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Subj: UFO ROUNDUP, Volume 2, Number 12
Date: 97-03-23 12:28:08 EST
From: Masinaigan
To: Ndunlks
UFO ROUNDUP
Volume 2, Number 12
March 23, 1997
Editor: Joseph Trainor
ARIZONA REPORTS KEEP
POURING IN
Researchers have been flooded with reports in
the wake of last week's big UFO flap in Arizona.
People claiming to have seen glowing orange
spheres and triangular UFOs over Phoenix, Tempe,
Prescott, Glendale and Tucson the evening of
March 13, 1997 number in the thousands.
On Monday, March 17, 1997, Channel 10 in
Phoenix aired a videotape of a large cylindrical
UFO with 8 lights.
In Tucson, eyewitnesses reported four bright
lights coming from the northwest and heading
southeast. (See the Prescott, Arizona Daily
Courier for March 14, 1997 "UFO Sightings in
PV, Other Areas.")
In Glendale (population 96,988), orange globes
hovered over a suburban neighborhood for two hours,
from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. People were "looking up at
what they said were orange balls of light. They were
very scared...In fact, my 80-year-old father-in-law was
shouting on the phone at one point. My wife and I
did what we could to calm him down and let him
know what we had tried to tell him about UFOs over
the years," Billy Dee of Wisconsin reported.
On Tuesday, March 18, the Arizona Republic ran
a story on the flap. According to reporter Susie
Steckner, the "first call came from former police
officers who spotted" the UFOs "near Paulden, north
of Prescott, in Yavapai County."
"The bright orange-red lights formed the shape of
a boomerang...with a larger grouping in the lead, followed
by a single light."
Shortly after 8 p.m., calls came flooding in from
Prescott, Prescott Valley, Dewey, Chris Valley,
Glendale and Phoenix.
"Tim MacDonald, 11, was leaving his Cub Scout
meeting in Phoenix when he saw the bizarre object.
'It looked like a Stealth bomber,' he said, 'It was in a
triangle shape and had three lights. It was moving very
slowly. It was there for two or three minutes...When it
disappeared, I thought it was a UFO.'" (See the Arizona
Republic for March 18, 1997.)
During its 5 p.m. newcast on March 17, Channel 12
in Phoenix stated that the glowing orange spheres seen
March 13 over the Gila River Indian Reservation south of
the city were "military flares." The announcer reportedly
said, "The strange lights over Phoenix were explained
as an anti-aircraft experiment in a military area 50 miles
(80 kilometers) south of Phoenix."
Lt. Col. Mike Hauser, USAF, a spokesman for Luke
Air Force Base, told the Arizona Republic: "Everybody is
telling us we have UFOs stashed all over the Air Force.
I'm not taking issue with what people saw (but) lots of
things can make lights."
On Wednesday, March 19, videographer Tom King
and a group of ufologists went to the state park at South
Mountain, just south of Phoenix, hoping to catch more
UFOs on tape. But park rangers ordered the group off
the mountain at 9:30 p.m.
"To our surprise, we were hustled out of the park
early," King reported. "The park usually closes at 11 p.m.
We were told to leave at 9:24. The park rangers were
storming up the peak and announced over the loudspeaker,
'The park is closed. Leave now. The park is closed.
Leave while you can.'" (Many thanks to Bill Hamilton,
Errol Bruce-Knapp, Tom King, Billy Dee and Steve
Wilson, Jr. for this story.)
GUNSHIPS CHASE THREE UFOs
OVER WEST VIRGINIA
On Tuesday, March 11, 1997, at 6:30 p.m., which
was the second night of the UFO flap in Phoenix, three
orange spheres appeared over the south bank of the
Kanawha River, in the South Hills section of
Charleston, West Virginia.
Patricia J. Blake and her nine-year-old daughter
were on Oakwood Road in South Hills when they
sighted the objects. "The first light was coming down
towards the woods vertically," Mrs. Blake said, "It was
very orange and had a long trail behind it. Two other
lights of the same description were also coming down,
also with tails behind them. The first one was now in
the middle and seemed to slow down at one point."
Mrs. Blake said the three UFOs were arrayed
like this:
0 0
0
"Then all three appeared to stay in this position
for a few minutes, the larger moving rather slowly to
our right. When we first saw them, they were maybe
45 degrees above the horizon (and then) came down
to a much lower angle, I would say 25 degrees."
Mrs. Blake estimated that the UFOs hovered over
a wooded area south of Route 61 and west of Route 119.
"The lights darted to the west, somewhat southwest,
hovered at the second site for 8 to 10 minutes," she
added. "It was still daylight and the sky was nearly
cloudless." The UFOs then sped away.
At 6:45 p.m., four C-130 Air National Guard planes
flew across the Kanawha River, heading southwest in
the same direction as the orange UFOs. Mrs. Blake
said she believes the planes came from Yeager Field
airport, northeast of Charleston. (Email Interview)
ORANGE GLOBES REPORTED
OVER QUEBEC AND VERMONT
In addition to Arizona and West Virginia, "orange
sphere" UFOs were also seen over Quebec. Since
Friday, March 14, the ufological group CEIPI has
interviewed 24 eyewitnesses.
Most of the sightings took place over Breckenridge,
a small town on the north shore of the Ottawa River
near Aylemer (population 25,724), just west of
Canada's capital city, Ottawa.
On Friday, March 14, shortly before 8 p.m., a
glowing orange light was seen over Breckenridge.
Shortly after 8, a man in Gatineau, Quebec
(population 73,479) eight miles (12 kilometers)
north of Ottawa, saw "a definite orange light."
At 8:45 p.m., another man "saw the same thing
but a little more yellow" over the Parc de la Gatineau,
along the Ottawa River.
On Saturday, March 15, at 10:15 p.m., a total of
10 eyewitnesses told CEIPI that they saw "an unknown
object" hovering close to the ice on the Ottawa River.
The UFO had six arrays of white light and appeared
in the same place in the Parc de la Gatineau off
Route 148 as the previous night.
On Monday, March 17, at 9:50 p.m., another ten
witnesses saw "a very brilliant and strong" aerial
light glowing behind the mountain at Breckenridge.
According to Jean Casault of CEIPI, the Aylmer
police reportedly told his group that the lights were
"military flares" being lit on the firing range at CFB
Connaught, near Ottawa.
Meanwhile, below the border, radio buff Tony
O'Neill switched on his BC860XLT 100-channel
12-band Uniden Bearcat scanner. At 7:20 p.m. on
Monday, March 17, he picked up an intriguing
exchange between Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs)
and six jetliner pilots.
The pilots were talking to the ATCs in Albany,
New York and Burlington, Vermont, he said. "One
pilot radioed 'A bright light approached us, went
vertical and dropped into the horizon.'"
The pilot asked both ATCs to confirm his
position, and they did--the jetliner was 30 miles
(48 kilometers) east of Burlington or 150 miles
(240 kilometers) northeast of Albany. That puts
the UFO over the forest area just south of
Hardwick, Vermont (population 1,476)
Six pilots discussed the sighting with the
towers, O'Neill said, describing the UFO as
having "fire coming out of the back and left or
made a contrail." Controllers asked the pilots
if they would be willing to file a report. Some said
yes and were given the phone number of the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) center in Nashua, New
Hampshire. (Email Interview)
(Many thanks to Jean Casault and Helene Dupont
of CEIPI for this report.)
ANOTHER MYSTERY OBJECT
SEEN IN FLORIDA KEYS
At 6:30 a.m. on January 24, 1997, Sherry Howell
and her husband left Key West to drive back to their
home in Florida. As they drove north on Route 1, a
thunderstorm crowded the western horizon over the
Gulf of Mexico. At 7:30 a.m., just north of Marathon
(population 1,500), "we were crossing a bridge when
I saw the first one," Sherry reported. "Then I saw what
seemed to be a cloud...it developed into an object like
the first only much lower on the horizon and much
closer to the highway."
While her husband drove, Sherry snapped some
photos of both objects. "The (second) object was no
more than a half-mile from us. The other was much
higher in the sky and so it was more difficult to estimate
distance. Both objects were silvery gray."
She estimated that the more distant UFO was "the
size of a man's thumbnail at arm's length" while the
closer one was "larger than a bus."
"The front of the larget object had a darker gray
front," she said, "It reminded me of the front of a
microwave (oven). Neither object moved while we were
observing them."
Mrs. Howell sent her roll of film to a developer.
But the finished photos showed only the dark overcast
sky--not the objects. (Email Interview)
FAST FLYBY ON FRANCE'S
MEDITERRANEAN SHORE
On Monday, March 17, 1997, at 9:04 a.m., "a bright
streak" appeared in the sky over Montpellier, a seaport
city on the Mediterranean midway between Nimes and
Narbonne. The object was seen by commuters driving
to work and by mothers dropping off their children at
school. Witnesses described the UFO as "moving
very fast from the northeast to the southeast."
The UFOs semi-circular flight path was confirmed
by the pilot of an Air France jetliner, who spotted the
object at 30,000 feet over Montpellier. "The phenomenon
disappeared very quickly." (Many thanks to SOS OVNI
for this report.)
UFO ZAPS TEENAGED GIRL IN
PUNTA ARENAS, CHILE
On or about February 25, 1997, teenager Maria
Amparo Galvez was walking home from school in her
hometown of Puerto Arenas, at the southern tip of
Chile, when a glowing UFO suddenly appeared.
According to Carlos Munoz, an investigator for
Agrupacion de Investigaciones Ovniologicas (AION),
Maria ran away and "was hit in the back by many
small balls of light--flashes that peppered her back."
Maria remembers nothing else of the strange
incident except "waking up at another location
four hours later."
On February 24, 1997, an odd "ring-shaped OVNI"
(Spanish acronym for UFO) was seen hovering above
Lago (Lake) de Rapel in the Andes.
The following day, February 25, 1997, Fuerzas
Aereas de Chile's (Chilean Air Force's) crack aerobatics
team, Los Halcones, was performing at an air show in
Pucon when a UFO slipped into the restricted airspace.
"The object was ring-like," AION reported, "It looked
like a ring of smoke but very bright. It turned on its axis
and left the area very slowly (about 60 mph), moving
east. The object was filmed by two different witnesses,
one of them the air traffic controller at Pucon."
(Many thanks to Luis Sanchez for this story.)
TWO SAUCERS SIGHTED NEAR
AIRPORT IN LIMA, PERU
On Monday, March 17, 1997, at 11 p.m., people
living in Boca Negra, a suburban town at the north end
of Aeropuerto Internacional Jorge Chavez spotted two
disc-shaped UFOs beyond the airport's runway, near
the beach. Boca Negra is 20 kilometers (12 miles)
north of Lima, the capital of Peru.
According to China's Xinhua news agency, about
a dozen witnesses described the UFOs as "saucer-
shaped craft...with multicolored lights flashing
intermittently." The UFOs hovered for several minutes
and then flew away to the northeast. (Many thanks
to Erik S. for this story.)
NEW SIGHTING IN NORTHEAST
CORNER OF BRAZIL
On February 22, 1997, at 4:58 p.m., Messias de
Oliveira was walking through the Bairro de Nordexte
in Aracagi, a town in Brazil's northeastern state of
Joao Pessoa. Aracagi is close to Guarabira, which
has been the focus of a UFO flap that began on
April 4, 1996.
As she walked by the Compostagem bus stop,
she saw "an oval-shaped light, extremely bright,
rising into the air, giving the appearance of being
hidden behind the bus station. It gave off whitish
smoke." At first, Messias "thought it was a teardrop
shaped fireworks display before realizing it was far
stranger than that." She thought, "It's going to fall,"
but "the object continued to rise noiselessly into the
air." She was reportedly "shaken by the experience."
(See the Winter 1997 issue of Samizdat. Muito
obrigado a Scott Corrales para ese.)
T.A.S.K. AND THE SAUCER OF
MADISON COUNTY
On Wednesday, March 12, 1997, at 8 p.m., a huge
"flying disc" estimated to be 100 feet (30 meters) in
diameter, appeared over Mount Sterling, Ohio
(population 1,623), a small town in Madison County
22 miles (35 kilometers) southwest of Columbus.
The saucer was seen by two couples, one at each
end of the town. They estimated that it floated 50
feet (15 meters) off the ground and flew from east to
west. "It was over the town for four and a half minutes.
There was no noise. The departure path was to the
west at a very quick speed."
According to investigator Jim Donohue of Equinox,
the eyewitnesses included a woman age 35, a girl
age 14, a man in his early 70s and another man in
his middle 50s.
The same night, at 9:15 p.m., Ron Schaffner of
Tri-States Advocates of Scientific Knowledge
(T.A.S.K.) received a call from a farmer in Aberdeen
(population 1,600), a town on the Ohio River. The
man reported "a formation of three to five lights"
and the lights "appeared orange or white-red in color.
Three lights in a row, then two on top."
The same farm was visited by a smilar array of
UFO lights the night of October 16, 1996. The UFOs
appeared near the zenith of the barn on Flaugher
Hill Road in Aberdeen. Three T.A.S.K. members,
Kenneth Young, Terry Enders and Dale Farmer,
interviewed the farmer back in October. The group's
investigation in Aberdeen continues. (Many thanks
to Kenneth Young, T.A.S.K. public relations
director, for this story.)
From the UFO Files...
WHERE IS JOAN WILLIAMS?
One of the strangest cases in the annals of the
Lake Michigan Triangle took place 32 years ago
this week.
"She was Joan Williams, 39, a Chicago Heights
(Illinois) schoolteacher who owned a Cessna 170B,
N2522C. She left Wings Airport, Chicago, at noon
on a Saturday morning, March 20, 1965, carrying
fuel sufficient for four hours, 30 minutes. She was
not on a flight plan. She has not been seen since."
"For some reason the case stimulated the
interest of the Chicago newspapers. It stayed in the
headlines for weeks as officials searched vainly for
some evidence of what happened. Virtually everyone
Miss Williams knew was contacted. Her bank records
and personal life were investigated thoroughly on the
chance that the disappearance was intentional. The
lake (Lake Michigan) was combed for some scrap of
wreckage that might solve the mystery."
But the search was in vain. Joan Williams's
Cessna vanished from the FAA radar scope while
the plane was airborne southwest of Ludington,
Michigan. She has not been seen since.
(See THE GREAT LAKES TRIANGLE by Jay Gourley,
Fawcett Gold Medal Books, 1977, pages 164-165)
FUN UFO WEBSITES
Don't miss our parent site, UFO INFO, at this
address: http://www.ftech.net/~ufoinfo/index.htm
Also, back issues of UFO ROUNDUP can be
found at http://www.ftech.net/~ufoinfo/roundup.hts
That's it for this week. Look for more saucer news
next weekend from..."the paper that goes home,
UFO ROUNDUP."
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1997 by Masinaigan
Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post
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