Scientists have plenty of ideas, but witness says flying object gave her 'chills'

Chilliwack - A Chilliwack woman is wracking her brain today after seeing an unidentified flying object near University College of the Fraser Valley.

Lisa McCubbin was in bed about 12:30 a.m. yesterday when she got up to investigate a commotion outside.

"I heard people outside on the street shouting, 'Oh my God, it's coming back, what is it?'" she said.

McCubbin looked out the window and saw something shaped like a hang glider, about three times the size of a float plane, white with dark ridges running from nose to tail.

It was silent and glowing. It circled overhead, under low-lying clouds, then flew west.

"I can't begin to imagine what it could have been," said McCubbin.

"I don't believe in UFOs [but] I've never seen anything like it. It gives me chills."

McCubbin can see planes flying out of Chilliwack airport through the same window. But the UFO looked very different.

The airport often has flights throughout the night and did so on Sunday night, although flight times were not logged, said airport manager Ed Wilkins.

"There are marker lights on every aircraft," he said.

"If there was any kind of cloud cover, it does do funny things."

As otherworldly as the object looked, a University of B.C. scientist says it was likely something as terrestrial as a flock of birds.

"The lights from the cities can reflect off their undersides and their wings," said Jaymie Matthews, an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy. "It'll look translucent and ghostly."

Wanda LaClaire, an astrophysicist at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, agrees the object could have been a flock of birds.

It could also have been a lenticular cloud, a rare lens-shaped cloud that forms over mountains.

"I've also heard of guys at the airport playing pranks that get reported as UFOs," she said.

An airport employee once told her that he tied a flare to the bottom of a weather balloon to give it an eerie glow, then weighted it to float low.

Three UFO were sighted in Chilliwack last year, according to the 2006 Canadian UFO Survey. None of the descriptions matches McCubbin's.

lapayton@png.canwest.com