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- UFO AND ALIEN SIGHTED IN NORTHERN
ITALY
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- Early Sunday morning, March 8, 1998,
an Italian farmer spotted a UFO hovering above his field. The incident
took place in Lombardia, just outside the small city of Rho, 30 kilometers
(18 miles) northwest of Milano (Milan). The farmer described the UFO as
"a white object in the form of an upside-down pear" that "hovered
over a field of grain." Since he was within shouting distance of his
farmhouse, he called for his wife. She joined him at once, and the couple
observed the UFO "for nearly a half hour." Midway through the
sighting, the couple reported, a hatch slid open, and an occupant emerged.
The witnesses described "the alien" as "a being about 60
to 80 centimeters (30 to 40 inches) high, with two huge black eyes."
The occupant "floated" in the air close to the object for about
ten minutes. The occupant then reentered the UFO, and the object "suddenly
rose vertically as it illuminated itself." The case is being investigated
by Italian ufologist Giancarlo D'Alessandro of Centro Italiano di Studi
Ufologici (CISU). (See the Italian newspaper La Padania for March 15,
1998.) The previous night, Saturday, March 7, 1998, Carabineri (Italian
police--J.T.), port authorities and local police watched a UFO "plunge
headlong" through the sky in Termoli, a port on the Adriatic Sea.
The alert sounded at 6:30 p.m. Police described the UFO as "a luminous
object that plunged headlong into the sea with a smoky luminous trail."
Termoli is in Campobasso province approximately 232 kilometers (145 miles)
east of Rome. (See the newspaper Il Resto del Carlino for March 9, 1998.
Grazie a Eduardo Russo, Renzo Cabassi, Gian Paulo Grassino, Goffredo Pierpaoli,
Marcelo Pupilli e Giancarlo D'Alessandro di CISU per questo rapporto.)
(Editor's Note: Sibenik, Croatia, just across the Adriatic Sea from Termoli,
was the site of a UFO landing earlier this year.)
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- FLORIDA UFO FLAP ENTERS ITS
THIRD WEEK
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- Florida's UFO flap entered its third
week with more sightings reports flooding in from the Orlando and Pensacola
areas. James J. of Cocoa Beach, Fla. (population 12,123), a city 7 miles
(11 kilometers) south of Cape Canaveral, says he witnessed the flyover
of two UFOs on Saturday, March 7, 1998, followed by the launch of two D-25
Trident missiles from a U.S. Navy submarine. "I saw those UFOs as
well around 6:45 that evening," James reported. "I thought they
were UFOs because I've had three sightings in the past six months."
"It was dusk. I saw two white glowing lights as if they were (enveloped)
in a cloud. As I traveled south on (Highway) A1A in Cocoa Beach, the objects
hovered and fled. Then I noticed something. Contrails coming up from
the ocean. I have a friend at the Kennedy Space Center, and she said there
were no launches scheduled for that day." "We saw the contrails
(again) a couple of days later," he reported, adding that "no
scheduled launches" were set for that day, either. "Florida
Today claimed that the Navy was conducting missile tests over the area."
Bermuda's Royal Gazette of March 10, 1998 stated that the missiles had
been launched from the Trident submarine USS West Virginia. On Wednesday,
March 18, 1998, between 10 and 10:30 p.m., Josh Harris was standing on
his front lawn in Sebring, Fla. (population 8,900), a town on Highway 17
90 miles (144 kilometers) southeast of Tampa, when he spotted a UFO. "At
first I saw six bright orange lights in the northeast sky that disappeared,"
he reported. "Four lights in a line appeared in the eastern sky,
then also disappeared. Back at the original location, eight new lights
appeared. There were four lights, with another four lights in a row beneath
them." On Friday evening, March 20, 1998, Don and Cindy Rash saw a
UFO in their hometown of Gulf Breeze, Fla. (population 5,530), located
in the Florida panhandle 7 miles (11 kilometers) south of Pensacola. They
described the object as "a disc with lights all around it" hovering
"over the big bridge" connecting Gulf Breeze and Pensacola Beach.
This was Don Rash's second UFO sighting of the month. That morning, Friday,
March 20, 1998, John S., his wife and his son were "driving west on
(Interstate Highway) I-4 approximately 20 miles (32 kilometers) outside
of Orlando at 7:45 a.m. when I witnessed something in the sky overhead."
Orlando (population 164,693) is located 229 miles (366 kilometers) north
of Miami. "It was a grayish vapor trail that moved to the right, left,
right, then left again, all in what appeared like quarter-mile (0.6 kilometer)
increments," he reported. "This was right over the interstate.
It looked like some drivers noticed it because I saw some looking up as
we passed them. I couldn't see a shape or anything flying at the end of
the trail (contrail). Also, it didn't seem like it was turning but more
like changing directions back on itself." The following day, Saturday,
March 21, 1998, Jeff Ritzmann, a Maryland man vacationing in Florida, spotted
a UFO while standing outside Chan's Cafe, located in the Best Western Hotel
near Gulf Breeze, Fla. According to columnist Carole Baker of the Pensacola
Beach Islander, Ritzmann grabbed his camcorder and "shot an approximate
13-second video of a UFO flying from west to east between Pensacola Beach
and Gulf Breeze...The video shows a bright white/silver object traveling
quite fast across the sky. Toward the end of the video, the object seems
to tilt, or turn, showing a bright flash as it catches the sun's rays.
After that, it appears to fade, probably turning away, it pursues and
erratic course until it is out of sight. This object does not appear to
be an airplane approaching Pensacola airport, since its speed and altitude
are too high and fast" for a conventional aircraft. On Monday, March
23, 1998, Florida authorities closed Highway 192 in Holipaw, about five
miles (8 kilometers) north of Narcoossee, the site of the March 17 flyover
of a V-shaped UFO. The highway was closed following a head-on collision
between a pickup truck and a semi-tractor trailer hauling a load of chemicals.
The crash took place near the intersection of Highways 192 and 441. The
semi spilled an unspecified quantity of the chemical Dithan. As a result,
the authorities began hazardous material (HAZMAT) clean-up procedures.
Highway 192 in Holipaw was supposed to remain closed "for a day."
However, on Wednesday, March 25, authorities said the road would remain
closed "until sometime tomorrow." Ufologist Daniel Cox pointed
out that Holipaw, Fla. is in a "rural, wooded and swampy" area,
adding, "Closing of Highway 192 in this vicinity, near the intersection
of Highways 192 and 441, effectively eliminates all civilian traffic in
the region, at least as far as primary roads are concerned." This
has led some UFO buffs to wonder if a saucer landed early last week in
Holipaw. On Wednesday evening, March 25, a newspaper reporter from Sebring,
Fla. spotted mysterious lights in the sky over Highway 60 as he was driving
to Lake Wales (population 9,670), a city 53 miles (85 kilometers) east
of Tampa. Each night from Monday, March 23, to Friday, March 27, "a
crew of five to ten people harvesting palms at night have been seeing lights
in the sky an estimated 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 kilometers)" north
of Lake Okeechobee, according to Jean Brown of Tampa Bay MUFON. On Friday,
March 27, 1998, the operations manager at the U.S. Air Force's Avon Park
Bombing Range informed Ms. Brown that "for the past two weeks, the
Air Force has been dropping flares attached to parachutes, two at a time,
for A-10s at high altitude testing night vision goggles. He said testing
was supposed to end last night (Thursday, March 26), and that they have
received many calls as these flares have been seen from Lake Wales south."
(Many thanks to Jean Brown, Carole Baker, Danny Cox, Josh Harris, Courtland
Lewis, Steve Wilson Sr. and others for these Florida reports.)
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- FOUR LUMINOUS UFOs SEEN NEAR
FRENCH AIR BASE
-
- On Sunday evening, February 15, 1998,
three people--Ferdinand D., Simone B. and Beatrice S.-- were driving on
Autoroute RN13 between Evreux and Saint Andre de l'Eure when they spied
"four luminous objects in the sky." A UFO was first seen near
the perimeter of the Armee de l'Air (French Air Force--J.T.) Base 105 Evreux/Fauville.
"It had a spherical form and remained stationary in front of us,"
Ferdinand reported. "As we drove into 'old Evreux,' the object was
on our right." They dropped off Beatrice at her home in the Val David
section of Evreux and then drove down Chaussee (local road) D67, heading
back to Saint Andre de l'Eure. "We then saw three other spheres in
a stationary group," Simone reported. "The first one came and
made a jerky motion. Then the UFOs dispersed in all directions."
Stopping the car, Ferdinand and Simone stepped outside to get a better
look. They watched the first UFO return. "The intensity of the light
varied, seeming to give an impression of shrinkage and expansion. It disappeared
after ten minutes." Evreux is a city in the department of Eure about
140 kilometers (84 miles) west of Paris. (Merci beaucoup a Thierry Garnier
pour ces nouvelles.)
-
- ANOTHER UFO SIGHTED IN WESTERN
AUSTRALIA
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- On Monday, March 23, 1998, at 9:45 p.m.,
witnesses in Bindoon, Western Australia (W.A.), 84 kilometers (51 miles)
north of Perth, saw "a large, multicoloured light moving around high
up in the eastern sky." For fifteen minutes, the witnesses watched
what they described as "a light yellow/gold object" with "red/green
lights move around in a weird fashion never seen before...The illumination
appeared too large for a star or planet." Earlier in the week, two
UFO sightings were reported in New South Wales, Australia. On Thursday,
March 19, 1998, at 9:15 p.m., people living 20 kilometers (12 miles) west
of Mussellbrook, N.S.W. reported seeing "a large, low-flying aerial
craft with lots of odd surging noises, no lights." The UFO "passed
overhead on a bearing of southeast to northwest." No Royal Australian
Air Force (RAAF) activity was reported in that vicinity at the time of
the sighting. On Sunday, March 22, 1998, sometime after midnight, people
in Taylor Lakes, N.S.W. reported seeing a UFO with "multicoloured
flashing lights and some windows" fly overhead. (Many thanks to Ross
Dowe and the Australia/New Zealand National UFO Hotline for these reports.)
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- UFOs APPEAR IN PANAMA
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- Following a two-month hiatus, UFOs returned
to Central America on February 25, 1998, turning up in the nation of Panama.
On Wednesday, February 25, at 2:39 a.m., police in the small city of Santiago
de Veraguas received calls from residents claiming to have seen an OVNI
(Spanish acronym for UFO) in the night sky. By morning, city authorities
were checking out rumors of "a possible UFO landing." Santiago
is on the Pan-American Highway 240 kilometers (150 miles) west of Balboa.
That evening, at 9:15 p.m., a mysterious explosion rocked the Barriada
Florestal section of Santiago. Investigating police and firefighters found
a perfectly circular hole in the roof of one of the houses. The cause
of the hole remains unexplained. The following day, Thursday, February
26, 1998, at 11:23 p.m., a triangular UFO was seen hovering above Cerro
Gordo hill on the outskirts of Santiago. Fifteen people witnessed the object
and described it as "another UFO...with three lights of different
colors, shaped like a boomerang or a triangle. There was no U.S. Air Force
or Panamanian air traffic in the area" at the time. MUFON investigator
John Thompson contacted NORAD and spoke to "Scott Johnson, a public
relations officer for NORAD, about" Panama, and Johnson "said
a careful check was made of the area around Santiago" that night "but
NORAD found no 'space junk' reentering" Earth's atmosphere at that
location. (See Filer's Files #12 for 1998. Many thanks to George A. Filer
and John Thompson for this report.) (Editor's Note: Santiago is 200 miles
(320 kilometers) east of Golfito and Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica, where
disc-shaped UFOs appeared during the last week of December 1997.)
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- SILVER SPHERE UFOs SEEN IN
CANNONVILLE, GEORGIA
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- After a few quiet months, the tiny town
of Cannonville, Georgia (population 400) is again the focus of UFO activity.
Cannonville is on Highway 29 just east of West Point Lake, about 75 miles
(120 kilometers) southwest of Atlanta. On Saturday, February 21, at 10
p.m., a few Cannonville residents spotted "a UFO with three lights
on it...flashing and blinking in the Hogg Mountain area. Witnesses were
close enough to have heard any sound, but there was none." On Sunday,
March 22, 1998, at 4 p.m., a 57-year- old Cannonville woman "was driving
east on Long Cane Road and saw two bright 'silver balls' hanging in the
air, just west of Hogg Mountain. The silver balls were about one mile
(1.6 kilometers) away from her on the horizon at approximately 60 degrees
height. The silver balls each had an apparent size several times bigger
than Venus and a real size larger than a four-room house. The southern-most
UFO 'disappeared' straight-up in a streaking fashion. The second UFO did
the same a few seconds later." When she arrived in Cannonville, the
woman rushed into her house and told her family what she had just seen.
"Her sister went outside to look up and saw a yellow prop (propellor-engine)
plane." She then spotted a hovering "silver ball" and "yelled
for everyone to come outside. As the family ran out, the UFO disappeared."
(See Filer's Files #12 for 1998. Many thanks To George A. Filer and John
Thompson of MUFON for this report.)
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- ROUNDUP CORRIGENDA: In a recent story on the UFO sightings in Toms
River, New Jersey, your editor cited Ellis Smith's sighting as taking place
at 4:30 p.m. on February 19, 1998. In actuality, the Smith family's sighting
took place five days earlier, on Saturday, February 14, 1998. Ellis Smith
writes, "I can also readily ascertain the day it took place, and I
believe the event actually began when my family and I were in the theater
watching the first showing" of the movie Sphere "which began
at 12:30 p.m., Saturday, February 14." "At 4:30 p.m. (that day),
my son age 9, my daughter age 5 and myself were driving home from the theater
in Toms River when I noticed about 20 miles to the southwest, 40 to 45
degrees up from the horizon, what appeared to be an 'instant' contrail
descending from a very bright white object." "I informed Starfriends
and IUFO almost immediately upon arriving home from where the sighting
took place," he added, "and so have the original submissions
complete with time stamp." Mr. Smith has made the original emails
and time stamps available to your editor for review. I am satisfied that
his family's sighting took place on Saturday, February 14, 1998. UFO ROUNDUP
regrets the error. Thank you, Mr. Smith, for helping to set the record
straight. In a story on the 1965 Everglades UFO case, your editor mistakenly
identified an airboat as a "swamp buggy." Florida reader Courtland
Lewis wrote, "A swamp buggy is an automobile or truck chassis (no
body panels) mounted on four oversized, deep-tread mud tires." I
stand corrected, Court. Thanks for writing.)
-
- from the UFO Files:
-
- 1867: PHENOMENAL HAIL FALLS
IN INDIA
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- On March 28, 1867, gigantic hailstones
pounded the villages north of Adoni, a city in Andhra Pradesh state 424
kilometers (265 miles) northwest of Madras. Here's the original report:
"In Adoni to the north of the talook, at Nakkulmittah and other villages,
the hail is described as being the size of cocoa nuts (coconuts) to woodapples,
and lying to one foot (25 centimeters) in depth; in some places destroying
the wet and dry (season) crops." "In Gooti, at eight p.m. on
the (March) 28th, the hail was described as ranging from the size of bullets
to limes..." "In Anantapur talook the size of the hailstones
is apparently incredible. I give, however, the local report, that in a
field in the village of Bondalavada, some of the (hail)stones were two-thirds
of a cubic yard (576 square inches or 1,152 square centimeters--J.T.) in
size." "In the village of Chadula a cubic span, and in other
villages of six seers, or three pounds in weight; this last was verified
by the Tahsildar (local official--J.T.). Two men 2,470 sheep and eight
cattle were killed, and some thatched houses were destroyed." (See
Symon's Monthly Meteorological Magazine, volume 2, number 53 for 1867,
"Severe Hailstorm in India." Reprinted in TORNADOS, DARK DAYS,
ANOMALOUS PRECIPITATION, AND WEATHER-RELATED PHENOMENA, compiled by William
A. Corliss, Sourcebook Project, April 1983, page 100.)
-
- FUN UFO WEBSITES: The website for NICAP, also known as the National Investigating
Committee for Aerial Phenomena, is up and online. UFO news is available
at the NICAP site at this URL: http://www.evansville.net/~slk/ufoi.html.
Columnist Carole Baker of the Pensacola Beach Islander just opened her
website, which lists the latest UFO news from Gulf Breeze, Fla. Carole's
"Skywatch Diary" can be found at this URL: http://www.deleree.com/
skywatch-diary/index.html. Don't miss our parent site, UFO INFO. Check
out the news, photos, features and links at this URL: http://ufoinfo.com
Back issues of UFO ROUNDUP can be read at our webpage. Drop in at http://ufoinfo.com/roundup/
-
- Today is the birthday of another great-grandad
of the Internet. On March 29, 1853, American inventor Elihu Thomson, discoverer
of alternating current (AC), was born. Thomson died on March 13, 1937
at age 83, having lived long enough to witness the advent of radio and
black-and-white television.
-
-
- 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
news item first appeared.
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