A formal reporting system and specific guidelines have been developed for people who observe unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in New Zealand.
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.
Strange sightings of a massive, triangular object that stretched across the sky seven years ago have propelled St. Clair County into the heights of UFO lore.
"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.
Sixty years ago something crashed at Roswell, New Mexico.
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.
Bizarre flashing lights, spinning silver orbs and black triangles hovering in the air -all have been reported to the Government as UFOs by the regions sky-watchers, The Northern Echo can reveal.
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.
Kauai - An explosion that has yet to be explained was heard and felt in Lihu'e Sunday night between 8:30 and 9:30, according to witnesses.
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.
Taxi driver spots orange shapes in sky over Hungerford and man sees UFO the size of four football pitches above Thatcham
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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.
A four-year-old girl who claims her name is Kalpana Chawla and that she died up in the skies four years ago is drawing huge crowds in a village here in Uttar Pradesh.
Residents of Nar Mohammadpur village, about 35 km from here, where little Upasana is visiting her relatives, think she might be the reincarnation of the India born astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who died when US space shuttle Columbia crashed four years ago.
The news of the girl's claim spread quickly in the area after she spoke to some villagers here.
'I am Kalpana Chawla,' says Upasana, who reportedly fears the sight an aircraft. She has been telling her illiterate parents that she died in a 'crash' up in the skies.
Thirty years ago, a corner of south west Wales was caught up in a "flap" - a wave of sightings in an area - that became known as The Broad Haven Triangle.
It's 60 years since the term flying saucer was first coined, and I have to admit I hold a rather cynical view when it comes to UFOs and alien life.
But no matter how much of an unbeliever you are, the idea of extraterrestrial life cannot fail to quicken the pulse and the notion has captivated the imagination of people all across the globe for decades.
And it's not likely to go away - the lure of the unexplained has long proved irresistible and, with space tourism becoming a reality, our fascination with close encounters can only grow.
Dawn Raimond, a 41-year-old resident of Round Hill, saw something strange in the sky over Lake Tahoe from the deck of her home on the evening of June 19.
According to Raimond, she was sitting outside on her deck at about 11:40 p.m. looking at the stars, when she noticed moving lights in the sky.
"The stars starting moving," she said.
The lights were arranged straight up and down, according to Raimond, and then started spreading out.
Raimond called her daughter, Raven, 20, outside to witness the strange lights. As the lights came closer to their house, the women were able to make out a strange object with two lights.
Brian Rooney
ABC NewsSun, 08 Jul 2007 10:03 UTC
It's an age-old question: Are we alone in the universe?
As the documentary Out of the Blue rightly points out, brilliant and reputable scientists believe that the conditions for intelligent life exist on thousands of planets. But then there's that other question that separates the scientists from the believers, the witnesses from the skeptics if aliens are out there, have they come to visit?
James Fox, the producer of Out of the Blue, says that aliens are out there. "They're flying around. They're here and they've been here."
He also believes that they have incredible technical ability, saying that they can "fly rings around our fastest jets. Yes. That's what I've been told. They can literally almost disappear in place."
Out of the Blue is an attempt to weed out the wackos and present credible witnesses who say they saw what looked like alien spacecraft. Witnesses like former President Carter, who said, "I saw one, but I don't know where. It just disappeared." And Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper, who says he saw "this typical saucer shape, double-cylindrical shape, metallic."