One Hundred and Fifty Seven Witnesses Speak Out - We Want To Know!
What can cause so many residents in various communities from Kamloops through to the
Okanagan and the Kootenays in British Columbia left scratching their heads, wondering what
it was they all witnessed. Also many people became very frightened and ran into their
homes. The answers to the questions I have been asked have been hard to come by, but we
certainly know something extraordinary did take place on July 28, 2003 in the early
morning hours.
The story begins with a family who was camping at St. Marys Lake, which is located
approximately 12 miles east of Kimberley, British Columbia, Canada. Around 12:45 a.m. the
husband and wife decided to do some star gazing as the children were asleep and the night
was warm and the sky clear and full of stars. As the couple stood looking into the night
sky they observed a very bright, white light heading in a southeasterly direction. The
moon sized light was witnessed flying low over top Bootleg Mountain and across the lake
and at times it's speed did vary. As it slowed, then picking up speed once again the
witnesses watched the light zig zag slightly and at times it seemed to wobble until it was
out of sight.
When they arrived back home from their camping trip they contacted the Kimberley RCMP
detachment and spoke to a Cpl. Rod Carbonneau to enquire if others had reported seeing the
object. Cpl. Rod Carbonneau said the detachment received no calls over this matter. The
Cranbrook Airport was also contacted and asked if there were any aircraft in the area of
the sighting .... but none were reported in the vicinity the object was observed. For the
couple who watched this amazing sight on July 28, 2003 not many answers were fourth
coming. A couple of area residents did telephone the folks who watched the event telling
them what they also saw that night, and another did make a report to the local newspaper.
From A Few Witnesses To a Flood Of Calls:
A report was made to Peter Davenport at the NUFORC in Seattle, Washington and then the
sighting report was forwarded on to me here at HBCC UFO Research (Houston, British
Columbia) for a follow-up investigation. What I did not realize at this time was just how
large this one case was going to be. From a handful of witnesses the case exploded into a
major event where I currently have 157 eye witnesses to something very mysterious.
Two things happened in the early morning hours that Sunday, a large moon sized object was
seen by many area residents, and what followed left many folks in communities such as
Kamloops, Vernon, Kelowna, Kimberley, Cranbrook and as far as Jaffray, British Columbia
scratching their heads wondering what it was they saw. A beam, or ray of white light was
observed from Kamloops as far southeast as Jaffray, British Columbia. People who watched
the strange and puzzling event said the white light looked as bright as a florescent tube
and was arced from horizon to horizon as if one was viewing a rainbow. The beam of light
sat almost stationary in this position for approximately an hour before dissipating.
Almost everyone who witnessed the beam of white light said they had never seen anything
like this before. All said they have watched the northern lights many times, but they
commented this was certainly not the northern lights.
A Few Of The Eye Witness Accounts - The Light/Object (July 28, 2003)
A gentleman from Cranbrook, B.C. telephoned me and reported that he and his family were
sitting outside and were discussing how bad the forest fires are throughout the southern
interior when one of the family members spotted what they thought was a airplane with it's
landing lights on and heading in their direction. As the bright white light drew closer to
them, the size was growing rapidly and so was the brightness of the light. Before they
knew it, the light/object was upon them. The family was so frightened due to the immense
size of the light/object being almost at the edge of their property that the children ran
into the house screaming. The mother followed closely behind. The father followed his wife
and kids into the home, but stopped to take one last glance at whatever it was, and
watched it make a 90 degree turn to the south. When I spoke to the dad he told me that
they heard not a sound coming from it.
Another report came from a lady who was with a group of people on their holiday at their
cabin on one of the local Kimberley, B.C. lakes. She told me they were sitting outside on
the deck when one of the guests pointed towards the northwest. Low over one of the
mountains came a huge, extremely bright white light traveling slowly in a zig zag pattern
heading to the southeast. As it got closer to the resort area, many people became
uncomfortable due to how strange the object/light was acting. As it passed straight
overhead not a sound was heard. Some of the folks who were there said it was like looking
at a full moon on a clear night. It was that big.
Two men in a pick-up truck traveling north along the highway just south of Wycliffe
spotted the large bright object flying south. As they watched the large light/object close
in on their location they pulled the truck over to the side of the highway, and jumped out
of the vehicle to get a better look. Due to it being so low, so bright, and passing
directly over top of them the light from the object lit up the highway and surrounding
area. Both men stood frozen in their tracks and speechless. Both fellows said it moved
quickly in a straight line and made no unusual maneuvers. Again no sound was heard which
is remarkable due to how close it was to these men, and all the other witnesses.
The above is a small example of what folks saw that night. There are many more reports
here of area residents reporting seeing the same thing.
A Few Of The Eye Witness Accounts - Beam Of Light (July 28, 2003)
One lady said what she saw was very strange, it didn't behave like the northern lights as
she noted that the lights danced across the sky, or looked like a curtain of shimmering
light. She wondered if the long dry hot weather may have something to do with what she was
seeing. But her thoughts changed quickly as she watched the beam of light come from the
northwest horizon and impaled itself on one of the local hills and that is where it ended,
according to this witness.
A party of four witnesses were out for a few days on one of the areas lakes just outside
of Kimberley, B.C. Everyone was having a good time talking and having a few spirits. One
of the men who was sitting on a camping chair had just poured himself a drink, when he
looked up and said to the rest of the people he was with, "do you see what I am
seeing"? Everyone replied, "yes"! The man who asked the question was so
surprised at what he was looking at, he poured his drink onto the ground and thought he'd
had one to many that evening! They all watched a beam of narrow bright white light run in
an arc from horizon to horizon. First they wondered if it might have been a search light
as it was so bright but they soon ruled this out due to the miles and miles the light
covered. Again all these witnesses said this event lasted for approximately one hour
before it dissipated.
Some three weeks after people saw the beam of light on July 28, 2003, I had calls from
Kelowna and Kimberley British Columbia reporting that the beam of light was back in the
night sky. Two Kelowna residents stood on the patio with phone in hand reporting what it
was they were seeing. The exact white beam of light sat stationary running from horizon to
horizon and was extremely bright.
Four Kimberley residents stood outside watching the beam of light, they reported standing
under a street lamp and even with brightness from the street light they could clearly see
the beam of light sitting in the dark sky.
Conclusions:
There is no doubt that something very unusual took place on Sunday, July 28, 2003 in the
wee hours that morning. What folks saw in all these communities seems to be a mystery. But
I have tried to come up with some reasonable answers for all the questions everyone had
for me.
Here is what I know:
157 witnesses watched an amazing event unfold
on July 28, 2003 (early morning). Some observed the object and others observed the beam of
light. (Exact numbers are broken down for how many saw the object or beam of light below.
What I didn't say is how many saw both).
31 witnesses observed a huge, bright white low
flying light/object.
126 witnesses observed the reported beam of
bright white light.
The International Space Station passed over
Kimberley, B.C., at 00:24 hrs. on July 27, 2003.
A Fire Ball was observed flying in a
southeasterly direction over the West Coast of Canada and the U.S.
Most of the witnesses reported the light/object
and beam of light running from the northwest to the southeast
There would have been a lot of air traffic in
some of these areas due to the fire fighting efforts to control the devastating forest
fires which raged through some of these areas in the summer of 2003. Our hearts go out to
the people who were effected.
So, the questions that need an be answered
are.... What was the strange, large, glowing bright object? Did the object cause the beam
of light which sat stationary in the night sky for approximately an hour as the object
traveled through the areas?
As for the object, this is certainly a mystery. After a lot of time speaking with
witnesses, looking at data on astronomical events, checking on the flight paths, seeing if
there were aircraft in these areas flying at the time of the sighting...... I have come up
against a brick wall. I have not found any rational explanation for what people saw that
night. Fireballs for example, as far as I know, do not make 90 degree turns to another
direction. Also, the object was low, traveling slowly in many of the reports and not
making a sound. This again is certainly strange. Something else I found rather
interesting, was the fact that reported sightings had dropped from my area here in the
pacific northwest of British Columbia and reports of unusual crafts of every kind were now
being seen and reported by many people residing in the areas from Kamloops, the Okanagan
straight through into the Kootenays. Almost every different shape, color and size have
been reported to HBCC UFO Research. Did the over 800 forest fires attract visitors from
above? I am sure we will never really know the answer to that question..... ?
The beam of white light ended up still being as baffling as the object. When reports
started coming in I was sure what everyone was seeing was nothing more than the northern
lights. But as the list of witnesses grew, and hearing their comments, I started wondering
if there was a connection to these unknowns and the beam of white light. Out of the 126+
witnesses who observed the ray of light running across the night sky from horizon to
horizon, only one report was filed saying they believed it to be nothing more than the
northern lights. (which I report on below). Everyone else said they have never witnessed
anything like this in their lives. All said they have watched the northern lights on many
occasions, and in their words "this was not the northern lights".
A radio station host put a question on air to the
people in the area, asking "has anyone seen strange lights in the night sky?" I
was told reports flooded in over this beam of light, and how everyone was left not knowing
what it was they saw.
To be fair to all sides, I placed below an email I received from a person who did have
some knowledge in astronomy, weather phenomena and the northern lights. One thing I would
like to point out, is that what the gentleman viewed was not on the day of this major
event.
The email came from a gentleman who, on the evening of July 26, 2003 and morning of July
27, 2003, stated that a sailing regatta was held by the Kelowna Yacht Club. Although the
event discussed in the report above took place in the early morning hours of July 28,
2003, I thought the report below was important due to how close all of the events were to
one another. Plus I want to give both sides on this case.
Mr. Brian Vike
Director HBCC UFO Research
http://www3.telus.net/public/wilbur8/hbcc_ufo_research.htm
Dear Mr. Vike,
Re: July 27, 2003
On the evening of July 26, 2003 and morning of July 27, a sailing regatta was held by
the Kelowna Yacht Club. It was an overnight race north up Okanagan Lake centered on 50
degrees N. Latitude and 121.5 degrees west. The race commenced near the yacht club and the
course was to be north up Okanagan Lake to Whisky Island and then returning to the Kelowna
Yacht Club.
The race was attended by perhaps 100 members of the KYC both as participants and safety
patrol boats. I was one of the participants in this race in the 25 ft sailboat (name
deleted by HBCC UFO Research) along with 2 other crew.
The race continued for the entire night of the 26th and almost all of the boats were back
into the Kelowna Yacht Club by 10 am of the morning of the 27 of July.
The sky conditions for the night was perfectly clear and very calm without interference
from the light of the moon or city lights. After dusk a typical number of earth-orbiting
satellites were observed. Around 11:30 pm the first appearances of typical shifty northern
lights were visible to the north and north-west and continued to be visible on and off
until early morning light.
At the peak of the night's darkness, a stable and continuous band of light was present
overhead from horizon to horizon in the East/West direction. I estimate the apparent width
of the band of light to be about 10 degrees at the azimuth. No indication of colour was
observed in this band, nor did I observe any detail or shadowing effects. This band of
light was, however, unusual in it's stability of form and linearity of line.
After this long and slow sailing event, some of the participants commented to me on the
display of northern lights.
Nothing that I observed that evening could be attributed to paranormal activity. The
display of light was interesting but certainly not out of the ordinary compared to many
other displays that I have observed in my interest of amateur astronomy.
On a side note, one of my duties was a weather observer/recorder in the Canadian arctic
while on station on the Distant Early Warning Line in 1967 and 1968 and was privileged to
observe many spectacular light shows at that time. I am convinced that we observed nothing
more or less than the Aurora Borealis and a few earth-bound satellites that night and I
hope that my observations might shed some light on the matter.
Kind regards,
(Senders name and boat name deleted by HBCC UFO Research).
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