dreams of what I call the "Great Lakes Disaster."
The first dream took place in the early morning hours of Wednesday, March 14, 2001. I dreamed I was at a motel. and I was on my way to breakfast. I asked the desk clerk if they had a cafeteria on the premises, and he said there was one "at the Convention Center on the point."
So I stepped out of the motel into a cold overcast march morning. It was cold, and there was still an inch of snow on the parking lot, but it wasn't as cold as it gets in mid-winter. I can still see the center in my mind's eye--a multi-story light gray building on a sandspit overlooking one of the Great lakes. But I do not know which lake. I have never been to this place before. There's only one stretch of Lake Superior shore I haven't visited, and that's the Ontario shore from Nipigon through Thunder Bay down to the Pigeon River and the USA border. But it wasn't Thunder Bay. From the shore, you can see the "Sleeping Giant," or Sibley Peninsula, and in the dream there was only open lake beyond the building.
On my way across the parking lot, I noticed the wind picking up and saw many whitehorse waves offshore. Waves about six feet high were hitting the beach and the breakwall on the far side of the center. Then bigger waves started coming in, right over the sand beach and gushing across the parking lot. People began getting in their cars and driving away. I waited until a wave washed within three feet of my snowboots, and then I abandoned all desire to eat breakfast at the center.
I started running down a two-lane street, past many one-story frame houses with bare-limbed maples and elms and evergreen trees in the yard. Fleeing cars were going by me on my left. I could hear the surf getting louder behind me. I saw some people standing on the porch of a yellow house. Gasping for breath, I joined them. A guy in his twenties with close-cropped blond hair and wearing a Green Bay Packers jacket asked me what was going on. I told him, "The lake is flooding the parking lot. And the water's rising."
"Let it rise," he replied, "It'll never get this far. We're a quarter-mile from the beach."
Breathing hard, I listened carefully. The surf was getting louder. I gasped, "Yes, it will!" And I started running again.
A few blocks later, I stopped and looked back. I could see waves on the horizon, at about the point where the yellow house stood. Three cars were barreling towards me. I tried to flag them down, but they went right by--a red Ford pickup truck and two compact sedans. I started running again.
Then I saw two steel booms poking above the houses ahead. A bridge! I thought. I hung a left and ran down a small side street, past a red-and-white barrier and onto a steel ramp. Whoops! My mistake! It wasn't a bridge--it was a ferry dock. But the ferry was long gone. I looked across the channel, maybe a mile or two wide, and saw the whitecapped waves rolling ashore, battering the forested mainland.
Then I woke up.
The second dream took place during the early morning hours of Friday, March 23, 2001. This one was much shorter. This time, I dreamed I was back in that lakeside parking lot again. Right in front of me, much closer, was the exact same light gray convention center. Frightened and shouting people were running up from the beach, trying to get away from the incoming waves, running to their cars. I watched the lake water surge right up the sand, over the rock wall and gush onto the asphalt.
Dodging the icy-cold spray, I ducked inside the spacious lobby of the convention center. The people at the concession stand were shutting down all of the electrical equipment--cookers, popcorn machine, microwave ovens. The noise of the surf was deafening. The building shook every time it was hit by a wave. I knew it couldn't stand up to the full fury of the lake.
A crowd of people emerged from one of the ballrooms or banquet halls, with the children in the front. They were terrified. The children dug in their heels, afraid to go outside. Some of the adults hesitated, too. "No, no!" I shouted, "You've got to run for it. Get going! Run across the lot--now! You must get to the high ground."
And then I woke up.
One "Big Wave" dream is scary enough. But two in the same week, featuring identical locales unknown to me, is really strange. I don't know where this gray convention center is. It could be somewhere in Ontario or perhaps in the USA's states of Michigan or Wisconsin. But one thing is certain. If those dreams ever come true, that building is not a good place to be, believe me! (Many thanks to Steve Jones and Maggie Pym for their emails.)
From the UFO Files...
1957: AN UNUSUAL UFO IN HOPE, NEW JERSEY
This report was submitted at the time by Mrs. Donna Blaisdell (actual name on file at the Center for UFO Studies in Chicago--J.T.) and was reprinted in Dr. J. Allen Hynek's book.
"Even at the risk of being called hysterical, hallucinated or worse, I feel I must make record, on my oath as a woman, an American and a member of the human race, of the following:"
"That I was in full possession of my senses and my sanity at the time, and all during the time, of my seeing this object, which lasted for at least one minute."
"That I saw the object at a distance of not more than 150 yards at about 2 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6, 1957, first from a rear window and then from the back yard of our home on the road from Great Meadows to Hope, New Jersey."
"That the weather was clear under a low overcast and the position of the object hovering in the air over the slope below our house was such that I could see it--with absolute certainty and with concentrated effort to observe and remember every detail."
"That my attention was first drawn to the object's presence by our dogs barking in their pens behind the house, and by their looking upward at the object, as they and I continued to do so easily until the object departed."
"That the shape of the object closely resembled that of a huge derby hat but with a rounded domelike crown 30 to 40 feet (9 to 12 meters) high and at least 50 feet (15 meters) in horizontal diameter above a slightly curled-up 'brim' that extended outward for 12 to 15 feet (4 to 5 meters) from the bottom of the crown. The brim or bottom surface of the object appeared to be sealed over smoothly and completely to a gentle curve, with no holes or ports or windows or vents of any kind, of which I could see none anywhere else on the entire object."
"That, in the absence of any openings into it, I could see no beings, humans or otherwise, inside the object who might be operating and riding in it, and no crew or passengers were visible on the object's exterior during its visit."
"That the color of the object, all over, was uniform white, dull but clean, with no spots, stripes or other markings whatsoever. Its texture was apparently non-metallic but reminded me strongly of pipe clay."
"That a moderate breeze, from the northeast, I think, was blowing in which the object hovered quite stationary except for a gentle rocking motion, like a boat at anchor on water. As the object rocked and in the same cadence it made a low growling or rumbling sound that rose or fell irregularly."
"That beneath the object, extending vertically toward the ground, I seemed to see, and then not see, and then see again a lot of streamers or lines of some material (or force) that twinkled like the fragile strands of tinsel with which one decorates a Christmas tree."
(Editor's Note: Critics might say Mrs. B was watching too much Star Trek. Yet she wrote this description in 1957, nine years before Star Trek premiered on NBC in September 1966. This "dazzle field" effect has been described by other UFO eyewitnesses, too.)
"That without any marked change of sound except a soft rush of air, sucking away and not blowing toward me, the object abruptly ascended almost vertically, slightly northeasterly at immense speed into thick cloud (maybe 300 feet up?) and was instantly gone from sight and hearing." (See the book The Hynek UFO Report by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Dell Books, New York, N.Y., third printing March 1978, pages 153 and 153.)
Well, that's it for this week. Join us in seven days for more UFO and paranormal news from "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you next week!
