UFO ROUNDUP Volume 6 Number 05
Volume 6
Number 5
February 1, 2001
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
NEW WEIRD CREATURE SIGHTED IN CALAMA
A new weird creature was sighted in a rural district of Cala, a city in northern Chile that has been the scene of many Chupacabra sightings during the past year.
Residents claimed that the new creature killed several dogs in the barrios of La Banda and Villa San Rafael.
"The residents remain fearful of a creature they have described as 'unknown' but left behind clear evidence of its passing."
"First the people heard 'aircraft noises' passing overhead; then they saw 'the appearance of a strange creature measuring 50 centimeters (20 inches) on height, humped and leaden (gray) in color. While looking for traces of the animal, they have found several balls of strange hair, which have been collected for subsequent analysis. Footprints of the creature were found on the ground'" in Villa San Rafael.
"They have also heard screams coming from dogs 'as if they were being killed because they (the screams) are truly terrifying.'"
""They further stated that the predator generates some type of energy that affects human beings and must coincide with the energy it needs to levitate."
In La Banda, "other residents did not conceal their suspicions regarding the large number of dead dogs turning up at that location."
""The other day (Wednesday, January 24, 2--1) they found two dogs slain at night (and their carcasses--S.C.) had disappeared by morning. 'I was surprised to find traces of the animals' having been dragged since there were hairs found on the ground,'" one resident said.
(Editor's Note: This new mysterious predator does not have a name yet, so let me suggest one--Mataperro, which is Spanish for dog killer.)
Not to be outdone, the Chupacabras continued their year-long rampage in the Calama region.
"In recent days, the name of the 'mythic Chupacabras' has been heard more and more. Dozens of paranormal researchers have bought plane tickets to the 'Land of Sun and Copper" (Calama--J.T.) to verify on-site the appearance of strange creatures. and the prints left behind on a small farm in La Banda de Calama."
"Residents of La Banda state that the strange noises have been heard in recent nights, A woman who declined to be identified revealed that 'Last night (Thursday, January 25, 2001) my children were playing in the paddock and they suddenly came running back home, frightened after having heard strange footsteps coming from inside the yard. They asked me to please believe them when they said that something was moving around the place, and refused to go outdoors again.'"
"She said that people often visit the community offering money in exchange for the silence of those residents who have been affected by the Chupacabras."
Hair samples were found at the site where the creatures had attacked, leaving local residents in the grip of fear.. They have formed a group and all of them, in one way or another, have had contact with either the Chupacabras or with unidentified flying objects."
"Sanra, one of the leaders of the group, which includes ten residents of Calama, claims having seen the Chupacabra near the Top Star Bridge 'around midnight or slightly later, but it's hairy and can stand on two legs when it wants to. It goes out alone often, and there could be more than one of them out there.'"
"Furthermore, the rest of her friends have not only seen the Chupacabra, but also UFOs in the vicinity of the local airport."
"'Specifically, four (UFOs) flying in formation, and we know they weren't airplanes because of the speed at which they were seen to fly,'" she added.
Calama ufologist Jaime Ferrer has been collecting Chupacabra and Mataperro hair samples and taking plaster casts of the strange footprints. His investigation is continuing. (See La Estrella del Loa for January 26, 2001, "Mysterious animal leaves prints in La Banda," and La Estrella del Norte for January 27, 2001, "New Chupacabra evidence found." Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales, autor de los libros Chupacabras and Other Mysteries y Forbidden Mexico y tambien Floria Coluchi para esos articulos de diario.)
MYSTERIOUS SKY BOOM RATTLES HOUSTON, TEXAS
"A loud bang that rattled windows shortly after midnight sent some residents from far east Houston out into the streets looking for a cause that has not yet been found."
"Emergency crews that responded to calls from the neighborhood around the 10200 block of Gloria Drive were unable to find either a cause for the blast or any damage, although residents said the windows rattled and the houses shook."
"Houston Fire Department spokesman Jay Evans said the cause probably was a 'flare,'" from one of the local oil refineries. "But which one could not be determined."
"Evans explained that combustible gases being released to a flare sometimes accumulate and mix with air before they ignite, and then go off with a loud bang."
(See the Houston Chronicle for January 26, 2001, "Mysterious blast rattles neighborhood." Many thanks to Gerry Lovell for forwarding this newspaper article.)
(Editor's Comment: A UFO Roundup reader contacted us last week, pointing out that the sky boom in Ashtabula, Ohio was followed a week later by an earthquake in Cleveland, 90 miles to the west, that measured 4.7 on the Richter scale. She suggested that the Ashtabula boom may have been a "pre-quake" rather than a departing UFO. Let's keep an eye on Houston during the coming weeks, eh?)
MYSTERIOUS SKY BOOMS HEARD ON CAPE FEAR, NORTH CAROLINA
"Mysterious booming noises that have shaken the Cape Fear coast from time to time returned last week, prompting calls to meteorologists and earthquake specialists from concerned residents."
"The National Weather Service received several phone calls concerning houses shaking and unexplained loud noises about 11 p.m. Thursday," January 25, 2001. "
"'I thought we were having an earthquake and ran to get my children,' said Sarah McKenzie, who lives in an apartment complex in Wilmington, N.C. (population 65,000)."
"The National Earthquake Information Center in Boulder, Colorado detected no major earth movement in the area, said Richard Anthony, the National Weather Service meteorologist for the Wilmington area."
"The Center received calls stretching from the University of North Carolina's campus a;; the way to Blades County."
"'I have experienced the shakings, and I have heard the noises,' Anthony said, 'They may be traumatic, but no one has a really good explanation for them.'"
"Meteorologists told callers that it might have been the 'Seneca Guns' referring to a folk legend about the mysterious seasonal booms that irregularly rattle the shoreline along the lower Cape Fear."
(Editor's Note: Charles Fort noted a similar phenomenon in India, known as 'the Barisal Guns.')
"The legend dates back to the Nineteenth Century. After finding no explanation for the strange sounds, area residents concocted a myth about the Seneca Indians being edged out of their land by the Europeans' arrival. The sounds were supposedly the Indians returning for revenge with the white man's own weapons."
"Wilmington geologists and others are researching the noises."
"Meanwhile, some area residents are a little shaky."
"'I wish someone would tell me what it is,' Ms. McKenzie said."
Wilmington is on Interstate Highway I-40 approximately 130 miles (208 kilometers) south of Raleigh, the state capital. (See the Winston-Salem, N.C. Journal for January 28, 2001, "Mysterious noise returns.")
(Editor's Comment: Maybe North Carolina's Cape Fear area is in for an earthquake, too. Let's see what happens in a week or so.)
HOVERING UFO CLOSES AIRPORT IN SOUTHERN SIBERIA
"An airport in southern Siberia was shut down for an hour and a half Friday," January 26, 2001 "an unidentified flying object (UFO) was detected hovering above the runway, the (Russian) Interfax news agency reported."
"The crew of an Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane refused to take off, claiming they saw a luminescent object hovering above the runway of Siberia's Barnaul regional airport., local aviation company director Ivan Komarov was quoted as saying."
"The crew of another cargo plane refusing to use the runway" at Barnaul "for the same reason, landed their jet at another airport, Komarov said."
"The UFO took off and vanished from the airport 90 minutes later, according to the Interfax report."
Barnaul is a mid-sized city in southern Siberia, located 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Novosibirsk and about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) east of Moscow, the capital of Russia. (See the Agence France Presse report for January 27, 2001. Merci beaucoup a l'Ambrovista pour cette nouvelles.)
EIGHT UFOs SIGHTED IN MALAYSIA
"Eight unidentified flying objects (UFOs) were spotted in USJ" near Kuala Lumpur "and in Gopeng, Perak province, Malaysia on Sunday, January 21, 2001."
The nation of Malaysia, in Southeast Asia, has had several UFO flaps during the past few years.
In USJ, near the national capital of Kuala Lumpur, a housewife told the New Straits Times that "she and her son had seen two UFOs--red in color--moving towards Kampung and Rawang at 10 p.m." that Sunday night.
Mrs. Dahlia Bidin "called the New Straits Times at 10:40 p.m. to say she saw six UFOs--orange in color--in the sky over Gopeng."
"'I am seeing them now. So are a lot of other people. It's causing a stir. Please check with the Ipok Airport and tell me what they are,' she said."
"Her husband, Ismail Bidin, who is the honorary secretary for an orphanage in Sungai Itek, Gopeng, said he was among the first to see the UFOs."
"'All of the 38 children there saw the objects, so did their religious teachers and the villagers from neighboring Kamping Pintu Padang.'"
"He said the UFOs appeared to be in formation and then formed a straight line. The objects were seen for about ten minutes before they disappeared."
"A policeman in the Gopeng police station, when contacted about 20 minutes later" by the newspaper, "said he had not received any information about the sightings."
"A spokesman for the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang said no such objects were tracked" on radar. (See the New Straits Times for January 22, 2001, "UFO sightings in USJ and Gopeng." Many thanks to Gerry Lovell for forwarding this newspaper article.)
LARGE TRIANGULAR UFO SEEN IN DERBYSHIRE DALES
A large triangular UFO was seen in the Derbyshire Dales region of UK last week.
"UFO spotters should start looking at the skies again., following one of the most spectacular sightings in the (Derbyshire) Dales yet."
"Now the little green men are back. At 11:20 p.m. Wednesday (January 17, 2001), 44-year-old Anne Saunders of Matlock saw a spaceship hovering over Crich."
"She said, 'I looked through the bedroom window and saw a massive triangle in the sky. I thought, Good God! I am a sceptic--or at least I was--I thought it was a reflection in my glasses. But it was no reflection.'"
"After further investigation, mom-of-two Mrs. Saunders said she couldn't believe her eyes. The retired local government official and her husband studied the craft for three minutes."
"The triangle was full of pulsating coloured lights with a black centre. It made no noise."
"Then the front-end bit broke away, continued Mrs. Saunders, and flew across the sky at tremendous speed towards the Masson Hillside. When it stopped, there was no definition. It was just a random shape of pulsating lights clustering together."
"'I was absolutely gobsmacked (astounded--J.T.) I was looking from one to the other and thinking I must be dreaming. It was massive. This has entirely convinced me to be a (UFO) believer.'"
Mrs. Saunders is no going to bed at night with binoculars and a camera--just in case."
For more on the recent UFO sightings in Derbyshire Dales, see UFO Roundup, volume 5, number 52 for December 28, 2000, "UFOs seen repeatedly in Derbyshire Dales, UK," page 3. (Mrs. Saunders's sighting can be found in the Matlock Mercury for January 17, 2001. Many thanks to Gerry Lovell for this newspaper article.)
FAMILY OF SIX SEES A FIERY UFO OVER MELBOURNE
On the night of Thursday, January 26, 2001, Wendy Plenaar reports, "while driving home from a restaurant, my husband, myself and our four children saw a blazing light, not exactly fire, in the night sky. It was running very fast and we could only see the flames, not really any (definable) shape of whatever we saw."
"After a few seconds, it seemed to just peter out and die. We were traveling northwards, and the object was moving fast in the opposite direction (south)."
"I think this must have been visible to quite a few other people if they happened to look up at that time," she added. (Many thanks to Wendy Plenaar for this report.)
TWO SPHERICAL UFOs SEEN IN PORTLAND, OREGON
On Thursday, January 11, 2001, at 8:20 p.m., Ernest C. and his daughter were outdoors in Portland, Oregon's largest city, "facing south, looking about straight up" when "we saw two large globes hovering in the sky. The objects were straight up. They were just hovering in the sky. They were large round white globes."
"My friend from work says he saw a reporter on Channel 8 reporting the same thing. He said the report matched up with what my daughter and I saw." (Email Form Report)
BLACK HELICOPTERS SEEN IN ALBERTA AND WYOMING
On Sunday, January 21, 2001, at 2:34 p.m., Steve Volk, who lives in Edmonton, in Canada's Alberta province, said he was downloading some files from the Internet onto his home computer "when a black helicopter flew not more than 100 feet (30 meters) over my house. It then flew a half-circle back and forth within viewing distance. I videotaped the whole thing for 20 minutes. This is precisely what I mean about harassment of Americans living in Canada!"
On Saturday, January 20, 2001, at 10:45 a.m., Charles M. was driving home to his ranch near Powell, Wyoming (population 5,600). He was driving south on Highway 10 midway between Powell and the Montana state line when he heard the sound of a helicopter engine.
"I was driving along, and I looked out the (truck) cab's passenger window (i.e. to the west--J.T.), and I saw a herd of elk browsing at the edge of the woods," he reported, "That's when I heard the chopper's engine roaring. I slowed down to see what was going on. It was a (UH-60) Blackhawk. It was all black with no markings on it. It came in low over the trees, flying south. It spat out two plumes of white smoke. It was like a cropduster, but it was spraying the elk. The chopper flew around just south of me for a minute or two, then swung around to the southeast towards Cody." (Many thanks to Steve Volk and Frank Running Elk for these reports.)
ROUNDUP CORRIGENDA:
Concerning last week's issue, UFO Roundup, volume 6, number 4 for January 25, 2001, we have a couple of corrections to make.
In "Triangular UFO hovers over the Isle of Man": page 3, the correct date of this encounter was Sunday, January 14, 2001 and not Friday, January 19th.
In "Loren Coleman's classic is back in print," page 6, the year of publication of Coleman's Mysterious America by Faber & Faber was 1983, not 1982. Loren also stated "I'm not a professor of biology at the University of Southern Maine, but of the social impact of documentary film."
UFO Roundup regrets the errors.
From the UFO Files...
1942: BINOOMEA, AUSTRALIA'S UNDERGROUND WORLD
The small city of Orange, in the Western Plains of New South Wales, Australia, is best known for its thriving fruit orchards and its reputation as the hometown of Andrew Boyle "Banjo" Peterson, the composer who wrote Waltzing Matilda.
Little do local residents realize it but, about 200 meters (660 feet) below the intersection of Byng and Anson Streets, is a large cavern that may be linked to Binoomea, the legendary underground world of the Aborigines.
According to Australian paranormal researcher Rex Gilroy, Aboriginal people speak of their ancestors "walking under the mountains" of the Great Dividing Range. A vast network of interlocking caverns and tunnels, similar to the Flint Ridge and Mammoth Cave system in the USA's state of Kentucky, stretches hundreds of kilometers from Tamworth, N.S.W. south to Canberra, the national capital.
Chief among these Aboriginal legends is that of Binoomea, a vast underground cavern with cathedral-high ceilings and a large underground lake.
It all sounds a bit like the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge..."Where Alph the sacred river ran/Through caverns measureless to man/Down to a sunless sea."
Binoomea is said to be inhabited by some very unusual creatures. And these have actually been seen by Australians living on the surface.
In August 1942, several captured Japanese soldiers broke out of the Allied P.O.W. (Prisoner of War--J.T.) camp at Cowra, N.S.W. Allied troops were sent into the Western Plains area to flush them out of hiding. Among these was a squad of Australian Army soldiers led by Sgt. Bert MacCorkindale.
MacCorkindale and his men were driven by truck from Orange to Garra, just west of Molong. They were ordered to search the bush west of the creek, moving towards the hills northwest of Manildra.
Shortly after they crossed the creek, the soldiers discovered a small cave opening. Sgt. MacCorkindale thought the Japanese P.O.W.s might be hiding in there, so he ordered the men to crawl through the opening, one at a time. Soon they found themselves in a cool cavern brimming with stalactites. Certain he had found the prisoners' hideout, the sergeant ordered the men to push on.
Down into the tunnel they went, for perhaps two miles, heading generally southeast towards Orange. The squad noticed that the caverns were getting bigger and bigger the further in they went. Soon they all had their torches (flashlights in the USA--J.T.) out.
Sgt. MacCorkindale was beginning to have his doubts. Surely the Japanese wouldn't have gone this far into the caves. And what were these caves, anyway? He'd never heard of such a system under the Western Plains before.
They sauntered into yet another cavern. The men pointed their torches upward. Their light beams didn't even touch the ceiling. Several gaped in disbelief.
"Push on," the sergeant said, "One more bloody cave, and we'll have a bit of smoke." (take a break in the USA--J.T.)
As they moved into the next cavern, they squad stopped short. One soldier blurted, "Cor! Will ya look at that!?"
The limestone walls were faintly luminous, "studded with glow-worms," one soldier put it, offering enough pallid light to make out stalactites, stalagmites and flowstone deposits.
Suddenly, the squad heard an odd sound.
"What's that?" one asked.
"Sounds like a bloody broken steam pipe," his buddy replied.
The weird hissing grew louder. They heard something solid slowly scraping along the flat rocky floor. Then a monstrous reptilian head poked up from behind a jumble of fallen boulders. Its tongue flicked between scaly lips. Again it emitted a rattling hiss.
The newcomer was a lizard, similar in form to the goanna lizard found in the Australian Outback, but much, much larger. The creature measured six meters (20 feet) from its blunt snout to the tip of its heavy tail. It was a mottled gray in color, with spiky scale-armored brows over its cold yellow eyes.
The men stared in open-mouthed disbelief. They had all very likely seen the movie King Kong, and now here was a giant reptile that looked as if it had stepped right out of that 1933 film.
The giant lizard lumbered towards them. Yelling in panic, the men leveled their Lee-Enfield rifles and opened fire. The lizard hesitated but only for a few moments. It crawled forward once again, head low, hissing even louder.
"Bren gunner!" the sergeant yelled, in a voice even louder than the giant lizard.
One soldier planted the bipod of the Bren gun (World War Two light machine gun--J.T.) on a flat limestone boulder and took aim. When Sgt. MacCorkindale yelled, "Fire!" the gunner cut loose with a full automatic burst.
Stung by the stream of high-velocity bullets, the giant lizard averted its face, turned as quickly as its size would allow, and lumbered back into the side tunnel, dragging its ponderous tail behind it.
The squad beat a hasty retreat to the surface.
Five years later, "one day in 1947, Warwick Bills, then 16 years of age, was out alone picking mushrooms on a property near Dubbo," a town about 64 kilometers (40 miles) north of Orange, "in central western N.S.W. The location was in hilly country and only five miles (8 kilometers) from the town. There was a 15-acre swampland interspersed with swamp oaks and a nearby creek."
"It was next to this creek that Warwick was standing, about 10 a.m. on this particular morning, when he spotted a large goanna lying in the shade of a large swamp oak 50 feet away. It was 12 feet (3.8 meters) in length and its leathery skin was greyish in colour with lighter and darker patches. It had a large head and big eyes."
"'Its large eyes were looking in my direction. I saw it rise up about two feet on its thick, powerful legs. I left the scene pretty quick,' he told me," author Rex Gilroy in 1983.
Lizards as big as a diesel locomotive--that's just one of the strange secrets of Australia's underground world of Binoomea. (See the books Mysterious Australia by Rex Gilroy, Nexus Publishing, Mapleton, Qlnd., Australia, 1985, pages 43, 119 and 123; Let's Go--Australia , St. Martin's Press, New York, N.Y., 1998, pages 143 and 144; and Discover Australia by 4WD, edited by Ron and Vivo Moon, Hema Maps Ltd., Slacks Creek, Qlnd., 1997, page 116.)
Well, that's it for this week. Join us in seven days for more UFO and paranormal news from around the world, brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you then!
