High Strangeness
Katie Elvins, of Umina Beach, said she noticed the object while she was waiting for a bus.
''My camera is small enough to fit in my handbag so I always have it on me,'' she said.
''I was just looking in that direction and noticed it in the sky.''
She said she didn't tell her friends or family about the incident and forgot about the photos.
That was until she read an article in the Express Advocate a week later about a former air traffic controller's sighting of a mysterious object which prompted her to have the pictures printed.
Lindsay Carter, of Terrigal, said he was reluctant to speak out but had become so frustrated at not being able to identify it he has called on the public to provide an answer.
''If someone can tell me it's the 2.30pm (passenger flight) from Brisbane then I would be happy,'' he said.
But after three years with the British Air Force as an air traffic controller and a lifetime interest in planes, Mr Carter, 63, said he was confident at being able to identify almost every kind military or commercial aircraft.
''This is different-looking enough for anyone to find it strange,'' he said.
Four bright objects appeared in formation above the Warwick Road area, and were later joined by a fifth, at around 10pm.
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©Stratford Herald |
The formation - which appeared without any sound - lasted 15 minutes and baffled those watching from the ground before fading away.
Witness Tom Hawkes saw the lights along with 15 other people celebrating his girlfriend's birthday at the One Elm in Guild Street.
The so-called Hessdalen lights have been seen ever since the 1940's and have since 1984 been monitored by volunteers.
Hessdalen is a small valley in the central part of Norway. At the end of 1981 through 1984, residents of the Valley became concerned and alarmed about strange, unexplained lights that appeared at many locations throughout the Valley. Hundreds of lights were observed. At the peak of activity there were about 20 reports a week.
Project Hessdalen was established in the summer of 1983. A field investigation was carried out between 21st of January and 26th of February 1984. Fifty-three light observations were made during the field investigation.
The system provides people with step-by-step advice on how to document what they saw, the circumstances in which they experienced the sighting, and if it had an effect on them.
Reporting system developer Mr Graeme Opie, a Hamilton air traffic controller and pilot, said the reporting program was created in line with overseas models developed by leading global UFO researchers and scientists.
Mr Opie, who is a sighting report investigator for the nationwide UFO Focus New Zealand Research Network (UFOCUS NZ) states, The system is based on a scientific approach where witnesses can go to our website (www.ufocusnz.org.nz) and obtain advice on sighting documentation, and complete a comprehensive report format.
"I can't explain what I saw," said Mark Lopinot, an O'Fallon police detective who watched as the object approached his city. "It was shocking."
Thanks in part to documentaries that get continued play on cable TV, the sightings by Lopinot and several other police officers have become legend, and St. Clair County has become an important place in the UFO debate. Local police departments often field calls about the 2000 incident and hear reports of new UFO sightings. The county has become a focus for the extra-terrestrial-minded.
The United States government says it was a top-secret weather balloon. Conspiracy theorists contend it was a flying saucer. Further still, they claim the air force recovered alien bodies from the spacecraft. This week, 35,000 stargazers flocked to this desert town to mark the anniversary and hotly debate the merits of both claims. Roswell, and the alleged cover-up, is truly the genesis of the UFO phenomenon.
So much is in dispute with Roswell. What did farm hand William Brazel find when he came upon that strange wreckage on the Foster ranch in July, 1947? The large debris field, 200 yards long and brightly lit, was composed of an odd metallic substance. Brazel reported what he saw to sheriff George Wilcox who informed the authorities. News of the discovery quickly reached townsfolk, with the Roswell Daily Record proclaiming a spaceship had crash landed. The Roswell Army airfield even issued a press release stating the base's 509th Bomber Group had recovered a "flying disc." Later that same day, the airfield's commanding general denied this, saying it was an experimental weather balloon. The controversy has engrossed ufologists ever since.
Records held by the Ministry of Defence show that scores of sightings have been reported by residents in the North over the past eight years.
Witnesses who said they had seen the mysterious aircraft include police officers and RAF pilots.
The reports came to light after The Northern Echo submitted a Freedom of Information request to establish the number of reports in the past year.
County Public Information Officer Mary Daubert said a police officer did check out the area in response to calls but was not able to determine the cause.
Police Commissioner Tom Iannucci, who was waiting with his kids at the Lihu'e Taco Bell drive-through, said there was no mistaking the noise and "slight concussion" to the car, which he likened to a dynamite explosion.
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©Newbury News |
More reports of UFO sightings in the summer skies above West Berkshire have left people baffled.
A Swindon taxi driver recently added to the growing list of supernatural occurrences spotted by locals in the district.
Having just dropped off a fare in Hungerford, Neil Whitby spotted four bright orange shapes in the sky.