February 23, 1997
Editor: Joseph Trainor
For the past two weeks, Australia has been repeatedly visited by UFOs. Over 50 encounters have been reported since February 1, including two landings in the suburbs of Melbourne.
The flap began Saturday, February 1, 1997 with an incident in Tasmania, the island off Australia's southern coast. A Glengarry family reported finding traces of a weird "bright yellow jelly slime" in their yard.
At 9:45 p.m., in Broken Hill, New South Wales (N.S.W.), a city 750 kilometers (450 miles) west of Sydney, people reported "sighting two bright lights traveling from the northwest to the southeast." At 9:51 p.m., another man saw a glowing object fly from the southeast to the northwest, then reverse direction and "shoot off to the southeast."
On Sunday, February 2, 1997, at 9:50 p.m., witnesses in Woori Yallock, Victoria (Vic.) reported "a bright white light" moving rapidly "from west to east in the northern sky, moving very fast, taking about 40 seconds" to reach the eastern horizon.
On Monday, February 3, 1997, at 9:30 p.m., residents of Albury, N.S.W., 200 kilometers (120 miles) west of Canberra, spotted "a white light traveling from north to south in a zig zag fashion."
Also that night, on Australia's east coast, "a large orange object" appeared over Port Macquarie, N.S.W. at 10 p.m. The UFO, which at first people took for a helicopter, "held position in the sky for about ten minutes. Before the object shot off and disappeared, several smaller yellow lights" emerged from the underside of the object. Port Macquarie is 250 kilometers (150 miles) north of Sydney.
Then, after midnight, at 2:46 a.m. on Tuesday, February 4, 1997, people in Yass, N.S.W. saw "a bright orange illumination traveling across the sky." They estimated it to be "about 1/2 to 1/4 the size of the moon." The UFO flew away to the northwest.
In Gosford, N.S.W., 60 kilometers (36 miles) north of Sydney, witnesses sighted "a large blue-white light" near the Moonie Bridge. The UFO was "close to the ground" and an estimated 200 to 300 feet (60 to 90 meters) in diameter.
A half-hour past midnight on Wednesday, February 5, 1997, people reported "flashing lights" located in and around the stars in Orion's belt.
At 9 p.m. on February 5, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) personnel at Bogan Gate, near Parkes, N.S.W., 275 kilometers (165 miles) west of Sydney, spotted a "white golden illumination" crossing the sky and heading west. Nearly a half-hour later, at 9:25 p.m., civilian eyewitnesses at Ngunnaiual reported "orange and flashing illuminations" in "an arch over Orion's belt."
Several hours later, at 5:35 a.m. on Thursday, February 6, 1997, people in Cooma, N.S.W., a city west of the Gourock mountain range, 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of Canberra, spotted a UFO arrayed with lights heading east.
By the time the sun had set February 6, the theatre of UFO action had shifted to the sparsely-populated state of Western Australia (W.A.). At 7:30 p.m., people in Perth, the state capital, saw a hovering "blue-green tube- shaped object" in the day's fading daylight "before any star could be seen."
(Editor's Note: Right now it's summer in the southern hemisphere, so the days are much longer in Australia and Chile.)
The following night, Friday, February 7, 1997, the UFO action moved to the southern state of Victoria. At 9:20 p.m., a "spinning yellow fireball" zipped across the sky, heading west, over Bairnsdale, Vic., just above the southern coast's Ninety Mile Beach and about 200 kilometers (120 miles) east of Melbourne.
At 9:25 p.m., people in Maffra, 60 kilometers (36 miles) west of Bairnsdale, sighted "a spinning yellow fireball" heading west towards Melbourne.
At 11 p.m., people in Barwon Head, Vic. sighted a UFO they described as "a moving and flashing yellow- red fireball illumination with a (dark) triangular shape on top." The UFO traveled in a north-northwest direction at about 15 degrees above the horizon.
The following night, Saturday, February 8, 1997, at 8:45 p.m., people in the Sydney suburbs of Oatley, Kogarah and Hurstville along the St. George's River saw "a green-to-yellow fireball with no tail traveling south in the eastern sky (about) 30 degrees above the horizon. There was no sound. The object suddenly stopped and hovered." Witnesses estimated the UFO to be the size of "an AAA battery held at arm's length."
Four hours later, at 12:40 a.m. on Sunday, February 9, 1997, further up the east coast in Brisbane, witnesses reported "an orange illumination traveling at the speed of a fighter plane" in the eastern sky at 30 degrees above the horizon." The UFO was headed south and soon disappeared among the stars of the Southern Cross.
On Sunday night, at 9:25 p.m., "a yellow-red fireball" was seen in St. Kilda, a bayfront suburb on the south side of Melbourne. The UFO was headed north and "flying beneath the cloud cover" at an estimated speed of 800 kilometers per hour (480 mph).
At 11:30 p.m., Queensland had its second sighting of the flap when a UFO flew over Sunnybank, a suburb 14 kilometers (9 miles) south of Brisbane. Witnesses described it as "a yellow-orange fireball" 10 to 15 miles away, moving in a 45-degree downward arc (top left to bottom right).
Five hours later, on Monday, February 10, 1997, at 4 a.m., a UFO returned to Brisbane. It was described as "a blue and red oval-shaped illumination in the western sky (about) 30 degrees above the horizon. It appeared to be three times the size of the largest stars in the sky."
The flap in Brisbane continued during the early morning hours of Tuesday, February 11, 1997. At 12:02 a.m., police in Brisbane received Phone reports of a huge UFO described as "a large red-pink illumination" near Mount Gravatt. The UFO hovered about 300 meters (1,000 feet) above the witnesses' heads for five minutes.
At 2 a.m., "a series of lights in a triangular formation" were seen by Brisbane residents heading south toward the air base RAAF Amberley. The lights appeared to fly in either a V-formation or a /\-formation.
On February 11, at 11:30 p.m., the city of Adelaide in South Australia (S.A.) reported its first sighting of the flap. The UFO was "a ball of fire that had red and blue associated with it."
An hour and a half later, on Wednesday, February 12, 1997, at 1 a.m., people in Taree, N.S.W., a river port near the coast about 210 kilometers (125 miles) north of Sydney, reported seeing "a slow-moving orange-red fireball heading southwest." The UFO made no discernible sound. At 2:30 a.m., people again noticed "a fireball traveling in the sky." As the UFO passed over, TV sets suddenly switched on without being touched by owners. After the UFO left, the TV sets all shut off at once.
After a 24-hour breather, the flap picked up again on Friday, February 14, 1997, this time in Victoria. At 11:15 p.m., residents of Craigieburn, a southern suburb of Melbourne, saw "a bright disc-shaped light" hovering above a paddock. Witnesses also saw what looked like automobile headlights in the paddock while the UFO hovered. Four or five seconds after the UFO flew away, the "headlights" winked out.
A few hours later, on Saturday, February 15, 1997, at 4:40 a.m., residents of Parkinsville, another suburb of Melbourne, saw a star-sized "red-blue illumination in the southwest sky."
Later the same day, in Duncraig, W.A., near Perth, people outdoors at 12 noon reported a weird "solar effect." Sunlight suddenly dimmed in an "eclipse-like effect" although the sky was perfectly clear. The effect lasted for approximately five seconds. No aircraft were seen or heard overhead. The phenomenon remains unexplained.
Also on February 15, at 8:25 p.m., people in the Lewis mountain range of South Australia spotted "a cigar-shaped object traveling high in the sky from west to east. It appeared to be four times the size of a jumbo jet." Not a sound was heard from the object. One man took a color photograph of the UFO with his camera.
Further east, in Eltham, Vic., a suburb south of Melbourne, residents reported three separate sightings of "light illumination" UFOs. The first was at 9:30 p.m., with the light headed southeast. The second was at 9:40 p.m. and headed east. The third and final UFO was at 9:45 p.m. and flew off to the southeast.
At 11:25 p.m. the night of February 15, people in Quakers Hills, N.S.W., near Sydney, reported seeing "an oval orange-red illumination heading northwest towards Richmond." The UFO stopped and hovered on several occasions during its ten-minute flyover and "appeared the size of a grape held at arm's length."
After midnight on Sunday, February 16, 1997, at 12:05 a.m. observers in Brisbane spotted "an orange- white illumination appearing in and out of clouds" just west of the seaside city.
At 3:20 a.m., February 16, people in Adelaide saw "a bright white illumination traversing the sky, then (it) suddenly stopped. When it began moving again, it gave off a series of flashes." To some, the UFO "appeared as a cross shape with one light at each end."
On Monday, February 17, 1997, people in Duncraig, W.A. reported a second weird "solar effect" identical to the one on February 15. A similar incident also took place in Duncraig on October 18, 1996.
At 11:20 p.m. Monday night, February 17, "an extremely bright orange fireball" flew "from northeast to southeast right over" the Australian Space Agency base outside of Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory. The UFO's altitude was 20,000 to 30,000 feet and it was "three to four times larger than the stars." It was last seen heading for the Oorarginna mountain range.
At 11:30 p.m., February 17, "a very large and bright orange illumination" appeared over Mildura, a city on the Murray River, about 450 kilometers (270 miles) northwest of Melbourne and 300 kilometers (180 miles) east-northeast of Adelaide. Witnesses reported a "large shape" poised above the orange glow. The UFO flew away to the northwest, stopping a few times before reaching the horizon.
Tuesday, February 18, saw more sightings all around the island continent. At 1 a.m., in Western Australia, at Bull Creek, near Perth, witnesses saw "three or four lights cross the sky," making a strange rumbling noise.
At 5:30 a.m., February 18, in Prospect, S.A. a "large white illumination traveling at (high) speed to the north" was seen. Its speed was estimated at 300 kilometers per hour (180 mph).
Tuesday night, February 18, at 10:30 p.m., people in Warrandyte, Vic., near Melbourne, people saw "three large bright orange fireballs" flying "in a triangular formation for 5 to 10 mintues. The glows were described as being as "large as a grapefruit held in your hand at arm's length."
Wednesday, February 19, 1997, saw the flap shift back to Sydney for one day. At 5:30 a.m., "three or four intensely bright orange ball illuminations" were seen rotating around each other as they crossed the sky over North Head. The UFOs were moving extremely fast. At 6:45 a.m., three large orange UFOs "with some burning coming from them" were seen over the suburb of Paddington.
That morning, radio station 3MMM stunned its listeners by reporting a scorched crop circle in a paddock on the outskirts of Werribee, a suburb southwest of Melbourne. The circle was seen from the air by a private pilot at 6:30 a.m., who radioed the tower.
At 3:45 p.m., a man in Nicholson, East Gippsland, Vic. reported a "scorched earth circle" similar to the one in Werribee. There are still no reports on this site as of February 23, 1997.
At 9:20 p.m., February 19, people in Geelong, Vic., a city on Port Phillip Bay 45 kilometers (27 miles) southwest of Melbourne, reported seeing a large "banana-shaped or crescent orange illuminated object" traveling in a northwesterly direction, headed for Ballarat.
At 9:45 p.m., February 19, "five bright yellow- white lights" crossed the sky over Adelaide. Three lights flew in a triangular formation, while the other two smaller lights flew parallel to the triangle. In the night's second event, one light flew away to the north, the other to the south. Then the lights turned, crossed each other's path and disappeared.
At 9:10 p.m., "a very large glowing illumination" was seen in the sky over Mount Barker, 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Adelaide.
At 9:30 p.m., two UFOs visited Annandale, a suburb of Sydney, heading west. They were described as flattened discs, something like a drummer's cymbals.
At 11:20 p.m. a group of "three white lights" were seen speeding over Frankston, Vic., a port on the eastern shore of Port Phillip Bay, 35 kilometers (21 miles) southeast of Melbourne. They flew at an altitude of 300 to 400 meters (1,000 to 1,320 feet). Ten minutes later, at 11:30 p.m., "a large yellow white light" flew over Frankston, heading due west. (Many, many thanks to Ross Dowe of Australia's National UFO Hotline for this story.)
UFOs were busy elsewhere in the southern hemisphere last week, as well. Three encounters were reported around Santiago de Chile.
On Sunday, February 16, 1997, at 12:30 p.m., motorists in Chivilingo, a town north of Santiago de Chile, pulled over to the side of the road to watch an unusual spectacle in the sky. What people described as "an elgongated cloud" suddenly split into two cigar-shaped objects. The two then came together to form a giant "cigarro." Then this object split into four cigar-shaped UFOs, which tilted on their own axes, forming a perfect triangle in the sky.
Minutes later, the four objects coalesced into one "cigarro," and then split into two. The two then split into four, and all four flew away at high speed. A truck driver at the scene took photographs, and these are now being evaluated by Agrupacion de Investigaciones Ovniologicas (AION), a well-known Chilean ufological study group.
At 4:30 a.m. on February 16, two youths, aged 16 and 14, returning home to Lago de Rapel, a town in the Andes south of Santiago de Chile. Suddenly, "they found they were being followed by an OVNI (Spanish acronym for UFO) and they hurried to get home fast. Once they got home, they saw that the OVNI was still out there. So they went in the house and woke their father, who thought they were joking."
After dragging Papa out of bed, they peered out the front window. "To their surprise, the OVNI was on the ground, and a small being was standing outside of it. The being was 1.5 meters (4 feet, 8 inches) tall (with) a big and bald head, no description of the eyes, and wearing a bluish suit. All three got scared and went and hid until it went away."
On Thursday, February 13, at 11:30 p.m., Marta Aguilar Montoya and her two small children were asleep in their bedroom on Gran Avenida in the Llano section of Santiago. All at once, she heard a crackling noise "as if the TV was on but without any signal." Turning to look at the room's TV set, she spied "a small person, 1.5 or 1.6 meters (4 feet, 8 inches to 5 feet) tall, wearing a tight suit and a helmet. The helmet had a visor, so she could not see its eyes." The occupant also "wore a backpack connected to the helmet by two hoses, one over each shoulder."
With her husband away at work, Marta "was scared to death. She pulled both children, sleeping in the same room, toward her and stayed there just watching." The occupant "never took its eyes off her" but made no move toward the family. After several minutes, the occupant turned to the bedroom wall. Again Marta heard the same strange crackling SSSSHHHH noise. The occupant then "disappeared through the wall, leaving only his silhouette on the wall, which disappeared after two minutes."
Both the Lago de Rapel and Llano cases are now being investigated by AION. (Muchas gracias a Luis Sanchez Perry para ese informacion.)
On Saturday, February 8, 1997, Brazil's Policia Militar was called to a small farm on the outskirts of Brotas, a town of 20,000 in Sao Paulo state. This rural area, devoted to cattle and sugar cane, in near Bebedouro, about 250 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of the city of Sao Paulo.
According to ufologist Joao Pereira Torres, the officers "found a small dead sheep at the peak of a hill. Apparently it had some holes in the skull, and the body was completely dry, almost mummified." The farmer told the Policia Militar that he had "heard strange noises in the field close to the house."
During a search of the area, one officer reported seeing "a tall dark shape" in the sugar cane. He called for assistance. Searching the area, the officers reportedly found "a strange greenish liquid" on the ground among the stalks.
The following morning, Sunday, February 9, 1997, Angelinha Fagundes Montt, a young woman from Brotas, left church with her family and saw "an unusual flight of helicopters" circling the town. Some she recognized as Brazilian; the others "were black and I didn't recognize them. It's highly unusual to see so many helicopters over this part of the (Sao Paulo) state."
Pereira added that "a veil of secrecy" has descended over Brotas. (Muito obrigado ao Sergio Graciotti for this story.)
Colonel Steve Wilson (USAF Ret.) of Skywatch was in Mexico recently to investigate rumors of UFO flights. While in Concepcion del Oro, a town in Zacatecas state 64 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of Saltillo, he was treated to a sighting of his own.
Col. Wilson interviewed a farm worker named Gonzalez Cabrillo, who told him that UFOs had been seen repeatedly around Pico del Toro (2,493 meters or 8,229 feet) west of town. Gonzalez also claimed to have spoken to the occupants.
The aliens reportedly told Gonzalez "that they came from a planet called Ummo, which was much like this one. That they had come on a mission."
"The people were not scared of them," Col. Wilson reported, "and about all I could get out of them was that they (the occupants) were dark-complected and looked like themselves."
Midway through this interview, "while we talked, a formation of about 10 cross-shaped UFOs darted by overhead at 20,000 feet," he added, "It seems to be happening every day down there." (Many thanks to Skywatch International for this story.)
(Editor's Note: Back in November 1996, a latrine rumor made the rounds at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma. According to the rumor, four USAF instructors on a routine training flight over the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains, southeast of Saltillo and Concepcion del Oro, ran into a glowing disc-shaped UFO and chased it for several minutes before it shot off into space. Looks like Tacitus was right when he said, "Rumor is not always wrong.")
On Tuesday, February 18, 1997, at 5:58 p.m., a "large golden-yellow cigar-shaped object" was seen two miles (3 kilometers) east of Canon (pronounced "Canyon") City, Colorado. The UFO hovered about 500 feet above one of the peaks of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.
Jim Roberts and his son, Jeff, of Howard, Colo. were returning from a trip to Pueblo when they spied the UFO. "The object was visible for two to three minutes with solar illumination in the setting sun." Roberts took a photograph of the UFO through his windshield. Both described the UFO as "at a 15 to 20 degree tilt, about two inches long, wide as a pencil and did not move at all in relation to the peak," calling it "a totally beautiful and spectacular sight." (Many thanks to Tim Edwards for this story)
On January 12, 1997, at 2:30 a.m., Pedro Viera, a retired police officer, was driving home on Route 40 between Caguas and Humacho in Puerto Rico. All at once, he saw a disc-shaped UFO hovering over a field, levitating a bull with what he described as "a tractor beam." Bellowing in terror, the bull passed through an aperture on the bottom of the saucer and was lost to sight.
Viera immediately stepped on the gas pedal, setting off in pursuit. Speeding down Route 40, he managed to keep the UFO in sight. All at once, he was cut off by a late-model 4X4 pickup truck and forced to the side of the road.
According to Viera, two men in black BDU uniforms emerged from the truck, walked over to his car and "told me to let them do what they were doing." At first he didn't understand what the man meant; then he realized he was talking about the saucer. Having lost sight of the UFO anway, Viera continued his journey home.
Five hours later, shortly after 7 a.m., several Puerto Ricans found a mutilated cow further along on Route 40. The animal, they said, "looked as if it had been dropped from a considerable height." (Many thanks to Scott Corrales for this story.)
One hundred years ago, on February 24, 1897, a truly remarkable event took place in southeastern Arizona. Here's an actual report from the period:
"The following account of a meteor in Arizona is communicated through W.T. Blythe, Observer and Section Director for the Weather Bureau at Phoenix, Ariz.:"
"Tombstone, Ariz., February 27, 1897--On Wednesday afternoon, February 24, at 3:45 (p.m.) local time, or 2:45 Pacific time, sitting in the house I heard a noise resembling thunder, but yet not like it, lasting 15 or 20 seconds. I felt no vibration or movement of any kind. On inquiry in this town I find that a meteor fell near by; many say that they saw it, and many concur in saying that windows and doors rattled, etc. I am told that a piece of the meteor has fallen at St. David, about 12 miles away, and I have written to see if I can secure the stones for the public--Henry M. Gee, Voluntary Observer."
"From a newspaper slip inclosed by Mr. Gee, we learn that the meteoric stone which fell near the ranch of J.N. Curtis, a short distance below (south) St. David, was secured by the latter. It weighed 27 pounds and had buried itself in the ground after plowing up the earth for a considerable distance."
"At Tombstone the broad white lines (now known as condensation trails or contrails--J.T.) which marked the flight of the meteor from southwest to northeast, were distinctly seen after it passed. At Benson this trail remained visible for fully five minutes. At Tombstone the interval between its visible passage and the subsequent explosive sound (sonic boom) was about 50 seconds. The noise as of a great explosion was heard, but especially at Dragoon and Benson."
"A special report on this meteor received from Prof. S.M. Woodward, of Tucson, says:"
"The meteor was seen be enough people to have determined everything about its path if those who saw it had taken pains to accurately observe the directions and the times. The way people were deceived by it was amusing. One thought that it fell a few hundred yards away from our buildings on the Mesa (River), but it must have been distant at least 50 miles; he says it looked like an incandescent lamp bulb floating slowly down. A woman ducked her head and thought it went over her no higher than the tops of the telegraph poles. I have not been able to substantiate the report in regard to a piece falling from it at St. David. The following is a summary of such facts as I have been able to gather."
"About 2:50 p.m. Pacific standard time on February 24 (1897) a large meteor fell in Arizona. It was seen by a number of people in Tucson and vicinity as a brilliant light in the east although the sun was shining brightly at the time. The path was nearly perpendicular to the horizon and was marked by a distinct ribbon-like band of white vapor which persisted for several minutes. The meteor was seen by a man about 25 miles west of Tucson, by a man in Sonora, Mexico and by people in Benson, Tombstone and Solomonville (now Solomon--J.T.)."
From Sonora it seemed to fall in the direction of Tombstone or Pearce and from Benson in a direction somewhat north of east. At Benson the meteor was seen to explode near the horizon, and the loud noise of the explosion was heard after an interval, estimated at from one to three to four minutes."
"At Dragoon the noise was heard and described as terrific. From Wilcox and vicinity there are only rumors of the meteor having been observed. At all places as nearly as can be learned the path seemed to be nearly perpendicular to the horizon. If any pieces reached the earth, they probably fell near Dragoon." (See the Monthly Weather Review for February 1897, pages 56 and 57; also the Tombstone, Arizona Epitaph for February 26, 1897)
(Editor's Note: For the meteor to have been seen as far north as Solomon, it had to have made a 40 degree turn northward east of Tucson, over the Dragoon Mountains.)
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That's it for this week. Best wishes from "the paper that goes home--UFO ROUNDUP." See you next weekend.
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1997 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post any stories from UFO ROUNDUP on their websites or in newsgroups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of the newsletter in which the item appeared.