Tensely, United States Air Force
officers watched the distance between two small "blips" on their radar screen
narrow with each fleeting second. Their eyes followed the tinier, faster speck
of the F-89C all-weather interceptor which they had scrambled minutes before
from Kinross, Michigan, as it closed to investigate the stranger.
Whatever hovered over Lake Superior that eerie
night of November 23, 1953 - a friendly aircraft off course, an enemy bomber
or a visitor from outer space - they would soon know, for the fighter was
almost alongside the alien
Suddenly an officer blurted: “They’re
going to collide!”
Before the startled observers could
even think, the two actors in this amazing drama seemed to merge, and “faded
from the screen . . .”
Sound like a scene from a poor
science fiction movie? Perhaps, unfortunately, this remarkable incident is
all too true - fully documented by the USAF. Today, 12 years after the tragedy,
it is known only that:
The investigating fighter pilot had
not even time to radio of his danger before he vanished in the dark Michigan
skies - never to be seen again. No trace of his interceptor or of the
mysterious object with which he is believed to have collided ever were
discovered!
The unsolved “Kinross Case” is but
one of tantalizing, unbelievable episodes of our frantic (and, to date,
unsuccessful) quest to identify the increasing number of unidentified flying
objects - “UFOs” - flying saucers!
It also is a prime example of the
secrecy in which both the Royal Canadian Air Force and the USAF have shrouded
this startling - but real - field of research; a silence that may yet lead to
a showdown in Washington, D.C., in the near future.
For this reluctance of the air forces
to disclose their considerable evidence on this subject and constant efforts
by the USAF to “play down” reports has drawn much criticism from American
senators and congressmen. Many of these leaders, including 1964 presidential
candidate Barry Goldwater, himself a pilot for 30 years, believe where there
is so much smoke there must be fire. In other words they feel - as do many
citizens - the thousands of inexplicable incidents of aerial phenomena must
indicate something - something the air force is not telling.
Private organizations and clubs
devoted to researching this fascinating field have appeared in most countries
on both sides of the Iron Curtain in recent years. The lowly flying saucer,
butt of countless jokes and scepticism, finally is becoming “respectable”.
For is it unreasonable to assume that
somewhere in this vast universe there exists other intelligent forms of life?
Races intelligent enough to have mastered space travel and to have visited our
small planet? Or are all UFOs simply weather balloons, light reflections and
the product of over-imaginative witnesses?
Interest in UFOs recently has been
prompted by the magnificent achievement of the U.S. Mariner IV when it
photographed mysterious Mars, and earlier Russian announcement of a
“super-civilization”. Ironically, these reports, while stimulating universal
interest, also have dealt near-mortal blows to public acceptance of the
possibility of extra-terrestrial life.
In April, 1965, Soviet astronomers
stated their research had “confirmed that a new civilization has been found”
in outer space. They based their belief on regularly transmitted radio signals
from a distant source, CTA-102. Two days later, the astronomers claimed their
reports, which caused an international sensation, had been “misquoted!” Thus,
no “super-civilization” and belief in flying saucers retreated another step .
. .
In July, the space-probe Mariner IV
indicated no life exists on Mars. A definite answer in this centuries-old
puzzle will not be known until 1971, when the probe Voyager is scheduled for
launching.
One of the greatest “flaps” in recent
UFO history was sparked by Mariner IV. As the world waited and hoped for the
first close-up photographed of Mars, flying saucer reports poured in from
every corner of the globe.
One of the most publicized - and
authenticated - came from Wichita, Kansas. UFO were sighted over eight
American states during the night of Aug. 2; the Wichita incident is
well-documented and vividly illustrates air force treatment of such reports.
Described as “flashing lights” and
“egg-shaped,” the mystery objects were detected by the Wichita weather
bureau’s radar, and witnessed by “hundreds of persons.” Said the USAF: “The
planet Jupiter or assorted stars.”
Said Robert Hisser, director of the
Oklahoma Science and Art Foundation Planetarium, which also sighted the
phenomenon: “That is as far from the truth as you can get. Somebody has made a
mistake. These stars and planets are on the opposite side of the earth from
Oklahoma City at this time of the year!”
Following are some of the many
sightings reported in the Pacific Northwest. Judge for yourself!
The most famous “flap” held
Washington, D.C., in frantic awe for more than a month in 1952. Day and night,
the fastest fighter planes vainly chased lights which bobbed up and down, flew
horizontally and hovered. Radar confirmed the visual sightings. Some
meteorites!
Previously, “solid, reliable”
residents of Hammond, B.C., had reported strange objects which had been
“whizzing through the night skies of the Fraser Valley for the last six
weeks.”
Hank Harms, an RCAF tailgunner in the
war, said: “Just before midnight I saw what appeared to be a star moving
toward me from the south, about 45 degrees off the horizon.
“The sky was clear. It was as large as a silvery white star, except that it
shimmered. Height, size and speed I couldn’t tell. It flashed out of sight and
about a minute later it came back, travelling west on the same course,
slightly higher.”
“Then it made a sharp right turn away
from me and headed south toward the horizon. It was in sight for a total of
about four minutes and made no sound . . . ”
The same month, a Victorian reported
a “heart-shaped” object, spotted one afternoon while he was sitting in his
garden. The witness, who had served in the Royal Flying Corps in the First
World War, said: “It circled twice in a clockwise direction, then twice in the
opposite direction, and finally shot out of sight due north.”
That June, the American Astronomical
Society and Astronomical Society of the Pacific met in Victoria, at which time
one of the members accredited the sightings to hallucinations, “caused by
world unrest.”
At the height of the Washington,
D.C., incident, two objects were seen zooming just ahead of two Comox-based
Harvard trainers. Witnesses said they “were travelling on edge, like wheels.”
More reports followed. In November,
1953, a Victoria woman stated she had observed a “shiny, silvery thing
zig-zagging in the sky over toward Port Angeles.”
“It was somewhat like a long, narrow
white cloud. It appeared to go on its edge and then back again. It was about
two feet long, but I don’t know how big It would be close up,” she said.
“Then my view was blocked by a
building . . . Maybe it was a comet or meteor. But it was such a silvery
streak of a thing and the zig-zag motion was very odd and pronounced.”
The same day, RCAF officials checked
a report of a “light” exploding in the air near Duncan. A Cobble Hill farmer
and his hired hand had seen an “S-shaped” smoke trail after the object
appeared to “hit the mountain-side. . .”
“It was very weird,” concluded
another Victorian, K. J. Norgaard, in 1955. He was describing the mystery
object which had streaked over his cabin cruiser near Bute Inlet. It had been
‘shaped like an egg with a body sort of pale gold. Around it was a bright
orange halo and it appeared as though there were bright exhaust fumes coming
out of this halo. At the rear there were very pronounced exhausts - blue, orange
and red shooting back the length of the saucer.”
HOMEPAGE