This week we have some saucer news from the USA and the UK, plus a few surprising UFO anniversaries.
GIANT AIRBORNE SAUCER SIGHTED NORTH OF LAS VEGAS
Sometime last week (no exact date given), a security guard and a handful of customers at a bank in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada looked out the large tinted windows and saw “a craft of saucer shape hovering above the (Sheep Range) mountains north of Las Vegas.”
According to our informant, his friend, the security guard “said it was about a half-mile wide and just hovering over the mountains.” The guard said the UFO’s position was about a mile northwest of Nellis Air Force Base. More details are needed to estimate its proper size. For instance, if the UFO was close to the horizon, heat haze from this daytime desert sighting might make it appear to be much larger than it actually was.
The group in the bank watched as the UFO suddenly retreated to the north and flashed “out of sight in the blink of an eye.” (Note: Nellis Air Force Base is six miles northeast of Las Vegas and should NOT be confused with the Nellis Test Range, home of Groom Lake/Area 51.)
UFO MAKES A LOW-LEVEL PASS OVER LONDON
Early Sunday morning, June 9, 1996, Mr. A.M. and his girlfriend went out onto their balcony near the Nat West Tower. As they looked toward Old Street, they saw that “the sky was 90 percent cloudless” and the city very quiet at this time–3:30 a.m.
Just then, the woman spotted a yellowish-white light shooting towards them from London’s northern horizon. She pointed it out to A.M., who described it as “an unusually bright light, larger and brighter than Venus.” The UFO changed course over the city, heading in a south-southeasterly direction. The couple kept it in sight for over ten minutes and went back inside at 3:50 a.m.
CLOSE ENCOUNTER OVER THE ENGLISH CHANNEL
According to the June 1996 issue of FORTEAN TIMES, a UFO “fell vertically from nowhere” and startled passengers aboard the Sealink ferry as it made its Channel crossing.
Eyewitness Simon Williams-Burns reported, “On 16 February (1996) at about 1:45 p.m. I was traveling with a group of friends on a Sealink ferry from Calais (France) to Dover (England) when a metallic disc-shaped object fell vertically from nowhere, stopped at what was still a great height and then moved off (east) towards France. Unfortunately, my camera was on the coach and I was unable to get it; but five other people on deck with me were able to back up what I had seen.”
(FORTEAN TIMES #87, see page 51)
DISC-SHAPED UFO ZAPS HOCKEY FANS’ CAR
This sighting also took place last winter. If anyone has the exact date, this newsletter would greatly appreciate it.
Paul Shiaro, 22, and Craig Pulloch, 22, of Selkirk, Manitoba were driving home late one Tuesday night from a Jets game in Winnipeg. As they were northbound on Winnipeg’s Perimeter Highway, Shiaro’s 1987 Ford Mustang suddenly went dead.
“The motor died, the lights died,” Shiaro said. “One minute the car was running as sweet as you please, and the next minute it was stopped dead on the highway. I tried over and over to start the engine, but it was no use.”
Shiaro managed to coast into the breakdown lane. “Craig just sat there swearing about being stranded on a lonely, ice-covered road in the dead of night. He wasn’t too happy about that. All of a sudden, there was the UFO. It just hovered in the sky, not making a sound. It was big. About as big as a house.”
“Before we knew it, this thing was hanging there in the sky in front of us,” Pulloch said. “It was disc-shaped with a bump on the bottom. It didn’t seem to have any lights, but it had an orange-colored glow. It was very eerie. I hadn’t been a believer in UFOs or science fiction in the past. But when I saw that UFO, it was like…Holy Cow! It really made a believer out of me.”
The UFO hovered over the Mustang for 15 to 20 seconds and then departed.
“It didn’t just cruise off, it went like a shot,” Shiaro said. “Zip! And it was gone. But it didn’t make a sound.”
When Shiaro tried the ignition key this time, the Mustang’s engine started right up. The car’s horn, cigarette lighter and headlights were all working. The two men then continued on their way home. (Note: Selkirk is 36 miles south of Gimli, Manitoba, where the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigated a saucer sighting in 1995.
MUFON DEBUNKS HUNTSVILLE UFO LANDING STORY
In UFO ROUNDUP #16, we told the story of a reported landing of a triangular-shaped UFO at the airport in Huntsville, Alabama on May 25, 1996. Several investigators from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) claim the story was a cyber-hoax.
According to Jeff Ballard, a check with Delta Airlines revealed that there was no Flight #1436 from Dallas/Fort Worth. Also, there was no patrolman or officer named “Ted Williams” on the Huntsville Police Department.
Another researcher, who asked to remain anonymous, criticized many items in the original Internet report. He said it made no mention of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center on Rideout Road in Huntsville. Since NASA was equally close to the airport, he added, why weren’t NASA vans responding to the UFO call? Also, why did it take the Army over an hour to reach the airport when the Redstone Arsenal is only three miles away?
So it looks like we can file Huntsville under “H for Hoax.” Too bad! It was one of the funniest UFO occupant stories in years.
THE SAUCERS OF JUNE
June is traditionally a big month for UFO sightings. The famous Kenneth Arnold case took place on June 24, 1947. But there have been other, equally interesting UFO events that took place in June. Here’s a rundown…
June 16, 1909 – Dong Hoi, Vietnam – Van Thi Binh, 7, and her sisters were awakened by a whooshing sound at around 3 a.m. As they looked out the window, they saw a glowing “bolide” flying slowly in an eastward direction over the city. The bright white glow lit up the rooftops, and the “bolide” was seen by Vietnamese fishermen offshore. They watched it for 8 to 10 minutes before it abruptly dropped into the South China Sea. Although it couldn’t possibly have been a bolide or detonating meteor (Not at that slow speed!), it was written up as such in the French magazine L’Astronomie. (See the book ANATOMY OF A PHENOMENON by Jacques Vallee, page 28)
June 20, 1953 – Brush Creek, near Willow Creek, California, USA – Two prospectors saw a UFO land in the meadow. An occupant came out of the object. He was described as 3 feet tall and wearing silvery gray tight-fitting garments and a hood or helmet. Ignoring the two astounded miners, the occupant carried a small silver pail to the creek, filled it with water, and then walked back to the UFO. Two minutes later, the UFO “shot into the sky without a sound.”
June 30, 1954 – Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada – A British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Stratocruiser airliner, piloted by Capt. James Howard, approached Goose Bay at 9 p.m. local time, on its New York to London flight. Suddenly, Capt. Howard saw a large object “something like an inverted pear suspended in the sky.” The UFO was accompanied by six saucers–three forward, three aft. The Goose Bay tower told Howard that there were no other aircraft in the area. Capt. Howard and his co-pilot, Lee Boyd, watched as the large UFO reshaped itself “into what looked like a flying arrow–an enormous delta-winged plane turning in to close with us.” The large UFO paced the BOAC Stratocruiser for over 15 minutes before departing. Other witnesses included chief navigator George Allen, chief radio operator Douglas Cox, flight engineers Daniel Godfrey and William Stewart and stewardess Daphne Webster.
June 23, 1966 – Coralles, New Mexico, USA – At 3:42 a.m., NASA employee Julian Sandoval saw a UFO near his home. Sandoval was working at the time for the Apollo moon project as an electrical power and environmental control engineer. Sandoval served in the U.S. Air Force as a pilot/navigator with over 7,000 hours of flight time.
June 26, 1972 – Port Beaufort, South Africa – Farm worker Boer de Klerk was watering cattle in a krans (pasture) at Braeside, a large farm just outside Port Beaufort. Suddenly, he saw a plume of smoke in the sunny cloudless sky. The smoke drifted towards him and then exploded into a roaring fireball. Terrified, de Klerk drooped his bucket and ran to fetch the baas (owner), Bennie Smit. Rounding up a group of his workers, Smit returned to the spot and found the bright orange fireball flying aimlessly around the pasture. As the men climbed the fence, the fireball halted, then backed away from them, and then climbed up, up and away.
More next week from “the paper that covers the saucers.” See ya!