- TRAIN CREW SEES GIANT UFO
TAKE OFF IN AUSTRALIA
-
- A very large UFO landed at a remote railroad
crossing in northern Australia in late December 1997 and was seen by the
crew aboard a freight train. The sighting took place at Kajabbi, Queensland
(Qnld.), also known as the Milk Stop. Kajabbi is at the end of a spur
line out of Cloncurry, which is located on the main line between Brisbane
and Mount Isa. (Editor's Note: A passenger train, the Sundowner, makes
two trips each week from Brisbane to Mount Isa.) Kajabbi is located 1,210
miles (1,936 kilometers) northwest of Brisbane. As the freight train rolled
into Kajabbi, the crew spied what looked like "a large building"
beside the track. One witness remarked, "When did that go up?"
The object was described as "a large, almost transparent, rusty brown
building large enough to accomodate a line of trains," i.e. probably
in excess of 1,000 feet (300 meters). The UFO "was seen to lift off
the ground and take off straight up into the sky" as the train approached
the siding. The crewmen were reportedly rattled by the sight, and a few
"have said they will never go to that area again." Elsewhere
in northern Queensland, aboriginal people "have reported sighting
many Min Min lights." (Many thanks to Ross Dowe and the Australia/New
Zealand National UFO Hotline for this report.)
-
- V-SHAPED UFO SEEN OVER LONGMONT,
COLORADO
-
- On Saturday, February 21, 1998, at about
9 p.m., Adam T. and his dog, Kala, stepped outside of his home near Third
and Terry Streets in Longmont, Colorado (population 51,555) and had a strange
sighting. "I was taking my dog outside so she could 'take care of
business,'" Adam reported. "I walked down the back steps and
onto the grass. I turned and noticed my dog Kala was not coming out onto
the lawn. Instead she sat there whimpering, looking at the sky. That
struck me as a little curious as dogs rarely look up. I turned my gaze
toward the lawn and saw five or six burnt orange lights hovering over my
house. Within a split second they shot off almost like shooting stars.
They traveled in a loose (wide) V formation." "I was so excited
I rushed into the house to get my wife. But at that point they were, of
course, gone. Last night (February 22), just for fun, I set up my video
camera and I'm going to record it..." "My sighting lasted three
to four seconds. The (orange) lights did not blink. I don't know if what
I saw were separate lights or if it was many lights on one craft...The
craft was just below the clouds, maybe 8,000 to 10,000 feet...I'm not sure
what I saw, but, like I said, it was like nothing I've ever seen before."
(Email Interview)
-
- ALIEN ENCOUNTER REPORTED IN
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
-
- On Sunday, February 1, 1998, at about
2:30 a.m., Rowena Judd was asleep at her home in Fremantle, Western Australia
(W.A.) Waking up suddenly,she saw "a visitor suddenly appear at
the bedroom door." She described the humanoid as "seemed to be
dark in colour and had a shining light around it" but "could
not see any face." Two weeks later, on February 15, 1998, "a
beam of light...came out of the sky 'after a loud zipping noise'"
and illuminated the Judd house. Fremantle is located about 10 miles (16
kilometers) south of Perth, the state capital. On Sunday, February 22,
1998, at 12:25 a.m., residents of Karangi, W.A. near Perth reported "sighting
three bright orange illuminations heading to the southwest of Perth"
toward the Garden Island Naval Dockyards. "The illuminations slowly
traveled overhead in a triangular formation...at one point, they appeared
to turn upright and form a vertical line. They all kept at the same distance
apart during the whole sighting period. At one point, a white light came
out of one of the orange illuminations and fell directly toward the ground."
(Editor's Note: A UFO was videotaped doing the same thing in Gulf Breeze,
Florida in 1992.) "The orange illuminations appeared to be about one
kilometer (0.6 miles) away. There was no flickering and these lights were
a constant source of fiery-colour orange lights." (Many thanks to
Ross Dowe and Australia/New Zealand National UFO Hotline for this report.)
-
- DEPUTY REPORTS STRANGE LIGHTS
AT SITE
OF NAVY JET CRASH IN CALIFORNIA
-
- On Wednesday, February 18, 1998, a U.S.
Navy UH-1D helicopter "on a search and rescue training mission"
crashed in the Sequoia National Forest near Johnsondale, California. All
five crewmen aboard were killed. "Sheriff's Lt. Mike Gutsch said the
Huey from the China Lake Naval Weapons Center burst into flames after crashing
shortly after noon Wednesday near the Kern River in the Sequoia National
Forest." "All the victims were Navy personnel from China Lake,
about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east across the Mojave Desert from the
crash site. Their names were not released." According to the Fresno
Bee, their South Valley Bureau stated that "there were 'many' people
who reported a bright object in the Kern (River) Canyon at 11 p.m. on February
18," nearly a dozen hours after the helicopter crash. The news bureau
also stated that "Deputy Ernest Cowan acknowledged that the bright
light caused some concerns. Cowan said the object wasn't a flare but was
most likely a shooting star (meteor) or possible 'space trash' from a satellite
launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base." But witnesses claimed the mysterious
object "exhibited a strange 'arcing motion'" that is not a characteristic
of a 'shooting star." (See the newspapers Attleboro, Mass. Sun-Chronicle
and the Fresno, Cal. Bee for February 19, 1998. Many thanks to Kenneth
Young, public information director of Tri-States Advocates for Scientific
Knowledge, T.A.S.K., for forwarding the Bee article.)
-
- TWO UFOS VIDEOTAPED FLYING
OVER LEEDS
-
- Two UFOs hovered over Leeds, a large
city in the UK 140 miles (224 kilometers) north of London, and were videotaped
by a local resident George Hickinson. The sighting took place on Monday,
February 2, 1998. Hickinson reported, "At about 5:35 p.m., I noticed
a pair of bright white lights that were stationary in the west, while positioning
together at 10 and 4 o'clock respectively. My initial thought was a banking
plane with a light on each wing, and I watched them until three or four
minutes later, when I decided that it was very strange the lights appeared
at the same altitude as my first observation." Hickinson went to get
his video camcorder and then shot footage of the two lights until 5:40
p.m., when "they disappeared out towards York." Hickinson's video
was broadcast on the BBC program Look North on February 12, 1998. (See
the Yorkshire Evening Post for February 11, 1998 and the London Daily Telegraph
for February 24, 1998. Many thanks to George Hickinson for this story.)
Elsewhere in the UK, on Sunday, February 15, 1998, at 7:10 p.m., a family
driving on motorway (highway) A37 from Doncaster to Yeovil "saw a
large bright light come from behind us and our car in the sky." The
UFO veered off to the left and disappeared. Witnesses described the object
as having "a red/green glow and a tail." Doncaster is 30 miles
(48 kilometers) southeast of Leeds. (Many thanks to John Thompson of ISUR
and George A. Filer for this report.)
-
- MANY NEW UFO SIGHTINGS REPORTED
IN AUSTRALIA
-
- More UFOs were reported throughout Australia
during late February. On Tuesday, February 17, 1998, at 6:20 p.m., witnesses
in Sumerville, a town on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria (Vic.) state,
reported "a blue- white flame illumination. It flew overhead from
the western sky heading for the east." The UFO was in view for ten
seconds. At the same moment, in King Island, Tasmania, across the Bass
Strait, people spied "a blue-green illumination in the eastern sky,
heading north... no sound heard." On Thursday, February 19, 1998,
at 4:15 a.m., residents of Tarragindi, Qnld., a suburb of Brisbane, saw
"a huge bright pulsing orange illumination with white-colored lights"
flying from the northeast to the southwest. They had it in view for 15
minutes. On Saturday, February 21, 1998, at 9:30 p.m., people in Richmond,
South Australia "saw two large orange illuminations heading away from
the area. One illumination was heading west while the other was heading
north. The UFO heading west seemed to be stopping and starting as it traveled."
The other one "seemed to be going around in circles as it traveled
away." On Sunday, February 22, 1998, witnesses in Campbelltown, S.A.
"sighted a bright orange illumination heading to the north-northeast.
The resident said the bright orange object was 'brighter than anything
else in the sky.' It was brighter than a helicopter or an aircraft light
crossing the night sky." The UFO was seen to be "30-40 degrees
from the ground." On Monday, February 23, 1998, a man in Tullamarine,
Vic., near Melbourne, "reported sighting a while illumination"
near the constellation known as the Saucepan, 85 degrees above the northeast
horizon. "It then traveled quickly to the east-southeast. There was
no trail, and the witness didn't think it was a meteorite." Also that
night, at 8:45 p.m., people in Doncaster, Vic., near Melbourne, "sighted
a fast-moving illumination crossing the sky from east to west. The illumination
stopped and made a number of turns and then disappeared. When it reappeared,
it quickly went off to the west and vanished." (Many thanks to Ross
Dowe and Australia/New Zealand National UFO Hotline for these reports.)
(Editor's Comment: Hmmmm, one sighting in Doncaster, Yorks., UK--another
in Doncaster, Vic., Australia. There's a UFO clue in there somewhere.)
-
- RECURRING WEDNESDAY UFO HAS
THE ITALIANS TALKING
-
- On Wednesday, February 11, 1998, at 6:30
p.m., a UFO described as "a ball of light of a yellow-greenish color
with a long bright blue tail" crossed the sky in a descending trajectory
over Lombardia province. The UFO was seen by hundreds of people in the
cities of Bergamo, Brescia, Asola, Parma and Mantova before disappearing
over Lazio. Italian scientists dismissed the object as "an unusually
bright bolide." Exactly one week later, on Wednesday, February 18,
1998, "the phenomenon repeated itself," and again the luminous
yellow-green UFO with the blue tail flew over Lombardia "in an oblique
descending trajectory" and "was seen by hundreds of people."
Now everyone in north-central Italy is talking about 'il bolide del mercoledi
(the meteor of Wednesday) and looking for a repeat appearance. (See the
Italian newspapers Il Messagero, Gazzeta di Parma and Gazzeta di Mantova
for February 19, 1998. Grazie a Renzo Cabassi, Carlo Cruciani, Roberto
Labanti e Edoardo Russo per questo rapporto.)
-
- UNIDENTIFIED FLYING CATFISH?
-
- As William Corliss points out in his
newsletter, Science Frontiers, "Anomalies crop up in out-of-the-way
places and unusual publications." "A radio amateur (Dave, call
sign K1WH8) noticed that his 432-MHz beam was higher than normal. Checking
his tall antenna, he saw something dangling from the horizontal elements
(tines). It turned out to be a good-sized, dessicated catfish. Dave's
antenna is 60 feet high and miles from any lake or stream." (See Science
Frontiers No. 118, March-April 1998, page 4. Also the February 1998 issue
of QST magazine, page 21.) (Editor's Comment: Ah, yes, another item Charles
Fort would have loved. Obviously this particular catfish is native to
the Super-Sargasso Sea.)
-
- from the UFO Files...
-
- 1957: UFO NEARLY COLLIDES
WITH AN AIRLINER
-
- On March 8, 1957, PanAmerican Airways
Flight 257 took off from Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International
Airport--J.T.) in Queens, N.Y. Leaving the runway at around 11:30 p.m.,
the four-engine DC-6 airliner banked to the southeast and began its long
flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico. As the propellor-engine DC-6 neared Bermuda,
Captain Matthew Van Winkle received a storm warning over the radio. He
advised Hamilton Tower that he was adjusting his course, turning west on
a new heading that would take him closer to Florida. At 3:30 a.m., on March
9, 1957, Flight 257 was about 150 miles (240 kilometers) east of Jacksonville,
Florida, flying at 20,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean. Suddenly, Captain
Van Winkle "was startled by an intensely brilliant beam of light from
his right and below his plane. The object carrying the light had a defined
edge which Van Winkle saw in the split- second..." Van Winkle described
the UFO as "a big fireball advancing with tremendous speed with a
roaring sound." Instantly the pilot "did what comes naturally,"
pushing all the engine throttles forward and pulling the yoke all the way
back. Engines howled as "he yanked the big plane up into a zooming
climb to avoid a collision." In the DC-6's cabin, "Passengers,
diaper bags, suitcases, the inevitable stale magazines, lunch boxes, stewardesses
(flight attendants--J.T.) and the co-pilot (who was in the cabin at the
time)--all mingled in mid-air as Van Winkle fought to bring the plane under
control." "A stewardess and woman passenger were hurt and later
hospitalized, and three other passengers were shaken up." PanAm Flight
257 landed safetly in San Juan, and an investigation ensued. "Four
other plane crews in the same general area had seen the same or a similar
object within a few minutes" of 3:30 a.m. "They all described
it as a glowing thing with a brilliant light on the front and a reddish
glow or exhaust on the rear." Despite the testimony of the other crews,
however, the official explanation of the oncoming object was "a meteor."
(See FLYING SAUCERS-- SERIOUS BUSINESS by Frank Edwards, Bantam Books,
New York, NY 1966, page 38. Also MYSTERIOUS FIRES AND LIGHTS by Vincent
H. Gaddis, Dell Books, New York, NY 1967, page 71.)
-
- UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1998 by Masinaigan
Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post items from UFO ROUNDUP
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