with Chris Rutkowski

I received the following interesting and detailed description from a blog reader. It’s about something that happened in 1996, but I think it’s interesting so I’m noting it below anyway.

My father, step mum, sister and I were on a vacation trip to Green Lake, BC, in 1996, within the week of August 13-22. We were sitting on our cabin’s deck which faced south towards the lake. It was daytime around early afternoon, clear sky with really good visibility. Very suddenly I heard the sound of wind being pushed. I can’t really think of anything in everyday life that I could equate the sound to but if I had to guess it would be like a baseball thrown by your ear but in stereo and a bit lower in frequency. The sound all together was longer in time because of the larger size and direct line of sound I received from it as it approached and passed over the cabin. Perhaps planes sound similar but they always have engines running and thus drowned out the wind resistance sounds. The sound was the first indication as it was approaching and only gave me enough time to look up just to catch the object shoot over the roof.

Now the elevation I would estimate to be at 150-200 meters above our heads, and the time it all occurred was approximately 5 or 6 seconds. With some estimations of distance and then the time frame the speed was ~1595 kph (however I could be mistaken). That is of course ~957 mph and just looking up some numbers is just under twice the speed of a typical airline jet, however it was not nearly as big. I have seen jets fly by close to the ground and just from this comparison it did go much faster.

The size of the object was at the absolute most 5 meters wide and 2 meters tall and it was “saucer shaped” but like an oval. I didn’t see any top bubble that people typically report but that doesn’t say it wasn’t there, I just didn’t see one. The colour of the object was a flat gray. It’s hard to describe further what it had as far a details because it was so sudden and fast. The only thing I could maybe say was that it had two lines from the top going around to the bottom at the back halves, so assuming the front was symmetrical it would look like a pie with four sections from the top. However again I could be incorrect about the lines.

It was too big and going way too fast to be a RC plane, not to mention the distance it traveled across the lake and did not come back. Next it was too small to be a typical jet, maybe a fighter jet, but the shape was not similar at all (a Cessna is completely out of the question because of the distinct shape it had). But the one thing that stands out to be something along the line of a UFO (where ever it came from) was the lack of engine noise, but presence of wind resistance sound and with it going faster than the speed of sound (based on my estimations) it did not have a sonic boom afterward; just quiet after it left.

So that was my experience with a UFO (where ever it came from and where ever it was going to). With the details about speed elevation I do maintain I could be incorrect, however, I did see something that was not any type of typical flying craft it flew over our heads, banked slightly to the right and then it was gone.

A small, compact-model saucer over northern BC in the summer of 1996? Curious.

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This just in:

A person driving on the Alaska Highway 8 miles SE of Whitehorse, Yukon (at the intersection of the Alaska Highway and the South Klondike Highway), saw a very bright fireball in the northern sky. This was seen on Wednesday, December 17, 2008, at 8:45 am MST.

He described it as bright orage, leaving no trail, sparks, flares, explosions or fragments as it flew. It was only in view “just a few seconds,” and its speed was very fast: “It was really moving!”

The observer judged that it was descending downward towards Fox Lake (about 25 miles N of Whitehorse on the North Klondike Highway).

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According to a poll released today by Harris Interactive, 36 per cent of Americans believe in UFOs. Here’s the link: http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=982

That’s all very well and good. But what does it mean?

In short, not much.

The pollsters actually asked the question: “We would like to ask you about various things some people believe it. Please indicate for each one if you believe in it, or not.” Among the things asked about were God, the devil, angels, ghosts, reincarnation, and also UFOs.

But what does it really mean to say you “believe in UFOs?” Does it mean you believe UFOs are alien spacecraft? Does it mean you believe that some people have seen objects in the sky that are called UFOs? Does it mean you believe all UFOs are alien spacecraft? Does it mean you understand that some people believe UFOs are alien spacecraft? These are all possible interpretations of the question, and so a “yes” to this may mean many different things. (Indeed, this would be true of any of the things asked about.)

The poll also shows the answers broken down demographically. More Catholics than Protestants believe in UFOs. But 39 per cent of those polled said they do not believe in UFOs. Again, what does that mean? And what about the finding that 32 per cent of the population do not believe in Evolution?

What we can say is that about equal percentages of people believe as disbelieve as far as UFOs go. And, to quote W.C Fields: “Everybody has to believe in something. I believe I’ll have another drink.”

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I just received some sighting reports of lights in the sky. The first one was from Winnipeg:

I was just wondering if you had anyone else see an odd moving light in the sky this evening (December 2, 2008, 5:55pm). I saw this light in the eastern sky. It had not clouded over yet. I was in my backyard and it was so bright that it caught my eye. It moved quite slowly, was brighter than a plane, not blinking or “twinkling” like a star. I watched it move slowly from west to east then it seemed to quickly shoot off into the sky. It moved straight up, very quickly. If I had to compare it to the movement of another object I would have to say that it shot off faster than a firework shot into the air. Any other reports of this? Was there a satellite out at this time perhaps? I have never seen a light so odd looking and bright. It was shiny, that’s the only way I can describe it.

I contacted the witness for a few more details, and this is what I got back:

I was in my backyard, out with my dogs. The reason it caught my eye was because it was really bright, but not like a light from a light bulb. More like a shiny light, if that makes any sense. It reminded me of when I watched the space station (when it was docked with the shuttle) fly over our house a little while ago. (This object) was visible to me for about 30 seconds before it took off. It could have been in the sky longer than that but I had only been outside for a minute before I looked up and saw it. It was in the eastern sky. When it took off it was still going west, but upward…and fast. It kind of made me jump! No sound that I could hear however living by the airport, we get a lot of noise from the planes on the ground. After it occurred I tried to take note of what the stars looked like around that area but quite frankly I am definitely not an astronomer.

It’s still not clear to me what she was seeing, although it doesn’t sound like a satellite or plane from her description.

I then received notes through both Transport Canada and DND about “5 aircraft 35 miles SW of Cold Lake” whose pilots saw “4 meteorites” (sic) at 0700Z on 3 December 2008. (That’s about midnight, December 2nd.) That’s about all I got for that. I guess everyone in Alberta has “meteorite fever” these days.

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Video from a police dashboard cam in Edmonton, Alberta, about 5:30 pm November 20, 2008

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This morning, the news was filled with reports of the brilliant fireball seen across the Canadian prairies last night. About 5:30 pm Alberta time, hundreds of commuters saw a meteor streak across the sky and explode in a shower of sparks. I’ve received reports from Alberta, Saskatchewan adn Manitoba, and heard of other reports in Montana. It was likely a chunkof space debris, but gave a great display. Did you see it? Let me know by clicking the “Report Your UFO” link on the right hand side of this page!

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I found this report in the files of the National Research Council. It concerns the observation of a slow-moving UFO over Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence off the coast of Quebec. The sighting took place on January 2, 1977, at 530Z, which would have been about 12:30 am EST. The witnesses were the Sept Iles Chief of Police, one of his constables, the Chief of Police from Gagnon, four additional witnesses and a meteorologist in Sept Iles. Eight witnesses, all experienced observers. Not bad.

There is some confusion within the body of the report. First, only one white object was seen, then a yellow object “plus 10 objects” was observed. The first UFO was flying from the east to the southeast, at an estimated altitude of 2,000 ft. And, while estimates of distance and height by observers are usually wrong, it should be noted that these were all experienced observers who knew the limitations of their observing capabilities.

The object was in sight for 5 minutes. No wonder there were so many witnesses. They had time to radio one another to confirm the observation.

I’d label this one a “high-quality unknown.”

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This just in (from Transport Canada):

A citizen from Qualicum Beach, B.C. called in at 18:43 Zulu on November 19, 2008 about having seen a meteorite (sic). The meteorite / fireball was flying towards him and his wife. At first they thought it was a helicopter, but then realised it was coming at them at an incredible rate of speed, then they saw the sparks trail behind the fireball. They then saw a white flash of light at a low altitude. He said this happened at 6:45 a.m. PST.

I contacted the witness for further details. The sighting lasted only about three seconds. During that brief time, the fireball changed from blue with a tail, emitting orange sparks, then the “head” flashed a brilliant white and the entire thing vanished. The object was high in the NNE and heading SW.

Sounds like a chunk of comet to me.

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This week, I received a report from NORAD about a photo they received from a Quebec man who had taken a photo this past August. He apparently had not looked at the photo carefully until now, because he only recently noticed three “soucoupes” in the frame.

His report noted: “3 saucers, seen on a photograph taken during the approach of a thunderstorm. The saucers had not been noticed in the sky before taking the photo.”

The photo was of a pastoral farm setting, with  dark cumulus clouds indeed filling the sky. (I’m not reproducing teh original photo here, but rather focusing on the “saucers.”) Against the clouds could be seen two irregular blotches that were obviously what he had been referring to. The third was more difficult to make out and was different from the other two.

In this day and age of digital photos and cell phone cameras, such photos are commonplace. One only has to look at Flickr or other photo-laden social networking sites to find manyty of them. It used to be said by UFO skeptics, “If UFOs are so common, why don’t we have more photos of them?” Well, the obvious answer is now before us; we needed to reach a saturation level of the population having a significant percentage of digital cameras at the ready, as we finally do today. Digital photos of UFOs are being offered by more and more people every year. Further, more video cameras are in the hands of the average consumer as well, and this has contributed to the proliferation of UFO videos on YouTube and elsewhere.

As for these latest UFO photos, enlargement and basic processing can isolate the “saucers” thusly:

The first two are obviously birds caught in mid-flight. The third, I’m not sure. It clearly is more flat and disclike. Maybe sunlight glinting off a building nestled within the trees?

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