Friday, November 15, 2013

Canberra 15 July 1965 - two additional newspaper articles located

Hi all,

A blog reader from the United Kingdom came across my previous posts (click here , here and here ) on the observation from Canberra, ACT, on 15 July 1965, of an unusual object in the daytime sky.  My reader forwarded me a copy of the front page of "The Sydney Morning Herald" dated Friday 16 July 1965 (click here to read the whole front page.) One article was headed "Airport staff see mysterious glowing object."

"Canberra. Thursday. Six of the staff at Canberra airport's control tower and two T.A.A. pilots saw a mysterious glowing object hovering in the sky for 40 minutes near the airport today.

The RAAF is investigating the reports of the object. The control tower staff, all employees of the Department of Civil Aviation said it was 10 miles north-east of the airport about 5,000 feet up. The men could not define its shape, but said it was a "glowing white spot" similar to the reflection of a light aircraft as a distance.

The RAAF sent up a plane to try and identify the object but it disappeared before the aircraft could reach it. The control officer in the control tower at the time Mr T Lindsay, said he first noticed the shiny spot about 10.50am when watching out for an aircraft. Several other people at the airport also said they had seen it, including two TAA Fokker Friendship pilots. The pilots. who had just taken off from the airfield were asked if they could see the object. They replied that they could.

Astronomer fails to find it:

Mt T Miller, an astronomer at Mt Stromlo observatory, said he had received many reports of the object but had been unable to find it. There was no astronomical explanation for the object that had been described. It was unlikely that it was an illusion or mirage because more than one trained observer had seen it. The object was also unlikely to have been a meteorological balloon because it would not have remained stationary for so long. "Heaven knows - it may have been an object from another planet," he said..."

My comments:

1. Interestingly, the "Sydney Morning Herald" article states that two TAA Fokker Friendship pilots saw the object after they had just taken off from Canberra airport. However, "The Australian" newspaper of 16 July 1965 states that "...there were no planes departing from Canberra at the time nor was there any record of other aircraft in the area." These two newspaper articles are clearly contradictory on this point. Can we resolve this dilemma by taking a look at online editions of the 27 August 1965 TAA timetable? (click here to read the timetable.)  Here we find that a TAA Fokker Friendship was scheduled to depart Canberra for Albury at 10.25am on Thursday 15 July 1965. If delayed it may have been taking off during the observation of the unusual object. However, we will never know for sure.

2. There are two other new pieces of information in the SMH article. a) that the RAAF sent up an aircraft; and b) that the Mt Stromlo observatory received many reports of the object. However, it should be noted that nowhere in official RAAF documents, which I located in the National Archives, is the despatch of an RAAF aircraft noted.

3. I recently learnt that although the most of the digitised newspapers in the Australian National Library are digitised only until 1954, that digitised copies of "The Canberra Times" newspaper are available up to 1995. I therefore did a search of copies of "The Canberra Times" for 1965 and located a second newspaper article which mentions the 15 July event.

The Canberra Times Saturday 24 July 1965:

"Reports on UFO not ready.
RAAF investigators have not yet completed their report on two unidentified flying object sightings in Canberra within the last fortnight.

The first sighting was reported by air traffic control officers of the Department  of Civil Aviation of a white object north-east of the control tower on July 15. This is believed to have been a daylight appearance of the planet Venus.

Last Monday night, a report was made of a "white object with a tail" which flashed across the sky and was visible for about four seconds.

This is believed to have been a meteorite or rocket body burning up in re-entering into the earth's atmosphere."

In summary:

We now have two additional pieces of information to add to the previously known data. However, there is one piece of negative information; something noticeably missing in all the accounts. There is absolutely no mention of whether or not the object was detected on radar. So, at the moment the observation remains a multi-witnessed visual event.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Animal mutilations in the Adelaide Hills?

Hi all,

Linda Moulton Howe:

A while ago, US researcher Linda Moulton Howe asked me if I had come across details of a 1984, South Australian  animal mutilation story. The story, as circulating on the Internet ( e.g. click here , here, and here ) tells of animal mutilations set in the Adelaide Hills.

As many blog readers will be aware, Linda Moulton Howe has been one of the lead investigators into possible links between UAP and animal mutilations, between the 1980's and the present. Indeed, her Earthfiles website (click here) continues to present recent information about the topic.

I had heard some details about the story Linda was chasing, and by coincidence I am currently holidaying on a property near Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills, which was the central location in which the Internet stories are set. I was also aware of a version of the story, which appeared in the Melbourne "Truth" newspaper dated 21 July 1984. However, at the time of Linda's inquiry, I was not aware of anyone who had conducted an investigation into the story. However, a few days ago, while in the State Library of South Australia, I came across an article by someone in Adelaide who had actually conducted an in-depth investigation and published their findings. This post will provide details of this investigation.

Enter Paul Burton:

The article I found was written by one Paul Burton, and appeared in the August 1984 issue of the "Australian International UFO Flying Saucer Research" magazine. pages 10-15.

It tells how, on 11 June 1984, a caller to a radio talk-back show on Adelaide station 5DN, whom Paul nominates by the letter "J" broke the story. "J's" account, in part, reads:

"...happened last night or earlier this morning." At Mount Barker. "This is through a friend. They were called in there by the Army or Air Force...First the Air Force noted a blip on their radar screen...they got a call from a farmer...found four cows lying dead on the ground with what appeared to be a drill hole over their right eye, and they did an autopsy on the cows and they found that they had no brains...they found...three or four, egg shaped indentations on the ground...there was radiation in the area and they noticed the top of the trees had been burnt and there was some dead birds..."

Investigation:

On 12 June 1984, Burton commenced his investigation. He contacted the RAAF and the Army but failed to find anyone who knew of the story. On 21 June 1984 Burton visited a reporter working for the "Courier" newspaper, which is the local newspaper covering the Mount Barker and surrounding areas. The paper also had no knowledge of the story.

Burton located and interviewed the talk back radio caller, "J." "J" said that he had been badgered by the media since speaking of the story, but repeated to Burton, what he, "J," had told the 5DN talk back show.

Another radio station, 5KA, via a talk back caller, heard of the story, and broadcast it. Burton then again re-interviewed "J." On this occasion, with "J" was a female friend, Burton calls "K." It turned out that it was "K" who had heard the story from an individual Burton calls "B." It was "B" who claimed to be the original source of the entire story, and "B" claimed to have been a party to the event itself, i.e. a first hand participant.

However, Burton informs us that he was never able to locate and interview "B" the original source of the whole account. Burton notes that therefore, he was unable to really investigate properly.

Blog readers, should therefore be aware that this entire account of animal mutilations in the Adelaide Hills is actually based on a third hand story. There is, unfortunately, no way to verify the account as having any veracity, unless some blog reader knows of the identity of "B" and we are able to secure some original documentation of the event from "B."

Birdwood:

Five years earlier, a similar account had been recorded, again in the Adelaide Hills region of the state of South Australia. I found this second account in the May 1979 number 3 edition of the "Australian International UFO Flying Saucer Research" magazine, page 18.

The mother and girlfriend, of an Adelaide Hills farmer, saw a UFO which appeared to have landed. He went to the location and found burn marks in a paddock of lush, 100mm high clover. He found three very distinct burn/scorch marks 2-3 metres in length in the grass.

"Directly in the centre of these marks lay the body of a beheaded lamb. On examination, the head was found removed by a very sharp instrument. There was no tearing of the skin or wool. There was an incision made from the chest to the top of the throat and the heart, lungs and arteries had been carefully removed. No grass had regrown on the burnt patches. The site was at Birdwood, just behind the Old Railway Station and near a black water tank." It is unclear just what level of investigation, if any, was undertaken or whether or not the above was simply the report as claimed by the farmer.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

A novel approach to the Bougainville Reef case

Hi all,

Cold case investigation:

Regular readers of this blog will be aware of my "cold case" investigation of the 28 May 1965, Bougainville Reef aircraft encounter (click here, here, and here.)  However, few people will have ever come across the version of the case, as described in the 2009 novel "UFOs: Food for Thought," by Queensland author John Meskell.

In May 1965, Meskell was in the Queensland Police force, and was the original and only source, for the Bougainville Reef event (see June-Jul 1965 NICAP "UFO Investigator.") It was therefore of great interest to me to be able to read how Meskell described the case in his novel.

The novel's version:

Pages 24 and 25 of the novel contain a discussion between two characters "Barlow" and "Carter."

"At 3.25am, May 27, 1965, a UFO paced an airliner for ten minutes over Bougainville Reef off North Queensland. I'm not sure of the exact date, and I'm now talking out of the top of my head, but I do remember the incident well. It was unofficially named the Bougainville Reef sighting. It's all documented.

"That sounds interesting - did the Government actually know about it?"

"Oh yes, they knew about it alright," Carter laughed. "I didn't have anything to do with this one, but I do remember reading much of the correspondence relating to this incident."

"What happened?"

"It's an incredible story to say the least. The Federal Government went to great lengths in attempting to cover it all up, and really carried on like bloody amateurs. It was too large to suppress, with too many witnesses, and to this day I cannot believe why they didn't come straight out and admit the facts, without going on with all the nonsense they embarked upon with their incompetent opinions."

"Just to give you an indication of how vital the circumstances of this matter were, in 1967 Dr James McDonald, a professor in the Department of Meteorology from the University of Arizona in the United States, and senior physicist in the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, came to Australia to investigate this matter as well as other Australian sightings, including the Papua sighting I have already spoken about. He was without doubt, just about the top authority on this subject in the United States. Now, what about him for a person of impeccable credibility and unimpeachable character? Makes you think doesn't it?"

"Okay, I'll go along with that. What was the result of his trip to Australia?"

Carter sat up. He leaned forward and began to tap and bounce his pencil on the desk. "Bougainville Reef is about 260 kilometres east of Cooktown, and details of this sighting were not made available until the arrival of Professor McDonald from America. Anyhow this is what I became aware of. The Captain of a DC6 airliner, which I think was a DC6 chartered by TAA from Ansett, or vice versa, I'm not too sure now, but it was one or the other. The Captain described a 'round-shaped object' flying parallel to them for ten to fifteen minutes, in a radio message to Air Traffic Control at Townsville. The radio message was tape recorded on flight control tapes at Townsville. At the time, a man named Bill Orr was the control officer. Other members of the plane crew sighted and witnessed this object, and each of them spoke, and was taped, to confirm what they were witnessing."

"The Captain advised the Townsville control tower that he was taking photographs of the saucer, which continually buzzed his aircraft and letting off what the Captain thought to be red exhaust gases. Of course all of this conversation to the Townsville Air Traffic control officer was being recorded on tape."

"Where was the DC6 travelling to?"

"From Sydney to Port Moresby. Looking back, I can now recall that when the pilot arrived back in Brisbane, he was immediately flown down here to Canberra, where he was quizzed as to what he had seen. Our Government authorities also seized the flight control tapes from the Townsville aerodrome with conversations about this incident. The Captain's camera and films were also confiscated and the entire crew, after being questioned, were warned of a penalty of immediate dismissal if they spoke to anyone about this incident."

"So what was the final outcome?"

"Well, things became a bit embarrassing for the Government when Professor McDonald arrived in Brisbane on the 9th of June 1967 to look into this matter, to say nothing of the media getting into the act with headlines such as "Why the secrecy?" Professor McDonald had been well informed, and from some source he and his investigators tracked down one of the retired air hostesses who had been a crew member that night. She confirmed without doubt what had occurred. There was another incident but it would take me too long to tell you all about it. You can read it all for yourself, and form your own opinion."

Monday, November 4, 2013

New book alert - Zimmermann

Hi all,

I have heard a lot about the large numbers of UAP sightings from the Hudson Valley ( click here) region of the US state of New York (click here for more information on the Hudson Valley itself.)

When I came across a new 2013 book, "In the Night Sky: Hudson Valley UFO sightings From the 1930's to the Present," by Linda Zimmermann, published by Eagle Press, New York, ISBN 978-1-937174-19-4, I read it with great interest.

Why the book?

 Author Linda Zimmermann, reveals that she was born "...in the Hudson Valley, a hotspot of UFO sightings for generations." (p.1.) She is also interested in astronomy, life in the universe, "...And last but certainly not least, because I have seen things I cannot explain." (p.1.)

Zimmermann lectured on a number of topics and gravitated to talking on "Astronaut Close Encounters." In 2004, a friend who was a reporter, told Linda about his personal UFO sighting. In 2011, after hearing of other UAP encounters, Linda decided to write a fictional book about UFOs but then decided to write instead a non-fiction work, and with the assistance of others, also made a documentary on the topic.

The witnesses:

Linda advertised in local papers and this brought forward a cascade of people who wished to tell their stories.

The cases:

Linda decided to group "...stories according to what they had in common, where possible..." (p.13.) So, chapter three is titled "The Triangles (mainly early 80's to mid 1990's); chapter four is "The Hoaxing Pilots" (one of the skeptics' favourite explanations.)

Chapter eight tells of accounts from Ulster County; while chapter nine explores observations from the locality of  the locality of "Pine Bush." Chapter ten takes a look at "The Skeptics" viewpoint which explores some conventional explanations for some of the events.

"Abduction alley" is the title of chapter eleven, for just as there are abduction accounts from all over the world, there are such reported occurrences in the Hudson Valley.

Later chapters cover such topics as "Out on the fringe;" weird accounts of implants;  alleged government harassment, and cover ups.

In conclusion:

Linda writes "I'm angry by the way witnesses have been mistreated. I'm angry at the official government response - or more accurately, their lack of response. And I'm angry that something has been going on in the Hudson Valley that has been affecting people for generations, and its all been mocked, ignored or generally swept under the carpet." (p.336.)

My thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's the sort of book on UAP which I prefer. There are details of sightings with text and pictures, which you can mull over. You can run the data presented there through your head and make your own analysis of what could have been the stimuli for the sighting.

I would recommend this work to any UAP researcher. My copy came from the local library but I'll be adding a copy to my personal bookshelf.

Vasovagal Syncope

Hi all,

The August 2013 issue of the English "Fortean Times" magazine (click here) , has another very interesting article by English researcher Jenny Randles (click here.)

This article is about a medical condition named Vasovagal Syncope (click here.) This is something which Jenny herself, has had seven or eight attacks, over a 50 year period.

Vasovagal Syncope occurs when the body over reacts to certain triggers such as the sight of blood, or emotional distresses. It causes a sudden drop in heart rate and blood pressure. Then a brief period of unconsciousness occurs.

Jenny provides her personal memories from age eight when she felt light headed; heard a strange buzzing noise and lost consciousness. She relates that during her worst attack, "...my mind was sharply focused and reality somehow enhanced, not diluted." (p.27.) In one episode she underwent an out-of-body experience.

Possible connection to UAP:

"The deeper that I have looked into the connection between VS, near-death experiences (NDEs), and out-of-body experiences (OOBEs) the more it seems to me that they are interconnected." (p.27.)

Jenny cites the lucidity of OOBEs, and the belief during a VS attack, that you feel like you are dying.

Jenny then presents details of the case of a Coventry, UK, woman who was in a highly stressed state. She awoke from sleep to see white, oval shaped, pulsating light above her. "Everything around her felt very 'lucid"...all of a sudden I was pulled towards the light and merged with it." She floated away.

Vasovagal Syncope:

This topic of VS has been previously discussed in this blog, please take a look at:

http://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/life-with-aliens-part-two.html

http://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/many-pathways-to-abduction.html

Out of body experiences:

For posts on OOBEs please take a look at:

http://anomalies-australiancomments.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/out-of-body-experiences-on-tap.html

http://anomalies-australiancomments.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/research-on-obes.html

http://anomalies-australiancomments.blogspot.com.au/2009/10/obes-in-lab.html

http://anomalies-australiancomments.blogspot.com.au/2009/10/out-of-body-experience-precipitating.html

Near death experiences:

For my blog post on a relatively new book on NDEs please go to:

http://anomalies-australiancomments.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/near-death-experiences-new-book.html

I'd appreciate hearing from anyone else who has been conducting research into this fascinating area.




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