MORE HALE-BOPP MYSTERIES SURFACE
On Friday, November 29, 1996, Sky and Telescope News in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA revealed that the Comet Hale-Bopp was emitting “radio noise.” This report aired later that day on the Art Bell Show.
According to S&T News, “in mid-November, radio observatories showed that each second the comet’s nucleus was pumping out 30 tons of water into space and another 6 (tons) of carbon monoxide. That helps explain why the comet is already magnitude 4.5.”
On Saturday, November 30, 1996, at 3 p.m. Eastern time, Dr. Courtney Brown of the Farsight Institute released a color photo of Comet Hale-Bopp on the Internet. Dr. Brown said the photo was taken on April 20 at the National Astronomical Observatory in Japan by H. Fukushima and N. Yamamoto. The two men used a 50- centimeter reflector telescope mounted with a charged coupling device (CCD).
The Fukushima/Yamamoto photo shows an anomalous white object, egg-shaped, much larger than the nearby stars at a three o’clock position relative to the comet. Readers wanting to view the photo can find it at http://www.serve.com/Impacto/hb.html
The anomalous object photographed two weeks ago by Chuck Shramek of Houston, Texas was at a one o’clock position relative to the comet.
Readers wanting to check out Hale-Bopp themselves with their own or local college telescopes can find the comet at these coordinates:
COMET HALE-BOPP Right Ascension Declination
Monday, December 2 18h 5.2m -0.29
Wednesday, December 4 18h 7.2m -0.14
Friday, December 6 18h 9.4m +0.2
UFO FLAP STIRS ALICE SPRINGS, AUSTRALIA
On Monday night, November 25, 1996, outlying residents of Alice Springs in central Australia reported seeing “strange orange lights” hovering over the stony ridge south of the city, about 15 miles (25 kilometers) west of the Stuart Highway.
The following night, Tuesday, November 26, the UFOs returned. Several flew over the city, heading northeast toward Mount Blassey (3,990 feet or 1,216 meters high).
On Wednesday night, November 27, Australia’s ASC Radio reported “six orange lights moved very slowly over Alice Springs” before shooting away to the southeast. UFOs were also reported in nearby Santa Teresa. Witnesses saw the objects speeding over the mulga and spinifex-covered plain, heading for the Simpson Desert.
Alice Springs is located near the center of the Australian continent, just north of the boundary line between the Northern Territory and South Australia. Not far away is the sacred Aboriginal site of Uluru, also known as Ayer’s Rock.
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GREEN SPHEROID HOVERS OVER DOWNTOWN SEOUL
Promptly at 7:20 a.m. on Friday, November 22, 1996, police stations in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, were inundated by phone calls from frantic residents, who reported a UFO hovering over the city.
The object, described as “a yellowish-green globe with a golden slit in the lower hemisphere,” appeared over downtown Seoul and floated in a westerly direction for ten minutes, passing over the Han-gang (river). As it reached the port city of Inchon, the UFO “flew away at high speed.” (See the Pacific edition of the newspaper Stars and Stripes for November 25, 1996, and the Korea Times for November 23, 1996.)
A cameraman for South Korean cable TV News Channel YTN videotaped the UFO as it flew over. A YTN spokesman said, “We may try to bring in foreign experts to hear their opinions about the frequent sightings of spacecraft from other worlds here in Korea.”
The Yonhap News Agency said the spheroid’s “flight pattern was identical to the UFOs spotted here last year.”
On September 7, 1995, seven UFO’s, resembling silvery-white teardrops, flew over Seoul heading north.
The Seoul UFO is on view at the Korea Times Web page at http://www.korealink.co.kr/times/14_1/kba3.hfm
(Many thanks to Snake Daddy for this story.)
MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSION IN THE FRENCH ALPS
On Thursday, November 21, 1996, at 1 p.m., a “very loud explosion” rocked the city of Annecy and the neighboring small town of Thones in the Haute Savoie region of France.
The explosion also created “a wild electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that interfered with the radars at Nice airport for a couple of seconds.”
The French government immediately instituted their INCERFA emergency procedure. A squadron of French Air Force Mirage III-Cs was diverted to fly a combat air patrol over the Alpes-Jura north of Chamonix and east of Annecy. By 3 p.m., over 200 firemen and gendarmes (police). Queries were sent all over Europe to see if any aircraft were missing.
At 6 p.m., the INCERFA alert was lifted, and the units left the area. Although residents of Thones and Annecy had reported seeing “a bright flash” in the sky, which made them think a small private plane had exploded in mid-air, a government spokesman said, “Nothing was found. We do not expect such a site to be located.”
Annecy borders the lake of the same name in Haute Savoie, a mountainous region of eastern France. The lake is located 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Geneva, Switzerland.
(Many thanks to Thierry Garnier and the Cercle Ufologique de Haute Normandie in Gaillon, France for this report.)
STRANGE SERIES OF JET ENGINE FAILURES
This week saw an unprecedented series of jet engine failures in the USA, beginning off California’s Cape Mendocino on Friday night, November 22, 1996.
Earlier that evening, a CH-130 four-engined Hercules aircraft belonging to the 304th Rescue Squadron, U.S. Air Force Reserve, took off from Portland, Oregon. The plane was headed south to San Diego, California on a routine training mission. The Hercules has a wingspan of 130 feet and four turboprop engines.
As the plane reached a point west of Cape Mendocino, which is 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of San Francisco, “the crew reported one of four propellor engines had shut down, and they were having trouble with another…After that, the crew reported complete electrical failure. Radio contact was lost about 7:30 p.m. and the wreckage was found 90 minutes later.”
Ten crewmen were killed when the plane plunged into the frigid, shark-infested waters. The sole survivor was Tech. Sgt. Robert Vogel, 31, of Albany, Oregon, who remains in fair condition at the Mad River Community Hospital in Arcata, California.
“There was some confusion over which direction the plane was headed because it apparently tried to turn back before it crashed, the Coast Guard explained.” (See The Oregonian of Portland, Oregon for November 23, 1996.)
On Sunday, November 24, all aircraft of the USAF Reserve 939th Rescue Wing “were grounded as officials try to discover why a CH-130 rescue plane lost power and crashed Friday, killing 10.” (See USA Today for November 25, 1996, page 3.)
The same day, in San Francisco, another mysterious engine failure took place. “A United Airlines flight bound for Seoul, South Korea lost power in one of its engines moments after takeoff yesterday (Sunday) and returned to make an emergency landing. There were no injuries.”
“After pilots on (United) Flight 807 reported the problem in one of the jet’s four engines, the plane dumped its fuel and returned safely to San Francisco International Airport, said airport duty manager Mike McCarron.” None of the 287 people aboard the Boeing 747 were injured. (See the Norwich, Connecticut Bulletin for November 25, 1996.)
On Saturday, November 23, there were two instances of jetliner mid-air difficulties..
“TWA Flight 519 from St. Louis to Oklahoma City diverted to Tulsa (Oklahoma) because of an electrical problem with the DC-9.”
“Continental Airlines Flight 699 to Columbia, S.C. (South Carolina) returned to Charleston (S.C.) shortly after takeoff because of engine trouble in the Boeing 737.” (See the newspaper USA Today for November 25, 1996.)
Finally, on Monday, November 25, 1996, Continental Airlines Flight 1233 left Newark, New Jersey bound for Cincinnati, Ohio. The jetliner diverted and “landed in Columbus, Ohio after one of the Boeing 737’s engines lost power.” (See USA Today for November 26, 1996.)
(Editor’s Comment: Continental Flight 1233 lost its engine while passing over Geauga County, scene of last week’s UFO sighting. Coincidence?)
FROM THE UFO FILES: THE CROTSENBURG CASE
One of the earliest documented UFO sightings in the United States took place in northern Missouri way back in July 1896. Since this is the centennial year, let’s take a look back at this important encounter.
On August 22 and September 6, 1898, a railway postal clerk named C.N. Crotsenburg wrote two letters to the editor of the magazine Monthly Weather Review, describing an incident he couldn’t get out of his mind. Both letters were published in the August 1898 issue of the Monthly Weather Review on page 358.
“I will relate an experience which befell me in the summer of 1896,” Crotsenburg wrote. “I was then employed as a railway postal clerk on the line of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway, between Davenport, Iowa and Leavenworth, Kansas.”
On or about July 8, 1896, the big McQueen 4-6-2 steam locomotive pulled out of the station at Trenton, Missouri, pulling Crotsenburg’s mail car north to Lineville, Iowa.
“Just before reaching Princeton, in Mercer County (Missouri), a heavy rain began falling, which necessitated the closing of the doors on the east side of the mail car. Soon after leaving that station, at 10:35 p.m., my companion (Mr. R.C. Corbin) lay down for a short sleep. The work being very light that night, I sat in a chair, looking out of the (mail) car door to the west. The darkness was intense; not a ray of light was visible from any point, except the train. When a few miles out from Princeton, and while traveling almost due north, I observed a peculiar light low down on the western horizon. It appeared to be perfectly round and about a foot (0.33 meters) in diameter, of a dull rose color, or, possibly, like a piece of live coal.”
“When first observed, it appeared to be floating within a hundred feet (33 meters) of the earth; but soon rose to a height midway between the horizon and the zenith. For a time it floated very steadily but soon began to oscillate up and down, at times even dropping out of sight behind hills. The wind was quite strong from the east, but the light traveling in an almost true north course. Its speed varied, sometimes seeming to outrun the train considerably, and at others, it would fall behind, but never far enough to be lost from sight. Most of the time it appeared to be nearly abreast of the train and apparently from half a mile (0.8 kilometers) to a mile (1.6 kilometers) distant. Soon after it was observed by me, my companion (Corbin) rose, and we both watched it closely until the town of Lineville, Iowa was reached. There it passed out of sight behind the depot, and we saw it no more.”
In his September 6, 1896 letter, Crotsenburg added, “We thought of distant electric light but found that none existed within the range of our vision on that portion of the (rail) road…I remember that we remarked that if it had occurred a few nights earlier, we should have felt certain that it was the light from a balloon sent up from some Fourth of July celebration, so probably it was within a week of July 4, 1896.”
“It was so very strange that I should have never mentioned it, not even to my friends, had it not been corroborated by a reliable witness…The fact that it was observed by both of us at the same time, and had the same appearance to his eyes as it had to mine before he saw it is good evidence that it was a reality and not a hallucination. He observed it as he was passing the open door and before I had spoken to him. In fact, the thing was so unreal that I hesitated to speak of it, fearing that it was some freak of my imagination, but when he too saw it the same, I could no longer doubt its existence as a reality, and we both observed it closely while the train was running at least 15 miles (24 kilometers). When it disappeared it was at least a mile from us, as the buildings of the town (Lineville, Iowa) were plainly visible and it was some distance farther west than any of them.”
(Editor’s Note: The Crotsenburg/Corbin sighting predates the October 10, 1896 “airship” sighting in Oakland, California by just over three months.)
FUN UFO WEBSITES FOR YOU TO VISIT
Don’t miss our parent site, UFO INFO. It’s chock-full of features, essays, reports and commentary, all devoted to unidentified flying objects. You’ll find UFO INFO at http://ufoinfo.com/index.html
The Tri-County UFO Website is now up and running. You can reach them at http://www.cannet.com/~oliver.
Sky Searchers looks at the abduction phenomenon, using an evangelical Christian point of view. Their site is located at http://www.itol.com/~decaob/
The British UFO Research Association (BUFORA) has a new Website at http://www.burfora.org.uk
Germany’s newest UFO site has been put online by Arne Hoffman. Try http://itzehoe.netsurf.de/~arne.hoffman/ ufo.html
One Website with lots of information is UFO Folklore. Check them out at http://www.qtm.net/~geibdan/
Got a recent UFO to report? Email us with all the juicy details. Best wishes to our Israeli readers for Hanukkah. See you all next week right here at “the paper that covers the saucers–UFO ROUNDUP.”