Filer's Files

#1-1998
January 7, 1998

MUFON Skywatch Investigations
George A. Filer, Director, Mutual UFO Network Eastern

George Filer: Majorstar@verizon.net
Webmaster Chuck Warren
My website is at: www.nationalufocenter.com

Happy New Year. The universe is full of wonders patiently waiting for us to grow wiser.

GEORGIA

State Director, John Thompson reports: "My Vietnam helicopter crewman witness of the "100 lights V shape UFO" in April has just told me that on Monday night, Dec. 15th around 11:30 p.m., he and a friend saw a star-like object in the western sky. He thought at first it was just a bright star twinkling, but then a craft from the south moved quickly in only 3 to-4 seconds. It left a vapor trail, but they heard no sound. It then returned just as quickly. Next another craft with a vapor trail moved to the star-like object from the north and did the same thing, also leaving a vapor trail. He wondered if maybe he was observing an aerial refueling operation, but the speeds were too great. The star-like object was still there when he and his friend went inside 15 minutes later. It could just be a coincidence that two planes picked the same spot to go to and turn around at--although he did not see them turn just up and back in a straight line each time--in front of an actual star in the western sky. The UFOs seemed to be blinking or flashing lights .

MUFON State Director, John Thompson reports concerning another triangle shaped UFO. Because of its size, altitude, speed, and linear movement it has to be considered that the UFO was, perhaps, only an airplane with an unusual lighting configuration. A configuration that violated FAA flight rules, since no blinking light was seen. However, because the 45 year-old, married and college-educated witness says he does not believe what he saw was an aircraft, and the UFO made no sound, it is included here. The witness was outside of a friend's house two miles north of Franklin, Heard County, Georgia on Hwy. 100 when on glancing up he saw a triangle formation of five bright white lights moving east-south-east. The lights, which eventually past directly overhead of his location and skirted the northern edge of Franklin, each had the intensity of "Mars" at its brightest. As the witness is an amateur astronomer he felt certain that the lights, which at the closest were 2-2500 feet away, were no more or less bright than what Mars provides on a brilliantly clear night. The lights glided silently overhead and continued their path to the ESE for nearly 15 seconds until the witness lost sight of the triangle-shaped formation behind some nearby oak trees. At no time did he see any of the lights blink. He estimated a speed of "150-200 miles-per-hour," or about the speed of a twin engine propeller driven aircraft.

The total arrangement of lights had an apparent size of "a quarter" and if the entire perimeter of the "triangle" had been filled in with lights there would have been room for an additional 20 lights based on the sketch that the witness made for this field investigator. Real size of the UFO would have been about 200 feet. Five minutes after viewing the lights, which disappeared in the Southeast, he saw a regular commercial airliner flying higher that clearly showed blinking lights. By then he was in his car driving and was unable to determine if he could hear any noise as the airliner flew overhead. It was his opinion, and reinforced much after seeing the airliner, that the earlier triangle-shaped UFO with lights flew too low and was too big to be only an airplane. Interestingly where he saw the lights is only a mile south of where another triangle UFO was seen in February of 1997. Contacts with the Heard County Sheriffs Deptartment and LaGrange Calloway Airport were negative. Thanks to ISUR and John C. Thompson. Copyright 1998, All rights reserved.

NORTH CAROLINA

On Saturday night, December 20, and Sunday night, December 21, 1997, witnesses in the small towns of Marshall (population 809) and Mars Hill (population 1,611) in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina sighted "a glowing object flying back and forth in the night sky." The sightings were reported Monday, December 22, 1997 on radio station WKSF 99.9FM in Asheville, N.C. (population 61,607). "Many people in (rural) Madison County witnessed it," one man reported. "At first they thought the object had been a downed aircraft. But no private planes were reported missing." Marshall and Mars Hill are on Highway 213 about 22 miles (35 kilometers) north of Asheville and 270 miles (432 kilometers) west of Raleigh. (Many thanks to Steve Wilson Sr. and Tim Hagemeister of NACOMM and UFO Roundup Vol., 3 #1 1/4/98 editor Joseph Trainor)

RHODE ISLAND

Jerome Turner video taped a UFO on October 6, 1997, 12:45 p.m. EST. over East Greenwich. His web site shows photos of and a video and he states, "Today I was sitting at the location of the last sighting doing some skywatching. Just before I was going to leave I saw what looked like a thin white plane but I couldn't see any wings or tail. I decided to get footage of it and analyze it later. When I did look at it I realized it looked allot like the 'cigar' shaped craft I had read reports of. Also I found 2 'rods' that appear in the footage. One flies just below the cigar and looks like it changes course to avoid the craft. I could barely see what looked like something falling from out of the back of the cigar which sparkled slightly. The craft was approximately 1,000 feet above the ground and was heading West to East at about the same speed as a slow moving plane. The leading edge was black and what looked like a black stripe or row of black squares was on the side. I encourage the reader to go to his web site to see the video. Thanks to Jerome Turner at: http://users.ids.net/~equinox/EQrep.html

OHIO

On Friday, December 12, 1997, D.F. was driving north on Highway 71 in Columbus, the state capital of Ohio when he spotted an unusual object hovering in the sky off to the right of the highway. The UFO was hovering about one mile east of Cooper Stadium, near the Scioto River and the intersection of Broad Street and Brown Road. "Because I have an interest in the phenomenon of UFOs, and also a long-standing hobby of astronomy, I do try to pay attention to the sky whenever I am outside," he reported. "This is a conscious effort on my part to increase my chances of seeing things of interest, be they natural or unusual." At 1 a.m., just as he drove past the Interstate Highway 70 turnoff, he "saw the object at a distance of approximately 100 yards or so. Its angle was perhaps 20 degrees up from the horizon. As I came nearer, its outline and size became clearer...I would estimate it at approximately 30 to 40 feet off the ground, and above a spot about 15 feet to my right. As I passed it, its position angle was about 65 degrees above the horizon." "I estimate seeing it for about seven seconds. I couldn't describe any color other than dark, except for the color of the lights on it...The best way to describe the thing would be a classic fish shape...it had what looked like a fin at the closest end, was bulky toward the middle and tapered some at the furthest end." "The lights seemed to be at the ends. One was a dull red, darker and dimmer than a streetlight, and the other was a pale green. The size of the lights appeared at the time to be as large as traffic light bulbs, and it was the lights which first attracted my attention up into the sky." "The object wasn't moving but I was doing between 45 and 50 miles per hour. I remember thinking about getting off at the next exit and trying to get another look. But there wasn't one right away and because I had to get up early the next day for work, I decided to go on home." (Thanks to:UFO Roundup Vol. # 1, 1/4/98, editor: Joseph Trainor)

UNITED KINGDOM

Victor J. Kean reports on Flying Triangles (FT) visiting southeastern England during the month of September of 1997. The observed sightings of the FT over the Sizewell Nuclear Power Station (NPS) decreased to 60 in September from 88 in August. Bradwell NPS had 44 September sightings compared to 39 in August. Dungeness NPS decreased to 24 in September from 27 in August. Since June 1st '97 the FT is displaying with increasing regularity three apex 'lights' White (nose) with Red and Blue (or Red and Green) apex 'lights' on its trailing edge. There is also a larger white 'light' close behind the white 'light' at the nose. This is a distinct departure from the 'normal' three white 'lights' with one red 'light' in the center of the underside.

Jacques Vallee once remarked: 'A purely statistical study of a phenomenon as elusive as the UFO has no value in itself'. I am aware that the various groups supplying me with data are unsophisticated, and do not have the scientific background which, in the USA would have provoked a rush of technology to photo, video and measure the FT phenomenon. Perhaps that is why the FT continues to repeat its nightly visits to three nuclear power stations(NP). It certainly does not seem to be trying to evade being seen. I believe that 'Project FT' achieved much in 1997 for we:

1) Established the three main 'flight paths'.
2) Identified the three main locations of the FT's attention.
3) Calculated the FTs 'normal' cruising speed between NP sites.
4) Discovered at least one of the areas from which the FT appears to emerge, disappear. 5) Established that during some nights there were at least two (and possibly three) FTs in 'operation' over the UK simultaneously.

With the upsurge in *observed* FT visits to the UK one feels that some sort of *peak" is approaching, but then again, I thought *that* when the reports jumped from the 30s to the 40s ! You may be interested to read that the 'Project FT' database has some 14 fields. Any of which can be selected as to be the 'leading' field. One can 'select and search' up to 12 fields at a time in order to find -for example: All instances of a gray FT with amber 'lights' seen over the south of the UK between the hours of 20:00 - 23:59 during the period Jan. to March 1995. With the recent 'upsurge' in FT reports the demands upon my time are increasing pro rata.

Ref: The length of time during which the FT is in hover mode over the NPS. I went back over the old reports (1995) which used to give the 'Arrival' and 'Departure' times and found that by adding both times to the FT database we 'caught' a couple of FT reports from other locations whilst the FT was still over Sizewell. Thus proving, beyond doubt that there are, on occasion, more than one FT operating simultaneously over UK air-space. Incidentally, we *are* aware of the small, silver triangular - shaped aircraft (flying from RAF Wharton, Lancashire) which is sometime seen escorted by two F-111 jets in the north of England.

A new initiative in the UK named 'UFO Concern' under the leadership of Lord Hill Norton a member of the British House of Lords has recently been formed and the first report published. 'Project FT' is part of that initiative. They have drawn together some leading VIPs...from many walks of life with only a few 'ufologists' (Gordon Crieghton, Timothy Good) are circulating their 'concerns' amongst politicians, etc. Thanks to: Victor J.Kean

WALES, UNITED KINGDOM

A UFO flew over Tywi Forest dam in the Black Mountains of Wales on December 19, 1997, at 6:30 a.m. A large UFO was seen flying over the hydroelectric dam by two rangers of the Welsh Forestry Commission. The men were five miles apart at the time, but were in radio contact with each other. The incident took place in the mountains overlooking Llandoverry, approximately 66 miles (106 kilometers) northwest of Cardiff. "The UFO was going in a north- northeasterly direction," one ranger reported. "It was a very bright ball of light with four sparkly tails and about two miles or so high, about three times the size of a large star. It was over the dam for about 35 seconds, climbing in an upward direction." The sightings reports were received by the Welsh Forestry Commission office at Tirabads. (Many thanks to Alex Cavalari and R N Gadney)

MOON LAUNCH

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) NASA headed back to the moon January 7, for first time in 25 years. The Lunar Prospector probe blasted off after a 24 hour delay. It is expected to arrive at the moon on January 11th. Scientists were hoping the year-long mission would answer questions left unanswered by the six Apollo moon-landings and about a dozen robotic missions in the 1960s and 1970s, especially the question of whether there is water on the Earth's only natural satellite. "You won't see a lunar lake with moon penguins skating around on it," Scott Hubbard, Lunar Prospector mission manager, told a prelaunch news conference. "What you will have here is water ice mixed in within the lunar soil."

Lunar Prospector does not carry a camera, but its five scientific instruments will probe the moon's surface for minerals, magnetic fields, gravitational anomalies and frozen water. "I think a lot of people have the idea that perhaps we know all there is to know about the moon, but the reality is we have only just scratched the surface," said Michael Drake, director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona. "There is a lot that we still have to learn." Program scientist Joseph Boyce said finding ice in the pole region would boost any plan to build an Earth outpost on the moon. " Results from a U.S. Department of Defense experimental spacecraft called Clementine provided evidence that water ice does exist at the moon's south pole, but many scientists remain skeptical. Lunar Prospector's electronic divining rod, which detects the hydrogen atoms in water, could provide a conclusive answer within a month of reaching the moon. "If there is a cup of water in a cubic yard of lunar soil we will see it," Hubbard said. (By Steven Young}

THE FACE ON MARS

The mysterious "Face on Mars" is not an optical illusion or a natural feature on the Red Planet, a scientist reported Wednesday at a major astronomical conference. Dr. Tom Van Flandern reached the conclusion after new studies of the Cydonia region, where strange-looking landforms have excited science fiction and life-on-other-worlds buffs for decades. His report, presented at the 191st national meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), attracted unusual attention because sharp new images of the "Face" may soon be available. The camera on board NASA's Global Surveyor spacecraft, now orbiting Mars, is capable of making images with 30 times the resolution, or sharpness, of the Viking cameras. It can distinguish objects as small as 4.6 feet across, and will try to image the "Face." Van Flandern holds a doctorate in astronomy from Yale University. Until 1991, he was chief of the celestial mechanics branch at the U. S. Naval Observatory, a respected astronomy facility. He then founded Meta Research, an organization based here, that fosters research on topics that conflict with mainstream theories in astronomy. The "Face on Mars," he explained, certainly fits that bill. Some people claim that images of the Cydonia region, taken in the 1970s from the Viking spacecraft, show a gigantic human face, a pyramid, and other structures left by some ancient extra-terrestrial civilization. In the eyes of some, the "Face" bears a striking resemblance to the "death masks" that ancient Egyptians used to adorn the sarcophagus of King Tut and other rulers. Indeed, some hint that the "Face" may be part of an immense tomb on the Red Planet. "The conventional view is that this is all nonsense," says Dr. Michael C. Malin. He is chief investigator for the Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter Camera. Cydonia, he explained, is a desert-like region that has undergone the same kinds of weathering that carve weird landforms in terrestrial deserts. He regards the features at Cydonia as strictly natural, the result of Martian weathering and erosion.

Van Flandern said his study undermines the main argument against an artificial origin for the "Face:" Its apparently random orientation on the Martian surface. "No apparent purpose is served by a face monument looking upward toward space if it is not oriented right-side up and in an attention- getting location with respect to the surface of the planet," he said. On Earth, one such location, visible for great distances from space, might be right on the equator, he indicated. Van Flandern analyzed data from previous studies showing that the Martian north and south poles occupied a different position in the past. A meteor impact or other cataclysmic event relocated the poles to their current position millions of years ago. He concluded that the "Face" originally was in a much different location. "It was a great shock to me to discover that the Cydonia area was right on the old Martian equator," he said. Further analysis showed that the "Face" is oriented perpendicular to that old equator. The bridge of its "nose" is oriented almost exactly north- to-south. "This has only about a 1 percent probability of occurring by chance," Dr. Van Flandern said. "The weight of existing evidence appears to have shifted in favor of an artificial origin of the Cydonia complex." Van Flandern predicted that the Mars Global Surveyor's high-resolution cameras will finally determine whether the "Face" is a natural geologic structure, or something constructed by an earlier civilization. Almost as an afterthought, he observed to a standing-room- only audience of about 400 astronomers, "I suggest that in view of these test results we prepare ourselves for a cultural shock certainly unrivaled in recent times." By Michael Woods, Toledo

Dr. Richard Haines wrote a nice letter asking for information about human initiated contact with UFOs. This gave me an idea that we should have some goals or a mission statement for 1998 regarding the UFO phenomenon. We will continue to report significant sightings, however, we realize many of these sightings can be explained as misidentification of balloons, aircraft, Earth lights or other phenomenon. The Air Force Blue Book investigation of UFOs found only a small percentage of the sightings were unexplained, meaning only those remaining could be true UFOs. Certain kinds of reports appear more valuable, particularly close encounter cases at short range. Therefore, it is prudent to spend more time investigating the more significant cases. Dr. Haines has specifically asked for help regarding :

Close Encounter of the Fifth Kind (CE-5) cases, i.e., human initiated contact in which the phenomenon appears to respond back. I will forward these cases to Dr. Haines.

I'm personally interested in collecting accounts of UFO crashes, or reports of UFOs at military bases, or military interaction with the craft. Certain military bases are frequently mentioned in reports. These include: Edwards, Wright Patterson, Langley, Mac Dill, McGuire, Roswell, Area 51, etc.

I'm also interested in reports concerning take off or landings, entry or exit from water or underground or mountain side bases. We are looking for evidence of landing imprints, burnt foliage, dents or scratches on metal, wood or the ground. Close up descriptions of the craft are desired, particularly engine, rocket, lights, openings, windows, rotation or similar activity.

We are also collecting evidence of abductions such as damage to the body, clothing, bedding, walls, or automobiles. Some MUFON members are law enforcement officers. If someone is allegedly kidnapped or raped by aliens, this is a crime and should be treated as such. Quick response to an abduction by a trained investigative team may be able to prove a physical abduction took place and possibly who was responsible.

The final area of particular interest is data on large Mother craft or UFO carriers. These include reports of launching or landing of large numbers of smaller craft on these carriers. For example, two hundred discs were sighted over the Southern tip of South America in Chile. Virtually, no Air Force in the world could launch hundreds of aircraft secretly and fly them over Chile without word leaking out. Further the logistical cost would be significant even for the United States. Assuming these UFO reports are true, we may assume these aircraft are alien, that is not flown by the governments of the world. The financial and engineering cost of developing these craft, their logistical support, training and feeding aircrews, fuel, and basing would be immense. The goal is to obtain further evidence to help prove to others that these sightings are real.

If you have news or comments please e-mail to : Majorstar@verizon.net

Top

URL: http://www.ufoinfo.com/filer/1998/ff9801.shtml