UFO Encounter at Little Fox Lake, Yukon
March 30, 2000: (5:00am)
by Martin Jasek
April 20, 2000
|
Background:
There have been many close encounters with UFOs in the Yukon
but it is not often that we get a report like this so soon after it occurs. The witnesses
were interviewed about 15 hours after their experience. They were still in a state
of shock, coherent, and sincere. For those who doubt accounts like this, I only wish they
could hear the witnesses first hand. Their emotional state and what they had to say has
left a deep impression on me. Many thanks to FOX4 for notifying us of this sighting,
conducting the initial interview and for obtaining the witness drawing. Since this article
has been published one of the witnesses has informed us that she does not mind having her
identity disclosed. "I know what I saw" Leah Isaac states, "and I was a
skeptic before!"
Drawing
by the investigator based on the witness' account
The Account:
Leah Isaac, a friend of hers, and a young boy (who was asleep) were travelling northbound along the Klondike Highway from Whitehorse to the Village of Pelly Crossing, Yukon. The sky was clear with a glow of predawn blue. They were nearing the end of Little Fox Lake and came around a sharp right-hand bend near the base of a mountain. Upon coming out from the bend they could not believe their eyes! To the right and about 300 ft (90 meters) away was a 30 to 40ft (9 to12 meters) diameter saucer, hovering about 200 ft (60 meters) off the ground! They observed it to be stationary for 4 to 5 seconds as they were travelling along the highway and then it shot across horizontally in front of their vehicle at an "incredible speed" and stopped instantly on the left side of the road. "Nothing can move that fast", "in the blink of an eye" the witnesses described. It remained motionless for only another split second and shot off even faster in a different direction (basically performing a 90-degree turn and shooting off behind them). One witness thought it went right into the side of a mountain while the other thought it followed the mountainous skyline. "Come on, floor it, floor it!" shouted the friend to Leah. They continued northbound fleeing from the location and eventually pulled over about 20 minutes later. They were both visibly shaking. "We were more scared than excited, I think if it wasn't so close it would not have been so frightening", "It's like we caught it by surprise when we came around the corner", "it was so advanced", "I'll never be the same" were some of the comments by the witnesses.
The witnesses got a good look at the saucer. It was a classic disc shape with a dome on top. The dome had two curved windows or lights from which a beautiful ocean blue or aqua colored light was shining. The surface of the craft was difficult to describe. Some of the words the witnesses used were "mirror, silver, translucent, shiny, glassy, reflecting the color of the sky". It was as though the UFO was trying to "camouflage against the background sky color". "Had it been pitch black out I don't think we would have seen the body of the craft, just the windows or lights" Leah remarked.
 |
 |
|
Drawing by Leah Isaac -driver |
Drawing by
the passenger of the vehicle a) a sketch showing the basic shape of the UFO b) the witness drew this second sketch to better describe the dividers between the windows or panel lights |
As the UFO streaked in front of their vehicle, the car headlights dimmed and their tape deck stopped playing. They both wanted to check the time of their sighting. However, Leah's battery-operated analog watch stopped (at 5:00am) and the man's digital watch went blank, and then got stuck in "chrono mode" and wouldn't reset. A few miles down the road Leah tapped the face of her watch and it started working again. The man fiddled around pushing buttons on his digital watch and it started working as well, the time indicated was 5:12 am. They checked the tape deck and by all indications, John Fogerty should have been playing away. The tape hadn't run out, the volume was on, and the lights on the cassette window indicated that the power was on. Other than the initial power drain, no additional problems were noted with the truck. The man figured that they managed to get the tape deck and watches functioning properly after they traveled a "couple of miles" past the UFO sighting location. The woman figured that about 5 minutes had elapsed when they managed to get their watches functioning and about 10 minutes until the tape deck started to work. Although the witnesses were travelling in a vehicle, no noise was heard emanating from the UFO.
Updated Information:
Leah Isaac was interviewed in Whitehorse and was asked to use reference objects (buildings around her) to help provide estimates of the closest approach and size of the UFO. These distances were measured and the following results were determined: At their closest approach the UFO was about 27 metres (90 feet) away and about 10 metres (34 feet) in diameter. The geometry gives a viewing angle of about 22 degrees of an arc.
Further investigation into this case is described in the IUR Journal (International UFO Reporter) Summer 2000 issue Vol. 25. No. 2. by Mark Rodeghier* and Martin Jasek.
*Mark Rodeghier is the scientific director of the Center for UFO Studies in Chicago. He has dedicated his UFO studies to cases where there had been interference with the vehicle's electronics, such as this one that occurred at Little Fox Lake. To date he has catalogued some 500 such cases. He has the following to add regarding this case:
"I am definitely interested in more information on this report, as much as possible, both because it is a recent case and because very few vehicle interference reports have been studied in depth before. This is because they have been so infrequent--only somewhat over 500 have occurred worldwide since 1947--so any one investigator may only see one or two reports in a lifetime of UFO investigations. I have personally investigated only one report, although I have spoken with the witnesses in about a dozen other cases.
I can tell you that this case fits a pattern I first discerned about 20 years ago. That is, in most vehicle interference reports, the UFO is disk-shaped, about 30 feet in size, and comes quite close to the witness. It often moves in front of the vehicle, as it did at Little Fox Lake. Most cases also occur in isolated locations. The color blue is quiet common. It's amazing to me to see this pattern repeating here in the year 2000."
Mark Rodeghier and Martin Jasek continue to work on this case. Work includes obtaining the magnetic signature of the vehicle to assess if it had been magnetized.
Additional Information:
To
help visualize the lighting conditions an astronomical simulation program was used to
determine that the sun was 11 degrees below the horizon during the sighting. It is
difficult to put this in perspective in terms of the amount of time before sunrise as the
sunrise rate varies significantly with latitude and season. For the location and date in
question, it was about 1 hour and 35 minutes before sunrise. For different latitudes
similar lighting conditions can be found at the following times before sunrise or after
sunset:
For March 30:
Equator (0 deg lat.): 42 minutes
Los Angeles (34 deg lat.): 55 minutes
Vancouver (49 deg lat.): 1 hour 05 minutes
Little Fox Lake (61.5 deg lat.): 1 hour and 35 minutes
For June 30:
Equator (0 deg lat.): 45 minutes
Los Angeles (34 deg lat.): 1 hour 05 minutes
Vancouver (49 deg lat.): 1 hour 40 minutes
Little Fox Lake (61.5 deg lat.): does not get dark enough
RETURN TO UFO Yukon Research
Society
RETURN TO UFO*BC