OCTOBER WAS ALSO THE MONTH FOR FLYING SAUCERS IN THE HOLY LAND
(Reuter)

JERUSALEM, (By Airmail).

Although "flying saucers" of many shapes invaded the skies of the Holy Land during October, no-one here claims to have seen a Martian, or even a grounded machine. A physicist, police and army officers, officials of aviation companies and a journalist were among the people who witnessed the visits of the "flying saucers" over Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Sea of Galilee and along the coast.

Simultaneous reports about the saucers came on two successive evenings and there was one daylight "flight" in between reported from Safad, in Galilee.

Two men, one an army officer, walking towards a bus stop in a Jerusalem suburb saw a broad band of a very bright light overhead, travelling rapidly from east to west. "It was something like a rocket, but much faster and brighter," they said. Four seconds later the light faded and smoke could be seen against the low clouds. The light looked yellowish to the army officer, but bluish to his friend.

Mr Kabli, Jerusalem physicist, reported that he saw, at the same time in the centre of the city, "a brilliant object which zig-zagged above, lighting up the sky for a few seconds and then disappearing. It was not a meteor, he insisted.

Another witness, in yet another part of the city, reported the same evening that he had seen a "circular object" flying at great speed from north to south at an altitude of about 300 feet.

SMOKE TRAIL

The previous night, a brilliant object, flying at great speed, was reported to the Jerusalem police. Witnesses described it as disc-shape, light brown in colour. Smoke was seen escaping through two holes in the disc.

One witness said that it looked "like a flying house floating above, with smoke billowing from its windows."

From Bethlehem, came reports of a "flying saucer" shrouded in powerful blue light, leaving behind a trail of smoke as it disappeared in a south-easterly direction towards the Judean desert.

On the coast, cigar-shaped objects were seen by a crowd leaving the local cinema in a suburb of Haifa. Mr Shimshon Schwartz, a reporter on a local daily newspaper, said that the cigar was covered with red and blue light, and flying in a northerly direction.

Further south on the coast, people in Tel Aviv bombarded newspaper offices with reports about "flying cigars." One couple from a suburb near Tel Aviv reported:

"We saw a queer lighted object appear in the east, flying westward at great speed. As it came nearer, the light grew and we could see clearly two tails of fire emitted behind it, until it suddenly made a sharp turn north and then disappeared."

The following evening, an official of the Israeli National Aviation Company El Al, Mr A. Hollander, said that he saw "an ellipsoid-shaped object" which appeared on the horizon in the north and travelled at great speed, leaving behind a shining white band resembling the tail of a meteor.

EGG-SHAPED

That same evening, flying saucers were reported from Midgal Ashkalon, the ancient Philistine city of Ascalon, further south on the Mediterranean coast.

A report about an egg-shaped object travelling rapidly and shrouded in powerful, clear light, came that same evening from Eilath, Israel's southern-most village, on the shores of the Red Sea.

A green "aura" surrounded a saucer which was seen by several witnesses at Tiberias, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. There, a crowd saw a round object shining with a blinding green light and flying at great speed from east to west. Witnesses said that it remained in sight for about 15 seconds.

The only daylight "flight" was reported from Safad, in Galilee, where several residents, including an engineer, saw a "flying cigar."