UFO ROUNDUP Volume 7 Number 11
Volume 7
Number 11
March 12, 2002
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
LUMINOUS UFO STALKS BRITISH COLUMBIA
For the past six weeks, a large, bright white UFO has been stalking the towns along Provincial Highway 16 in Canada's British Columbia province.
It began on Thursday night, January 31, 2002 in Burns Lake, B.C. (population 1,793), a town located 138 miles (221 kilometers) west of Prince George, B.C.
According to ufologist Brian Vike, "About 6 kilometers (4 miles) east of Burns Lake is the KOA Campground and trailer court. About 3 a.m.," the witness and his girlfriend "were awakened by a bright light shining in the bedroom window."
At first the witness thought it was a headlight beam from a logging truck passing by on Highway 16. Then he realized that the bedroom window faces the spruce and fir forest of northern British Columbia.
The following evening, Friday, February 1, 2002, "three women went to Smithers, B.C. (population 5,624) for a day of shopping." At approximately 8:45 p.m., they went home to Houston, B.C. (population 3,934)," 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Smithers. "After passing the small community of Telkwa, just 3 kilometers (2 miles) east of Smithers, they all noticed a 'very' bright light glowing through the overcast."
At first the three women thought it was the moon becoming visible through the clouds. Then "they gasped as this object pushed slowly through the cloud cover, descending as it came closer."
"The witnesses were travelling at a speed of 90 kilometers per hour (54 miles per hour) with the glowing object coming towards them. One of the girls thought it might be a bomb or something. The glowing light dropped to about just above the treetops, still moving in their direction and getting closer to the highway."
"The lower the light came to them, the larger it grew in size." Curious, the driver "slowed the car to approximately 50 kilometers per hour (30 miles per hour) to get a better look. The bright light was just above the vehicle. The driver of the car stepped on the gas and sped up to put some distance between them and the light, which turned out to be a large craft."
"One of the girls, who was sitting in the back seat, watched the object as it passed over the car." She said "there were seven large bright white lights passing overhead with two orange lights at either end."
"Very shaken and nervous," the witnesses drove on "while the object continued on its way towards Telkwa. It was similar to a boomerang in shape and a 'guesstimate' of size would have placed the object at least 450 feet (135 meters)" in length.
Two days later, on February 3, 2002, at 7 p.m., a couple "at home in Houston, B.C.," located on Highway 16 188 miles (301 kilometers) west of Prince George, had a strange UFO experience. All at once, "the wife heard a loud humming noise coming from outside. She got up to investigate" and "looked out a couple of windows before she noticed a large bright white object hovering above the Bulkley River, just north a few hundred yards (meters) from their place of residence."
"She called to her husband to come see it. They both witnessed this large bright white object shooting beams of light down towards the river while hovering at treetop level. The sighting lasted approximately 30 seconds...before it shot up the side of the mountain and disappeared." (Editor's Comment: On occasion UFOs are seen shooting these light stabs at the ground. The reason for this activity is unknown.)
On Friday, February 15, 2002, "a family was coming back to Prince George from Vancouver, B.C. Just before 11:30 p.m. they drove down a long straight stretch of road which runs by the industrial site near the Fraser River Bridge. The wife looked over to her right and observed three very bright lights, 'almost like stadium lights,' up on the hillside."
They drove past a parked van and "saw another vehicle stopped with its door open and a man outside watching the sky." They crossed the Fraser River Bridge and took the first exit on the opposite shore. This road turned and ran along the riverbank underneath the bridge. From there, they hoped to observe the three mysterious hovering lights again. "But all three had vanished."
Prince George (population 75,150) in at the junctions of Highways 97 and 16, approximately 478 miles (765 kilometers) north of Vancouver.
On Thursday, February 28, 2002, around 6 a.m. "a woman saw mysterious lights in the sky approximately 13 miles (20 kilometers) east of Vanderhoof, B.C. on Langston Road leading toward Prince George." The witness said the lights hovered near Sinkut Mountain, and "at first thought they were someone logging using one of the big (tree-cutting) machines as the lights were so bright."
The witness and her husband described the UFO as "large, very bright lights, not very high in the sky at all," and "orangey-white in colour. They said they watched the lights for about 20 minutes until they completely vanished."
Vanderhoof (population 4,401) is on Highway 16 approximately 58 miles (93 kilometers) west of Prince George.
On Friday, March 1, 2002, "There was an unusual light in the direction of Sinkut Mountain, which she (the witness) could see from her kitchen. Her first thought is that it was just a logging truck." She described the light as "white and extremely bright. She had looked at this through binoculars and it was just a pure white light and was there for quite some time" around 5:30 a.m. "The light would move, then would stop, and then was gone. But in an instant, it was back to where it had started from." (See the Omineca Express of Vanderhoof, B.C. for February 25, 2002. Many thanks to Brian Vike for these reports.)
USO VIDEOTAPED OFFSHORE IN SOUTHERN CHILE
On Saturday, March 2, 2002, Television Nacional de Chile (TNC) aired on its 24 Horas news show a videotape of a rectangular Unidentified Submarine Object (USO) floating just offshore in the Strait of Magellan.
The videotape was shot by a couple, Nora Beytia and Francisco Correa, who were on the beach at San Gregorio on Sunday, February 17, 2002. While walking along, Nora and Francisco spotted a strange object floating in the water 150 meters (500 feet) from shore. Immediately they lifted their videocamera and began shooting footage.
The video shows a dark rectangular object 70 meters (232 feet) long with a faint luminosity above the deck. There is no conning tower or other protuberance, and "the object appeared to be an elongated metal container. It had two lights at either end of the ship. It appeared to be about the size of a cargo ship. At the moment the strange object submerged itself in the sea, a slight change in the luminosity was also observed."
The beach at San Gregorio is about 120 kilometers (72 miles) north of Punta Arenas, the southernmost city in Chile.
"According to Jaime Tamayo, a researcher at Omnivision Chile, this is a strange video that deserves further study. 'I think it is essential to analyze the unedited video and interview the witnesses. Given what we saw on television, it appears to be a most interesting observation,' he said."
"The Chilean Navy has not issued an opinion on the video image, according to their Public Relations Office." (Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales, autor de los libros Chupacabras and Other Mysteries and Forbidden Mexico; Rodrigo Cuadra Salazar, Rodrigo Fuenzalida de AION y George A. Filer para esas informaciones. See also Filer's Files #10 for 2002.)
(Editor's Note: This isn't the first USO case in Chile. On September 23, 1971, a fishing boat spotted a USO 32 kilometers off the shores of Tocopilla, north of Antofagasta. Interestingly, Tocopilla is 50 kilometers (30 miles) due west of Calama, the site of Chile's current UFO flap. See Unexplained Mysteries of the Twentieth Century by Janet and Colin Bord, Contemporary Books, Chicago, IL, 1989, pages 170 and 321.)
COUPLE SEES A FLASHING UFO OVER A CARIBBEAN ISLAND
Kathy N. and Craig B. decided to spend their winter vacation away from their Pennsylvania home on the island of Saint Lucia in the Caribbean Sea. Saint Lucia is one of the Windward Islands located 500 kilometers (300 miles) north of Venezuela.
The evening of Monday, February 11, 2002, Kathy and Craig were at the Stonefield Villa in Soufriere, on the south side of the island. Kathy "saw a white light dance up and down in the sky and disappear behind Petit Piton (mountain)."
"Soon after, behind me, Craig saw a red orb speed by. He only had it in view for several seconds, though."
On Saturday, February 16, 2002, the couple were at La Haut Plantation, just outside Soufriere, and "we noticed every night at the same time--10 p.m. to 10:20 p.m.--there was a flashing white light at the same spot in the sky. Just for 20 minutes. Then it would seem to fade, or go further out into space. If you looked up at Orion, there is a very bright star to the right of it. Then if you go up a bit more to the right and down...there it was, at the same time every night."
Craig and Kathy saw the flashing UFO at that point in the sky on Saturday night, February 16; Sunday night, February 17; and Tuesday night, February 19.
"It was a no-show on Monday (February 18)," Kathy reported. (Email Interview)
STRANGE PHENOMENA SEEN AT CACHI, ARGENTINA
"Faustina Nolasco, 57, is a humble peasant woman who lives with her husband in Las Pailas at the foot of the snow-capped Nevado de Cachi, 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the town," Cachi, which is 180 kilometers (78 miles) west-southwest of Salta, the provincial capital, and 600 kilometers (360 miles) northwest of Buenos Aires, the national capital.
"The woman told El Tribuno that on the first day of the year (January 1, 2002), around 2:30 a.m., she rose to fetch water and irrigate her garden when she was blinded and then toppled by a powerful light."
"Faustina knows nothing about UFOs. She barely has any contact with the outside world and is unaware of the fact that there are constant UFO sightings in her area."
"'The sky was completely clear,' she recalls, 'And it surprised me that a light as bright as a lightning bolt blinded me and knocked me down. It came so close to me that by the time I reacted and got up off the ground, my face hurt because it had been burned and my head hurt. I figure that I was unconscious for about an hour and a half outdoors. But I remember nothing."
(Editor's Note: January is midsummer in Argentina and the other countries of the southern hemisphere.)
"Continuing her story, Faustina said, 'On the next day (January 2, 2002) 'I saw that a tree close to where I passed out was completely burned, as though struck by lightning. The same happened to my (garden) plot of zapallos (cucumbers) and cabbages, which were completely wilted.'"
"Some days after the lightning bolt knocked me down at night, I saw a new explosion in the sky from the side of the mountain (Nevado de Cachi--J.T.) It turned the night into day for a long time. Then I heard a loud noise, and everything turned black, but there was nothing to be found in the countryside. Fortunately, my crops weren't wilted, and none of my animals died.'"
"Faustina has lived all of her life outside of Cachi and swears that she never had similar experiences" before this. (See the newspaper El Tribuno of Salta, Argentina for March 9, 2002, "Cachi: New information on UFOs. A peasant's spine-tingling story." Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Gloria Coluci para eso articulo de diario.)
UFOs SEEN OVER SANTA ROSA, ARGENTINA
"On Saturday night, March 2, 2002, several (UFO) anomalies were observed over the city of Santa Rosa" in central Argentina "and also from an observation post staffed by CEUFO personnel some 60 kilometers (36 miles) from" Santa Rosa.
(Editor's Note: CEUFO is an acronym for Centro de Estudios Ufologicos, which is Spanish for Center of UFO Studies.)
"On this Saturday, at 9:20 p.m., an object flew over the city in a northwest to southeast direction. Its size was that of a 'very large star' and it moved at regular speed."
"Just prior to 10 p.m., three pulses of light, or 'flashes,' were seen to the southeast" of Santa Rosa.
"At 10:20 p.m., 'a luminous cloud' crossed the city, following a southeast-to-northwest trajectory. Its size was considerable, but witnesses were unable to pin down the (exact) altitude. The sky was partly cloudy, but this 'cloud' was completely independent from the rest."
Santa Rosa is in La Pampa province, about 320 kilometers (200 miles) west-southwest of Buenos Aires, the national capital.
The CEUFO observers recorded "no further anomalous activity" until 3 a.m. on Sunday, March 3, 2002. (Muchas gracias a Quique Mario de CEUFO y Proyecto Condor y Scott Corrales para esas noticias.)
ITALY REPORTS ITS FIRST ALIEN ABDUCTION
"Convinced that he had been abducted by UFOs, a young man from Conegliano Veneto," near Treviso in northern Italy "went to the police to report what amounted to the first report of its type in our country."
"The abduction was said to have occurred last July (2001). According to the participant in the sequence of events, the extraterrestrials picked him up, brought him to a secret location and utilized him as a guinea pig in experiments featuring 'extremely sophisticated pieces of equipment.'"
"The aliens also 'removed a section of (his) brain', thereafter returning him to his home" in Conegliano Veneto.
"Skeptical about the young man's 'experience,' the (Italian) police balked at the report and suggested that he appear on television, on the The Maurizio Constanzo Show." (See the Italian newspaper La Tribuna de Treviso for February 17, 2002. Grazie a Edoardo Russo e Gildo Persone di Centro Italiano do Studi Ufologici per questo rapporto.)
ENORMOUS UFOs CAUSE A STIR IN MONTENEGRO
On Thursday evening, March 7, 2002, a series of loud mysterious booms rocked the sky over Godijevo, a town in Montenegro, a state in the Balkans formerly part of Yugoslavia. "Residents of the area rushed out of their houses after hearing the mysterious booms. The sounds were followed by bright light flashes that illuminated the whole sky for several seconds."
"The people then saw enormous UFOs hovering over the town. Many ran back inside their homes to fetch videocameras. People with backyard chicken coops reported that their poultry 'were going crazy.'"
"According to the report in the newspaper Vijesti, the UFOs changed shape from circular to oval while hovering overhead, and then zipped across the open sky, losing themselves in the horizon."
"Police in Montenegro have collected and are analyzing numerous home videotapes of the mysterious objects. No one has been able to establish a satisfactory explanation for the phenomenon." (See the Balkan newspaper Vijesti for March 8, 2002. Many thanks to Daniel Munoz for this report.)
UFOs REMAIN ACTIVE IN CENTRAL MEXICO
On Saturday, March 2, 2002, at 6:30 a.m., "Sra. Norma Rodriguez observed a strange object in the form of a tube or a cylinder over the superhighway Carratera Queretaro" just outside the city of Queretaro, 300 kilometers (180 miles) northwest of Mexico City. "The object hovered over a mountain and displayed a strange color that was like a piece of gauze."
On Sunday, March 3, 2002, at 4 p.m., "Sra. Ana Luisa Cid photographed a large triangular UFO over Cerro del Chiquihuite (hill) to the north of Mexico City. According to Sra. Cid, the strange object remained stationary over the hill. Then, minutes later, it was joined by a fiery sphere which fused with the first object. The triangular object then flew away and lost itself in the haze of the horizon."
On Tuesday, March 5, 2002, at 2:30 p.m., "a UFO was reported by Televisora Telecable de Morelos (TTM-TV) in Cuernavaca," a large city located 45 kilometers (27 miles) south of Mexico City. "A local dentist aired his home video of a strange pulsating object over Cuernavaca. The strange object emitted rays of light for several minutes and then disappeared over the horizon."
Later the same day, at 9 p.m., an AeroMexico Boeing 727 "encountered a strange luminous object along its flight path" between Mexico City and San Luis Potosi. "The Boeing 727's captain radioed the Air Traffic Control Center in Monterrey," capital of the state of Nuevo Leon, "and reported the strange artifact in the skies, according to ufologist Alfredo Salazar."
Monterrey is located 924 kilometers (574 miles) north of Mexico City. (See NotiOVNI for March 10, 2002. Muchas gracias a Daniel Munoz para esas noticias.)
MYSTERY BOOMS AND QUAKE RATTLE RHODE ISLAND
"A small earthquake occurred this morning (Wednesday, March 6, 2002) somewhere under the Narragansett Bay, creating a loud boom heard in Portsmouth (population 4,200), and, more quietly, in several other East Bay communities."
"A magnitude 2.2 earthquake occurred at 6:09 a.m. and had an epicenter under the bay about a mile or two (1.6 to 3.2 kilometers) off the coast of Warwick (population 85,808), according to John Ebel, a professor of geophysics at Boston College and director of the college's Weston Observatory."
"'The typical reports you get from a magnitude 2.2 are that people will hear a boom or a sound of an explosion coming from below,' Ebel said. He said that a tremor of this size is usually felt only a few miles away."
"'Unless you were right on top of the epicenter, you would not most likely be woken up,' Ebel said."
"He and local police said the most complaints of noise came from Aquidneck Island community of Portsmouth across the Bay from the West Bay city of Warwick, as well as other Aquidneck Island communities up to Bristol."
(Editor's Note: And here's the mystery, readers. Warwick is directly across the bay from Bristol. Portsmouth is nearly 20 miles to the southeast. If the epiceter was right offshore from Warwick, then why was the boom louder in Portsmouth than it was in nearby Bristol?)
"He said that in the last twenty years there have been three or four earthquakes of this size in the bay area."
"'It's just a small earthquake,' he said, 'that reminds us we have earthquake activity in the Northeast.'" (See the Providence, R.I. Journal for March 6, 2002, "Small earthquake a wakeup call for East Bay residents." Many thanks to Mary Lou Jones-Drown for forwarding the newspaper article.)
(Editor's Note: One shoreline village in Warwick is called Pawtuxet. Yes, that's the same Pawtuxet where Simon Orne of Salem Witchcraft infamy reared his seaside farmhouse in The Curious Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft.
Maybe the "earthquake" was great Cthulu rolling over in bed in R'lyeh, the weird underground realm beneath Narragansett Bay. And when in Providence, be sure to visit the Shunned House on College Hill and Throop Alley, that crooked eldritch little lane just off South Main Street, four blocks south of the Old Statehouse. Your best bet is to walk through the alley during daylight when the Throop, that "weird, gelid, croaking obscenity," isn't home.)
STIGMATIC PRIEST MAKES AN APPEARANCE IN BROOKLYN
"The young Croat-born cleric known as 'the Stigmatic Priest' is due at a Bensonhurst church" in the Brooklyn borough of New York City "next week and the pastor says he's getting nervous."
"'We're getting a lot of calls,' said Monsignor David Cassato, pastor of St. Athanasius (Roman Catholic) Church. 'Everyone wants to meet him and have him pray over them because of his giftedness. I hear he brings in very big crowds.'"
"The Rev. Zlatko Sudac, 31, has attracted large audiences since he arrived on a Mass tour of the (New York City) metropolitan area more than five months ago."
"Last month (February 2002) thousands went to Our Lady of Pompeii Church in Greenwich Village (in NYC's Manhattan borough--J.T.) where Sudac celebrated two Masses instead of the one that had been scheduled."
"Sudac claims to have supernatural gifts, including stigmata, or marks, on his body that resemble those on the body of Jesus Christ when he was crucified. The priest claims that the marks bleed spontaneously and that he can heal, levitate, be in two places at once (also known as bilocation--J.T.) and know the future."
"Sudac does not give interviews, but the Rev. Giordano Belanich, a priest in the Newark (New Jersey) Archdiocese said Sudac received the stigmata on his forehead in 1999, a year after his ordination, and other (supernatural) gifts followed soon after."
"Msgr. Cassato said, 'I heard about him just recently. A friend who knew of his work called and asked if I would be interested in having him come to our church. I said, 'Of course.' I think it will be a nice Lenten reflection to have a spiritual uplift for all of us.'"
"Msgr. Cassato said he had not met Sudac but did not question accounts of the stigmata. 'It's a gift,' he said, 'It's a very unusual, extraordinary gift that has been given at times in our church history--to St. Francis of Assissi, to Padre Pio.'"
(Editor's Note: Padre Pio's birth name was Francesco Forginone.)
"The Catholic Church has permitted Sudac to continue his tour until May, when he returns to his homeland (Croatia) but has remained silent about his sensational claims."
Father Sudac will be saying Mass at St. Athanasius Church on Thursday, March 14, 2002. (See the New York Daily News for March 7, 2002, "Stigmatic priest has church buzzing." Many thanks to Greg Miller for forwarding this newspaper article.)
READER FEEDBACK:
THAT'S WYE MOUNTAIN, JOE.
Daniel Williams writes, "I respectfully request a change of a few things in the Bigelow, Arkansas report. The mountain's correct name is WYE Mountain. The object was 400 feet above the ground, not 1,000 feet. We studied all things and came to the conclusion that Wye Mountain is 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Little Rock (state capital of Arkansas--J.T.). Bless you and your work. I am a changed person after seeing that. We need more people like you. Thanks again." (See UFO Roundup, volume 7, number 6, "Slow-moving UFO sighted in Bigelow, Arkansas." page 3)
ALIEN CARRIER OR MAN-MADE HOAX?
Jerry Shifman writes, "Joe, this is not a new phenomenon. In a video I have about the many sightings in Mexico near the time of the eclipse a few years back, there is a good shot of this. The object was definitely a worm-like transparent tube, within which could be seen roundish balls. My best guess is that a bunch of silver Mylar balloons were packed into a mesh stocking of some sort and sent aloft. Many of the 'UFOs' on the video could easily have been such balloons."
"Thanks for your work with UFO Roundup." (See UFO Roundup, volume 7, number 10, "Silver-sphere UFOs rule the sky in Mexico City," page 5.)
From the UFO Files...
1972: LARGE SAUCER VISITS EASTERN AUSTRALIA
"My father, Mr. W.F. (Bill) Gilroy, never believed in the existence of UFOs. That was until the night of 1st March 1972. The time was 10 p.m. as he lay in his bed looking out of the bedroom window of our (then) north Katoomba (in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales--J.T.) home, facing west."
"At that moment he was surprised by a large saucer-shaped silver glowing object which seemed to pass quickly and silently over our house toward the west, disappearing in seconds."
"The night was misty and there was a very low cloud cover, which meant the strange craft had passed very close to ground level."
"Regrettably, I did not see the craft as I was seated in the lounge room watching television (which at that moment suffered bad interference for a few seconds.) No sooner had my father seen the strange object than he got out of bed and told me what he had seen. He said that although he had never before believed in 'flying saucers,' he believed in them now!"
"Over the next few days I received a number of other reports of what appeared to have been the same object, from people on the lower (eastern) Blue Mountains and as far west as Bathurst and Orange." (See the book Mysterious Australia by Rex Gilroy, Nexus Publishing, Mapleton, Qlnd., Australia, 1995, page 9.)
Well, that's it for this week. Join us in seven days for more UFO, Fortean and paranormal news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you then.
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 2002 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 issue in which the item first appeared.
