Foo-Fighters
Nazi Stunt Electrical Phenomena
By HOWARD W. BLAKESLEE

New York, Jan. 2 (AP) - The descriptions of the new German foo-fighters, or balls of fire, fit into several well-known electrical phenomena.

These are induction, ball lightning and have some, though not all the aspects of St. Elmo's fire. If they are electrical, they are something created in the air close to the planes, rather than anything shot like artillery shells or anything floating in the air in wait for planes.

Induction is suggested by the reports that the foo-fires keep up with the planes, at fixed distances, regardless of plane speed, changes in speed or changes in direction.

Only electrical induction of some sort would explain such marvelous synchronization.

Induction, however, fails completely to describe what happens when a fire-ball zooms upward leaving its plane.

The common experience that resembles this trick is ball lightning. How anybody could produce ball lightning is unknown. Exactly what ball lightning may be is also unknown. But it is a quite harmless thing.

Static Electricity

St. Elmo's Fire is a brush discharge of static electricity, which streams off some solid object with a brilliant intensity. Aviators are familiar with brush discharges and would recognize them, so that the foo-balls are probably not ordinary St. Elmo's Fire.

A reason for the foo-balls, based on experience, is interference, with radar, radio or perhaps with a plane's ignition. Ignition interference would stop a plane in the air. It was a real project in Italy before this war, and how to do it was well-known in theory here. All you needed then, to stop a plane five or more miles away, was a power plant equal to Niagara Falls.

A guess can be made that the foo-balls are evidence that German scientists have found some way to get around part of the power troubles in interference. The fact that they are using them, and so disclosing their secrets to the Allies, would indicate that they do not hope to attain to ignition interference power.

Sweden in Target Area Of Mysterious Rockets From Coast of Germany
By LENNART STRID

Stockholm, Aug. 11 (AP) - Ghost rockets - mysterious spool-shaped speeding objects with fiery tails - have become a common sight in Sweden, and military officials no longer doubt that the country is in a target area for experimentation with remotely-controlled missiles.

Since July 1, newspapers have published reports of the flying fireballs nearly every day.

In the beginning many believed excited eye-witnesses had seen nothing more ominous than meteors. However, between July 9 and July 12 military authorities received 300 reports of the missiles and since that time added reports have poured in daily. Fragments examined by scientists gave little in the way of clues, except to indicate the presence of coke and other common materials.

From German Coast

Authorities, promising a communique on the results of the investigation within a few days, have cautioned Swedish newspapers not to publish the names of places where the ghost rockets appear, so that the senders would not be provided with important data. Official quarters declined to speculate on the source of the missiles, but it was believed elsewhere that the rockets come from some place along the Baltic Coast of Germany.

The Swedish public has taken the rockets with surprising calm. Fears that a missile might do damage in a densely-populated area have not been realized.

Nobody seems to think these rockets indicate any military preparations against Sweden, but the people are puzzled at Sweden's being in a target area when an unlimited amount of uninhabited area must be available for experimentation.

The Stockholm Tidingen labelled a recent editorial "Ghost Rockets and Future War," and said the appearance of the missiles pointed up a necessity for preparedness.

In general, the ghost rocket is described as a small object with a flaming tail which speeds at great height and vanishes within a few seconds. Eye-witnesses say the rockets make no appreciable sound.

In Huge Curve

Newspapers recently carried a picture of the rocket, obtained accidentally by a cameraman who was photographing a landscape. It showed a streak of light trailing from a small dark body, looking much like a comet.

Only in a few cases is it known that the missiles actually landed in Sweden. Military personnel have been busily dredging a small lake in Lapland.

Military authorities said the missiles evidently passed over Sweden in a huge curve. Some reports indicated the objects carried a device for self-destruction, and military experts said some apparently had exploded in the air. The longest flight of any of the missiles, so far as military experts could determine, was about 600 miles, as compared with the range of 35 to 45 miles for the first German V-2 rocket bombs.

There is no comparison, however, with the rocket bombs. The mystery missiles are small, and at low altitudes seem almost square. The bottom of the object appeared to have been painted red, eye-witnesses said. Some observed these missiles flying extremely low.

These reports have been unsubstantiated by a Swedish officer, a flier, who saw one of the rockets during a recent flight.

Flock of 'Saucers' Spotted by Police

Portland, Ore., July 4 (AP) - Two police patrol cars reported today they saw a large formation of "flying disks" manoeuvring over a Portland residential area today.

Their radioed reports to headquarters followed the same general pattern of reports of similar objects reported over the west - that they were high, looked like huge saucers, glistened in the sun, and flew with an undulating motion.

Flying Saucers Seen From Coast to Coast
U.S. Alerts Air Forces Over Discs
By The Canadian Press

Flying discs apparently were all over North America Sunday night as reports kept flooding in from persons who claimed they had seen the strange, airborne "saucers."

Reports of discs being sighted Sunday came from Wallaceburg, in Southwestern Ontario; Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; Rochester, N.Y.; Long Island, Idaho, and Chicago.

However, an Oregon National Guard officer said that aerial patrols, Sunday, failed to sight any of the objects.

A Spokane, Wash., woman said that 10 persons saw eight discs land near St. Maries, Idaho, July 3.

A Hagerstown, Md., woman said she saw five travelling eastward in formation at "terrific speed." She said they "roared with a sound like a faraway train."

The United States Army air forces put jet and conventional fighters on the alert in Pacific coast areas in the hope of catching and identifying the mysterious objects, but nothing in an official way had been reported Sunday night.

Meanwhile, many persons were volunteering explanations of what the discs were. In Britain, the whole story was laughed off as "America's answer to the Loch Ness monster."

In Syracuse, N.Y., Dr. Harry A. Steckel, psychiatric consultant, discounted the element of "mass hysteria" in connection with the reports. "They have been seen by too many people in too many different places to be dismissed so lightly," he said in a radio broadcast.

Dr. Aurel Aezel, editor of a Hungarian language newspaper in Philadelphia, suggested that the discs might be mirages.

Prof. Kirtley F. Mather, Harvard geologist, said in Boston that the discs are "definitely a man-made phenomenon."

All three Canadian Maritime provinces reported discs during the week-end. Ewen McNeill of Village Green, P.E.I., said his attention was attracted to a "very bright light in the sky - it was brighter than the sun." He added that the light seemed "to come from a black object immediately ahead of the light." He also added that the black object resembled a rocket or wingless plane.

But the most numerous reports of flying discs came from the Western United States.

Gen. Carl Spaatz, air forces commandant, was in the Pacific Northwest, where the majority of the strange objects were reported seen. The discs have been reported in Canada from on both coasts, from Vancouver, B.C., some days ago and over Summerside, P.E.I.; Saint John, N.B., and Ottawa last Friday.

Scores of Wallaceburg, Ont., citizens also reported seeing disc formations, Saturday night. Two of them are said to have swung over a large arc in the sky, disproving a theory that they were reflections of Selfridge Field searchlights.

Residents on the Canadian bank of the St. Clair River also reported seeing the discs over a period of more than an hour.

The "flying saucers" made a second appearance over Ottawa last week. One was reported to have been seen last Friday by Mr. and Mrs. Larry Laviolette and V. A. Bond.

Mr. Bond described the object as "round, bluish-white and blazing across the horizon at a terrific speed. It seemed about the size of a dinner plate. As it rose higher into the sky, we could see a long, white tail streaming out behind."

"Suddenly, it broke completely in two. Both sections continued on side by side for a split second then completely disintegrated. The whole thing didn't take more than three seconds at the most."

An air forces spokesman in Washington said Spaatz had not gone to the Pacific coast to investigate, but merely to speak at Seattle and inspect an airfield at Tacoma.

A P-80 jet fighter at Muroc army airfield in California and six fast regular fighters at Portland, Ore., stood ready to take off on an instant's notice should any flying saucers be sighted in those areas. Some of the planes carried photographic equipment.

Louis F. Starr, commander-in-chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, told reporters in Columbus, Ohio, Saturday he understood Gen. Spaatz had a "group out right now" attempting to identify the discs.

A cautious attitude marked both official and scientific comments but Capt. Tom Brown of the United States Air Forces public relations staff in Washington, acknowledged that the air forces had decided "there's something to this" and had been checking up on it for 10 days.

"And we still haven't the slightest idea what they (the discs) could be." he added.

Eight flying saucers today were reported to have made a landing on a mountainside near St. Maries, Idaho, in full view of 10 persons. Mrs. Walter Johnson of Dishman said the saucers came down in timber there Thursday evening, but had not been reported until she returned to her home in Dishman today.

The saucers were seen to fall near Butler's Bay on the St. Joe River, six miles west of St. Maries, where Mrs. Johnson was visiting her parents. She said they came into view at an extreme speed, travelling from the south to the north. Suddenly they slowed, she said, and then "fluttered like leaves to the ground."

"The mysterious part was that we couldn't see them after they landed," said Mrs. Johnson. She said the objects were saucer-shaped but thicker than she had expected, resembling washtubs more than discs. She described them as "about the size of a five-room house."

Mrs. Johnson said she was going back to the area Tuesday and hoped to hike into the timber and search for the objects.

First sighted June 25 and greeted with scornful laughs, the objects have been reported every day since by observers in 33 states. Most of the objects were reported seen July 4. A few were reported Saturday.

Competent observers as such, airline pilots said they had seen the totally unexplained discs, or saucers, larger than aircraft and flying in "loose formation" at high speed.

David Lilienthal, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, said they had nothing to do with atomic experiments, and army and navy officials also entered positive disclaimers.

Captain Brown said the air forces were not making a formal investigation. Official interest, however, was no longer casual.

"We don't believe anyone in this country, or outside this country, has developed a guided missile that will go 1,200 miles an hour as some reports have indicated," said the air forces public relations man.

Reports generally agreed that the flying objects were round or oval. Estimates of their speed ranged from about 300 miles to 1,200 miles an hour. They were described as flying with an undulating motion at heights of 10,000 feet and less. Some described them as glowing, or luminous.

In Ottawa a new theory was advanced by J. H. Parkin, National Research Council official. He said fog or mist in the upper spaces could reflect sunlight, possibly causing something resembling a spot in the sky.

Britons were inclined to scoff at the aerial phenomena. They hold that though sober citizens over wide areas of North America have seen the flying saucers, Europe won't believe in them until somebody lassoes one and has it photographed by Frank Sinatra, the British Ambassador in Washington and five supreme court justices.

"America's reply to the Loch Ness monster," chortled today's Sunday Dispatch, referring to Britain's hoariest tall story - the vast serpent that is "seen" romping in Scotland's Loch Ness every time the tourist trade needs a shot in the arm.

In a less scoffing mood, Howard W. Blakeslee, science editor for the Associated Press, casts cold water on the subject. He puts it down to eyesight.

"At any distance," he says, "which is close to the limit of how far a person can see, all objects appear round or nearly so. This law of sight covers both small things seen near by and large ones at great distances.

"Regardless of shape, the object near the limit of sight looks round. If the thing is sihouetted against a bright sky, as some of the flying saucers have been reported, then it is more likely to reveal its true shape.

"If the thing is seen by reflected light, as in most cases, it is almost certain to be round, and if the reflections are sunlight, then the sizes reported are those which would be expected from distant light reflections.

"The one outstanding fact about virtually all the saucers in that they had no structure - they seemed merely round and flat. That description fits exactly with the tricks that eyes play. This trickiness varies with differences in weather and lighting.

"This writer has seen flying saucers over Long Island Sound, near his home, not only this year but in previous years. They were round, bright and moving fast. But they were no mystery, because they were light reflected from the bodies of airplanes that soon identified themselves by changing course and coming near enough to be seen distinctly. Last week this writer also saw one oval flying form which for a moment looked exactly like the photograph of the oval object taken by Yeoman Frank Ryman North of Seattle, Wash. The Long Island oval turned into an airplane.

Crashed 'Flying Saucer' Just Weather Balloon

The game of "saucer, saucer, who's got the flying saucer," is still raging across most of the North American Continent, but so far nobody has found one of them yet, though out in Fort Worth, Tex., they thought one had been located. It turned out to be a weather balloon.

United States military authorities, trying to make some sort of sense out of what is so far a lot of nonsense veined with plain and fancy lying, are scouring the skies with fast pursuit planes, but so far they haven't found any flying saucers or discs.

There was quite a stir when Gen. Roger Ramey said at Washington yesterday that a strange object had been found at Roswell Army Airfield, New Mexico. Lt. Warren (Walter) Haught, a public relations officer at Roswell Army airfield, was more optimistic than Gen. Ramey. Haught said the air force had obtained possession of a flying disc. It had landed on a ranch near Roswell some time last week. Then the disc business was shattered into fragments. It was just a weather balloon. Lt. Haught has issued no more statements.

Last Saturday Sherman Campbell, a Circleville, O., farmer, found a strange object on his farm. It was in the form of a six-pointed star, 50 inches high and 48 inches wide, covered with tinfoil. It weighed about two pounds. Attached to the top were the remains of a balloon with a neck five inches in circumference.

An airfield weather station at Columbus, O., said the description tallied with an object used by the army air forces to measure wind velocity at high altitudes by the use of radar.

Some of the flying discs reported seen by hundreds of persons in 41 states and in at least five Canadian provinces were much larger and were said to be flying at terrific speed. The objects were reported first sighted June 25.

There have been many "explanations" of the flying saucers, ranging from radio-controlled flying missiles sent aloft by United States military scientists to light reflecting from the wing tanks of jet-propelled planes. Some scientists said it was merely a trick eyesight was playing on persons who said they saw the discs.

At Oelwein, Ia., Lloyd Bennett said Tuesday that a disc crashed into his front yard Monday night. He claimed a reward. He described it as a piece of metal, 6½ inches in diameter and about ¼ of an inch thick. It was analyzed by metalurgist Ed Kuhns who said the disc appeared to be a type of die cast metal.

The strange tales of the "flying saucers" spread to Sydney, Australia and Johannesburg, South Africa where residents said they, too, saw the strange objects.

Speeding Yellow Ball in Sky, 'Flying Saucer' Seen at Toronto

A flying saucer swished across the sunlight sky over Toronto, last Sunday, and the only ones who reported seeing the phenomenon were two British immigrants, enjoying this first day out on the bay. To prove that they saw it, they have a snapshot showing a ball of light with a trail behind it.

Raymond Johnson and Jim Harrison, who arrived in Canada only a month ago, were spending a quiet day rowing on the bay, near Sunnyside, when the yellowish object appeared from the northeast. "It was high, over 30,000 feet," declared Mr. Harrison, who first noticed the flying saucer. "It only took about 15 seconds to pass out of sight."

"I was about to take a photograph of a sailing boat, when Jim shouted to me to point the camera higher," declared Raymond Johnson. "For a second, I didn't see what he meant but when I did, I snapped the shutter."

"It appeared as a yellow ball, with a tail streaming out behind it, like the vapor behind an aeroplane on a misty day," said Mr. Johnson. "I happened to be lucky to catch it."

Flying saucers were in the news in the early part of July after numerous people claimed to have seen mysterious discs flashing across the sky in all parts of the North American continent. No flying saucer has ever been reported in this district before.

The British immigrants declared that they had never witnessed a flying saucer before but had read about them in the papers. "We were skeptical about them until we saw this one," said Mt. Harrison, "but now we have seen one and have a photo of it."

Fireball, Green Sparks Startle Duck Hunters

Winnipeg, Oct. 17 (CP) - No one has yet suggested the possibility of jet-propelled canvas-backs or atomically-lit mallards swooping through the northern Manitoba skies. . . .

No one has even mentioned flying saucers. . . .

But several members of Winnipeg's legal fraternity together with a larger number of laymen, are prepared to swear that there's something strange swishing through the skies over the Dauphin marshlands, 160 miles northwest of here.

The simplest thing would be to describe the fiery ball of greenish flame, noted earlier this week, as an errant comet, but observers, who are still talking about the strange missile seen while they were looking for ducks, doubt that anything so simple can be the answer.

They recall that an apparition was noted in the sky near El Paso, Texas, around the same time that the Dauphin flash illuminated the sky in Manitoba.

That could be more than mere coincidence, they insist.

But further than that they decline to speculate.

First person to report seeing the missile was Judge E. J. Heaney of Winnipeg's Juvenile Court. He said that while squatting in a swamp, his eyes searching the still-grey early morning sky for ducks, he suddenly saw a fiery ball, green in color and travelling at terrific speed, approach through the air until it neared the size of a football.

Abruptly it whizzed low to the east, exploded in a shower of green sparks, and left the sky free for ducks.

The incident also was reported by four Winnipeg lawyers, all unaware that the judge had observed the phenomenon. Their accounts coincided with the original report.

Nor did the missile escape the eyes of other hunters. At least 10 persons, all separated and all unknown to the others, said the early morning vigil had brought forth an explosion which sprinkled the early dawn with green sparks.

The mystery of the missile has proved enough to furrow the brows of the hunters, but they have another worry as well.

Should there be a recurrence, they fear it may frighten ducks. And the hunters don't want that to happen.

Not while the hunting season is on.

Flying Saucers Back Again; Seen in Four Ontario Cities

Those flying saucers are in the news again.

Residents of Hamilton, Brantford, Galt and Stratford are positive they saw something strange in the air yesterday, and they are equally positive that whatever it was they saw was NOT an optical illusion.

L. K. Comba of Stratford said he saw a round, bright object in the sky just before 7 a.m. It was too bright for a star, according to Mr. Comba.

At Brantford about 100 employees of Massey-Harris Co., strained their necks gazing at a disc-like affair "like a burnished star" which made its appearance about 7:15 a.m. and disappeared at 7:45, travelling southward.

"At times it flew on its side and at others floated flat," one employee said. "It was about 100 miles away. We watched it for about 20 minutes and in that time it must have travelled between 500 and 600 miles. It just seemed to be floating along."

Asked if it might have been a flock of geese or other birds, another employee shook his head. "Not a chance," he declared. "This was an inanimate object and had no wings."

Hamilton residents had a different description of whatever it was they saw. They said it was a round, balloon-like affair, silver-colored, and about a mile high.

Three men at Glenmorris, south of Galt, declared it had the appearance of a big silver ball, and was directly south of Galt.

National Guard Airman Killed While Chasing 'Flying Saucers'

Louisville, Ky., Jan. 8 (AP) - Several areas of Kentucky and adjoining states were excited today over reports of "flying saucers" which led to the death of one National Guard flier and fruitless chases by several other pilots.

The National Guard headquarters at Louisville said Capt. Thomas Mantell, 25, was killed late Wednesday while chasing what was reported as a "flying saucer" near Franklin, Ky.

Two other members of the Kentucky National Guard, also assigned to a flying investigation of reported "flying disks" in the area near Fort Knox, returned to their Louisville base.

Two Hopkinsville pilots, James Garret and William Crenshaw, said they chased a flying object which they believed to be a balloon.

Astronomers at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., reported they saw some object in the sky Wednesday afternoon which they believed to be a balloon, but the Nashville Weather Bureau said it knew of no balloons in that vicinity.

In Southern Ohio, meanwhile, observers reported seeing a flaming red cone near the army air base at Wilmington. Army spokesmen said they had no information on the object or its origin.

Flying Saucers Outdone By Huge Wingless Aircraft

Atlanta, Ga., July 25 (AP). - A strange wingless aircraft shooting red flame "like a Buck Rogers rocket ship" was described Saturday by two Eastern Airline pilots. They called it a double-decked speedster making 500 to 700 miles an hour.

The pilot, Capt. C. S. Chiles, and co-pilot J. B. Whitted, said they were flying the Houston-Atlanta-Boston run when they sighted the ship southwest of Montgomery, Ala.

"It was in line almost with our flight," Chiles said. "We veered off to the left and this object turned to its left. When it came near to us, its fuselage appeared to be about 100 feet in length and about four times the circumference of a B-29 fuselage."

"It had two rows of windows. Out of the rear of the ship red flames were shooting 25 to 50 feet. There was a blue glow beneath the fuselage. The ship appeared to be doing between 500 to 700 miles an hour, heading toward New Orleans."

"When it got alongside of us, it pulled up with a tremendous burst of flame out of the rear. Then the ship disappeared into the broken clouds. The ship had no wings. It seemed to have an upper deck and a lower deck and was fully lighted inside. We saw no occupants."

At Montgomery, Maxwell and Dannelly army fields said they knew nothing about the report. The Civil Aeronautics Administration also said it had no information about the ship. The air force in Washington also could shed no light on the craft.

RCAF Personnel See Flying Discs Near North Bay

North Bay, April 15. - In the wake of renewed interest in the flying saucer mystery, RCAF officials here today released two official statements from station personnel concerning the will-o-the-wisp discs.

The air force said that although the statements did not constitute an official RCAF view, there was no reason to doubt their validity, since the men concerned were veteran personnel, long familiar with conventional aircraft.

WO1 E. H. Rossell, an aircraft maintenance superintendent, and Flt. Sgt. Reg. McRae, said that last Saturday about 8:30 p.m. they were driving in a car from the married quarters area of the North Bay Air Station to the city.

Suddenly they spotted "a bright amber disk" flying over the field. They reported that the disk seemed to stop in mid-air, hovered for a brief time, and then zoomed away at terrific speed from the direction in which it had come, and at an angle of 30 degrees.

WO. W. J. Yeo, a master telecommunications technician with 16 years' RCAF service, said that on the night of Jan. 1, he and Sgt. D. V. Crandell, an instrument technician, saw a reddish-orange ball move over the airfield at supersonic speed, at a height they judged to be outside the earth's atmosphere.

They watched the object constantly for a timed eight minutes and 43 seconds, when it disappeared. They said that the object travelled roughly parallel to the earth, "the direction altering slightly at times, zig-zagging and climbing and diving. There was no sound."

WO. Yeo, who said that he was familiar with guided missiles, besides all conventional aircraft, claimed the object was definitely not an aircraft, a balloon or a meteor.

"Frankly, I don't know what it was, and for lack of better words, we called it a flying saucer," he said.

The reports have been sent to RCAF Intelligence.

Dim Orange Lights Seen in Formation Flying Over City

A collection of 50 to 60 lights in V-formation moving rapidly from southeast to northwest was observed at 10:30, last night by a Wychwood Park resident. The lights were a dim orange in color and judged to be at a great height. There was no sound. He was able to observe an arc of approximately 30 degrees in the sky and the collection of lights appeared and disappeared over that distance in approximately six seconds. The observer admitted he was greatly shaken by the experience.

Estimate 1,000 MPH
Mystery Plane Streaks Across Ontario Skies

London, Ont., April 20 (CP) - An unidentified aircraft streaked across the northern section of Western Ontario shortly before noon today at a speed estimated by experts as "in excess of 1,000 miles an hour." It left a vapor trail from horizon to horizon and aroused the curiosity and speculation of thousands of residents.

Fighter aircraft from No. 420 City of London Squadron which were aloft at the time were directed to intercept the object but the Mustang pilots reported they could not come anywhere near, although they pushed their planes up to 450 miles an hour.

Its height was estimated at 30,000 feet by several aviation officials who saw the vapor trail. This height was borne out by actual bearings taken from several points in London.

No high speed jet aircraft of the RCAF or the U.S. Air Force were reported in the vicinity. No known aircraft now in service have speeds as high as this object appeared to have.

The vapor trail, led by a "dark cylindrical object," first was seen by Department of Transport airport officials in Toronto. By the time these observers had called London City airport control tower phone connections, the trail was seen streaking from east to west north of London.

Before local airport officials could make any report to Toronto, the Detroit airport control tower messaged on the airways communications system the trail was visible north of that city.

Time between the first Toronto report and the Detroit sighting was estimated at 12 minutes. Department of Transport officials at London airport said they had no report of any aircraft which could clear up the mystery, nor had they any solution to suggest.

U.S. Radar Spots Fleet of Saucers Near Washington

Washington, July 21 (AP). - The U.S. Air Force disclosed tonight it has received reports of an eerie visitation by unidentified aerial objects - perhaps a new type of flying saucer - over the vicinity of Washington.

For the first time, so far as known, the objects were picked up by radar, indicating actual substance rather than mere light.

In addition, they were described as travelling as slow as 100 to 130 miles an hour - instead of with the incredible swiftness attributed to earlier saucers - although at times they shot up and down. The objects were also described as hovering in one position.

The air force said no planes were sent out to intercept the objects and no sightings were reported by Operation Skywatch, the round-the-clock ground observer operation now under way around the northern arc of the United States.

The air traffic control centre at Washington National Airport reported that its radar operators had picked up eight of the slow-moving objects around midnight last Saturday.

The centre said Capital Airlines Flight 807, southbound from National Airport, reported seeing seven objects between Washington and Martinsburg, W. Va., at 3:15 a.m., EDT, the same night.

Officials of Capital Airlines said the pilot, Capt. (Casey) Pierman of Detroit, a veteran of 17 years' service with the company, spotted the objects and descibed them as "falling stars without tails."

Pierman, flying at nornal cruising speed of 180 to 200 m.p.h., reported that the objects were travelling with tremendous vertical speed.

U.S. Jet Pilots Chase Objects Over Capitol

Washington, July 27 (AP) - The air force said today jet fighter planes had made an effort to intercept unknown objects in the sky over Washington Saturday night after they had been spotted by radar, but no direct contact was made.

It was the second time within a week that unidentified objects had been radar-observed in the vicinity of Washington.

The air force said that at 9:08 p.m. EDT Saturday night the air route traffic control centre, operated by the Civil Aeronautics Administration, picked up by radar "between four and 12 unidentified objects over the Washington vicinity."

The CAA notified the air force and two jet fighter interceptor planes were ordered up to make a check. These planes came from a base at Newcastle, Del., approximately 90 miles from Washington.

These pilots appeared on the CAA radarscope and were guided in on several of the unknown objects.

The air force said in its statement:

"One of the jet pilots reported sighting four lights in front approximately 10 miles and slightly above him but he reported he had no apparent closing speed. They disappeared before he could overtake them." Later the same pilot reported a steady light that disappeared in about a minute.

Flying Saucers?
North Bay Still Sees Strange Discs in Sky

North Bay, Nov. 10 - Two years ago, when the first flying saucer was reported in this Northern Ontario town, the folks were skeptical.

Today, there's hardly a person in the city who doesn't believe that the glowing discs are regular visitors to North Bay.

This week, U.S. Major Donald Keyhoe, gave the belief strong support. His new book on "Flying Saucer" reports says it was the sighting of strange objects in the North Bay area in early 1952 that first convinced the RCAF and the Canadian Government that the saucers were not just a hoax.

North Bay's daily newspaper has a file of 16 persons who have reported sightings of orange-colored discs. Half of the accounts were not published because they were given by persons asking their names be withheld. The Daily Nugget says all the accounts check closely in size, color, speed and movement of the flying objects.

One North Bay citizen three weeks ago told of a dozen night sightings of a "funny orange globe" which came out of the north-eastern skies, wandered back and forth along the horizon, and then vanished.

More recently, two Sturgeon Falls residents chased a low-flying glowing disc along Highway 17, a few miles west of the city.

All the sightings have been backed by convincing details. In the fall of 1951, three people reported a day-time sighting over Lake Nipissing. Each saw it from a different shore and did not know of the other reports. Yet their report of the time of the sighting, the appearance of the "silver, round-shaped star" and the strange manoeuvres it made, checked and double-checked.

But the most authoritative accounts are those on New Year's Day or 1952 by personnel at RCAF Station, North Bay.

Here is how U.S. Major Keyhoe tells it. "On the night of Jan. 1, 1952, an orange-red disc appeared over North Bay, where the RCAF has a new jet base. For eight minutes, the machine circled, dived and zig-zagged over the field. From its estimated height in the stratosphere the object was one of the largest ever sighted. Its movements were at supersonic speed."

"When the report first was published, RCAF intelligence refused to comment. Then a second saucer was reported, again over North Bay. Approaching from the southwest, it stopped directly over the air base. After hovering for a moment, it swiftly reversed direction. Climbing at an angle of 30 degrees, it disappeared at tremendous speed."

Qualified airmen with experience in judging height, speed and sizes of flying objects made the sightings and filed intelligence reports to Ottawa.

As a result, a conference was held in Ottawa and the RCAF, with the National Defense Research Board, began a serious investigation. The project is on the top secret list.

Snow Hampers Hunt for Jet

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. (AP) - Snow and low visibility today hampered planes searching for a United States F89 air force jet fighter missing over the bleak waters of Lake Superior since Monday night.

The missing plane with two high-ranking air force officers aboard mysteriously disappeared at 7.55 p.m. after taking off an hour earlier from Kinross air force base south of here.

Kinross officials said the plane was equipped with two rubber rafts and each officer aboard wore a Mae West life jacket. The men were not identified.

RCAF PLANES ARRIVE

Four DC3s from Trenton and Centralia RCAF bases arrived today to take part in the search. It was expected the weather would clear considerably this afternoon so that the search can get into top gear.

The jet took off at 6:22 p.m. (EST) with about two hours of fuel in the tanks, Kinross spokesmen said. It was last noted by radio some 60 miles northeast of the Keweenau peninsula. This would have put the plane somewhere off the forbidding shores of the stormy lake.

A coast guard cutter was hurriedly dispatched to the area Monday night. Air-sea rescue units were alerted. And state police were joined by conservation officers in the widespread hunt along the shoreline.

MAY BE ON LAKE

The coast guard station at Houghton and the St. Ignace state police post reported early today that the fliers were still missing.

The plane was reported to be carrying floatation gear and officials said it might be adrift in Lake Superior. They said they have received two reports that a plane was down in the water.

Planes from the Selfridge field near Detroit joined the search.

Strange Sights in the Sky
Brilliant Mystery Object Sighted as U.S. Air Force Investigates Flurry of Reports

Washington, Nov. 5 (AP) - A brilliant mystery object was reported sighted today in southern skies by a Coast Guard cutter, even as the air force investigated a flurry of earlier reports.

The Coast Guard cutter Sebago, cruising in the Gulf of Mexico about 200 miles south of Louisiana, radioed that an object resembling "a brilliant planet with a high rate of speed" was seen for about three seconds at 5:21 a.m., CST.

Coast Guard headquarters in New Orleans said the message did not report exactly who on board the cutter had seen the object.

The Sebago's message said the object was tracked on the vessel's radar screen for 27 minutes and that, during that period, the object flitted on and off the screen several times.

Sightings of strange objects have been reported from widely scattered sections of the United States since Sunday, most of them near secret military installations in the southwest.

The air force said the radar network of the Air Defense Command is keeping watch - so far with no results - and that specially qualified investigators have been assigned to look into the reports.

Some of the citizens, peace officers and servicemen who reported sighting mystery objects in the southwest since the weekend said the objects stalled auto engines and caused radios to fade.

James Stokes, an engineer at the air force missile development centre at Alamogordo, N.M., reported 10 autos were stalled, yesterday on a desert highway between Alamogordo and the White Sands, N.M., proving grounds.

He reported seeing a soundless, "brilliant colored egg-shaped object" which flitted erratically across the countryside and left a sort of heat wave, "like radiation from a giant sun lamp," in its wake.

_______

Quebec, Nov. 5 (CP) - Duck hunters of nearby Lauzon today reported having seen a red spherical object falling from the sky Saturday.

They said it appeared to have fallen into the St. Lawrence River off Quebec Harbor.

The sightings were similar to those of Jacques Hebert, physics professor of Ottawa University, who reported seeing a rocket-shaped object falling near Quebec during the weekend.

Fireball sighted over Ontario, U.S.

A fireball, "shooting flames and rocking homes" in its explosive wake was traced last night through Southwestern Ontario and adjacent U.S. states.

Various official agencies on both sides of the border were unable to trace either the origin of the glowing object or the point of its apparent landfall.

Most observers pinpointed the object's appearance at about 4:45 p.m.

Initial reaction that it may have been a plane crashing or a rocket, were quickly discounted by military and aviation spokesmen in Canada and the United States.

Some sources suggested the object, which was seen from as far north as Sarnia to northern West Virginia, west to Jackson, Mich., and east to London, Ont., was a meteor burning up in the earth's atmosphere. But military spokesmen said they had not seen the object on their radar screens.

Newspapers, radio stations and police stations were deluged with calls. Many callers reported they heard a series of explosions as the fireball passed overhead and out of sight.

Most callers said they saw the fireball as an orange flash appearing in the eastern sky. All reports said it travelled at a high rate of speed.

Launchers warned
Flying saucers won't be seen any more over Georgia

ATLANTA (AP) - Those flying saucers or unidentified flying objects in the areas of Austell and Powder Springs, Ga., won't be seen any more, Fire Marshall Bill Gore Jr., said yesterday.

For the past two weeks, unidentified objects have been reported in the communities northwest of Atlanta.

Mr. Gore said they have been identified as plastic dry-cleaning bags carrying containers of blazing kerosene beneath. The heat fills the plastic bags, which then float as high as 500 feet.

"It took us some time to track down these objects, but the young fellows who have been sending them aloft have been sufficiently warned," Mr. Gore said.

Gas blamed

DETROIT (AP) - A special U.S. Air Force investigator said yesterday that numerous sightings of unidentified flying objects in the southern Michigan skies were probably the result of swamp gases and not visitors from space.

"I emphasize . . . that I cannot prove in a court of law that this is the full explanation of these sightings," said Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a scientific consultant for the air force who was brought to Michigan to investigate a series of reports of mysterious celestial objects.

"It appears very likely, however, that the combination of the conditions of this paticular winter - an unusually mild one in this area - and the particular weather conditions . . . were such as to have produced this unusual and puzzling display," Dr. Hynek said.

He said that photos released to the press Thursday showing two lights in the sky over a series of street lights were "without any question" trails made as a result of a time exposure of the rising moon and the planet Venus.

Dr. Hynek said the photos were taken March 17 near Milan, Mich., about 25 miles southwest of Detroit, and have no reference to the sightings at Hillsdale, to the north, March 21.

He noted that most of the sightings over the period of a week were near a swamp.

"A dismal swamp is a most unlikely place for a visit from outer space," Dr. Hynek said. "It is not a place where a helicopter would hover for several hours or where a soundless secret device would likely be tested."

Most witnesses to the flying objects ddescribed them as having glowing lights - red, green and yellow - and appearing to move sideways over short distance.

Dr. Hynek admitted that such a sight was unusual.

"I have never seen it myself and I can easily understand the dismay of the witnesses who saw it and who sincerely and accurately described what they saw."

He said it seems likely that present spring thaws released trapped gases resulting from decomposition of organic materials.

"It would seem to me that the association of the sightings with swamps in these particular cases is more than coincidence.

"No group of witnesses observed any craft coming to or going away from the swamps. The glow was localized there."

Dr. Hynek said that he wants it clearly understood he is not making a blanket statement to cover the entire UFO phenomenon during the past 20 years in the United States and other countries.

He has recommended that competent scientists quietly study such cases as occurred in New Hampshire last year and in Mexico last fall.

NORAD sends two fighters on UFO hunt

SUDBURY (CP) - Two U.S. Air National Guard jet fighters sent to this area to check for unidentified flying objects spotted by radar operators did not find anything, a NORAD spokesman in North Bay said yesterday.

The spokesman said the two jet fighters were sent from the NORAD base at Selfridge, Mich., Tuesday after radar sightings by staff of the Canadian Forces base at nearby Falconbridge. Several area police also saw four objects they described as bright white lights.

Another UFO sighting was reported last night by two Sudbury regional policemen on patrol, but Falconbridge would not say whether the objects had been tracked on radar.

Australians probing pilot's report of UFO

MELBOURNE (AP) - Australian authorities were trying to determine yesterday whether an oil slick spotted in the sea south of here came from a light plane that vanished after its young pilot radioed that a large object hovering above him was not an aircraft.

Frederick Valentich, 20, was on a short solo flight from Melbourne to King Island across the Bass Strait when he disappeared Saturday evening.

Air traffic controllers on the mainland reported he radioed at 7:06 p.m. that he could see four bright lights about 1,000 feet above him that appeared to be the landing lights of a large aircraft. He asked whether any military aircraft were in the area and was told there were not.

Two minutes later, at 7:08, he radioed: "It is approaching from due east toward me. It seems to be playing some sort of game. . . flying at a speed I cannot estimate."

At 7:09 he radioed: "It is not an aircraft. It's. . ." and radio contact was lost briefly. He was asked to identify the object.

"It is flying past. It is a long shape. I cannot identify more than that. It's coming for me right now," he said. At 7:10 he said: "It seems to be stationary. I'm orbiting and the thing is orbiting on top of me also. It has a green light and a sort of metallic light on the outside."

A few minutes later he reported that his plane's engine was idling roughly and coughing.

His last words before radio contact was lost permanently were: "It is not an aircraft."

Air traffic controllers reported they then heard a noise on the radio.

New Zealand on alert for UFOs

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) - The Royal New Zealand Air Force ordered an alert yesterday after a television crew team filmed what they said was an unidentified flying object. Aviation authorities reported the UFO apparently was tracked by radar as well.

The air force put a Skyhawk jet fighter on special standby alert to chase any newly sighted UFOs.

A television station in Melbourne, Australia, said it had film of a UFO taken Saturday night by a camera team flying over the Kaikoura area in the eastern region of New Zealand's South Island.

The television team, led by reporter Quentin Fogarty, was investigating a UFO report by a New Zealand Airline pilot at the time the film was made.

About the same time the TV crew reported seeing the UFO, an unidentified radar blip showed up on screens operated by the civil aviation staff in Wellington, New Zealand, aviation officials said.

Capt. Bill Startup, pilot of the plane carrying the TV crew, said he spotted "a very bright white light" that moved around his Argosy aircraft.

Capt. Startup, a pilot for 23 years, said that when he first noticed the object it was about 20 miles in front of his plane.

"It appeared to stay still until we got within 10 miles, then it turned with us as I changed course," he said. "It then went above us and circled and came down beneath us. It was making definite movements in relation to us."

An air traffic controller in Wellington identified only as A. Causer said: "We now have recorded sightings by six pilots on three Argosy aircraft over 10 days and a host of radar sightings. There is obviously some strange phenomenon and it needs to be investigated."

The film of the purported UFO has been bought by the British Broadcasting Co. and the CBS television network for an undisclosed amount. CBS said it would show the film on its nightly news show.

Car chased, boat buzzed in Australian UFO reports
Associated Press
SYDNEY

Nearly simultaneous encounters with an unidentified flying object were reported by two groups of Australians, and police said yesterday they are taking the reports seriously.

A family of four said their car was chased Wednesday morning by an eggcup-shaped object on a remote stretch of Outback highway. The car was plucked from the ground and left covered in ash, police said.

Meanwhile, the crew of a tuna boat 50 kilometres away also said they were buzzed by a UFO minutes later, and that their voices became unintelligible as a result.

Faye Knowles, a mother of three, told police that her speech also and that of her sons changed during their encounter on the highway.

"We were a little bit skeptical at first," Sergeant Jim Furnell of Ceduna Police in the state of South Australia said. "But after investigating, we are treating the reports very seriously."

He said forensic scientists will examine the black powdery ash found inside and outside the Knowles' car.

Mrs. Knowles said that while she was driving through the Nullabor Plain from Perth in Western Australia, she saw a glowing object in her rear window.

"It apparently picked the car up off the road, shook it quite violently and forced the car back with such pressure that one of the tires was blown," Sgt. Furnell said.

"While this was happening the family said their voices were distorted and it was as if they were talking in slow motion."

He said the crew of the tuna boat could not have known about the Knowles' experience when they reported a UFO sighting in the Great Australian Bight, a body of water off the Australian coast.

Keith Basterfield of UFO Research Inc., an international organization that records such sightings, said that if the sighting was confirmed "it will certainly be the most physical of encounters ever recorded in Australia."

Soviets spot giant aliens, Tass reports
Reuter and Associated Press
MOSCOW

Scientists have concluded that giant creatures with tiny heads which recently emerged from an unidentified flying object and went for a midnight stroll in the Soviet city of Voronezh were aliens, Tass news agency said yesterday.

The scientists were called in after frightened residents in the central Russian city reported that on at least three occasions they had seen a large, shining ball hover above a park in the city after dark and then land.

"A hatch opened and one, two or three creatures similar to humans and a small robot came out. The aliens were three or even four metres high but they had very small heads," Tass quoted witnesses as saying after one such alleged visit.

"They walked near the ball and then disappeared inside. Onlookers were overwhelmed with fear which lasted for several days," it added.

Tass said the landings occurred recently but did not say precisely when.

The news agency said scientists had identified the landing site and found traces of aliens "who made a short promenade about the park" and left minerals not usually found on earth.

UFOs are especially fascinating for Russians and the state press regularly carries reports of unusual sightings. Authorities set up a Commission into Abnormal Penomena in February, 1984, after a "flying cigar" was seen near Gorky, east of Moscow.

Asked whether the latest report could possibly be a hoax, a Tass spokesman said, "Tass never jokes. If we start joking, we'll stop existing."

Genrikh Silanov, head of the Voronezh Geophysical Laboratory, told Tass that he had identified the landing site "by means of biolocation" and had managed to trace the aliens' footprints.

Soviet books describe biolocation as an extra-sensory method used to track objects or people whose trail is invisible to the eye.

"We found two mysterious pieces of rock (which) mineralogical analysis has shown . . . cannot be found on earth," Mr. Silanov said. He added that further tests are needed.

A Tass duty officer, reached last night by telephone, refused to identify the reporter who sent the dispatch from Voronezh, but stood by the story. "It is not April Fool's today," he said.

The report was similar to a story last summer in the daily newspaper Socialist Industry, which told of a purported "close encounter" between a milkmaid and an alien in Central Russia's Perm region.

In that report, Lyubov Medvedev was quoted as saying she encountered an alien creature "resembling a man, but taller than average with short legs." The creature, she said, had "only a small knob instead of a head."

Misquoted on aliens, Soviet says
BY JOHN-THOR DAHLBURG
Associated Press
MOSCOW

A three-eyed alien with a robot sidekick landed by UFO and made a boy vanish by zapping him with a pistol, a Soviet newspaper reported yesterday, the second day of strange tales in state-run news media.

But as the saga of the space invasion of the city of Voronezh unfolded, a scientist whose words were used to buttress the first published report voiced doubts, and said he was in part misquoted.

"Don't believe all you hear from Tass," Genrikh Silanov, head of the Voronezh Geophysical Laboratory, cautioned in a telephone interview from Voronezh. "We never gave them part of what they published."

On Monday, the usually staid official Soviet news agency told the world that scientists had confirmed an alien spaceship carrying giant people with tiny heads had touched down in Voronezh, a city of more than 800,000 people about 500 kilometres southeast of Moscow.

As many as three aliens four metres tall left the spacecraft, described as a large shining ball, and promenaded in the park with a small robot, Tass reported. A Tass duty officer stood by the story.

The purported close encounter in Voronezh was only the latest weird tale to appear in Soviet news media.

Nonetheless, a Communist Party paper whose stated mission is to write about culture was the only major national daily to print anything yesterday about the UFO, indicating that more authoritative newspapers such as Pravda thought the topic too hot to handle.

Sovietskaya Kultura said its coverage was motivated by "the golden rule of journalism: the reader must know everything. Of course, it's hard to believe in what happened in the town. It's even more difficult to explain.

The daily quoted witnesses as saying the UFO flew into Voronezh on Sept 27. At 6:30 p.m., it said, boys playing soccer saw a pink glow in the sky, then saw a deep red ball about three metres in diameter. The ball circled, vanished, then reappeared minutes later and hovered, it said.

A crowd rushed to the site, Sovietskaya Kultura said, and through an open hatch saw a "three-eyed alien" about three metres tall, clad in silvery overalls and bronze-colored boots, and wearing a disk on his chest.

The newspaper, quoting witnesses, gave this account:

The UFO landed. Two creatures, one apparently a robot, exited. A boy screamed with fear, but when the alien gazed at him, with eyes shining, he fell silent, unable to move. Onlookers screamed, and the UFO and the creatures disappeared.

About five minutes later, they reappeared. The alien had a "pistol" - a tube about 50 centimetres long, which it pointed at an unidentified 16-year-old youth, making him disappear. The alien went inside the sphere, which took off. At the same time, the youth reappeared.

"Children and eyewitnesses of the abnormal phenomenon have been questioned by police workers and journalists," wrote Sovietskaya Kultura's Voronezh correspondent, E. Efremov. "There are no discrepancies in the description of the sphere itself, or the actions of the 'aliens.' Moreover, all the children who became witnesses to this event are still afraid, even now."

In Belgrade, the Yogoslav news agency Tanjug said at least four UFOs had been unofficially reported from the Soviet Union in recent days.

"If the Soviet press and Tass news agency are to be trusted, aliens have carried out a real invasion in the Soviet Union over the past few days," Tanjug remarked skeptically.

Soviet star can't solve UFO riddle
Canadian Press
MOSCOW

The Soviet Union's top television star said yesterday he can cure incurable diseases, stop people from feeling intense pain, make bushy hair grow again on the shiny pates of the bald and even ease the suffering of AIDS patients.

But alas, admitted Anatoly Kashpirovsky, there's not much even he can do about the three-eyed alien who reportedly landed in the southern city of Voronezh and made a boy disappear after zapping him with some kind of tube-gun.

Mr. Kashpirovsky is a healer who practices his art on people via state-controlled television. It is said he is watched weekly by 200 million people and that he is better known in this vast country than anyone else except President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Even before the changes brought about by glasnost, or openness, there has been periodic excitement in Russia over psychic phenomena or UFOs to leaven the normal dedication to a dour kind of scientific socialism.

Nevertheless, heads were shaking in disbelief yesterday at the latest instalment in a "Soviet silly season" that began Monday with reports of the arrival of mischievous aliens.

For two hours, in the comfort of an ultra-modern hall at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mr. Kashpirovsky entertained a crowd of journalists and assorted hangers-on by claiming a wide range of successes for what he alternately called his art, method or science.

It was a curious affair. A video of his exploits would not work most of the time. The television star denounced his cameraman and asked if anyone in the room could help him find a Western sponsor. An overhead light blew out in the middle of a lengthy diatribe with a sound like a gunshot.

Through it all, Mr. Kashpirovsky kept a stern expression on his face as he lectured disbelievers and soaked up rounds of applause from supporters who packed the hall.

Mr. Kashpirovsky, wearing a black leather jacket and an open-necked shirt, described himself as a psycho-therapist.

The term "faith healer" was summarily rejected.

Despite repeated questions, he was vague about his training and his methods.

The one thing he wasn't vague about was what he claims to be able to do.

Mr. Kashpirovsky said he had successfully cured people of diabetes, blindness, skin diseases and heart problems. He also claimed to have cured women of sterility, helped the bald grow hair, and eliminated scars after surgery or wounds.

There were only a few things the 50-year-old father of two said he couldn't deal with.

One of them was the story this week about the three-eyed alien landing in the Soviet Union with a robot sidekick.

They are said to have alighted from a spacecraft that looked like a large shining ball or disc, and taken a stroll in a park before playing some practical jokes on startled onlookers.

Mr. Kashpirovsky was slightly annoyed when he was asked to comment on the reports.

"That's not my piece of bread, as we say in Russian," he sniffed.

Meanwhile, Soviet television viewers got something of a glimpse yesterday of the aliens that created a cosmic sensation with their reported landing - but the peek at the extra-terrestrials was provided only by a child's scribbled drawing.

The picture, by a child who claimed to have witnessed the landing, showed a glowing two-legged sphere with a smiling stick figure inside.

Tass made a worldwide splash Monday with its straight-faced report on towering, pin-headed aliens.

Soviet team fails to find evidence of UFO landing
Agence France-Presse
MOSCOW

A Soviet scientific commission has concluded that there is no verifiable proof of a landing by aliens last month in the town of Voronezh in southern Russia, the commission chief said Saturday.

Sixteen radiometric analyses, 19 checks of the ground, nine tests of micro-organisms and 20 spectro-chemical measurements failed to uncover "any anomaly either in the earth or surrounding vegetation" that might indicate the landing of an unidentified flying object, the commission reported.

Igor Sarotsev, vice-rector of the University of Voronezh and chairman of the commission, said the presence of a larger than normal quantity of the radioactive isotope cesium in the area of the alleged sighting did not constitute proof.

"After Chernobyl, this kind of phenomenon has been found in many areas," Mr. Sarotsev told Sovietskaya Kultura newspaper on Saturday, referring to the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.

Witnesses said a banana-shaped saucer came down late last month in a park in Voronezh, near a housing block. Only children were on hand for the landing, according to Soviet press reports.

Young boys said they saw two or three aliens three to four metres tall, with tiny heads, descend from their saucer with a robot.

The incident, first disclosed this month, sparked a UFO craze and heralded a spate of other sightings across the country.

The most spectacular one was on Oct. 17 in Omsk, western Siberia, where several hundred people said they had spotted a luminous balloon-shaped object. An army officer, Major Vladimir Loginov, said the UFO seemed one and a half times larger than the moon.

The Omsk airport said the object failed to appear on radar screens there, but other officers, according to Major Loginov, reported seeing the balloon a few minutes later about 600 kilometres to the east.

The official commission report was bad news for Stalker, a new private, co-operative business, which opened after the Voronezh sightings.

The company has set up tours of Voronezh, which it calls the "land of the aliens."

But the fledgling enterprise warns clients: "We cannot guarantee a meeting with aliens, for that is a matter of chance."

Toronto, Ontario, GLOBE AND MAIL, 4 March 1993, page A15

ALABAMA / List of suspects ranges from aliens in UFOs to satanists or government agents swooping down in helicopters for the kill

Case of the mutilated cows raises questions, udder chaos
Cox News Service

SAND MOUNTAIN, Ala. - Who's killing the cows of Sand Mountain? Some suspect aliens in UFOs. Some say satanists. Or else it's government agents swooping down in helicopters for the kill. Or exposure to high-power lines. Or it's cow murderers, impure and simple.

Whoever, it's udder chaos up here. As Ted Oliphant said: "There's strange things afoot."

Ahoof, too. Since October, 26 animals - nearly all cows - have been mutilated in several small, rural communities on this mountain in northeastern Alabama. Nearly all have been killed in the same manner, with precise, bloodless, almost high-tech surgical incisions that removed various animal parts: tongues, teeth, eyes, ears, hearts and excretory and sexual organs.

And when the animals are found in pastures, there are no footprints. No tire tracks. No trails. No blood, either.

The mystery is enhanced by two factors: helicopters and UFOs. According to Mr. Oliphant, 95 per cent of the cases have involved reports of helicopter sightings, often with red, green and white lights or blue and white ones. Last month, Jean Cole, the wife of Albertville Chief Detective Tommy Cole, saw a copter in their back yard. She saw four men in business suits sitting in it. When she spied them, the copter flew off. The next day, Det. Cole found a Black Angus mutilated, its sexual organs and rectum removed.

"I've seen many animals killed by predators, and there's always blood around," he said. "I've never seen anything like it. I don't know what it was. I've been in the livestock business 35 years. I've had many, many dead cows and bulls, but none like that."

Furthermore, Fyffe is the "UFO Capital of Alabama," as proclaimed by the Alabama state Senate in 1989 after several UFO sightings that year. Mr. Oliphant, 33, once a filmmaker who made a documentary on UFOs, moved here 2½ years ago to study the phenomenon. A year later, he became a policeman to better understand the populace and the effects of life in the UFO Capital of Alabama.

A calf belonging to Margaret Pope was mutilated earlier this month. At first she suspected coyotes. But not with the calf's udders removed. "Like somebody had sliced it off - a straight cut, not like an animal," Mrs. Pope said. There was an incision on the left shoulder and a circular cut on the left side of the jaw. The teeth were gone."

"There was no sign of a struggle," Mrs. Pope said. "No blood, nothing. Just laying there, with its parts cut out. I think it's UFOs, because of lots of lights in the sky, no disturbance on the ground. And the cuts were too precise. But you just watch who you say [aliens] to. I don't want to be made fun of. We're not weird. And this isn't fun."

Who's responsible? Is it merely bovine intervention? Another theory: Government agents, flying in low-level helicopters at night, are killing animals and removing their organs to study the effects (testing for cancer and other diseases) on livestock living near high-power lines.

"Predators don't do this," Mr. Oliphant said. "And if it was a satanic cult they'd use knives and there'd be blood. They'd do it in secrecy and not with high technology. Everybody wants me to tell 'em it's a satanic cult, because this is the heart of the Bible Belt and they want an easy explanation so they can be done with it. They don't want to look at the scientific facts. The evidence doesn't lead to that. We've got more than one group doing this. We've got the unexplained events, with high technology, cauterization of wounds. And we've got something I can't release right now."

So the folks on Sand Mountain wait and watch. Watch carefully for close encounters of the herd kind.

Toronto, Ontario, GLOBE AND MAIL, 24 March 1994, page A28

• A spate of UFO reports in Holland, Mich., has been attributed by some of the 25,000 residents to warfare between angels or the end of the world, reports The Detroit News. "One reason [the phenomenon] captures the imagination here is that it's a heavily churched area," says Dale Kompik, station program manager at contemporary Christian rock station WJQ99.3FM.

Close encounter of the weird kind baffles British aviation authority
Year-long inquiry finds no explanation of UFO that buzzed airliner

BY DAVID WALLEN
Special to The Globe and Mail

LONDON - After a year-long formal inquiry, British aviation experts admit they are baffled by a close encounter between a passenger jet and an unidentified flying object on an approach to Manchester Airport.

The Civil Aviation Authority said yesterday it can find no logical explanation for the UFO, which apparently buzzed the British Airways Boeing 737 with 60 people on board last January at the 4,000-foot level of its descent on a flight from Milan.

Captain Roger Wills, 35, said a wedge-shaped UFO, emblazoned with small white lights, came so close to his jet that co-pilot Mark Stuart ducked.

The object also was spotted from the ground, yet never appeared on radar screens. It made no attempt to deviate and passed very quickly down the right side of the aircraft. It made no sound and created no wind turbulence.

The incident happened at 6:48 p.m. on Jan. 6, 1995, with the aircraft just above the clouds and visibility at least 16 kilometres.

Air traffic controllers had the following conversation with Flight 5061:

B737: "We just had something go down the right-hand side, just above us, very fast."

Manchester ATC: "Well there's nothing seen on radar. Was it an aircraft?"

B737: "Well it had lights, it went down the starboard side very quick."

Both the captain and co-pilot were convinced the object was not a balloon, model aircraft, kite or even a stealth aircraft. Captain Wills said he had seen a stealth before and thought he would have recognized it.

Suggestions that the object might have been a reflection from a cloud or even a secret U.S. spy craft also have been discounted.

The CAA's Joint Airmiss Working Group said in its report, published yesterday, that it cannot explain the incident, confirming there was nothing else on the radar screens apart from the jet in that position at that time. It concluded that it was "not possible to suggest either the cause or the risk" of the incident. "The reported object remains untraced."

The report praised the crew for telling their story in the face of possible derision from colleagues.

"It's all a bit of a mystery," a Civil Aviation Authority spokesman said. "There was a similar case about three years ago involving Alitalia and it was not possible to explain that one, either."

On the ground, Mark Lloyd was near the airport and says he saw the object, too.

"There was like a glint in the sky and, as I looked, I could see this triangular-shaped object hovering quite high up and it had depth to it," he said. "It was rounded off at the back end and appeared to have something like back burners." He described a black line down the side and a triangular-shaped window.

When Mr. Lloyd told his girlfriend what he had seen, she said he was "talking a load of codswallop."

Later, he telephoned the airport and was put through to the control tower.

Mr. Lloyd said yesterday he was relieved that the official report backed his version with the words of the air crew.

While the incident has baffled aviation experts, it has delighted UFO enthusiasts. The word of pilots, they said, might give some credibility to their favourite subject.

"Now that the CAA have actually come out with a statement saying it was unidentified, we shall go straight back to them and try and get them to say more," said Eric Morrison, one of Britain's leading exponents of UFOs and extraterrestrials.

One of the best authenticated UFO sightings was made by the crew of one of the Apollo space missions, when an object tracked the spacecraft for some minutes before moving off at high speed. The astronauts told Houston they were being tailed, adding: We'll assume it's friendly."