Many UFO sightings have taken place in the midwestern United States during the past week. But the big flap is in Brazil!
CROWD PANICS IN PARAIBA
On Wednesday night, October 16, 1996, a gigantic rectangular UFO appeared over the city of Joao Pessoa (population 498,000) in northern Brazil, causing over 300 residents to flee in panic. Joao Pessoa is the capital of Paraiba, a small state in the Sertao (Northeast) on Brazil’s South Atlantic coast.
The OVNI (Portuguese acronym for UFO) flew at an estimated altitude of 3,000 meters (11,000 feet). Witnesses described it as an object “as long as a twenty-story building (72 meters or 240 feet).” Late-night diners on the Avenida Rui Carneiro and the Rua Almeida Barretto had a clear view of the rectangular UFO, which was also seen in ten other cities of Paraiba, including Patos, 176 kilometers (110 miles) west of Joao Pessoa. (See the Brazilian newspaper O Norte for October 17, 1996 “Discos Voadores Chagam A Capital,” page 1.)
The following night, Thursday, October 17, “um gigantesco OVNI triangular” (gigantic triangular UFO) was seen in Campina Grande (population 326,200), the state’s second-largest city, 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Joao Pessoa. The UFO flew slowly over the city on a westerly course. People dining in the 11th-floor restaurant of the Rique Palace Hotel, Avenida Venancio Neiva 287, watched as the UFO drifted over midtown.
Also that night, in Joao Pessoa, people saw UFOs flying in formation over the city. They made three passes over the city and were described as “colored balls green on the outside with flashing yellow lights.” One eyewitness, Prof. Jacipa Lucena de Farias, 45, watched the sky show from the Rua Indio Piragibe. She said she counted 11 UFOs during the second pass over the city and 30 UFOs on the third pass. The UFO formation was also seen by passengers waiting to board intercity buses at the Transportadora Wilson.
In the small town of Jaguaribe, local residents saw 40 “green light” UFOs skim overhead at about 11 p.m.
The flap went into high gear Friday night, October 18, with the reappearance of a gigantic cylindrical UFO over Guarabira. This inland city, north of Campina Grande, has been repeatedly visited by UFOs since April. According to Wellington Francisco de Lima, president of Equipe Pesquinas Ufologicas de Guarabira (UFO Investigating Team of Guarabira), EPUG for short, Friday’s UFO was “a cylindrical object very much like a fluorescent lamp. It moved by itself both vertically and horizontally. The object emitted a strong light but it did not move at great velocity.”
A large UFO was also seen that night in the Parque Arruda Camara and at Praia de Jacare beach in Joao Pessoa.
In the rural village of Pilozinhas, Sra. Julia Monteiro de Cabral, age 92, said “an unusual silver plane” landed at 6:45 p.m. that Friday, coming down vertically beside some eucalyptus trees. Emerging from the UFO were a group of occupants she described as “homem pequenos e feios” (little fantastic men). Speaking a high-pitched unintelligible language, the occupants surrounded Sra. Monteiro de Cabral’s small house, and, she added, “They stole some of my chickens.”
In Sao Neves, residents saw “two OVNIs 30 meters (100 feet) in diameter of a discoidal (saucer) shape with blinking lights.”
And in Mamanguape, 90 kilometers (55 miles) from Joao Pessoa, a local man was reported missing after two “bright balls of light” were seen in the night sky.
(Thanks to EPUG members Wellington Francisco de Lima, Marcus Sila, Andre Santos Geisa, Pedro Alves and Oriel Farias for these reports.)
MANY CLOSE ENCOUNTERS IN OHIO
On Tuesday, October 15, 1996, just past 11 p.m., a man driving between Kenton and Bellefontaine on Ohio Highway 68 spied a triangular UFO in the sky. The UFO was three miles (5 kilometers) north of Bellefontaine and described as “a bright red light centered between two white lights…an additional white light was close by, which made a triangle shape…The red light was centered in the triangular pattern and detached from the main object.” The witness had it in view for five minutes before the light “extinguished.” At 11:30 p.m., he phoned the group Tri-States Advocates for Scientific Knowledge. Both T.A.S.K. and the Hardin County Sheriff’s Department investigated the incident.
Four separate UFO incidents took place the following night, October 16. At 8:30 p.m., a couple on Flaugher Hill Road in Aberdeen, Ohio, a town on the Ohio River 48 miles (77 kilometers) southeast of Cincinnati, saw “an orange light” to their immediate north. The UFO “appeared, then disappeared, then reappeared in a different part of the sky. I’d never seen anything like it in my life,” the man said, adding that his wife was “near hysteria.” He phoned both the Brown County Sheriff’s Department and the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Police dispatchers, however, deny that any UFO calls were received that night.
At 8:37 p.m., another couple saw “a bright orangish red” UFO “appear and disappear…in the direction of Manchester” (population 2,400), another Ohio River town 12 miles east of Aberdeen. The husband phoned a friend in Bethel (population 2,231), forty miles (64 kilometers) to the northwest, who looked outdoors and saw “three or four lights moving in a straight line, and two or three lights in a diagonal line, forming a T shape.”
At 8:45 p.m., in rural Ross County outside of Chillicothe (population 23,240), a city 64 miles (102 kilometers) northeast of Manchester, residents spotted “appearing and disappearing lights.” One man videotaped “an object with lights rotating around it in a circle.” Radio station WKKJ 93.3 FM in Chillicothe drew several calls from listeners describing the UFOs. The UFO tape was broadcast on TV Channel 10 in Columbus, Ohio the next day, October 17.
In Jackson, Ohio (population 6,675), located 31 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of Chillicothe, a resident reported seeing “a bright red fireball traversing the sky just after dark (6 p.m.) heading west.”
On Thursday, October 17, at 11 p.m., Melissa M., 22, of Lima, Ohio was outdoors walking her dog. The canine needed to answer a call of nature. All at once, she saw “a bright light moving from the south.” At first glance, Melissa thought it was a medical emergency helicopter but changed her mind when “the light went over me at high speed without making any noise.” Minutes later, three military jets roared over her head. “They were so low I could see the red of their afterburners.” (Email Interview)
Melissa’s hometown of Lima (population 43,400) is 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and 37 miles (59 kilometers) northwest of Bellefontaine.
(Many thanks to Kenneth Young of T.A.S.K. for the Ohio River UFO reports)
TWO NEW UFO SIGHTINGS IN MINNESOTA
On Thursday, October 17, Jack Kelliher, who lives near Wausau, Wisconsin, was driving on Highway 61 just outside Red Wing, Minnesota, a town on the Mississippi River 57 miles (91 kilometers) southeast of Minneapolis, when he saw a domed saucer or daylight disc hovering in the sky.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Kelliher said, “but I think I actually saw a flying disc motionless in the sky, reflecting sunlight, almost as if they were watching me. At first I thought it was a reflection, so I got out of my car. And it was still there. The object had a straight flat bottom. It domed-out on the top. It might have been a reflection, but I seriously doubt it. Basically, it looked like a peripheral view of a cookie. It sat there for a good ten seconds, as I ran up to the fence post to double-check to see if it was a reflection. But by the time I got to the fence, it was gone. I don’t think it was a reflection. The object appeared truly metallic.” (Email Interview)
The following day, Friday, October 18, at 7:50 p.m., Maureen Nickerson was driving on Interstate Highway 94, just west of Fergus Falls, near the North Dakota state line, when she spied something unusual in the sky. “It appeared to be a medium-sized pulsating star. As I watched it, it began to move, but keeping pace with me, then speeding up. It crossed the highway in front of me, then stopped and hovered by the side of the road. I could see distinctly green and red spot-light lights at the top. They were moving around, not just stationary. I could see no structure at all, just the lights. There were one main large white circular light and the red and green lights at the top. While it was hovering, it appeared to flip upside down. The (colored) lights appeared at the bottom. I had my video cam along and could have gotten it on video except it didn’t seem safe to stop. The craft meandered slowly over the countryside until it disappeared from my view on the horizon.” (Email Interview)
(Editor’s Note: Pamplona, Spain has the running of the bulls. But, every summer, Fergus Falls has the running of the geese, also known as the Fergus Falls Goose Gallop. It’s lots of fun, so if you happen to be in Otter Tail County, drop on in.)
DAYLIGHT DISC APPEARS OVER APPLETON, WISCONSIN
Sunday, October 20, 1996, at 3 p.m., found Dan Jensen and his wife driving south on Wisconsin Highway 41 just outside the city of Appleton (population 59,032). “As we were driving,” Jensen recalls, “we happened to look to the southwest and saw a very shiny object. From the horizon, there was blue sky, then a cloud bank, then a more blue sky. This object was in the center of (below) the cloud bank. I thought it was an airplane with the sun glaring off the body. But below the shining or gleaming object and to our right was an airplane. You could see the shape of the plane and that it only showed glare off the top of it. The other object’s whole body glowed brilliantly and had the distinct (saucer) shape of a UFO. It seemed to be somewhat larger than the plane even though it was farther away. It was visible for about two minutes, then disappeared into the clouds. As we were passing others on the highway, we saw at least two other drivers looking in that direction. We would like to know if anyone else saw it.” (Email Interview)
CIGAR-SHAPED UFO SEEN NEAR CHICAGO
Mrs. Pamela McIlvaine of Illinois reports a sighting from July 3. On that day, Mrs. M and her grown son were driving out of Chicago, heading to Maryland on vacation, when they spotted an unusual object in the sky. It was 12:30 p.m., Mrs. M recalls, and her son “pointed toward the sky and told me to look…My first impression was that it was a ‘flying wing’ but, of course, there was nothing attached to it. It was bluer than the sky, metallic, but not especially shiny, not reflecting the sun which was very bright. The object remained stationary for a few minutes, then appeared to turn at a 90-degree angle and disappear away from us. We were driving south, so it was also headed south. I am very much interested to know if anyone else saw this object.” (Email Interview)
UFO SEEN OFF AUSTRALIA’S “SUNSHINE COAST”
On Thursday, October 17, at 6:50 p.m., Glennys Mackay, director of Queensland MUFON, her husband, and two American ufologists, John Carpenter and Joseph Lewis, were driving on the Bruce Highway in Queensland, near Caloundra and Noosa, 55 kilometers (33 miles) north of Brisbane. Suddenly, according to Ms. Mackay, the quartet “noticed a huge light rising up out of the sea, which was stationary for some time before dropping rapidly into the ocean once again. After several minutes, it surfaced and was once again in the southeast sky.” The four studied the UFO “through telescopic lenses and found it to have four white lights. The very interesting thing about this was that it showed itself (to be) a round silver ball surrounded by a light that appeared to be a silver mesh in appearance. After several minutes, it took off in a northerly direction.” As it flew away, the UFO appeared to be “large and long with a huge bright light in front and several white lights behind.”
(Thanks to Glennys MacKay and Errol Bruce-Knapp of UFO Updates for this report.)
BIG WEEK FOR UFOs IN BRITAIN
Early Friday morning, October 18, 1996, Alexander Klement, age 8, of Penrhyn Avenue, Walthamstow, East London awoke suddenly when he heard his six-year-old sister cry out in her sleep, “calling for her mum.” Then he heard a tish-tish-tish sound coming from the garden behind their home. Turning in bed, Alex looked out the window and saw “a big orange triangle in the air just hanging there.”
According to John Klement, his father, an East London barrister (lawyer), Alex said the UFO “was a bit rectangular at the bottom with three lights in it, the two outer ones green and the middle one orange. There was a light glow roundabout.” The tish-tish noise stopped, and the lights flashed on and off alternately, then stopped again. Then, according to Alex, “the triangle turned over on its side and flew off” noiselessly.
(See the Waltham Forest Independent for October 18. 1996, “Orange Triangle Hovered Over Garden.”)
In Morecambe, Lancashire, a port on the Irish Sea, the local UFO study group videotaped an unidentified flying object last week. The UFO was flying over Torrisholme, a village just outside of Morecambe. The group described it as triangular, “the size of three Hercules transport planes and totally noiseless.” When last seen, the UFO was flying south, down the peninsula, seemingly headed for the Heysham nuclear power station. (Thanks to Errol Bruce-Knapp and UFO Updates for this story)
(Editor’s Comment: Headed for the Heysham nuclear power station, eh? I’m sure that was REALLY comforting news to the eight million people living in nearby Liverpool and Manchester!)
UFO PARADE NEAR BOULDER DAM
At 11 p.m. on Saturday, October 19, 1996, Nelson Deane and some friends from Boulder City, Nevada parked on a desert rimrock ridge 23 miles south of gigantic Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. The group saw “multiple formations of UFOs, all kinds, delta, box, T-shaped. Single crafts kept appearing and disappearing, traveling faster than the rest of the group and flying from formation to formation.” They watched the UFO formations until 3 a.m. on Sunday, October 20, when “crafts resembling meteors” showed up. “They’d fly a short distance, disappear, and then reappear and start the cycle again. Anyone else sees this show?”
UFO AIMS A SPOTLIGHT AT A CAR IN QUEBEC
On Tuesday, October 15, 1996, at 11 p.m., Yves Anger of Montreal and his girlfriend were driving west on Highway 40 near Trois Rivieres, Quebec (population 52,508) when Yves spotted “three unknown objects in the northern sky.” The condition of the sky was clear, he reported, and the UFOs “were triangular in form, very big” and had “a variation of green, blue, red and yellow lights blinking.” One of the objects then aimed “a terrible light” at their car and kept them bathed in its incandescence for “at least 20 minutes.” The three UFOs were seen by 60 other witnesses.
(See the newspaper Journal de Montreal for October 18, 1996.)
NEW WEBSITE:
Tim Elders has his Sublime Carnage Paralinks site open. Paralinks has over 250 links to pages dealing with UFOs, Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, Cadborosaurus, hauntings, Atlantis, and other topics. Just the place to drop in on Halloween night. You can visit Paralinks at this URL address… http://www.pclink.com/telder/
GRAND OPENING!!! And if you’re in San Francisco on Halloween night, take the BART to North Beach and join Erik Beckjord for the grand opening of the UFO, Bigfoot and Loch Ness Monster Museum. It’s just off Washington Square at 709 Union Street. Grays will be serving the refreshment, and guests are encouraged to come dressed as monsters, Bigfoot, elves, goblins, fairies, witches, aliens, and anything else paranormal. This party will lend a whole new dimension to the phrase “far out.”
And if you have a recent UFO sighting to report, email us. Here’s wishing you all a Happy Halloween from “the paper that covers the saucers–UFO ROUNDUP!”