- UFOs CAUSE TWO MORE
BLACKOUTS IN BARILOCHE, ARGENTINA
-
- Two more unexplained power failures blacked
out Bariloche last week at the same time people reported seeing UFOs passing
overhead. The city, also known as San Carlos de Bariloche, is a popular
resort in the Andes of Argentina. Located on the south shore of Lago (Lake)
Nahuel Huapi, the city is about 1,040 kilometers (650 miles) southwest
of Buenos Aires. The first in the series of inexplicable blackouts took
place Sunday, April 12, 1998 when witnesses reported seeing two UFOs "fuse
together" over Cerro Carbon (hill). On Tuesday night, April 14, 1998,
"a great part of the city was totally darkened." Cooperativa
Electricidade de Bariloche (CEB), the city's power company, traced the
source of the blackout to the transmission lines along the Avenida Bustico
near the transformer substation at Puerto Moreno. CEB said the sobrecorriente
(power surge) "was five to six times greater than normal." In
the barrio Melipal, eyewitness Julio Posse stated, "I saw an interesting
glow to the east of the Cerro Otto (hill). With my family I saw it from
my yard. My sons shouted, 'Papa, the OVNIs!' (Spanish acronym for UFOs--J.T.)
All I said was 'Yes, the OVNIs.'" According to the newspaper Diario
La Manana del Sur, "Officially no one has cited the word OVNI. But,
to all of the questions, no one (at CEB) can explain the phenomenon. The
lines were hit with a charge of 1,050 amperes. The automatic meters at
the transformer substation Los Cipresales indicated the same surge at the
moment during which witnesses sighted OVNIs last Sunday in the skies over
Bariloche." CEB spokesman Luis Baigorria said, "At present we
do not have an explanation that can determine the cause of the surge."
Claudio Campo, an engineer for CEB, said, "That which occurred Tuesday
night was identical to the incident Sunday. But in this case it was reported
by the meters at the substation in Puerto Moreno." The third blackout
occurred Thursday night, April 16, 1998. Again Bariloche was completely
blacked out for several hours. Meanwhile reports of UFO sightings poured
in from the Lago Nahuel Huapi shore and the hills and valleys east of Bariloche.
A man named Zuber "videotaped an OVNI about 15 kilometers from home,
near School #255 at the intersection of Rutas 23 and 237. His three-minute
tape shows a great black object with a light that 'shines intently and
incessantly' with twinkling red, blue, yellow and green lights. The object
can be seen with better clarity when he zooms in. A slight luminous halo
surrounds the object." Zuber's Sony camcorder tape was aired on Canal
(Channel) 6's noontime news broadcast in Bariloche the following day. Other
witnesses reported seeing "two or three OVNIs" flying eastward
over the city towards Cerro Leon" hill. (See the Argentinian newspapers
Diario la Manana del Sur for April 15, 1998 and Diario Rio Negro for April
17, 1998, "Filmaron un OVNI Cerca del Cerro Leon en Bariloche."
Muchas gracias a Carlos Iurchuk para esas noticias.)
-
- CIGAR-SHAPED UFO HOVERS OVER
A STADIUM IN ECUADOR
-
- A luminous, cigar-shaped UFO hovered
over the municipal stadium in Guayaquil, Ecuador on Tuesday, April 21,
1998, at 7 p.m., interrupting a professional futbol (soccer in the USA--J.T.)
game. Guayaquil, Ecuador's port city on the Pacific Ocean, is located 380
kilometers (224 miles) southwest of Quito, the national capital. The game
pitted the Guayaquil pro futbol team against the pro team from Barcelona.
Midway through the game, people in the stands noticed "a very bright
light" rising in the southwest sky. As it drew nearer, more and more
spectators pointed it out and shouted. The UFO was described as "a
white cigar-shaped object surrounded by a strong luminosity." The
UFO crossed the city and then hovered over the stadium for ten minutes.
A cameraman for Canal (Channel) 7 in Guayaquil, who was covering the game,
aimed his videocam at the object. His footage was broadcasted by Canal
7 the following day. The UFO flew away to the north "at a tremendous
velocity." (See the Brazilian newspaper Correio Brasiliense for April
22, 1998. Muito obrigado a Pedro Cunha por eso caso.)
-
- FIRST CROP CIRCLE APPEARS
IN ISRAEL
-
- On Thursday, April 16, 1998, Israel Television
Channel One broadcast an interview with Golan Nasrir, 30, an Israeli Arab
who discovered a crop circle in a wheat field in the Emeq Yisreel (Valley
of Jezreel.) The crop circle was found near the village of Bet Zarzir,
located about 40 kilometers (24 miles) southeast of Haifa. According to
Israeli journalist Barry Chamish, "On the evening of April 12, a resident
of the Jezreel Valley Arab village of Bet Zarzir heard dogs bark wildly,
looked outside and saw small lights darting in a nearby wheat field. The
next day he told his friend Golan Nasrir about the incident, and he (Golan)
went to the field, thus discovering the crop circle." Chamish described
the crop circle as "a 26-meter half-circle with an equally long and
straight 'tail' attached." "Within the circle were seven round
pods in the mud. All vegetation within was killed, and the ground was
severely dessicated compared to the surrounding soil. In four of the pods,
the soil was covered with a white powder, while, in the other three pods,
there was a red oily fluid." Israeli ufologist Gil Bar painstakingly
took samples of the white powder and red oil. Chamish showed the samples
to Dr. Marvin Antleman, who reportedly speculated that the oil might be
a derivative of cobalt. Dr. Antleman is making arrangements to have the
samples analyzed in a laboratory. (Many thanks to Barry Chamish for this
news story.)
-
- UFOs AGAIN ACTIVE IN SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA
-
- On Saturday, April 18, 1998, at 8:30
p.m., Richard Macedo was at his home in Temple City, California (population
31,100), a suburb of Los Angeles, with his wife and sister. Macedo is
a 39-year-old quality assurance manager for a Boeing subcontractor. "My
sister saw it first," Richard reported, "She was looking east
and saw the object in a one o'clock position. She was sitting under a
2-foot eave so I imagine her viewing angle was around 80 degrees. My wife
responded to my sister's shouting and spied the object somewhat lower in
the sky." "I saw the final part of its descent with a large tree
in the foreground, and it seemed to be blinking as the foliage partially
blocked out my view. But my sister claimed it was blinking all the way
down, even when it was in the open sky. It appeared to be falling at an
85 degrees angle." The trio watched the UFO from their porch near
the intersection of Olive Street and Halifax Road in Temple City. Richard
said the UFO was "utterly silent" and might have gone down in
the area of lower Azusa Avenue. "The object appeared to be illuminating
the roof of the church next door...I thought I might have noticed a bluish
glow from the bottom of the object before it vanished completely."
(Email Interview) On Wednesday, April 22, 1998, Cinde Costello of San
Bernardino MUFON received a phone call from a woman employed by the Job
Corps. The woman reported that "fifty people had witnessed three
bright lights heading east towards the Big Bear mountain area" at
about 8:30 p.m. San Bernardino (population 164,164) is located 65 miles
(84 kilometers) east of Los Angeles. At first the woman "thought they
might be hang gliders with lights." She described the UFOs as "the
lights were bright amber-yellow and appeared to be floating or hovering.
The three objects then began to move south and changed color from amber
to bright red. The objects were viewed for more than 10 minutes."
The UFOs were an estimated one mile from the 50 witnesses. Some claimed
to have seen a "wing-like structure or an object with what she described
as 'like a seagull's wings.'" According to Cinde Costello, a gull-winged
UFO was seen over San Bernardino on January 5, 1998. (Many thanks to Jerry
Glass and Cinde Costello of MUFON for this news story.)
-
- FLYING-WING UFO SIGHTED OVER
SAN FRANCISCO
-
- On Saturday, April 18, 1998, at 10:15
p.m., designers Amy S. and Jennifer K. were in the backyard of a home near
Army Street in San Francisco (population 723,959) when Amy spotted a strange-looking
object high in the sky. Jennifer reported, "The object was moving
northwest" over the city "really slow, way up. We were out looking
at the stars--looking for satellites. No sound, no trail. We had it in
view for 35 to 40 seconds." "There was no fuselage. It looked
like a wing flying in the air. No tail section," she added. "Wings
were not bigger than the fuselage because there wasn't any." The
object was primarily "perpendicular wings with some sweeping back,
the ends were bent slightly. It was moving in a forward direction. There
was no glow, just a faint gray color. Other friends of ours didn't see
it because it was so fast. It seemed very high up." (Email Interview)
-
- MARFA MYSTERY LIGHTS DAZZLE
FAMILY IN TEXAS
-
- On March 13, 1998, at 7 p.m., Nicole
Prescott and her grandmother, mother and sister were at their home near
Marfa, Texas (population 2,424) when the area's most puzzling phenomenon--the
Marfa Lights--made a sudden appearance. The lights appeared "at 70
to 75 degrees above the horizon. They were crackling bright lights of
white and orange." Nicole reported, "They seemed to come towards
you. Some were the size of a basketball. Others were no bigger than the
head of a pencil." The Marfa Lights were first reported in 1881 by
a local cowboy. A Japanese scientific team videotaped them in 1994. Science
has never been able to explain the mysterious darting lights, which usually
appear over Mitchell's Flat, southwest of Chinati Mountain. Marfa is at
the junction of U.S. Highways 67 and 90, about 194 miles (310 kilometers)
southeast of El Paso. According to Nicole, a local man was driving across
the flat prairie north of the Cuseto del Punto mountains last winter when
a Marfa light entered his car through the rear window, hovered over the
back seat hissing and crackling, and then vanished several minutes later.
(See American UFO Newsletter #7 for 1998. Many thanks to editor Stefan
Duncan for this news story.)
-
- GLOWING TRIANGULAR UFO SIGHTED
IN FRANCE
-
- On Wednesday, April 15, 1998, at 11:40
p.m., law clerk T. Tony was at his home on the Rue d'Authie in the quartier
Chemin Vert in Caen, a city in northern France, when he spied a triangular
UFO. "I found myself at home when my attention was drawn to the window
by a luminosity in the night sky, which that night was very clear,"
M. Tony reported. "The moon was in its first quarter but could not
be seen, the wind slight and there were few clouds. It (the UFO) appeared
to be a luminous mass, vaguely triangular, like a triangle with rounded
edges but very sharp in the front. It was a bright orange luminosity,
with a band of light red across the middle that was quite visible. It was
followed by a red rectilinear hind part. There weren't any beacons or
clusters of lights." "The object was in rapid descent when I
saw it, but without any noise. In 20 seconds, the object performed a multitude
of aerobatic maneuvers that did not appear to have any logical purpose,
passing in pirouette and looping without ever changing its speed. Then
it left my field of view, and I saw nothing more." Caen is in Normandy,
in the department Calvados, about 250 kilometers (150 miles) west of Paris.
(Merci beaucoup a Franck Marie et Banque OVNI pour ces nouvelles.) (Editor's
Note: In July 1944, Caen was the site of a big battle of World War II.)
-
- FLOURESCENT GREEN UFO SPOTTED
IN AUSTRALIA
-
- On Saturday, April 4, 1998, at 10:30
p.m., residents of Healesville, Victoria state, Australia spotted "a
flouro (flourescent) green illumination crossing the northern sky."
The UFO flew very quickly and "traveled from the east to the north,
taking about five seconds to pass. There was no sound, no tail and no
trail. The respondents described it as 'a green fireball.' It appeared
to be the size of a half-moon." Healesville is 120 kilometers (72
miles) northeast of Melbourne. (Many thanks to Ross Dowe and the Australia/New
Zealand 24-Hour UFO Hotline for this report.)
-
- IRISHMAN REPORTS UFO SIGHTING
IN DUBLIN
-
- On April 2, 1998, at about 5 p.m., David
Martin "was walking in an area called Blanchardstown" in Dublin,
capital city of Eire. As he approached "the Bell Pub, I saw an object
flash across the sky. It stopped and hovered over my head. It seemed
circular in shape. It flew off to the east in the direction of Raheny."
(Many thanks to John Thompson of ISUR and David Martin for this report.
See Filer's Files #15 for 1998.)
-
- SATURN-SHAPED UFO BACK IN
NORTH CAROLINA
-
- On Monday, April 20, 1998, Stefan Duncan,
editor of American UFO Newsletter (AUFON) began a skywatch "on a pier
approximately 300 yards (270 meters) east of Panter's Point" on High
Rock Lake. The lake is located just east of Salisbury, North Carolina
(population 23,087), a city on Highway 29 about 115 miles (184 kilometers)
west of Raleigh. At 9:45 p.m., "looking towards the east end of the
lake, I saw my reddish UFO," Duncan reported. "Similar to the
one I saw April 2, an object whose light was a non-blinking reddish-white"
with "the shape of Saturn when the rings are seen edge on. The object
was probably a mile down the lake. The object rose from the treetops and
hovered for about five minutes and then descended." At 10 p.m., the
UFO "moved from the treetops but just to the top of the trees and
went no higher." An attempt to videotape the object failed when Duncan's
camcorder jammed. "It stayed in position for two seconds before descending."
At 10:14 p.m., "the object rose a third time but just over the treetops.
It brightened, then went back to normal glow. After two minutes, it descended."
The UFO flap began December 15, 1997 when local resident James Minster
spotted four flat discs hovering over High Rock Lake. (See American UFO
Newsletter #7. Many thanks to Stefan Duncan for this report.)
-
- WHITE TUBULAR UFO SEEN IN
NORTHERN NEW JERSEY
-
- On Friday, April 17, 1998, at 7:30 p.m.,
Sam Sherman and his wife were driving to dinner on Route 516 in Old Bridge,
New Jersey (population 6,090), heading for nearby East Brunswick, when
Sam spotted a UFO. "Directly overhead storm clouds were gathering,
although low on the horizon," Sherman reported. "The sky was
still blue and the sun was shining brightly prior to setting. I looked
up in the sky and saw what looked like a contrail between two clouds. It
was like no contrail (condensation trail--J.T.) I had ever seen, and it
moved forward in a northerly direction (towards New York City--J.T.) but
did not have a tail or vapor or smoke behind it." "This was of
definite and finite length. To describe what I saw, as follows--at arm's
length, it appeared to be 3 or 4 inches (6 or 8 centimeters) in length
and tubular in shape. The color was white but with luminescent color overlying
a bluish-green tinge. As the sun appeared to be behind it, the object did
not appear to be reflecting the sun's rays...The tubular bright object
was moving north and threading its way through the clouds." He eventually
lost sight of the UFO "behind a dark cloud to the north." (See
Filer's Files #15 for 1998. Many thanks to George A. Filer, Eastern MUFON
director, for this report.)
-
- from the UFO Files...
-
- 1937: STRANGE CRUISE OF THE
O.M. McFARLAND
-
- One of the weirdest disappearances in
the history of the Lake Michigan Triangle occurred on April 28, 1937, sixty-one
years ago. According to the Cleveland Press, "A new mystery of the
Great Lakes was unfolded today when the freighter O.M. McFarland docked
in Port Washington, Wisconsin and crew members reported the disappearance
of the ship's master." It was a big day for the McFarland's skipper,
Captain George R. Donner--his fifty-eighth birthday. Born in 1879, Donner
"had sailed for ten years on the old Valley Camp Steamship Company
boats until the firm was taken over by Columbia (Transportation Company).
It was his first command under the Columbia house flag, although he had
been on the lakes for years and had served as a skipper for several of
them." Days earlier, the McFarland had picked up 9,800 tons of coal
at the dock in Erie, Pennsylvania. The vessel sailed out of Lake Erie,
across Lake Huron, and through the Straits of Mackinac into Lake Michigan.
"At 10:15 p.m. on the night of April 28, 1937," Captain Donner
"left the pilot house, giving instructions to the second mate to call
him when the McFarland was off her destination of Port Washington, Wisconsin,
some three hours hence. Stating that he wanted to get a couple of hours
sleep, he went below, out of sight of the mate and the wheelman. The desire
for rest was understandable, for the McFarland, on her first trip of the
season, had encountered the usual heavy ice in the Straits of Mackinac,
losing considerable time. And, once in northern Lake Michigan, a sharp
watch had to be kept for roving ice fields." "After leaving the
pilot house, Captain Donner must have busied himself with paperwork before
retiring, for he was later heard moving around in his room." "At
1:15 a.m. (April 29, 1937--J.T.) as the McFarland neared Port Washington,
the mate, as instructed, descended to the captain's room to summon him.
There was no response to his knocking on the door, so the second officer
opened it and peered in, assuming that the captain was merely sleeping
heavily. But Captain Donner was not in the bed or anywhere else in sight."
"On the possibility that the captain had walked aft to get coffee
or partake of the night lunch, the mate hurried back to the galley, but
except for a couple of off-duty firemen finishing a midnight snack, it
was deserted. Quickly summoning the other mate and the chief engineer,
he organized a thorough search of the McFarland, crew members combing every
nook and cranny of the thirty-four year-old vessel. Without a doubt, Captain
Donner had disappeared!" Yes, indeed, Captain Donner had vanished
from his locked room. There was no other hatch except the one leading
into the companionway, and he was too large to pass through the room's
two portholes. No one had seen him in the companionway between midnight
and 1:15 a.m., when the mate knocked on his door. Interestingly, during
this critical hour, the McFarland was 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest
of Ludington, Michigan. Ludington is reputed to be the nexus of the Lake
Michigan Triangle. "Ships along the McFarland's route were asked to
keep a watch for Donner's body, and the same request was passed on to communities
along the shore." "Captain Donner's body never did turn up, and
his disappearance from his cabin aboard ship is as much a mystery now as
it was in 1937." (See STRANGE ADVENTURES OF THE GREAT LAKES by Dwight
Boyer, Freshwater Press, Cleveland, Ohio, 1974, pages 223 to 225. Also
THE GREAT LAKES TRIANGLE by Jay Gourley, Fawcett Publications, Inc., Greenwich,
Conn. 1977, page 176. Also GATEWAY TO OBLIVION by Hugh Cochrane, Avon Books,
New York, NY, 1980, pages 34 and 35. And the Cleveland (Ohio) Press for
April 29, 1937.)
-
- That's it for this week. We'll be back
next Sunday with more saucer news from "the paper that goes home--UFO
ROUNDUP." See you then.
-
- UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1998 by Masinaigan
Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO
ROUNDUP on their websites or in newsgroups provided that they credit the
newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of issue in which the
item first appeared.
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