UFO ROUNDUP Volume 7 Number 15 April 9, 2002 Editor: Joseph Trainor
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GREEN FIREBALL SIGHTED OVER SINGAPORE
An unusual green fireball appeared over the island nation of Singapore on the night of Friday, March 29, 2002.
Muhammad Zailan Bin Mohd Zain, a self-described “aircraft spotter,” was driving west on the East Coast Parkway from Changi International Airport to downtown Singapore at 9 p.m. Then, as he looked to his left out the window, he saw an unusual green light approaching from the south.
“I wish to share my experience,” Muhammad reported, “On March 29, 2002, I was travelling on the ECP to my home from Changi after my aircraft sighting activities. I saw something streak past in the night sky above my head.”
“At first I thought the flying object was an RSAF (Royal Singapore Air Force–J.T.) aircraft undertaking night training. Upon closer look, it looked like a streaking meteorite, but it was green in colour. I was shocked when I spotted the flying object. The flying object eventually plummeted into the sea off the East Coast beach. I am still not sure what the flying object was. It was truly an unidentified flying object.” (Email Form Report)
MYSTERIOUS LIGHTS DAZZLE THOUSANDS IN GERMANY
Mysterious lights in the night sky dazzled thousands of people in the southern states of Bayern (Bavaria) and Baden-Wuerttemberg in Germany on Saturday, April 6, 2002.
“Hundreds of panicked callers jammed police telephone lines, seeking an explanation for the phenomenon.”
“Reports of an unsettling late-night light show came from all over the southern German state (Bayern) as well as the neighboring region of Baden-Wuerttemberg.”
“‘It had nothing to do with the weather. But I don’t think little green men from Mars have landed in Bavaria. It was something burning out in the atmosphere,’ a meteorologist said.”
“‘It was like a large firework,’ a Reuters TV correspondent in Munich said, describing the display. ‘You could even see it through half-closed blinds. It lasted around three seconds,’ she said.”
“Pilots flying into Munich airport radioed the control tower with reports of unusual lights in the sky.”
“The German police said NASA scientists initially thought the light was caused by space junk–floating debris in the Earth’s atmosphere–but later said they were still unsure.”
The Bundeswehr (German army) “reported no unusual movements on its radar.”
“Scientists said the lights may have been the result of a meteor breaking up” as it entered Earth’s atmosphere.
“‘There are no signs of impact or damage. We can’t say what it was,’ a police spokesman said.” (See the Suddeutsche Zeitung for April 7, 2002; also the Manila Times for April 7, 2002. Many thanks to Loren Coleman, Steve Wilson Sr., Gerry Lovell, Jose Gonzalez and Louise A. Lowry for forwarding these newspaper articles.)
UFO CRASHES BEACH PARTY IN NORTHWESTERN MEXICO
On Sunday, March 31, 2002, during the evening, 12 people were having a beach party near Puerto Penasco, on the shores of Mexico’s Sea of Cortez when they spotted a bright UFO just offshore.
“We were camping on the beach in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, when we saw what we thought was a shooting star,” one of the witnesses reported, “We watched it fall over the ocean and then stop over the ocean and spin around, flashing colors of red, white and bluish-green.”
“It stood out over the ocean for about 40 minutes, and it just disappeared. We had binoculars, and we could see it with the naked eye. There were 12 of us who saw the same thing. This happened on March 31, 2002 at around 9 p.m.”
Puerto Penasco is in Mexico’s state of Sonora, located about 335 kilometers (210 miles) northwest of Hermosillo, the state capital. (Many thanks to Louise A. Lowry for forwarding this report.)
GIANT UFOs REPORTED BY HUNDREDS IN ARGENTINA
“It could have been the start of an X-Files episode, but in fact it was a phenomenon seen two nights ago(i.e. Monday, April 1, 2001–J.T.) in Rosario and neighboring communities” in Argentina.
The city of Rosario is 200 kilometers (120 miles) northwest of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.
“At 8:07 p.m., an unidentified flying object crossed a magnificent starry sky on April 1 in a north-northeasterly direction at an altitude of 600 meters (2,000 feet).”
“According to Fuerza Aerea Argentinera (Argentinian Air Force–J.T.) sources who witnessed the event, a ‘perfect, semi-transparent sphere measuring between 30 and 50 meters (100 and 165 feet) in diameter’ moving from Funes to Rosario, was seen between 8:07 and 8:12 p.m., when, after stopping abruptly in its north-northeast heading, it vanished into the night.”
“Although there are those who sought a UFO explanation, astronomers favor a ‘natural explanation.’ For example, that the object could have been an electrical discharge in the atmosphere, a common phenomenon on clear nights.”
“There were even those who claimed the object had a lighted center. Yesterday morning (Tuesday, April 2, 2002), phone calls made to a radio station in the city (Rosario) testified to the sightings made by other listeners.”
“But not only residents of Rosario were treated to the event: calls came in from the southern part of the province, places such as Hughes, Acebal and Uranga,” and also “Pergamino in Buenos Aires province and Las Varillas in Cordoba province.”
“Some of them claimed that the sphere has also been seen elsewhere.”
Argentina’s National Weather Service “also ventured the theory that it could be a bank of cirrus clouds, which ‘due to the reflection of light on ice crystals created a strange shape’…a common phenomenon when making the transition from cloudy skies to a clear atmosphere.”
“Marcos Machado, scientific director of (Argentina’s) Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (National Commission for Space Activities–J.T.), said, “These things that people attribute to the UFO phenomenon interest me precisely because I am a skeptic.'”
“He presented two arguments. One, that what is seen by many people cannot be dismissed as ‘an imaginary or invented event’ but rather ‘is a real one.’ Second, that the explanation of such things must be found in nature. ‘These phenomena tend to occur on dry-weather days and without any precision. I could venture the theory that it was a ball of incandescent gas resulting from an electrical discharge in the atmosphere.'”
Yet, the same evening, hundreds of kilometers to the north in La Pampa province, residents reported a gigantic “flying city” rather than a sphere.
According to Quique Mario, “Eyewitnesses claimed to have seen a strange phenomenon Monday night (April 1, 2002). The phenomenon in question happened to be a ‘lenticular cloud’ that crossed the province of La Pampa at moderate speed in a north to south direction.”
(Editor’s Note: That’s almost the exact opposite of the course flown by the Rosario sphere.)
“Hundreds of witnesses argued that the sight was ‘beautiful’ since their skies were clear, and the sun had already set between 8:10 and 8:30 p.m. People driving along different highways noticed the phenomenon, and those dwelling in the western neighborhoods of Santa Rosa were also able to see them.
“According to the description,” Quique Mario said, “We have precedents to this case. One on June 20, 1980, another on October 31, 1982, and two more in 1986 and 1998. On the last occasion, a number of hunters claimed having seen what they described as ‘a city suspended in space’ emerging from ‘within the gigantic circle.'”
(See the newspaper La Capital of Buenos Aires for April 3, 2002. Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales, autor de los libros Chupacabras and Other Mysteries y Forbidden Mexico, y Alicia Rossi para eso articulo de diario. Gracias tambien a Quique Mario del Centro de Estudios Ufologicos, CEUFO, para esas informaciones.)
TWO MEN SPOT UFOs OVER SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S COORONG
On Tuesday, April 2, 2002, Luke Mazelis and a friend visited Coorong National Park in South Australia where they had an encounter with UFOs.
“Tuesday night me and my friend Bronte went down to the Coorong to do some spearfishing for flounder. We arrived at Long Point after 7:30 p.m. that night, had a barbecue, then spearfished for around three hours, finishing at around 11:45 p.m.”
“While my friend was putting some gear into the 4WD (sport utility vehicle or SUV here in the USA–J.T.), I was facing the south, looking at the massive sand dunes that were in between us and the ocean,” Luke reported, “The sky was completely overcast with stratocumulus cloud around 25 to 30 thousand feet.”
“Dead on midnight, I caught sight of a bright object, a light with red tinges, sitting approximately 10 degrees off (above) the horizon, above the sand dunes in the distance. It looked similar to an aircraft landing light, which is what at first I believed it to be.”
“However, from my aviation knowledge, I knew the area to be nowhere near any High Altitude Airways, nor standard arrival (approach) routes into Adelaide (the state capital of South Australia–J.T.). The time also puzzled me, as no civilian aircraft, except for RFDS (Regional Flying Doctor Service–J.T.) could be flying in this area at that time, due to Noise Abatement at either Adelaide International or Parafield Airports.”
“From first sighting the object, it remained stationary for approximately 30 to 40 seconds, then began moving at a rapid rate towards the west. The object remained at the same altitude while moving westwards. By this time, my interest had aroused enough to call Bronte over from the 4WD to have a look. Before he could turn around, the object disappeared completely.”
“Approximately two minutes later, the object reappeared in a similar position at where I had first sighted it. This time I immediately called Bronte to look at it. For around a minute or two, we observed the object moving westwards again, repeatedly stopping and starting its movements, but always moving toward the west. The object could stop completely, remaining motionless as if it were a helicopter hovering. It would then accelerate incredibly. It then stopped, shot upwards as if it were a rocket, and completely disappeared.”
“However, at 11 minutes past 1 a.m. (Wednesday, April 3, 2002), four bright object appeared due south. These objects looked significantly smaller than the initial one, so we felt sure that they were quite some distance away. The objects were as if they were almost some kind of aircraft, although their movements were absolutely phenomenal.”
“They danced around each other, running circles around one another, darting in every direction possible at a rate of speed that I could not even estimate.. But as fast as they would accelerate, they also would perform aerobatic-style movements and accelerate around the motionless object.”
“During this sighting, two of the objects started moving towards us, at incredible speed, most definitely becoming larger in size as they headed in our direction. By this stage, myself and Bronte became quite panic-stricken, as we realized that, whatever these objects were, they were heading in our direction–fast!”
“We were by ourselves in a remote area of the Coorong, with the closest town being 35 kilometers (21 miles) away. The objects never did get any closer, though. Just as they looked in one second as if they would be over us, they then stopped, and headed back to the other two objects further south.”
“We continued to watch the sky until quarter past two (2:15 a.m.) with nothing more happening. We then packed our gear and headed for home back in Adelaide.” (Email Form Report)
MORE STRANGE SIGHTINGS IN THE PALOUSE AREA OF WASH.
Heavy UFO activity was reported the Palouse “wheat belt” of eastern Washington state on Tuesday night, April 2, 2002.
From his ranch in Tyler, Wash., a town on Highway 904 southwest of Spokane, the middle-aged male eyewitness reported, “It started at around 8 p.m. with a number of smaller lights coming in from the west and then moving downward and flickering out.”
“After between 15 and 20 minutes, I would see a bright flare over or near the ground where the light had disappeared, and then see the light going to about 1,000 to 2,000 feet (300 to 600 meters) above the ground and continuing towards the northeast.”
“At about 10 p.m., a much brighter, bigger light moved into a location nearer to me–I estimate between 5 to 8 miles (8 to 12 kilometers) away. The light was primarily cream-flourescent-colored and configured in two bright headlings,
(Editor’s Note: Looking like this…….O O….) although at times I thought I could see smaller lights and a perimeter as well. The lights flared up real bright, and I was snapping pictures like mad, going from longer to shorter shutter speeds to try to capture some detail. After about one to two minutes, the lights dimmed, rotated and began moving away towards the west.”
“I then saw a dull orange ‘smudge’ near the horizon which was quite large. I initially thought it was the sodium vapor lights of a housing development. When I looked at it through my camera/telescope, I could see a very large dull orange shape tilting up and moving away from me towards the west. About a minute later, I could see a very faint red light and a blue light on a plane, moving away in unison, as if they were attached to some solid object. These lights were at least 10 to 15 miles (16 to 25 kilometers) away from me, but from the distance between the red and blue lights, I would conservatively guess that the object was at least a quarter-mile (400 meters) in length!”
“I kept shaking my head and muttering to myself, ‘What the hell–!?’ And I kept thinking, This just cannot be–!” and he kept observing through his Meade 200x telescope. (Many thanks to Brian Vike for forwarding this report.)
“SPARKLY” UFO SIGHTED OVER CEDARVALE, BRITISH COLUMBIA
The UFO flap in northern British Columbia continues with a new event reported in Cedarvale, B.C.
On Wednesday, April 3, 2002, at around 8 p.m., a woman was sitting on the front steps of her home in Cedarvale when she saw “what appeared to be a ‘sparkly’ star, flashing red and green, moving in a box-like pattern.” She reported, “I phoned my mother and I remained in contact with her for about one hour while all this was going on.”
“8:30 p.m.–Very, very bright, very, very low-flying object moving steadily (east) toward Kitwanga, B.C. in a straight line, floating by the right of where I was sitting, on the front steps.”
“8:40 p.m.–Another small white star moving steady in a straight line, moving south.”
“8:50 p.m.–What appeared to be a jet plane, complete with the jet sound, with flashing red (navigation) lights went by in a southeasterly direction, going directly past the sparkly star. I could see the outline of the jet plane, and it was very large and ‘metallic.’ The neighbours’ dogs started to howl and then to bark–as did my dogs and those living across the Skeena River on the (Provincial) Highway 16 side.”
“9:50 p.m.–By this time it was so far up in the sky that it looked just like an ordinary star.”
“During the time-frame, I flashed my flashlight at the thing three times like ‘on-off/on-off/on-off,’ and nothing happened.” (Many thanks to Brian Vike for this report.)
BRIGHT ORANGE UFO SEEN IN CHARLESTOWN, INDIANA
On Tuesday, March 26, 2002, at 7:20 p.m., Gary S. was at his home in Charlestown, Indiana (population 5,993) when he “went out to look at the comet. It was twilight, and I noticed a bright orange light just above the horizon. At first I thought it was a planet with the sunlight reflecting off its atmosphere. Then, after a few minutes, it started moving in a west-northwest direction. I thought it was pretty strange, because it was moving so quickly–too quickly for a planet–and it was moving in the wrong direction to be a satellite. Also, planets and satellites do not stay in one spot for five minutes and then start moving.”
Gary added that the object “was orange, it appeared round, and it was as big around as a pencil lead in diameter.”
Charlestown, Ind. is on Highway 62 about 15 miles (25 kilometers) northeast of Louisville, Kentucky. (Email Form Report)
LARGE CIRCULAR UFO SEEN IN CENTRAL WISCONSIN
On Saturday, April 6, 2002, a male resident of Lyndon Station, Wisconsin reported, “My son came home at almost 10:30 p.m. and said there were strange lights in the sky. I went out to look and had my wife observe also. The object consisted of eight large white lights found in a large circle. The entire circle was rotating clockwise slowly. There was a 300-foot (90-meter) cloud ceiling.”
“Whatever this was supposed to be was just above the clouds. The clouds gave the lights an opaque effect. It (the UFO) seemed to throw light off in one part of its rotation, kind of like a water sprinkler throwing water, but just in one spot. It would have taken six hands to cover it. Quite large!”
“It was east of our location. It was stationary for maybe 10 minutes, then began a slight movement to the southwest, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.”
Lyndon Station, Wis. is on Highway 12 about 12 miles (19 kilometers) northwest of the Wisconsin Dells and about 22 miles (36 kilometers) northwest of Madison, the state capital. (Many thanks to John Hoppe of UFO Wisconsin for forwarding this report.)
UCONN SCIENTIST IS WORKING ON A TIME MACHINE
“Ronald Mallett, a physicist at the University of Connecticut, believes he knows how to build a time machine–an actual device that could send something or someone from the future to the past, or vice versa.”
“He’s not joking.”
“Unlike other scientists who have pondered the science of time travel, the 57-year-old professor has devised a machine he believes could transport anything from an atom to a person from one time to another.”
“‘I’m not a nut….I hope to have a working mock-up and start experiments in the fall,’ Mallett said, ‘I would think I was a crackpot, too, if there weren’t other colleagues I knew who were working on it.. This isn’t Ron Mallett’s theory of matter; it’s Einstein’s theory of relativity. I’m not pulling things out of the known laws of physics.'”
“But Alan Guth, a physics professor at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology–J.T.), who has studied the theory of time machines, said he isn’t sure it’s even theoretically possible to travel through time. As far as whether time travel is a possibility, he says: ‘Definitely not within our lifetimes.'”
“Another physicist, Stanley Deser, a professor at Brandeis University” in Boston, Mass. “who recently co-wrote a paper titled Time Travel? said the problem is not the physics, it’s the feasibility of making time travel work.”
“‘This is about trying to amass all the matter of the universe in a very small region,’ he said, ‘Good luck.'”
“After 27 years at UConn (University of Connecticut–J.T.), Mallett has the confidence of his boss, William Stwalley, chairman of the university’s physics department. ‘His ideas certainly have merit,’ Stwalley said, ‘I think some of his ideas are very interesting, and they would make nice tests of general relativity.'”
“Mallett’s plan doesn’t require some sort of sleigh, the means of travel in H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, or reaching 88 miles per hour in a DeLorean as in the movie Back to the Future. His time machine merely uses a ring of light.”
“According to Einstein’s theory of gravity, anything that has mass or energy distorts the space and passage of time around it, like a bowling ball dropped on a trampoline. Circulating laser beams in the right way, by slowing them down and shooting them through anything from fiber-optic cable to special crystals, might create a similar distortion that could theoretically transport someone through different times, Mallett believes.”
“The professor and his UConn colleagues plan to build a device to test whether it’s possible to transport a sub-atomic particle, probably a neutron, through time. The energy from a rotating laser beam, Mallett hopes, would warp the space inside the ringof the light so that gravity forces the neutron to rotate sideways. With even more energy, it’s possible, he believes, a second neutron would appear. The second particle would be the first one visiting itself from the future.”
“While Mallett acknowledges that sending a person through time may require more energy than physicists today know how to harness, he sees it merely as ‘an engineering problem.’ If it’s possible to use light to send a neutron through time, a feat that doesn’t require as much energy as sending a human, it wouldn’t be long before engineers figure out a way to send a person.”
“‘What we’re talking about is at the edge of current technology, not beyond current technology,’ he said.”
“Since his father, a heavy smoker, died at the age of 33 when Mallett was 10 years old, Mallett has longed for a way to travel back in time to warn him about the dangers of cigarettes.”
“For most of his career, however, Mallett kept secret that his desire for time travel had drawn him to become a physicist. It wasn’t until a few years ago, when he began researching a book on the topic, that he arrived at his idea of how to build a time machine.” (See the Duluth, Minn. News-Tribune for April 7, 2002, “For physicist, time warp is more than fantasy,” page 17A.)
ROUNDUP CORRIGENDA:
Concerning the recent UFO sighting in Hugo, Oklahoma (See UFO Roundup, volume 7, number 14, “Luminous UFO seen over, Hugo, Oklahoma,” page 7), the eyewitness in this sighting was female, not male. The Roundup regrets the error.
From the UFO Files…
1897: UFO SIGHTED OVER FONTANELLE, IOWA
The first UFO flap to command widespread headlines in the USA was “The Great Airship Mystery.” The first such “airships” were sighted in Oakland, California in November 1896 and, after a brief wintertime lull, the flap exploded anew 105 years ago, in April 1897, with sightings all over the USA’s Midwestern states.
Here is an actual “airship” news story from April 13, 1897, which appeared in the old Chicago Chronicle.
“Fontanelle, Iowa, April 12 (1897): The airship was seen here at 8:30 (p.m.) tonight and was viewed by the whole population.”
“It came from the south-east and was not over 200 feet (60 meters) above the tree-tops and moved very slowly, not to exceed ten miles per hour (16 kilometers per hour). The machine could be plainly seen, and is described as being 60 feet (18 meters) in length, and the vibration of the wings could be plainly seen.”
“It carried the usual colored lights, and the working of the machinery could be heard, as also could the strains of music as from an orchestra.”
“It was hailed but passed on to the north, seeming to increase its speed, and disappeared. There is no doubt in Fontanelle that it is the real thing, and is testified to by the most prominent citizens, etc.”
Fontanelle is in Adair County, on Highway 92, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Des Moines, the state capital of Iowa. (See the Chicago Chronicle for April 13, 1897, “Airship Seen In Iowa,” page 1. Also the book Passport to Magonia by Jacques Vallee, Contemporary Books, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, 1993 edition, pages 142 and 143.)
Well, that’s it for this week. Join us in seven days for more UFO, Fortean and paranormal news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by “the paper that goes home–UFO Roundup.” See you then.
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 2002 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO Roundup on their websites or in news groups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of issue in which the item first appeared.
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