Is there something strange happening
in the skies above Burnaby?
This week the NOW has received two reports of a
strange, cylinder-shaped object seen flying in
the vicinity of the Lougheed SkyTrain station on
the afternoon of Thursday, Feb. 27.
Whether or not
little green men are responsible for the
surprise daylight visitation is unclear, but
witness Gary Watson swears the alleged craft was
"absolutely beautiful to look at."
"I was stunned
when I saw it, but it was gorgeous. Just
absolutely amazing," said Watson, 64, as he
recalled watching the massive silver vessel pass
his position on Salish Court.
Watson said two
other witnesses - a young man and a woman - were
the first to notice the strange ship.
"The girl just
looked up suddenly for no reason, and when I saw
the look on her face I knew something was going
on," Watson said.
"There's been no
sound, no noise, no reason to do that - real
strange. So I looked up and there it was."
What he claims to
have seen was a 1,000-foot-long cylinder with
rounded points at each end.
There were no
lights, wings or other visible markings on the
object, Watson said, although portions of the
unidentified craft's sides seemed to have a
slightly different metallic hue from the rest.
"I was just
standing there and, sure enough, this giant ship
comes flying right overhead from east to west
over the mall and disappeared over behind some
buildings," he said. "No noise, no sound, no
engines... I swear this was not a plane of any
kind."
Watson, who is
retired after years of service with the air
force and the naval reserves, estimates that the
ship was cruising at approximately 500 miles per
hour (834 km/h) at an altitude of 20,000 feet.
"I was in the
military and I've been trained to know how to
estimate these sorts of things," Watson said.
"As strange as it is, I'm telling you this was
the real thing. Definitely not an airplane."
But the Burnaby
senior is not the only one to report the strange
object.
The NOW was also
contacted by Richmond resident Sean Li, 22, who
was filling up at a gas station at Lougheed
Highway and North Road when he caught a glimpse
of something similar to what Watson has
described.
As with Watson's
account, it was around 5 p.m. on Feb. 27 when
when Li and two friends stopped for gas and
spotted something they never thought possible.
"We'd been at a
restaurant having a good time and this totally
changed our day," Li said.
"I was pumping
the gas, and my friends got out to stretch their
legs. Then all three of us kind of looked up at
the same time and there was this huge thing that
just floated right across North Road and flew
over the Burnaby side."
Exactly why all
three of them looked to the sky at that
particular moment is a bit of a mystery to Li,
as neither of his friends claim to have heard
anything.
"It was like
animal instinct, you know? Your head just says
'do it' and you do it," he said.
Li described the
object as "a giant silver bullet that was a lot
fatter than an airplane."
Like Watson, Li
said the ship moved from east to west before
disappearing from sight.
He estimates the
ship was in full view for about 15 seconds.
"My one friend is
a pretty harsh skeptic, but after that she
doesn't know what to think," Li said. "It
freaked us right out."
Burnaby RCMP
Const. Phil Reid said police weren't made aware
of the incident, and Watson said his calls to
the airport and Transport Canada have proved
fruitless.
"It doesn't look
like they picked up anything strange on radar at
all," he said.
This marks the
latest in a long string of unusual sightings in
Burnaby, many of which have been documented by
UFO B.C., a Vancouver-based group that has been
maintaining a database of alleged encounters
with aliens and spacecraft since 1995.
To date, 58
separate incidents have been documented by the
group in Burnaby since 1995, with a good portion
of them coming from the Lougheed and Capitol
Hill regions.
Strangely enough,
a handful of them describe objects similar to
what Watson and Li claim to have seen.
Several other
Burnaby cases include descriptions of
"locomotive"-like noises accompanying the
appearance and disapperance of strange objects
above the skyline.
But the most
recent account prior to last week's sighting
took place on Jan. 18 around 9:30 p.m.
In that case,
three family members were out for a walk on
Pauls Crescent in the Montecito neighbourhood
when a bright green "comet-like object" flashed
across the southeastern sky with a red tail
trailing behind it.
The object is
said to have travelled over Cariboo Hill towards
Edmonds before disappearing from sight without a
sound.
As for Watson, he
says he's hoping for an opportunity to run into
the supposed space travellers again in the near
future.
"I think it's
fascinating," he said. "I would have run up
there, knocked on the door and said 'Let me in'
if I could. It's not something I'd be scared
of."
For more information, visit www.ufobc.ca
jknox@burnabynow.com
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