Conference hydra::dejavu

1539.0. "UFO Sighting?" by CARTUN::MISTOVICH () Thu Sep 19 1991 12:44

    I can't remember if there is already a topic started on this.  (if
    there is, can a moderator move my note to the appropriate place?).
    
    Anyway, did anyone catch "Unsolved Mysteries" last night?  For those of
    you who couldn't or didn't, I took notes. I missed the first 2-3
    minutes, so I'm not sure which branch of the armed services the
    interviewees came from.  I think they came from the army.  Anyway,
    Unsolved Mysteries interviewed several people who had a very
    interesting night back in 1981 while stationed in Great Britain.  
    Following the initial report, a colonel (now retired) brought along a 
    tape recorder to record his first impressions of what he was 
    investigating.  From his tape and the earlier reports, they
    reconstructed the events of that night.
    
    * It started when some lights were seen in woods on or near their base. 
    A group of men were sent to investigate in case a plane had gone down.
    The investigating group saw a round object that appeared to be hovering
    over the ground.  They looked from the reconstruction to be pretty
    close -- within 15 yards or so.  The object had lights all around its 
    circumference.  It took off and the watched it fly over the treetops and 
    eventually disappeared.
    
    * When they reported what they'd seen back at the base, their
    lieutenant instructed the officer responsible for logging an official
    report not to include it.  Jokes and rumours spread around that night.
    
    * The colonel involved showed up and asked what the laughing was about. 
    When the "logging officer" (for want of an official term!) told him, he
    ordered him to log the event.  He also gathered a larger investigating
    group to check out the area.  They took along "light-alls" (a truck
    with massive spotlights), a geiger counter and the colonel carried a
    tape recorder.
    
    * In the area that the object was first seen, they found 3 depressions
    in the ground.  The depressions formed an equilateral triangle with
    the depressions exactly 3.4meters apart.  This was reported to the
    British authorities, who recorded the depressions as being caused by
    animals.
    
    * They could see broken and bent branches up to the tops of the trees
    that the object was seen flying over.
    
    * They reported that animals in the area were acting "strangely,"
    whatever that means!
    
    * The whole area showed a dull glow when viewed through some kind of
    scope (didn't catch the term, sorry).
    
    * Vehicles did not function properly when in the area.
    
    * Radio transmissions were not completely down, but were poor, when in
    the area.
    
    * The geiger counter reacted when held in the areas where the previous
    and some of the following events transpired over a 6 hour period.
    
    * While in the woods, a strange lit object suddenly appeared floating
    about 200 yards from the colonel and rest of the group.  It seemed to
    be "winking." 
    
    * A red floating object appeared in the distance, then broke into 5
    white objects, which vanished.
    
    * 3 objects were seen in the distance to the north, moving rapidly. 
    One witness reported that the pattern of movement immediately reminded 
    him of a grid search.
    
    * A nearby farmhouse appeared to be glowing red.
    
    * A single object was seen in the sky, sending down beams of light. 
    
    * One blue light flew toward them at a high speed.  As it passed the
    two non-functioning light-alls, their lights flashed on, then turned
    off again.
    
    * One "pencil-beam" coming down from the object came to the ground just
    in front of the colonels feet, stayed there for a bit, then
    disappeared.
    
    * The colonel reported that there was "a static electricity" feeling
    in the air, making their hair prickle.  He didn't believe that the
    feeling was entirely due to their emotions at the time.
    
    * One member of the original group was off-duty and asleep when the 2nd
    group was investigating.  He reports that he awoke in the middle of the
    night with the feeling that something was happening.  He went back out
    and witnessed (I think) the blue lights flying rapidly through the air.
    
    All this was reported to the higher ups, but no action was taken.  The
    reporting letter came to light recently throught the freedom of
    information act."
    
    Unsolved Mysteries also included an interview with a supposedly
    well-known debunker (I didn't catch his name).  His explanation was
    that they saw a meteor and also lights from a distant light house.  He
    didn't account for:
    
    . vehicles not functioning
    . light-alls not functioning, except when one light passed
    . radio interference
    . geiger counter reactions
    . lights moving *up* as well as down
    . beams of light to ground from hovering object, especially one that
      stopped in front of the colonel's feet
    . depressions in ground right underneath where first object was seen
      hovering
    
    His explanation also relied heavily on distorted perception by the
    witnesses.  He claimed that they went out there expecting to find UFO's
    -- according to the logged records, they initially went out there looking 
    for a downed plane.  Personally, I also would expect officers, being 
    disciplined and trained, to be less susceptible to psychological
    influences on their perceptions.

    I wish I caught this show but I missed it... oh well, maybe it will
    be on again.
    
    I think it's time they just land and get it over with. ... just come
    down and sit for 20 minutes to an hour or so, and then take off again.
    Plenty of time for the media to confirm the sightings ... force fields 
    up for protection... 
    
    Then we can tell the debunkers that the ships are just a hoax. :-) ... 
    I can't wait for this part... this is the fun part. :-)
    
    mary

    Mary, I have it on tape. If you'd like, I can send it to you. Let me
    know via mail.
    
    CGVAX2::CONNELL
    
    PJ

       
    
     
                 Here in the United States (East Coast) the Fox network 
    will air a program concerning U.F.O.s . I'm not certain of the time-
    probably after eight o'clock. The pre-views of the show included crop
    circles, interviews with a former U.S. government scientist and film 
    footage of unidentified flying objects. Tonight, October 17, 1991,
    Fox network,WPXT.
    
    

    Today in the Boston Globe (page 12) a new quip states that a
    747 crew reported seeing an unidentified craft.  The United
    Airlines jet was headed for London.  It reported a close 
    encounter with an unidentified aircraft that passed at super-
    sonic speed beneath the 747.  The Air Line Pilots Association
    is investigating the report filed by the pilot and co-pilot
    of the 747.  The crew reported that it traveled 1000 feet under
    their plane and they sighted the unidentified aircraft at 23,000
    feet near George Air Force Base.
    
    (The 747 was enroute to London from LA)
    
    Joanne

    RTw  01/12 1846  SEARCH FOR ALIENS TO GO ON WITH PRIVATE FUNDS

    By Adrian Croft

    SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 12 (Reuter) - An ambitious project to scour the
    universe for aliens will go on despite a cutoff of government funding,
    scientists said Wednesday.

    The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute said
    scientists there had begun raising private funds for an effort to
    capitalise on the technology and momentum of the now-cancelled search
    by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

    "This is an experiment with no guarantees," said Seth Shostak, a
    spokesman for the SETI Institute, a private, non-profit institute in
    Mountain View, California, which had been involved in the NASA search.

    "If we were to be successful, it would be the story of the century, an
    astounding discovery," he said.

    The new project, known as Project Phoenix, will use huge radio antennas
    and sophisticated digital receivers to look for signals from
    civilisations on planets around other stars. The institute says these
    signals, if found, would prove the existence of societies elsewhere in
    the galaxy.

    The new project will involve some of the scientists who worked on the
    NASA search and will essentially continue one half of the former NASA
    project.

    The NASA project consisted of a sky survey by the Jet Propulsion
    Laboratory in Pasadena and a targeted search by NASA's Ames Research
    Centre in Moffett Field, California.

    The SETI Institute will continue with the targeted search, focusing on
    the areas around 1,000 nearby sun-like stars.

    NASA's project began on the symbolic date of October 12, 1992, the
    500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's landing in the Americas. It
    was halted by Congress in a cost-cutting move last October 1, less than
    a year into its planned 10-year life.

    Bernard Oliver, senior technical expert for the SETI Institute, said
    private fund-raising efforts had been very encouraging.

    In three months, the institute obtained commitments for $4.4 million,
    more than half of the $7.3 million needed to fund the project through
    mid-1995, Oliver said.

    Donors include David Packard and William Hewlett, founders of
    Hewlett-Packard Co; Gordon Moore, co-founder and chairman of Intel Corp
    and Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft Corp and chief executive of
    Asymetrix Corp.

    Famed science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke has made a significant
    donation through the British Interplanetary Society to increase public
    awareness in Britain of the SETI Institute's objectives, the institute
    said.

    The institute plans to improve the digital receivers developed by NASA
    and then deploy them at the Parkes radio astronomy observatory in New
    South Wales, Australia, for Southern Hemisphere observations during the
    first half of 1995.

    The Phoenix receiving equipment will later be moved to the 1,000-foot
    (305-metre) radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

    Observations are planned to last into the next century.

    REUTER