UFO ROUNDUP Volume 7 Number 44
Volume 7
Number 44
October 29th, 2002
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
UFO ATTACKS A CAR IN SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA
"Purnim grandmother Sue Sharples can't explain the metallic object she saw in the sky yesterday (Friday, October 18, 2002)."
"She also has no idea where the rear windscreen of the vehicle she was driving has gone."
"Mrs. Sharples said yesterday she was driving with her husband along Mortlake Road on the northern side of Warrnambool," Victoria state, Australia "when the couple noticed the shiny object above the vehicle."
"Their baby grandson was in a cupola (carseat in the USA--J.T.) in the back seat."
"Mrs. Sharples said that after a few fleeting glances they noticed the rear windscreen disappear upwards after it seemed to have been 'sucked from' the car."
"She admits their story is 'absolutely unbelievable' but that the proof lies with the vehicle's missing window."
"'There is not a scratch on the car. Nothing,' she said."
"Two searches of the area failed to locate the missing (car) window."
"The couple's son-in-law phoned police in case someone had been hurt by the projectile."
"Experts from the (automotive firm) Windscreens O'Brien can't explain how the window could have disappeared."
"After inspecting the car, a spokesman said the window could not have been kicked out and there was no sign (that) it had been cut free."
"The seal was still attached, and there was no glass splintering, he said."
"The windscreen was fitted to the 1994 Toyota earlier this year (2002)."
"'How can you say what something is when you have never seen one before?' she said, 'It's just absolutely amazing.'"
While the Sharples UFO case made headlines in Melbourne, Australian ufologist Ken Johnstone is running down a report of a rumored abduction that took place in Victoria state the very same night, Friday, October 18, 2002.
The report concerns "a missing person--a woman, I'm told--and there is a full-scale investigation now up and running. It occurred on (Friday) 18th October 2002 at 8:22 p.m. on the road just out of Bendigo, Vic. The witness was in a car following the missing person. The car went missing at the time of the encounter," Johnstone reported, "The car has been found, but the driver's location is still not clarified."
Warrnambool, Vic. is about 220 kilometers (132 miles) west of Melbourne, the state capital. Bendigo, Vic. is 200 kilometers (120 miles) north-northwest of Melbourne. (See the Australian newspaper The Standard for October 19, 2002, "UFO encounter: Car's rear window 'sucked out,'" page 6. Many thanks to Diane Harrison and the Australian UFO Research Network for the Bendigo report.)
(Editor's Comment: And welcome to Target: Australia Week at UFO Roundup. All of a sudden, the aliens are showing a keen interest in the island continent.)
FLASHING UFO SEEN BY TWO IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA
On Saturday, October 19, 2002, at 10 p.m., Dr. Patrick Crawford and his wife, Allison, were outdoors at their home in Augusta, in the state of Western Australia, when they noticed something odd in the sky.
Dr. Crawford reported, "From about 10 p.m., for three hours, my wife and I watched an object travel slowly across the sky in an east-southeast to north direction. It was brighter than any star or planet and appeared to be flattened rather than spherical or a point. It appeared to rotate with colours visible--red, white and green. We have no explanation. The sky was almost clear with almost a full moon."
Augusta, W.A. is on Cape Leeuwin, about 180 kilometers (108 miles) south of Perth, the state capital. (Email Form Report)
MYSTERIOUS BLUE FLASHES SEEN IN EASTERN SPAIN
On Saturday, October 12, 2002, between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m., Pablo and Rosa Perez were "driving on National Highway 340 in the vicinity of Molins de Rei," near Barcelona in northeastern Spain.
"As we drove our car toward Barcelona," Pablo reported, "all of the lights along the highway turned off as the horizon became filled with a strange blue light. One second later, the lights came on again, and two smaller flashes occurred, having the same shade of blue. We thought it was an explosion and telephoned the police, but no explanation was forthcoming."
"There were many more cars (on the road--S.C.) and we are sure we weren't the only ones who witnessed the event," Rosa added. (Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Jordi Adanuy para eso informe.)
(Editor's Comment: We're not finished with blue beams yet. Check out this issue's stories from Chile and Pennsylvania.)
UFO PHOTOGRAPHED IN SOUTHERN FRANCE
On Tuesday, October 15, 2002, Brazilian ufologist Leandro da Silva was reading the daily edition of the newspaper Noticias Restreador and happened to turn to the Ultimo Segundo photo page. His gaze casually passed over an Agence France Presse wirephoto showing a heavy storm at a beach in southern France. Then he did a double-take, peered again closely at the photo, and then reached for his pocket magnifying glass.
"The photo shows a thunderstorm on the coast of France," da Silva reported, and the photo "shows in intriguing detail a UFO calmly crossing the sky during a storm."
"It was a stroke of luck," he added, "I don't always visit this section of the page. Upon looking at the images, I noticed the object in a photo of southern France. The thing could be a UFO or not, but since I was unable to find a reasonable explanation for it, I decided to send it to Noticias Restreador since I believe that, as they are in the UFO field, they would have a better chance of unravelling the mystery."
The Brazilian newspaper's editorial staff "tried to contact Agence France Presse, who holds the rights to the image, but did not obtain any reply." (Many thanks to Scott Corrales and Guillermo Gimenez for this report.)
(Editor's Comment: Perhaps one of our readers in France can obtain the AFP wirephoto from their local newspaper. Especially if the newspaper is still lying around the house. If you find the wirephoto, please email the image to UFO Roundup, and we will display it in UFO INFO's Photo Gallery.)
STUDENT SEES A HOVERING UFO IN COPENHAGEN
On Monday, October 21, 2002, student Karim Rashdi "observed something very unusual from my window in Copenhagen," the capital of Denmark.
"At 2 a.m., I accidentally looked out my (apartment) window and saw what I assumed to be the North Star (Polaris--J.T.), but it was hovering way too high in the sky to be connected with the trajectory (path of the actual star--J.T.)," he reported, "Sometimes it seemed very close, and sometimes far away (outer atmosphere--K.R.) At first I thought it was moving, but, in fact, it was not. But I compared its movements to the other star constellations, and they had moved away from each other."
(Editor's Note: The object was not traveling in the same path as the stars' nightly rotation but at an oblique angle to the other stars.)
"I am perfectly willing to accept a rational and logical explanation. I don't know what it was. I just want to know what it was." (Email Form Report)
ORANGE UFO SIGHTED IN SINGAPORE
On Saturday, October 19, 2002, at 7:45 p.m., Muhammad Ridhwan Bin Ibrahim was outdoors between Municipal Blocks 638 and 639 in the Southeast Asian island city of Singapore when he sighted an unusual glow in the sky.
"I was facing east, viewing the stars and the moon," Muhammad reported, "And then I saw the object moving to the south. It was orange and shaped like a ball or a circle. It was fairly luminous. I had the strange object in view for two minutes before it disappeared behind the southern horizon." (Email Form Report)
UFOs FIRE BLUE BEAMS IN ANGOL, CHILE
"The city of Angol in Chile's Ninth Region has recorded a number of UFO cases in recent years. One of the most important cases occurred on (Wednesday) September 18, 2002."
"According to the report," which was compiled by Chilean ufologist Raul Gajardo, "a well-known local businessman" in Angol "saw a fuchsia-colored object firing a blue beam of light. Then another object appeared. From this last one, which fired a similar blue beam, three objects of the same (fuchsia) color were clustering around it. Then all of them 'turned off' except for the first object. He said this process occurred ten times and (he) later managed to photograph the objects with a powerful zoom lens."
"In spite of the fact that the witness took over 70 photos, the UFOs appeared in only four of them."
"The very same day, two functionaries of a local radio station and two security guards also witnessed 'a red object' in the sky" over Angol the relative size of a ping-pong ball (held at arm's length--S.C.)"
Angol is located 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of Santiago de Chile, the national capital. (Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y J.J. Lopez para eso informe.)
(Editor's Note: Angol has been the site of an ongoing UFO flap for nearly two years now. For more on sightings in the city, see UFO Roundup, volume 7, number 22 for May 28, 2002, "Abductee comes forward in Angol, Chile," page 3.)
WOMAN VIDEOTAPES UFOs IN HARRAH, OKLAHOMA
On Wednesday, October 16, 2002, at 2 a.m., eyewitness S. Smith spotted "a light that flashes blue, white and red and hangs in the east-southeast sky" in Harrah, Oklahoma (population 4,719).
"It was there for a while in the night sky, and then it just disappeared," she reported, "I finally decided to film it a few nights ago (October 16, 2002--J.T.) I filmed for 15 minutes."
"When I brought it (the videotape) in and plugged it into the TV, and did a frame-by-frame view of the object, enlarged onscreen. I was amazed. What I could not see with the naked eye was 9 balls of light all lined up in a row."
"Then the next frame showed a triangle of three balls of light. Then a shape that resembled a saucer. Then several more balls of light lined up in a row. Each frame had a brilliant glow of beautiful colors in a halo around these lights."
"My son gave me a possible explanation that the thing is spinning faster than the camera can film at the moment."
Harrah, Okla. is on Highway 62 approximately 27 miles (43 kilometers) east of Oklahoma City. (Email Form Report)
UFO VIDEOTAPED IN UPSTATE NEW YORK
On Saturday, October 19, 2002, FOX News aired a startling video showing an oblong UFO in flight near the international airport in Albany (population 95,658), the capital of New York state.
The FOX voiceover stated, "A strange sight in the skies over the Capital Region. No one knows just what it was. But it was enough to have the FBI scrambling to take a look."
"One of our videographers was shooting (video of) a plane taking off from the Albany International Airport at the same time the strange object streaked through the sky. It was moving so fast, he didn't even see it, until he played his tape in slow motion."
"We're told the object did not show up on radar."
The UFO was described as "long, slender, with two sets of small wings."
Local resident J.R., who witnessed the broadcast, said, "It was faster than any aircraft I have seen. It was so fast, it was only on the screen for four frames. The local weather guy said it was at an altitude of 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) based on the type of cloud it flew through."
Albany is on the Hudson River approximately 153 miles (244 kilometers) north of New York City.
Earlier in the week, on Sunday, October 13, 2002, in mid-afternoon, a man saw a UFO in Tivoli, N.Y. (population 1,163). He reported, "It was a flying saucer. It was grey in color. It came out from behind a small cloud. I was frozen. I couldn't believe it. It was very high up."
Tivoli, N.Y. is on the east bank of the Hudson River approximately 53 miles (85 kilometers) south of Albany and 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of New York City. (Email Form Reports. Also Channel 6 news report for October 28, 2002. Many thanks to Mary Lou Jones-Drown for the Channel 6 transcript.)
SOLITARY HIKER SEES A UFO IN PENNSYLVANIA
On Sunday, October 20, 2002, the male witness "was hiking in the woods on Ice Mountain near" Tyrone, Pa. (population 5,528). "The man had stayed out longer than expected that day. He estimated that it was about 7:30 p.m. as he was walking back to his vehicle, when he noticed a bright light south of his location, moving towards him in a northerly direction."
"His first impression is that it was an airplane. The light appeared similar to the brightness of a small aircraft (navigational) light when first observed. He then noticed that the light suddenly stopped, then began to pulsate and appear to brighten and dim. The witness then noticed a faint haze that was orange-red in color and which had encircled the object."
"The pulsating pattern of the light began to increase, and it started to flicker very rapidly. The light became much brighter as it pulsated. Suddenly, a thin beam of very bright blue-white light was emitted from the bottom of the object to the ground."
"The witness points out that this was not an ordinary searchlight. He stated, 'This was no searchlight. Even a well-focused spotlight tends to diffuse with distance, but this light was a light beam from top to bottom. Imagine a piece of dental floss held at arm's length, and you'll have a good idea of the beam's apparent width (as seen) from my location.'"
"The object at first appeared to be circular in shape and orange-red in color. When the object stopped moving and began pulsating, it seemed more oval or egg-shaped."
"The object continued to hover in the sky, and the witness ran to his vehicle, which was 100 yards (90 meters) away, to get his Olympus digital camera. The witness took one photograph as the object hovered, then a second picture just as the object was beginning to move slowly in a tight circle."
"As the man prepared to take a third photo, the object 'suddenly shot straight up in the air at fantastic speed and was gone from sight.' The sky condition at the time was described as partly cloudy. The witness estimates that the total incident lasted five minutes or less...he estimated that he was about a quarter-mile (400 meters) away, and it (the UFO) was 1,000 feet (300 meters) in altitude."
"'I don't know what this thing was,'" the witness said, "'I've never seen anything like it before.'"
Tyrone, Pa. is on Route 483 in the Appalachian Mountains, approximately 15 miles (25 kilometers) north of Altoona and about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Pittsburgh. (Many thanks to Stan Gordon of Pennsylvania UFO/Fortean Hotline for this report.)
UFOs ENCOUNTERED AT HUNGRY HILL, B.C.
Hungry Hill, a lonely peak in the northern region of Canada's British Columbia province, has been the site of two UFO encounters during October.
The first incident took place on Tuesday, October 8, 2002 at 9:45 p.m. As Canadian ufologist Brian Vike reported, "a resident from Telkwa, B.C. was heading to work (graveyard shift--B.V.) at one of our local sawmills when he spotted, in his words, 'an object shaped like a piece of pie.'"
"He also said it had three white lights (one on) each of the corners, or 'fins' as he put it. When his eyes caught it, he turned into a pull-out area (a highway rest area or rest stop in the USA--J.T.) at the top of Hungry Hill," located 15 miles (25 kilometers) west of Houston, B.C., "mainly to see what it was going to do."
"He also said the object sat and hovered in one place, approximately 200 feet (60 meters) up from the base of Grouse Mountain, and did not make a sound that he could hear. He said the UFO was black and estimated its size as being '40 feet (12 meters) across.'"
"He watched the object move off in a westerly direction towards Quick and Telkwa, B.C. The witness said he had had enough, as it bothered him, and got back into his vehicle and got out of the area quickly."
On Thursday, October 17, 2002, at 8:30 p.m., "an older couple were on their way home to Topley, B.C., 13 miles (22 kilometers) east of Houston, from shopping in Smithers, B.C. They were coming up Hungry Hill (which has a long, steep grade--B.V.) when one of the witnesses saw a green/red flashing. She said it would flash from red to green, then green to red."
"She said to her husband, 'Do you see what I see?'"
"He said, 'Yes, I do!'"
"They both said the object moved slowly above the treeline near the top of the hill. She said it would stop, hover, continue moving slowly, then disappear. As they drove along, the object reappeared--just above the treetops, and then moved across the highway in front of them and again came to a complete stop."
"At this point, they stopped their car and just watched the strange object, moving back and forth across the highway, still just above treetop level. Before the object left the location, it started trailing 'sparkly stuff' behind it, which shot out approximately 100 to 200 feet (30 to 60 meters), and left in a northeasterly direction, which would have been towards Grouse Mountain."
"The object was circular in shape, and both witnesses said there was no noise or interference with their car radio. One witness said the object was the size of 'old satellite dishes.' (An old C-band satellite dish is 10 to 12 feet (3 to 3.7 meters) in diameter--B.V.)." (Many thanks to Brian Vike for these reports.)
RED SPHERICAL UFO SEEN IN RIO LINDA, CALIFORNIA
On Saturday, October 19, 2002, Janice Bailey "went out at 8:56 p.m.," and while outside her home in Rio Linda, California (population 10,466), "looked northeast and saw a large red ball of fire about the size of the full moon not moving for about five seconds. The object did not seem to be moving, just hovering in one spot. Seemed to be bright red and round like the full moon and about the same size at 30 degrees above the horizon. The object just seemed to go invisible or to disappear behind the trees."
Rio Linda, Cal. is 8 miles (13 kilometers) north of Sacramento, the state capital. (Email Form Report)
(Editor's Note: This is the second sighting report UFO Roundup has received from the Sacramento area. Two weeks ago, a UFO was spotted in Walnut Creek, Cal. For more information, see UFO Roundup, volume 7, number 42 for October 15, 2002, "California woman catches a UFO on videotape," page 2.)
LARGE PLANET FOUND ORBITING DOUBLE STAR
"University of Texas astronomers have confirmed that a planet orbits one of a pair of stars 45 light-years (260 trillion miles or 416 trillion kilometers--J.T.) away. It is the first discovery of an 'extrasolar' planet in a binary star system where the two stars orbit each other closely."
"Such binary systems are common in the galaxy."
"'When you look at the stars in the sky, every other one of them is a double star or a multiple star,' said Canadian astronomer Gordon Walker. Planets have been found in binary star systems before, but in those cases the two stars were separated by a distance of at least 100 times greater than in this case."
"If a planet can form in a close binary system, without getting tossed out of orbit by the secondary star, then extrasolar planets might be more common in the universe than previously believed, Walker said."
"The star in question is known as Gamma Cephei, or Errai, which is the third-brightest star in the constellation Cepheus the King. Gamma Cephei has a dim companion star that orbits from 1 billion to 3 billion miles (1.6 to 4.8 billion kilometers) away; at most, that places the two stars as far apart as (our) sun and Neptune."
"The newfound planet orbits Gamma Cephei at an average distance of 200 million miles (320 million kilometers) or about twice the distance between (our) sun and the Earth. The planet is nearly twice as massive as Jupiter and takes about two years to go around its star."
"Gamma Cephei is the brightest star other than (our) sun known to have a planet, said William Cochran of the University of Texas, who led the research team. The star is about 3 billion years old, a bit younger than (our) 4.6-billion-year-old sun. But Gamma Cephei is more massive than the sun, so it will burn through its nuclear fuel sooner and die."
"Astronomers don't know whether the planet might have formed around Gamma Cephei, as the Earth did around the sun, or whether it might have been captured from elsewhere in space. But its near-circular orbit suggests that it may have formed in place, Walker said."
"And that could mean Gamma Cephei's planet would be a good place to search for extraterrestrial life. It could be at the right distance for water, considered a prerequisite for life to exist, without boiling away or freezing. Although the planet itself is probably a gas giant like Jupiter, it could have rocky moons that support life, Cochran said." (See the Duluth, Minn. News-Tribune for October 27, 2002, "Planet discovered orbiting one star in a binary system," page 18A.)
From the UFO Files...
1974: CLOSE ENCOUNTER IN AVELEY, ESSEX, UK
It all began on October 27, 1974 when, "after visiting relatives, the Days were on their way back home, with two (younger) children," Karen and Stuart, "sleeping in the backseat, and the oldest, Kevin, listening to the radio."
Suddenly, their parents, John and Susan Day, found their attention "drawn to a blue oval light that first paced their car and then passed in front of them. At about 10:10 p.m., and close to home, the Days lost sight of the object behind some high bushes on the right-hand side of the road."
"But suddenly the Days felt that something was wrong. The sound of their car (engine) vanished, and the radio crackled and smoked. Then, just before their headlights went out, they spotted a block of green mist on the road just ahead of them."
"The car jerked as it entered the mist. And, after what seemed like a moment of silence and coldness, it (the car) emerged. A few minutes later, they arrived home."
"But it was 1 a.m., nearly three hours later than it should have been."
"Under hypnosis three years later, John Day revealed that, while in the green mist, his family and their car had been teleported up a column of light into a craft, where they underwent medical examinations at the hands of a couple of four-foot (1.3-meter) tall beings wearing loose white gowns."
"These neckless and slightly hunched-over creatures had animal-like faces with large triangular eyes and large pointed ears. Short fur covered all their visible body parts, and their hands had four clawed digits (fingers). Occasionally the creatures made chirping noises."
(Editor's Note: I've seen a sketch of these particular aliens. They have a strong resemblance to the alien character, Blastaar, in the Fantastic Four comic book.)
"These beings seemed subservient to another set of beings aboard the ship, who stood about six and a half feet (2 meters) tall and wore suits that covered their hands and formed hoods over their heads. Though their mouths and ears were not visible, they looked nearly human, with the exception of their pink eyes."
(Editor's Note: Reptoids have been reported to wear voluminous hooded robes. See UFO Roundup, volume 6, number 2 for January 10, 2001, "1985: Reptoid Hall," page 7.)
"These taller beings seemed to run the show and escorted John and Sue on a tour of their three-level craft. During this tour, the Days were given an explanation of the ship's propulsion system and shown a holographic movie of space that included the destruction of the aliens' home planet by pollution."
"The car and family were then returned to a spot on the road about half a mile (0.8 kilometers) from where they had been abducted. The family members reportedly underwent some major personality changes in the months following their encounter." (See the book The Field Guide to Extraterrestrials by Patrick Huyghe, Avon Books, New York, N.Y., 1996, pages 72 and 73. See also Flying Saucer Review, volume 23, number 6 for April 1978, pages 13 to 25; and volume 24, number 1 for June 1978, pages 5 to 15.)
Well, that's it for this week. Several months ago--to be precise, on March 31, 2002, at a UFO conclave in Rancagua, Chile, a strange blue force field called a Xendra appeared. Twenty-five ufologists entered the field, where they reportedly met bald extraterrestrials wearing robes. The aliens told them that there would soon be more and more UFO sightings in "the Southern Zone," i.e. Earth's southern hemisphere.
You can call them names, if you please, but you cannot call them liars. Judging from what we've seen in the southern hemisphere since last March--cattle mutilations and UFOs in Argentina and Uruguay, the present flap in Australia--the aliens weren't bluffing. Will Australia continue to be a target? Find out next week in "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you in seven days!
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 2002 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO Roundup on their Websites and 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.
