- Two NATO jet interceptors, described
as "the F-16 type," chased a UFO over France's Eure-et- Loire
department at 4 p.m. on Monday, October 27, 1997. Eyewitness Marie Franck
reported, "I was at my country home in Sainville, a village 40 kilometers
(24 miles) east of Chartres. I was in the garden when I heard a progressive
rumbling originating from the north, behind the house. It was then that
I saw, to the west of the village, at 45 degrees above the horizon and
about 2,000 meters (6,600 feet or just over a mile--J.T.) away a flying
tube without wings but with fire coming out of the stern, which moved in
horizontal flight from the north-northeast to the south-southwest."
Mme. Franck watched the UFO for "five seconds" before it disappeared
"behind a neighboring rooftop." "Its speed was around 1,400
kilometers per hour," she reported. "I was astonished at not
hearing a sonic boom, and I thought I might have been mistaken in my calculations."
She estimated that the UFO traveled two kilometers during the five seconds.
"At the same time, I got the idea that it might be a missile (perhaps
nuclear?) and that it was going to explode in the distance," she added.
"Sudden terror! My sole reflex was to hurl myself to the ground,
all the while counting the seconds to estimate the distance from the object."
"I was at 50 seconds when a new rumbling sound made its approach,
but it was coming from the southeast. I then observed passing from south
to north a military plane of the F-16 type, which made a very tight turn
north of the village (Sainville) in order to get on the north-northeasterly
trajectory of the object." A few seconds later, "a new rumbling"
was heard, and a second F-16 appeared, flying in the same direction as
the first. Mme. Franck gathered her children from the pavilion very quickly
and brought them indoors to safety. Sainville is located on L'Autoroute
A.10-E.05, the main highway between Paris and Orleans. The Armee de l'Air,
France's air force, has a base at Chateaudrun, 55 kilometers (33 miles)
south of Sainville. (Merci beaucoup a Marie Franck et Banque OVNI pour
ces nouvelles.)
-
- IRISH UFOLOGISTS QUESTION BOYLE SAUCER
CRASH EYEWITNESSES
-
- Researchers from IUFOPRA, a UFO study
group in Eire, are busily interviewing witnesses to a saucer crash in the
Curlieu Mountains north of Boyle, County Roscommon, that reportedly took
place in May 1996. According to Irish ufologist Rory Thornton, the saucer
crashlanded on a mountain just north of Boyle, slicing off a few treetops
and touching down in the lake. The saucer, alleged to be from "the
planet Sunas," contained several occupants who were allegedly taken
into custody by a retrieval team. Dave Walsh, publisher of the online newsletter
Nua Blather, wrote, "New information has recently come to light that
leads us to believe that despite earlier reports the incident is a hoax,
that something did happen in the Curlieu Mountains." "The site
of the alleged crash has been sealed off for months now, and even the locals
have been denied access." Six months after the alleged crash, a new
asphalt road was constructed, leading to the site, and "two (Quonset)
huts were erected," IUFOPRA reported, "and no one was prepared
to give any explanation as to why they were there. One of the huts is
located close to the crash site with a lot of antennae protruding from
it." "One thing is clear...the Irish and foreign military are
involved in some type of covert operations," IUFOPRA was quoted by
Walsh. "A lot of helicopters have been observed flying around the
area, and, according to one witness, he was woken by the sound of 'rescue'
helicopters, which hovered very close to the windows of his house, causing
them to rattle." (Many thanks to Dave Walsh for this news story.)
-
- UFOs SIGHTED IN FLORIDA
-
- On Tuesday, October 14, 1997, at 5:10
p.m., Nancy Dunning had stopped her car at a traffic light in Palmetto,
Florida (population 8,637) "when I saw an egg-shaped object moving
northwest at a steady rate of speed. It was silvery-white in color. I
watched as it went into a cloud and just disappeared. It never came out
on the other side of the cloud. I know it wasn't an airplane because I
know a lot about airplanes. I can identify almost any plane there is."
(See MUFON Skywatch Investigations #44. Many thanks to George A. Filer
of MUFON for forwarding this story.) On Saturday, November 1, 1997, at
1:50 a.m., Tige McMullen, age 15, was looking out the window of his home
in Pensacola, Florida (population 57,619). "Then I looked up into
the sky, and I saw a UFO. It was moving fast, left to right, then at one
point disappeared, then coming back. It made no noise." Tige immediately
phoned the Pensacola/Gulf Breeze UFO Hotline. Afterward, he "got
my Mom's camera and took two pictures of it. I hope they come out."
"It was like lightning in the sky. But there was no thunder, and
lightning doesn't stay that long. There was mostly clear sky that night.
I looked to try to find a video camera, but I could not. Then I looked
out the window and it had gone. It had disappeared." (USENET report)
-
- LUMINOUS UFOs REPORTED ON ITALY'S
ADRIATIC COAST
-
- Luminous UFOs were seen at four locations
around the city of Ancona, on Italy's Adriatic Sea coastline last week.
On Monday, November 3, 1997, at 5 p.m., "a luminous object was observed
from diverse locations in the province of Ancona. In the area around Polverigi,
two hunters saw a fusiform object of grey color pass by quickly and silently
over their heads." "At the same hour, ten people on a promenade
(boardwalk--J.T.) in Posatora observed for several seconds a luminous green
ball with a yellow tail in the sky." (See the Italian newspaper Corriere
Adriatico for November 4, 1997.) The same luminous green UFO was also seen
in Senigallia and Porto Recanati, two seaside towns close to Ancona. The
area is 224 kilometers (140 miles) northeast of Rome. (See Corriere Adriatico
for November 5, 1997. Grazie a Edoardo Russo di CISU per questo rapporto.)
-
- TWO GIRLS SPOT A UFO IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
-
- On Friday, October 17, 1997, at 8:30
p.m., Danielle F. and her cousin, Tessa P., were waiting in a car for Tessa's
father in their hometown of Boswell, Pennsylvania (population 1,480).
Boswell is located on Route 601 about 70 miles (112 kilometers) east of
Pittsburgh. "Tessa said, 'What's that?'" Danielle reported. "I
looked up and said it might be an airplane. We saw a big blurry white
light. We went inside and got the binoculars to take a better look."
The UFO hovered at about 45 degrees above the horizon, Danielle reported,
"The center of the object was white, and on the ends were two yellow
lights. On the top of the object was one red light. The object was moving
very fast while it was descending toward the (nearby) mountain. Tessa
and I both agree that we never saw a plane move so fast. We don't know
what it was, but we wondered if it could be a UFO." (Email Interview)
-
- MYSTERIOUS LIGHT FLASH PUZZLES OKLAHOMA
DEPUTY
-
- An Oklahoma sheriff's deputy had a Halloween
suprise when he spotted a mysterious flash of light on the outskirts of
Reydon. On October 31, 1997, at approximately 8:23 p.m., a sheriff's deputy
saw a "flash of light" northeast of Reydon, 120 miles (192 kilometers)
west of Oklahoma City. According to Jim Hickman of Skywatch, the deputy's
radio report was monitored, and he spoke of a "large flash of light
in the sky." A partial transcript follows: Dispatch: "Was it
lightning?" Deputy: "I don't see any clouds in the sky."
Deputy: "It was one large flash to my northeast, and it wasn't lightning."
In recent months, similar "light flashes" have been reported
in Los Alamos, New Mexico and Beaver Bay, Minnesota. (See MUFON Skywatch
Investigations #44. Many thanks to George A. Filer of MUFON for this report.)
-
- UFO WITH OCTAGONAL LIGHTS SEEN BY
VIRGINIA COUPLE
-
- On Saturday, November 1, 1997, at 11:25
p.m., Mike S. was driving with his girlfriend in Earlysville, located eight
miles (12 kilometers) north of Charlottesville, Virginia (population 40,341),
"and it was a very dark night," he reported, "I took my
eyes off the road and looked in the direction she was pointing. There was
definitely something in the sky about 15 to 25 feet above the tree line."
"I saw lights in the sky that were arranged in rings," Mike reported,
"The lights were circular or almost octagonal, and they were dull
and white. They were not like light bulbs or headlights. The lights outlined
a disk-shaped object. I could tell that it was slowly spinning in a clockwise
motion, and it repeatedly crossed over the road. It followed the road
in front of me for about a mile to a mile and a half. I called my parents
from my car phone and told them what I saw." After Mike got home,
he and his father returned to that stretch of road outside Earlysville.
But the saucer was gone. When both men returned home at 11:50 p.m., Mike's
mother telephoned the local police. They learned that an officer on patrol
had reportedly seen "the exact same thing." (Many thanks to
Tim Hagemeister of NACOMM for this report.)
-
- MYSTERY EXPLOSION ROCKS TOWN IN QUEBEC
-
- On Friday, October 31, 1997, "a
mysterious explosion, coming from either the ground or the sky, rocked
the whole town" of La Mauricie, Quebec, Canada. An investigation
by the provincial police produced no answers. According to Jean Casault
of the Centre de Etude et d'Information sur les Phenomenes Inexplique (CEIPI),
residents of La Mauricie "have seen different 'light shows' in the
sky" for the past forty days. "A video has been shot which reveals
a big luminous object that went up in the sky and transformed itself into
a triangular-shaped object," Casault reported. "In the process
of doing so, it was on a collision course with another object and made
a drop very quickly, which was absolutely unusual at that speed."
(Email Interview)
-
- UFO HOVERS OVER TOWN IN WESTERN NEWFOUNDLAND
-
- On Monday, November 3, 1997, at 11:11
p.m., Don Jay Frederico reported a UFO sighting "near the airport
runway in Stephenville, Newfoundland," Canada (population 10,284).
The town is located along Highway 460 on St. George's Bay on Newfoundland's
western shore. "I saw the strange craft over the ocean across from
the runway," Frederico reported. "It stayed there for about
two or three minutes and then left without a sound. As it was leaving,
it looked like a ball of red fire. Then it divided into two different
(balls of gas) and dropped." (See MUFON Skywatch Investigations #44.
Many thanks to Don Jay Frederico, ISUR and George A. Filer for this story.)
-
- LARGE UFO SIGHTED OVER THUNDER BAY,
ONTARIO
-
- On October 5, 1997, a resident of Thunder
Bay, Ontario (population 113,946) "was driving down (the) Fort William
(section of the city--J.T.) road when I saw a large object in the sky,
which appeared to be near the Ontario Tax Building. At first I thought
it was a plane, but it quickly dived from the sky to a low altitude (much
faster than a plane). I looked at it more carefully, although it was lower
on the horizon." "It was shaped like an elliptical ball, but
it was white like a cloud. I thought maybe it was a cloud, but then it
moved across the sky in such an unnatural manner it couldn't have been.
It was heading across Lake Superior, so I drove to the marina to see if
I could see it. It must have been traveling at a very high speed."
Thunder Bay is the largest city in western Ontario province, Canada, located
on the north shore of Lake Superior approximately 868 miles (1,388 kilometers)
northwest of Toronto. (Many thanks to Steve Wilson Sr. for this report.)
-
- NASA ENDS PATHFINDER'S MISSION TO
MARS
-
- NASA officially halted daily communication
with the spacecraft Pathfinder and its robot rover, Sojourner, on Tuesday,
November 4, 1997. "The end of the $266 million mission comes four
months after Pathfinder bounced to a thrilling Independence Day landing
in the rocky Ares Vallis region and rolled out Sojourner, the first robot
ever to set wheels on another planet." "But both spacecraft have
been silent since Oct. 7, when controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, Calif. last locked onto a beacon from the lander's backup
transmitter. It has been longer than that, since Sept. 27, that any data
has been sent home from the Martian surface through Pathfinder's main transmitter."
"Managers now have no choice but to conclude that the lander, renamed
the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, has succumbed to the onset of the Martian
winter. During this time, temperatures plunge to minus 50 degrees and
more dust storms shroud the planet." "'We've been talking about
having a wake,' mission manager Richard Cook says, 'But in one sense we
really ought to celebrate, not mourn. Pathfinder has been much more of
a success than we ever envisioned.'" Pathfinder's data "'will
help provide a scientific basis for future Mars missions...for years to
come,' says Wesley Huntress, NASA space science chief." (See USA Today
for November 4, 1997, page A-3) (Editor's Comment: Would it be rude to
point out that UFO ROUNDUP reported Pathfinder's first "difficulty"
with uplink communications back on August 16? Or that the temperature
reading of -58 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded on October 7, over a month
ago? Be that as it may, it is now official--there has not been a successful
mission to Mars since Viking II back in September 1976.)
-
- TWO MAJOR SOLAR FLARES ERUPT DURING
THE SAME WEEK
-
- A major solar flare erupted on Sol (our
sun--J.T.) on Tuesday, November 4, 1997, sending a hot stream of X-rays
hurtling into space. The disturbance took place in the sun's southwest
quadrant, which fortunately was not facing Earth at the time. A second
solar flare erupted on Thursday, November 6, 1997 at 7:55 a.m. Eastern
Standard Time (EST). According to Ernie Hildner, director of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Environment Center
in Boulder, Colorado, "The eruption produced five times more X-rays
than" Tuesday's event, adding, "We're no longer looking down
the barrel of the cannon, so I expect the ejection to miss the Earth, going
off sideways." The second flare also occurred in Sol's southwestern
quadrant, in a direction well away from Earth. The solar flares are expected
to cause an increase in the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis at our
planet's poles, as the high-energy streams affect Earth's magnetosphere.
(Editor's Comment: If Earth ever wanders into the path of one of those
solar X-ray blasts, we'll be changing the planet's name to Toast.)
-
- from the UFO Files...
-
- 1972: UFO HOVERS OVER A RANCH IN UTAH
-
- "At first Lennis Gines didn't think
much of the blue and yellow lights in the field behind her rural Summit
County (Utah) home." "It was a little too early--about 4:30 a.m.--
for teenage visitors. And the silent, rotating lights weren't anywhere
near the narrow country lane that meandered past the family's two story
home and on to the Provo River." "At that instant, on a pitch-black
moonless morn in the fall of 1972, Lennis Gines knew what it was like to
see a UFO." "'If it hadn't gone up without a sound, I may have
convinced myself in my mind that it was just kids driving around. But
I know what I saw.'" "Gines was soon joined by her teenage son
Sam, who was ready to round up the cows for milking. Together they waited
and watched in the dark for 45 minutes as the blue and yellow lights, some
150 yards to the east, cascaded across the river bottoms." "Eventually
Gines's 16-year-old decided he'd waited long enough...Sam got no help from
the family's otherwise loyal cattle dog, who whimpered and ran inside to
hide." "'My boy gets in the truck and goes over, and he said
he could see a doorway, windows and shadows going in and out,' Gines recalled
this week, nearly 25 years after the event. 'It was like someone was going
in and out on the ground.'" "'The cows were bunched together,
he said, and he had a hard time getting them out (of the field) without
the dog, but they did come down the road and into the corral. The cows
were nervous and didn't give the milk they usually gave.'" "Gines,
still frightened, helped her younger son, Will, get dressed, then hustled
to the barn to bring Sam back to the house. But when she emerged from
the barn--the lights were gone--all except the distant glimmer of daylight."
(See the Desert News of Salt Lake City, Utah for July 6, 1997, "Close
Encounters in Utah" by Zack Van Eyck. Many thanks to Lou Farrish
of UFO Newsclipping Service for forwarding this story.)
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