It was a late August, or early September weekend in the early 80’s. The
time was around 7pm and the sun was setting as Cynthia and her family were
driving home from a camping trip at the Vedder River campsite – heading
westbound on the Trans-Canada highway some 60km east of Vancouver BC.
A large, round, dark object
moving to the right hand side of the car suddenly interrupted their
pleasant drive. Cynthia, who was at the time a teenager and in the back
seat along with her brother and sister, had the sighting of a lifetime.
As the car sped down the freeway,
and approached the relative position of the object, more details became
discernable. It appeared to be a disc, with a “shiny, metallic surface …
no visible seams or separation from the domed top to the wider bottom.
[The dome had] square-like edges but also very rounded looking in
appearance”.
All the occupants of the car had
a great view of the object, save the mother (driver) who was naturally
paying attention to the traffic and the road. As the car approached the
craft, the craft began to come closer – down to a distance of 400 feet
from the roadside, and about 100 feet in the air (Cynthia used a windsock
in order to determine the relative position of the craft – the windsock
was about 400 feet from the side of the freeway). The size of the craft
appeared to be 30-40 feet in diameter – and suddenly tilted up towards the
witnesses, showing its underside. The bottom of the object was “very dark
coloured, it looked like very small squares like a vent”. The outer
seamless surface appeared to be spinning like a wheel, even though the
bottom appeared to be not moving”. There was no smoke, smell or sound
emanating from the craft, nor did it affect the car’s engine performance
in any way. Since the mother and aunt (both in the front of the car) were
familiar with UFO encounters they checked their watches to ensure that
there was no missing time present. Then as suddenly as it had tilted, it
began to move away from the car in a downward direction – in what appeared
to be an attempt at landing. Unfortunately since the car was in the
left-hand lane of the road, they were unable to stop in order to see the
eventual outcome of the landing – although the witnesses believe it to be
in a field nearby. Although there were 2 groups of people who did stop –
the news and radio did not cover the event – and UFOBC did not receive any
other reports on this sighting.
Bottom of UFO as seen and drawn by witness.
UFOBC is hoping to be able to
locate the sighting area, and check with locals for any type of
ramifications from the encounter (if they do indeed recollect the
incident) or any other sightings in the area. The gentle reader will be
kept abreast of any new information as soon as it becomes available.
Upon reflecting further, Cynthia
thought that this was “a very odd place to stop (for the UFO). Was it a
public display? Where they in trouble? The real freaky part was that it
was going down.”
Cynthia was asked to elaborate
about the top of the craft appearing to be spinning and the bottom
remaining stationary. She mentioned that you couldn’t actually see the
spinning movement as there were no seams or anything that one could keep
track of to perceive it. Rather, the reflections in the metal surface was
as if there were horizontal streaks, either due to it spinning or
alternatively that the metal itself was polished or streaked in that
direction.
There does not appear to be any
ill effects on the witnesses by the craft some 20 years after the fact.
Indeed it has strengthened their belief in the UFO phenomena and to quote
Cynthia: “I know what I saw – I saw a UFO!”.
NB: The name of the witness has been changed for privacy concerns.
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