RETURN TO "Yukon Sightings: 1970s"
SANTA, WAS THAT YOU HEADING BACK TO THE NORTH POLE?
The incident was reported in the Whitehorse Star by Janice Hamilton and Ken Schofield:
That's what two ambulance attendants, Tom Banks and Ken Schofield, might very well be asking themselves right now, following a UFO sighting Sunday night (Dec 26, 1976).The two were heading towards Haines Junction around 7:30 pm to pick up a patient when they first sighted the bright, white object a few miles north of the Takhini Bridge.
According to Schofield, "We saw what we thought at first was a very bright star. It seemed stationary, then all of a sudden it started to move and was right down in our area in no time.
"We were in a flat area - the mountains were maybe two miles from the highway - and the object seemed to be travelling maybe a couple of thousand feet above the ground. It was travelling slow. It looked to me like it might have been lost."
Schofield said they discussed what it could be and thought it might be a plane. Then, suddenly the object took off with great speed over the mountain and realized it could not be a plane. At this point they decided to report it to the ambulance station in Whitehorse.
According to the report the two attendants made to the RCMP, the speed, colour and maneuverability of the object was "like nothing we have ever witnessed." "It did not turn, but instantly reversed its course." The object "buzzed" them several times, and they had no control over the ambulance's electrical system.
Banks and Schofield were not reporting each sighting by radio. At one point the UFO seemed to be coming right towards them. As Schofield told the story Banks decided to turn on the ambulance beacon to see what would happen, but for some reason the beacon went off. The object then stopped and sent in reverse. Banks told the RCMP he tried to flash the beacon at the UFO and the object paced their vehicle and a bright light flashed back.
When they approached Mendenhall, the UFO apparently veered into the draw of the hillside to the southwest. The two said they thought it would crash because it seemed to flying to low, but it skimmed over the mountain top and disappeared over the Champagne area. At that point they lost sight of the object.
They drove on two or three miles and crossed the Mendenhall bridge. Schofield continued to watch for the object out the left hand side where it had always been sighted up to this time.
Suddenly on the right, or north side of the road Banks saw the ground brilliantly illuminated approximately 100 yards ahead, through a clearing. When they reached the area there was nothing there.
A little past Champagne they met the ambulance from Haines Junction and transferred the patient into their own vehicle. They then turned back towards Whitehorse.
On the way back they passed an RCMP patrol car from Whitehorse which had been sent out to check the situation. Cpl. George Bliss turned his car around and followed several hundred yards behind the ambulance all the way back to Whitehorse.
Banks and Schofield had traveled about 10 miles towards Whitehorse when they saw the object again. They saw the object twice on the return trip and again it was on the south side of the road.
The second time it was at tree level when it first appeared, then it zoomed to between 1,000 to 2,000 feet within seconds, and disappeared.
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