Bermuda Triangle plane mystery 'solved'

Two of the so-called Bermuda Triangle's most mysterious disappearances in the late 1940s may have been solved.

Scores of ships and planes are said to have vanished without trace over the decades in a vast triangular area of ocean with imaginary points in Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico.

But journalist Tom Mangold's new examination for the BBC provides plausible explanations for the disappearance of two British commercial planes in the area, with the loss of 51 passengers and crew.

One plane probably suffered from catastrophic technical failure as a result of poor design, while the other is likely to have run out of fuel.

Sixty years ago, commercial flights from London to Bermuda were new and perilous. It would require a refuelling stop on the Azores before the 2,000-mile flight to Bermuda, which at that time was the longest non-stop commercial overseas flight in the world.

The planes would have been operating at the limit of their range. Today planes arriving at the tiny Atlantic island have sufficient reserve fuel to divert to the US East Coast 700 miles away, in case of emergency.

And the planes of the post-war era were far less reliable than today's airliners.

British South American Airways (BSAA), which operated the route, had a grim safety record. In three years it had had 11 serious accidents and lost five planes with 73 passengers and 22 crew members killed.

Unsolved mystery

On 30 January 1948, a BSAA Avro Tudor IV plane disappeared without trace. Twenty-five passengers and a crew of six were on board The Star Tiger. No bodies or wreckage were found.

The official investigation into the disappearance concluded: "It may truly be said that no more baffling problem has ever been presented.

"What happened in this case will never be known and the fate of Star Tiger must remain an unsolved mystery."

But there are a number of clues in the official accident report that reveal the Star Tiger had encountered problems before it reached the Azores.

The aircraft's heater was notoriously unreliable and had failed en route, and one of the compasses was found to be faulty.

Probably to keep the plane warmer, the pilot had decided to fly the whole transatlantic route very low, at 2,000 feet, burning fuel at a faster rate.

On approaching Bermuda, Star Tiger was a little off course and had been flying an hour later than planned.

In addition, the official Ministry of Civil Aviation report considered that the headwinds faced by Star Tiger may have been much stronger than those forecast. This would have caused the fuel to burn more quickly.

"Flying at 2,000 feet they would have used up much more fuel," said Eric Newton, one of the Ministry of Civil Aviation's most senior air accident investigators, who reviewed the scenario for the BBC.

"At 2,000 feet you'd be leaving very little altitude for manoeuvre. In any serious in-flight emergency they could have lost their height in seconds and gone into the sea."

Whatever happened to the plane, it was sudden and catastrophic - there was no time to send an emergency signal.

The Avro Tudor IV was a converted warplane that was eventually taken out of passenger service because of its poor safety record. Only BSAA continued to fly the aircraft.

Gordon Store was chief pilot and manager of operations at BSAA. In an interview with his local newspaper last November, he said he had no confidence in the Tudor's engines.

"Its systems were hopeless… all the hydraulics, the air-conditioning equipment and the recycling fans were crammed together underneath the floor without any thought. There were fuel-burning heaters that would never work," he said.

Second accident

Almost a year to the day after the disappearance of the Star Tiger, another Avro Tudor IV belonging to BSAA vanished between Bermuda and Jamaica.

Exactly one hour after departure from Bermuda on 17 January 1949, the pilot of the Star Ariel sent a routine communication of his position. But then the plane vanished without trace at 18,000 feet.

According to experts, this would have required a sudden catastrophe.

Again, no wreckage, debris or bodies were ever found.

Fuel starvation at that height was not plausible, the weather report had been good, and pilot error was ruled out.

The plane's poor design may well have been to blame, according to Don Mackintosh, a former BSAA Tudor IV pilot. The cabin heater mounted underneath the floor where the co-pilot sat is his prime suspect.

At the time, aircraft heater technology was still in its infancy.

"The heater bled aviation fuel on to a hot tube - and was also fairly close to the hydraulic pipes," he says.

A pressure switch should have allowed the heater to operate when it was in the air but it was unreliable and was often deliberately short-circuited by staff, allowing the pilot manual control.

The switch prevented inflammable fuel from flowing, but if the heater was switched on manually, gas that may have collected could have ignited.

Captain Peter Duffey, a former BSAA pilot who went on to become a captain of British Airways Concorde, also believes that the proximity of the heater and the hydraulic pipes was significant.

"My theory is that hydraulic vapour escaped from a leak, which got on to a hot heater and caused an explosion," he says.

Mr Newton's report came to a similar conclusion: "If the heater had caught fire down below the floorboards then it could have developed to a catastrophic state before the crew knew anything about it.

"There was no automatic fire extinguisher to put it out like there is nowadays. There was no alarm where the heater was stored… so no-one would know, possibly until it was too late."

The official accident investigation discovered that because of a communications error, search and rescue teams were not despatched until seven and a half hours later.

By then what was left of the plane and the bodies would have sunk.

The report on the disappearance of the first plane, the Star Tiger, said something which, because it could be easily misinterpreted, helped the accident achieve notoriety.

In a moment of philosophical conjecture, the investigators mused that maybe "some external cause may (have) overwhelm(ed) both man and machine".

Those comments from sober-suited British civil servants opened the floodgates for conspiracy theorists, hack journalists and mischief makers, adding to the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.

via BBC News

UFO invades Indian town: Smoking gun video

Last year in August a UFO dropped in on the town of Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh, India, and the locals have the pics to prove it. Western media did not report the event at all and the incident went entirely unnoticed outside of India.

The UFO was seen at night by numerous residents, who managed to capture extra-ordinary footage (see two videos below). Many residents feared they were under alien attack and most believe to this day that the object was a extraterrestrial, alien flying saucer or 'Uden Shitri' in Hindi. The UFO circled the town for some time and then shot off.

Had there been no footage odds are the townspeople would have been told they saw a comet, plane, Venus or kite. They may even have been informed that they simply imagined the whole thing.

One such town in India was told that glowing orbs that shot lasers into their bodies, prompting what might have been the world's first UFO instigated riot, were in fact insects!

Luckily they got the video and at the very least the thing in it is not Venus or a Comet and probably no kite. If this is an insect many might ask: Where can I get one?

One can therefore say that it is a UFO or unidentified object in the truest sense of the word.

Source: IBN Khabar

UFO over India
by Asian-UFO-sightings

UFO over Indian Town
by Asian-UFO-sightings

via All News Web

Ghost hunting woman falls to death at 'spooky' university building

TORONTO — The death of a woman who may have been looking for ghosts in a Gothic-style building where a professor was murdered several years ago is a tragedy that should serve as a warning to all thrill seekers, a paranormal investigator said Thursday.

Police were called after the 29-year-old woman fell several storeys during the early hours at the University of Toronto building.

"The general public has a lot of misperceptions," said Sue Durroch, co-founder of the Toronto Ghosts and Hauntings Research Society.

"Because of the Hollywood-ization of ghost stories and fictional ghost stories, people get these impressions that a spooky looking building must be haunted or if there's a tragedy associated with it, it must be haunted. Of course, that's absolutely incorrect."

Early in the day, Toronto police Sgt. Dave Vickers was reported as saying the woman and a 34-year-old male friend were in the building because they thought it was haunted.

Const. Wendy Drummond later refused to confirm any ghostly connections, saying only that the pair was trespassing and exploring the roof-top area.

The man crossed from one roof to the other, but a wire the woman was holding onto gave way and she plunged to her death, Drummond said.

In January 2001, 50-year-old artist and lecturer David Buller was found stabbed to death in his studio in the building at 1 Spadina Crescent.

The unsolved killing may have fed rumours that the building, erected in 1875, is visited by ghosts.

The building contains the University of Toronto's art department, office space, some classrooms as well as the Eye Bank of Canada.

"It's a regular U of T building," said university spokeswoman Laurie Stephens, adding the school was unaware anyone considered it haunted.

Ghost tours do take place at other university buildings but 1 Spadina Crescent is not among them, said Richard Fiennes-Clinton, a guide with Muddy York Walking Tours.

He said he had never been able to unearth ghost stories related to the structure but said he could understand why some might believe otherwise given the building's imposing style.

The ghost research society, which has had a website for almost 13 years, also said it had never had any reports or even queries related to paranormal activity at the building.

"Because it's kind of a Gothic looking building, maybe they were under the impression somehow it was haunted. It looks kind of eerie," Durroch said.

"You can enjoy ghosts and hauntings, you can do so safely without breaking any laws or trespassing. Thankfully, this is an isolated case in Canada but there have been several similar incidents in the United States where tragic circumstances were the outcome."

Fiennes-Clinton stressed there are safe and legal ways to explore supposedly haunted places.

The school said it appeared neither the man nor woman were students.

Police have called the woman's death "suspicious" but said they had no reason to suspect foul play. An autopsy and toxicology tests were pending.

They said they had no reason to release any names.

via Canadian Press

12-year-old snaps photo of UFO over Arizona neighborhood

Witness image taken on a cell phone. MUFON database.

A 12-year-old Arizona girl was getting the mail when she spotted a UFO hovering over her neighborhood street and snapped two images with her cell phone camera, according to testimony from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) database.

The mother states that her daughter snapped the first photo where the object appears to hover above the street. In the second photo, the object is moving away and has tiled.

Following is the unedited report filed by the child's mother.

AZ, May 2009 - round squart object flat on bottom with thicker midsection and tapering top. MUFON Case # 19210.

My 12 year old daughter went to check the mail box and as she walked outside our house she witnessed floating above our street a round object not too far in the distance. she quickly grabbed her cell phone in her pocket and snapped off two photos.

This happened on a school day approximately around May 2009 around 430 to 530 pm. Sorry, I do not remember the exact dates.

Photo: The object is moving away at this point and has tiled. MUFON database.

What is interesting is she managed to capture the object as it tilted and moved off. You can see the landmarks of the houses and the trees to get a distance measurement and size approximation of the object.

She was very excited when she showed me the pictures. I think the whole event lasted only for a few seconds.

Look at the second attached photo first The object should be seen stationary Entitled ufo jpg.

The other photo entitled ufo 1.bmp should be the object moving away from the camera over the trees. I had a little difficulty downloading the images

Photo: Cropped and enlarged piece of the first image that shows the object that was hovering over the street. MUFON database.

If you do clean them up I would like to see them, please.

I hope this is helpful to your investigations.

via Examiner.com

More mass UFO sightings in China

In the wake of two UFO mega-events that took place in China over the last few months, namely the solar eclipse UFO incident and the two 'mothership' UFOs seen over Shandong, Chinese media and authorities are being flooded with more reports of UFO sightings.

In the city of Shandong, numerous residents reported seeing a UFO on the night of Monday the 7th of this month.

The government owned news outlet Xinhua carried the story. The UFO was described as a spinning glowing ball that circled above the city before moving away, sometimes going at incredible speeds and sometimes slowing down.

A number of earthly explanations have been given for this UFO event. These include the possibility that the UFO may be a kite or neon signs reflecting off clouds. Other recent UFO events have been satisfactorily explained in this manner however in this case Xinhua notes that 'Many people still insist that what they saw was not an ordinary luminous body, but a legendary UFO.'

Many are unconvinced by the explanation given by the authorities for the Shandong 'motherships' incident as well. That is, the UFOs were spotlights reflected against clouds that happened to only be in the specific area the lights were shone: giving the appearance of 'cloud' UFOs. Observers point to the video of the UFOs to demonstrate the feasibility of this explanation (see video here).

Meanwhile a UFO has been reported as having being seen and photographed above Changbai Mountain in the Jinxian area on July 16. This UFO (seen below) was reported in a local paper. Interestingly researchers have noted that this UFO bears some similarity to the Deqing Eclipse UFO of July 22.


via AllNewsWeb.com

Amazing UFO footage over Fresno, California?

Below is a video of what looks to be a squadron of UFOs in the night sky of Fresno California. Though the UFOs seem to be emulating a conventional aircraft, with flashing lights, look close and you will see that they pass in front of a star or bright object that is literally seen during the pass. There are no breaks in the bright single object which would indicate the formation to be that of a single large aircraft. Additionally, the sighting is absent of any commonly know aircraft sounds that you would here from planes, jets or helicopters in such a formation. Nice video here, definitely unidentified.

Here is the statement from the submitter courtesy of UFO Casebook.

Reader details:
The object flew over my house, similar to other objects I have filmed for almost four years now. It is unreal. The object was captured with a Sony HandiCam, with night vision. The camera is about 4 years old. The settings were 200x zoom, 20 optical. Taken at 9:30 PM. My mom also saw the object. The lights were blinking at the time. Did anyone else see or film what I did?

Submitted by RT


via Examiner.com

They really do serve ‘spirits’ at Herr Ridge Inn

Results of a recent paranormal investigation at The Inn at Herr Ridge are discussed at the local restaurant and inn recently. Owner Steve Wolf, right, and his daughter Stefany, along with general manager Beth Senseney, listen as details are reviewed by Mason Dixon Paranormal Society founders and lead investigators Stewart Cornelius, left, and Darryl Keller. The group is pictured listening to electronic voice phenomena (EVP) recordings made by the investigators at various places throughout the facility in August.

A local paranormal investigation group, the Mason-Dixon Paranormal Society, conducted an investigation of the Inn at Herr Ridge last month, and revealed their findings Saturday with its staff.

Beth Senseney, general manager at the inn, told the Times that the group established that there is at least “residual paranormal activity” in the old inn and its associated structures.

The Inn at Herr Ridge (also known as Herr Tavern & Public House), 900 Chambersburg Road, was established in 1815, and served as a field hospital for the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the July 1, 1863, engagement between the Southern troops and the Union forces at the Battle of Gettysburg.

The wounded from the battle were, more frequently than not, deposited in impromptu field hospitals, typically local farm houses, barns, and, in the case of Herr Ridge, the tavern.

It was not uncommon for observers to note that amputated arms and legs could be found in piles next to these buildings up to the winder sills, or in the corners of the rooms where surgeries were being performed, and often “blood flowed in streams along the aisles and the open doors...”

There are those today who believe the suffering endured by the dying was so great that “something remains”...either portals in time, or in the form of lost souls, afraid of the light (the path to heaven) out of fear of being judged of being a part of one of the most horrendous carnage in American history, or still around for reasons yet unknown.

Inn owner Steven Wolf, who has operated the business since 1976, noted that a considerable amount of paranormal activity has been experienced by the inn’s employees and guests over the years.

He said one that especially stood out in his mind was when someone ordered a beer, but there was no one there.

He said the furniture seems to be rearranged on occasion.

He attributes much of the activity to the “house ghost,” Fred Herr (Frederick Herr),” who purchased the tavern in 1828.

Other employees tell of not uncommon unexplained incidences which suggest that when the inn staff say they serve spirits, there is more to the claim than the intended purpose.

Some of the activity reported includes whispers, even calling the names of the employees, cold spots, glasses and silverware flying off tables, even knives and forks falling blade or prongs first and stuck to the floor, computers just starting to type gibberish on their own, extinguished lamps relighting, lights going off or on, unexplained crashes in the kitchen area, knocking and the sounds of boots walking about.

One employee was looking for a glass of water she had left sitting somewhere else. Giving up, she returned to her desk to find it sitting there, frosted over.

Darryl Keller, founder and lead investigator for the Mason-Dixon Paranormal Society (masondixonghosthunters.com), told the Times that the only real evidence of activity from beyond the realm of the living obtained thus far at the inn was 16 electronic voice phenomena (EVP) which included, reportedly, a spirit identifying herself as Hazel.

When the organization conducted its “scientific” investigation on August 21, the group amassed some 57.8 hours of videos, thermal imaging and photographs, the bulk of which revealed nothing.

The group did conclude, however, that “there is paranormal activity,” he said. “To what extent we’re not certain.”

“We plan on returning to Herr’s,” he said. “We’re just not sure when.”

While various groups continue to try and prove or disprove that which lies outside the realm of science using science, for some who work and dine at Inn at Herr Ridge, there is little doubt that “bodies disappear; but spirits linger,” as expressed after the Civil War by Union General Joshua L. Chamberlain, no matter what scientific equipment may say.

via The Gettysburg Times

Group seeks to find mysterious activity at local businesses

LANCASTER, OHIO -- A team of investigators gathered around the back door of Tammi Jo's Cafe hoping to uncover the source of mysterious, paranormal activity.

The Ohio Paranormal Seekers group, T.O.P.S., spent the early morning hours Saturday carefully combing through Westerman's Tuxedo Junction, Tammi Jo's Café and the Paperback Exchange in search of the source of paranormal activity.

Using specialized equipment including gadgets designed to detect abnormal electromagnetic fields, thermometers and digital recorders to hopefully catch indistinguishable voices, the team split into smaller groups and covered each business simultaneously.

Once assembled into each business, team members darkened the room, turned on their recorders and readied their cameras, hoping to harness a ghost.

T.O.P.S. co-founder Brent St. John led a team in Westerman's Tuxedo Junction.

"You have to provoke them sometimes," St. John said. "It can be the only way they come out."

St. John is no stranger to paranormal apparitions, having caught orbs and other ghostly encounters on video tape.

"I've seen doors open, things tapped and shadows move across the room," he said.

Lead T.O.P.S. investigator Chad Houghs said of the evidence collected, the team was able to determine at least one discernible spirit.

"There's possibly two, but we caught a male -- that we know for a fact," Houghs said after reviewing some of the audio feeds his team produced.

The main concentration of paranormal activity occurred in the basement level below the Paperback Exchange, Houghs said.

"We all had some personal experiences there, and we did catch some EVPs," Houghs said.

Electronic voice phenomena, or EVP, are recorded sounds that often sound like speech. Houghs said many members of the team caught their own EVPs in each business.

"This is just like putting a puzzle together," Houghs said. "We're just coming across some of the evidence now."

After the Saturday night investigation, Houghs surveyed other business owners downtown about the male spirit the team uncovered.

"The bookstore used to be a barber shop, and I spoke with some local barbers who said they knew of someone who committed suicide there a long time ago," Houghs said. "I was shocked when one of them told me that."

Houghs said definitive answers about the investigation will take time.

"I definitely want to go to the library and find out some more information," he said. "I think we're going to put this puzzle together eventually."

via LancasterEagleGazette.com

Weekend rash of UFO reports include sightings in Pittsburgh, Jeannette; multiple reports in Ohio

It was a busy holiday weekend for UFO sightings in the region. Locally, reports were received of sightings in Pittsburgh, and Jeannette, while there appeared to be a massive outbreak of sightings in Ohio, particularly in the metropolitan Cincinnati region. The following are reports that have been received:

Jeannette, Pennsylvania - September 5, 2009 - Witness has reported repeated sightings of over a dozen orange/yellow orbs coming out of the woods in front of the valley where he lives. Having had previous similar sightings in May, the witness has been observing this area on a frequent basis. One after another came up from the woods, turned on what appeared to be conventional FAA lights, before speeding up and flying off. Some appear to start flashing out of nowhere, higher up from the area without having the orb appearance at first. This area is actually located near a Penn Township golf course near the border of Murrysville. Note: the Murrysville area has been the "epicenter" of many sightings over the past year. The witness claims to have taken photographs of the area after seeing some faint flashes. The photographs reveal multiple orbs, several of which are orange or yellow. The witness drove to the maintenance road by the golf course and observed an "active plasma ball orb" hovering above the golf course. As the witness attempted to shoot some pictures, the object moved to the right behind a patch of trees. The witness then drove to another location to attempt to get a better view of the object. From there, the witness was able to get a better angle of the object and claimed it "transformed into a 'fake plane' by blinking a colored light on each side of the large orb, which tones down into a headlight appearance, then turns off to reveal what appears to be a regular wing-tip navigation red/green lights with flashing white strobes." As the object flies over, the white strobes illuminate what appears to be a tail. Blow-ups of the still photographs reveals that the "tail" is a structure that changes and transforms a little between each shot.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - September 5, 2009 -Witness was parked at the Pittsburgh Mills mall parking lot, waiting for his family to return from some shopping. He had his sunroof open and was watching the clouds when he noticed a dark circle, pea-sized in dimensions. At first he thought the object might be a balloon. Using a pair of binoculars he had in his vehicle, the witness observed the object to be shiny at times, then become semi-transparent, before becoming more cylindrical in shape. The witness estimated the object to be between 40-100 feet in width, and flying at an altitude of 5,000 feet.

The following are some of the many reports that have been coming in from the metropolitan Cincinnati, Ohio region...

September 7, 2009 - Amid some approaching storm activity, with multiple lightning strikes, several witnesses observed an object in the sky to the north, over some nearby baseball fields. The object looked football-shaped, and the witnesses estimated the distance from them to be be approximately 500 yards. The object seemed to be bigger than a helicopter. The witnesses continued to observe the object for 15-20 seconds. The area around the object seemed kind of hazy, or wavy - as if some kind of energy surrounded it. It was at this time that the object seemed to change into a crescent shape, with an opening at the top. The object moved up, and to the left, before returning to its original shape.

September 6, 2009 - Witnesses, celebrating Cincinnati's annual "Riverfest" event reported observing multiple fiery, or meteor-like, controlled objects.

Media, Ohio - September 6, 2009 - Two witnesses reported seven to ten glowing orange balls of light moving very slowly in a east to west direction. There were three objects in a straight line, then four more in a triangular shape behind them, in addition to two separate lights from the pattern approximately 100 feet behind the second group. One witness reported that the line of the objects was huge, estimated at about 300 feet long, possibly more. The objects were observed for over two minutes as they moved west and seemed to just fade out.

Southington, Ohio - September 6, 2009 - Several witnesses were sitting around a bonfire, in the late evening, when they noticed an orange ball traveling over them. Shortly it was gone, only to have a second object come by several minutes later. This object appeared to be traveling at a much higher altitude than the first and then shot straight up in the air, leaving an orange tail behind. A third object appeared and displayed similar activity as the second object. One witness claimed to have observed the exact same phenomenon in the neighborhood two weeks earlier.

Recent report received from Colorado...

Littleton, Colorado - September 7, 2009 - Witnesses observed an orange colored, cigar-shaped object. The object's movement was not similar to conventional aircraft. The object traveled in a north, northwest direction and appeared to be very large, although it was at a great distance from the witnesses

via Examiner.com

Chinese scientists 'filmed UFO for 40 minutes'

The UFO world is alive with speculation that China is about to reveal details of startling and detailed footage of an unidentified flying object taken during the solar eclipse on July 22.



Scientists at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing are reported to have confirmed that they filmed a UFO during the eclipse for 40 minutes. They say that they will spend the next 12 months studying the footage before drawing any conclusions.

The director of the observatory, Ji Hai-sheng, told sina.com that scientists would not be speculating publicly on the nature of what was captured on film until it had been properly studied.

He added:"'Purple Mountain Observatory and Chinese Academy of Sciences said that during the July 22 total solar eclipse observation, China had discovered near the sun, by observing staff, an unidentified object, it's physical nature remains to be further studied.

"Currently manpower is being organized to deal with this data, complete the data analysis and reveal the scientific results and this will take at least one year's time to finalise."



The incident follows a series of UFO sightings in China which culminated in an object being captured on film by students in Deqing. The footage, which was featured on Chinese television, appears to show the object repeatedly changing shape after initially appearing as a glowing blue sphere.

via Telegraph.co.uk

Pennsylvania Man Fires Cannon, Hits Neighbor's House

A Pennsylvania history buff who recreates firearms from old wars accidentally fired a 2-pound cannonball through the wall of his neighbor's home. William Maser, 54, fired a cannonball Wednesday evening outside his home in Georges Township that ricocheted and hit a house 400 yards away. The cannonball, about two inches in diameter, smashed through a window and a wall before landing in a closet. Authorities said nobody was hurt.

State police charged Maser with reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct.

No one answered the phone Friday at Maser's home. He told WPXI-TV recreating 19th century cannons is a longtime hobby. He said he is sorry and he will stop shooting them on his property, about 35 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

via Yahoo News

Town holds first 'out of this world' UFO fest

They came in peace — and had the T-shirts to prove it.

"Believe."

"Aliens rule."

"X-Files."

"Roswell."

"Pine Bush, N.Y."

"We come in peace."

Plus, of course, the official Exeter UFO Festival shirt — a popular buy during the inaugural event — with a little green man celebrating Exeter's "out-of-this-world community."

If a UFO decided to hover over downtown Exeter on Saturday it would've found a welcoming crowd.

Among the hundreds of visitors to the free all-day fest were adults with glittery tinfoil headbands, kids with painted alien faces and at least two full-bodied green and red monsters in the forms of Bryn Richards, 8, and Molly Warriner, 10, both of Exeter.

"We wanted to be with our own kind," Warriner said, deadpan. "We've gotten a lot of stares."

"It's been fun," said Richards.

Richards' aunt, Michelle Popplewell, timed her visit from Minnesota for this first UFO event.

"I think it's wonderful how people can talk about it comfortably in a safe environment," Popplewell said.

She, her sister Andrea Richards and the two monsters joined the others who packed Town Hall for Kathleen Marden's lecture on her book, "Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience."

"I liked the first-hand experience she had with her aunt," Popplewell said of Marden, who is the niece of famed New Hampshire UFO abductee Betty Hill.

Earlier in the day on Saturday, Peter Geremia spoke about the Sept. 3, 1965, "Incident at Exeter" that put the region on the map as the "East Coast Roswell."

Over at Founders Park, children transformed flat rocks into spaceships, were read stories from books such as "Commander Toad and the Space Pirates" and "Easy-To-Make Spaceships That Really Fly" and created their own UFOs out of recycled material strewn about the park.

Thomas Muscarello, 8, of Exeter, is the nephew of Norman Muscarello, who was a teenager back in 1965 when his story became part of the "Incident at Exeter."

Thomas' mother, Bonnie, said the boy and his father go outside all the time looking for UFOs.

On Saturday, Thomas used coffee canisters, two soda cans, tinfoil, duct tape and a cookie cutter to create his own spaceship from "Planet X," which "landed" next to a much larger spaceship created by a team of kids and adults.

He had only been there an hour, but so far Thomas was enjoying the festival.

"Probably I would want to go to another one," he said.

Rita Podalsky of Kensington, one of the festival volunteers, said she became involved when organizer Dean Merchant of Stratham asked her if she believed in UFOs.

Not only does she believe, she said, she and her husband and daughter had a sighting 25-30 years ago at their own home.

That home on Osgood Road, part of "UFO Alley," was marked on maps handed out at the festival for self-guided UFO safari tours.

And on Saturday Podalsky wore an official festival T-shirt while helping to put together children's event supplies at Founders Park.

"I think it's incredible," she said. "The kids seem to be having a really fun time. I hope it takes off like the Keene Pumpkin Festival as a yearly thing."

About a dozen kids and adults marched in a parade from the park to Town Hall, following sidewalks filled with chalk drawings of spaceships and aliens.

Sharon Taylor of the Weeks Public Library in Greenland led the parade down Water Street, singing about galaxies and calling "live long and prosper" to bemused sidewalk patrons.

Kitty Mervine of Antrim, N.H., walked behind the children in the parade. She runs a site called BadAlien.org to help people who believe they've been abducted by aliens.

"Abduction went from nice to bad right here in New Hampshire," Mervine said.

Before Betty and Barney Hill, she said, aliens were nice and friendly. After the Hills reported their sighting it was the start of the "grays," Mervine said, with the media, books and Hollywood leading people to see aliens as frightening.

In terms of this first UFO Festival, Mervine said the lectures seemed well attended, but she was disappointed in the other events, with a lot of "silly" mixed with the serious.

Provident Bank didn't seem to mind getting silly.

Next to Town Hall, a sign outside the bank offered "intergalactic exchange rates with U.S. dollars," with 1 "Quid" equalling $12.50.

Inside the hall, fans crowded around the Water Street Bookstore table to buy or order UFO books, plus check out the UFO drawings designed by local children, with sales proceeds going to the Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce's Children's Fund.

By the bandstand, the Kiwanis Club of Exeter was selling food, and a New England UFO Research (NEUFOR) van was parked with silver star-shaped balloons on the roof.

Joe Cambria of NEUFOR said once the group heard about this free first event they decided to offer support, not knowing how it would be.

"It's going absolutely fantastic," Cambria said early Saturday afternoon. "It's been beyond our expectations. We've given out almost all of our printed material. The experiences and stories people are sharing with us have made it all worthwhile. We really hope they do this next year."

Jason Miller and Henrik Strand, both 14, of Exeter, approached Cambria to discuss collaborating with a new group they are forming, called Center for Extraterrestrial Research and Analyzation (CETRA).

The teens share an interest in UFOs and said they've experienced phenomena first-hand.

Miller, who wore a CETRA shirt, spoke of an occurrence just last month before a laser show in Atlanta. Strand, who is working on a CETRA Web site, spoke of unexplained patterns and footprints by his home.

"Our goal is to spread the word," Miller said. "There are too many nonbelievers. It's going to affect our future."

On Saturday, they were just happy to support the first Exeter UFO Festival.

"I think it's really good to broaden people's perspectives," Strand said.

"I think it's going to get better and better every year," Miller said. "I can't wait for next year."

via SeacoastOnline.com

Triangle UFO reported over downtown Seattle in daylight

Two witnesses in downtown Seattle, Washington, reported watching a triangle-shaped UFO during daylight hours that appeared to be at a 15 to 20 story level in the sky and shapeshifting, according to witness testimony from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) database.

Following is the unedited witness report from MUFON.

WA, August 31, 2009 - Daylight UFO sighting from downtown Seattle. MUFON Case # 19069.

I met a co-worker at a nearby Irish bar not far from where we work in downtown Seattle. We sat outside as it was a warm and sunny summer day. I had only 2 or 3 drinks from my beer when I sat back into my chair to relax and take in the nice afternoon.

I looked up at the blue sky and surrounding buildings, one of which is a still in construction 40 story high rise condo development only one block east of where we were sitting, when I noticed a white object to the left (north) of the new building.

What caught my attention was that it was not moving, stationary. For a moment, I thought it was something attached to the building, like a string of balloons perhaps. However, upon further observation, I realized it was not a string of balloons, but something else entirely.

It was an object triangular in shape, white, and upon further observation, moving slowly to the south. I pointed out the object to my friend asking "what is that"? We both observed the object as it slowly moved south, becoming hidden behind the new building. I need to add the fact that the object also seemed to change shape from what we originally observed as triangular. It seemed to "morph" into a nondescript shape; maybe roundish, oval or kind of circular, then back to triangular, then back to whatever shape and so on. It also seemed to have a strange and very faint, fuzzy "filter", so to speak, surrounding the object which made it all the more difficult to discern the shape(s) of.

Both my friend and I commented about this observation. It was as if it, the "filter", was meant to obscure, or blur ones vision, and that is what it felt like too, oddly enough. The height of the building is 40 stories in total, and the object appeared to be at an altitude of perhaps 15 to 20 stories up and approximately only 3 to 5 blocks behind (to the east) of the building. Two other patrons were outside as well and we pointed out the object to them when one of them stated "that's something you don't see everyday in Seattle", and that was about it for their interest in the object.

However, my friend and I were very intrigued by this point, and lamented for not having binoculars handy. At any rate, the object moved slowly from view behind the building. We sat back down, continued on our beers all the while looking for when the object would reappear from behind the right (south) side of the building. 5 maybe 10 minutes went by when I noticed the object was now above the building, and still exhibiting the same strange shape morphology.

The object now seemed to travel on a very slow south-west direction toward the Puget Sound. It also appeared to slowly gain altitude as well. In fact, the object remained on this direction and altitude gain until we could no longer see it. The total observation time was approximately 20 minutes. The objects' size is difficult to discern;I'd say maybe the size of a compact car.

via Examiner.com

Man Slaps Stranger's Kid in Wal-Mart

Imagine this for a shopping nightmare: Your 2-year-old throws a tantrum at Wal-Mart, and a strange man walks up to her and slaps her across the face to shut her up.

This happened to a Georgia mom on Monday. Sonya Mathews' daughter, Paige, was crying in the store when 61-year-old Roger Stephens told Mathews that if she didn't make her kid stop crying, he would. When little Paige continued to cry, he walked up to her and slapped her across the face several times. After he did it, he told Mathews, "See, I told you I would shut her up."

Mathews screamed at him and called for security. Another shopper stopped him. He was arrested and charged with cruelty to a child, a felony, and is being held without bail. Paige suffered no injuries, except for some redness in the face. Of course, that says nothing of the psychological injuries she might have experienced.

via MomLogic.com

Frog Residue In Fred DeNegri's Pepsi Can

The "disgusting" blob that Fred DeNegri's wife says she poured out of his Diet Pepsi can was probably a gutted frog or toad, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.

DeNegri was grilling in his backyard tiki bar in Ormond Beach, Florida, when he popped open a can of Diet Pepsi, took a big gulp and started gagging, his wife, Amy, said.
He emptied out the can down a sink but something heavy remained inside. His wife took over and shook the can over a paper plate until something resembling "pink linguini" slid out, followed by "dark stuff," Amy DeNegri said.

"It was disgusting," said Amy DeNegri, 55. "And now, what started out as a normal afternoon in our tiki bar has blown up into this crazy thing."

The DeNegris took pictures before calling poison control and the FDA, which showed up the next day to examine the can in question and collect it for lab testing.

The couple received a copy of the completed report last week from the Food and Drug Administration Office of Regulatory Affairs, which concluded the foreign matter appeared to be a frog or a toad.

"The animal was lacking internal organs normally found in the abdominal and thoracic cavity," the report notes.

A second, closed can from the same 36-pack of Diet Pepsi from Sam's Club, was also submitted for testing, according to Amy DeNegri. No abnormalities were detected, the report states.

The FDA also conducted an investigation at the local Pepsi bottling plant in Orlando from August 4 to 11 and "did not find any adverse conditions or association to this problem," spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey said.

"We have not determined when or how the contamination occurred," DeLancey said in an e-mail.

Pepsi says the FDA results "affirmed" the company's confidence "in the quality of our products and the integrity of our manufacturing system," according to spokesman Jeff Dahncke.

"The speed of our production lines and the rigor of our quality control systems make it virtually impossible for this type of thing to happen in a production environment. In fact, there never has been even a single instance when a claim of this nature has been traced back to a manufacturing issue," Dahncke said in an e-mail.

"The FDA conducted a thorough inspection of our Orlando facility and found no cause for concern. In this case, the FDA simply was unable to determine when or how the specimen entered the package."

When asked if Pepsi believed it was not responsible for the animal getting into the can, Dahncke said, "We have addressed the facts of the investigation and stated our position. It's not appropriate for us to comment beyond that."

But the DeNegris say they're hopping mad over Pepsi's handling of the matter.

Amy DeNegri said she hasn't heard from Pepsi since the day after the incident occurred, when she spoke with someone over the phone. At first, the woman was apologetic, but DeNegri says her attitude changed after she told her that the FDA had taken the can for testing.

"She asked for my pictures, I sent them and never heard back," she said.

The retired school staffer says she and her husband are seeking legal advice to examine their options.

"I want to see Pepsi fess up to it and compensate my husband for the negative publicity they have caused," she said. "I'm easy, but they're the ones that are making it hard."

via AOL News

Mass UFO sighting in Punjab, India

One nation that has been rather absent from our headlines on UFO activity internationally and in Asia specifically is India. However absence of proof is not proof of absence (Or in this case is that proof of absence is not absence of proof?). In fact, UFO activity is extremely common in India and though seriously under-reported even by that nation's media outlets it is reported often enough nonetheless.

Thankfully, now All News Web has established a channel for receiving information on Indian sightings and they should start appearing on our news site as of now.

One wonders how many UFO sightings in India, even mass ones, have come and gone, forever unnoticed outside the sub-continent.

We start with a mass UFO event from the beautiful, princely city of Paitala in Punjab State. Last Sunday night beginning at 8pm countless people saw and even climbed onto rooftops to get a better view of a large, bright light that hovered and crisscrossed over the city for two hours, before vanishing.

Many thought it to be an alien craft and a local scientist, Mr Surendar Jindal, noted that he could not identify the object with certainty.

Indians are rather accepting of the notion of extraterrestrial visitors and, as is well known, ancient Sanskrit epics speak of the Vimanas: Flying machines used by the gods to travel throughout the universe.

via AllNewsWeb.com

Japan's New First Lady Claims to Have Been to Venus in a UFO

Japan's next prime minister might be nicknamed "the alien," but it's his wife who claims to have had a close encounter with another world.

"While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and went to Venus," Miyuki Hatoyama, the wife of premier-in-waiting Yukio Hatoyama, wrote in a book published last year.

"It was a very beautiful place and it was really green."

Yukio Hatoyama is due to be voted in as premier on September 16 following his party's crushing election victory over the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party Sunday.

via ABCnews.com

Two Michigan witnesses report 'large' UFOs over Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Two witnesses along Michigan's Upper Peninsula reported seeing as many as 30 UFOs on September 2, 2009, according to testimony from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) database.

Six of the crafts were reported as "large," and four more were smaller, "blue and white, stayed in constant formation, like escorts for larger crafts."

The objects moved from one horizen to the other in a single second.

Three objects were described as "saucer shaped," and were reported as seeming to land in Lake Michigan. The crafts came as close as between 800 and 1,000 feet to the witnesses.

The following is the unedited witness statement from MUFON. Please keep in mind that most UFO reports can be explained as something natural or manmade. The following report is unedited.

MI, September 2, 2009 - Saw 13 UFO’s 6 large ships. MUFON Case # 19037.

witness called into dispatch, has no access to computer at this time, dispatch took report for witness:
Dispatcher: Steve Cox

Witness: Ryan and Josh (Ryans Cousin)

Location Uper Peniscala, lives right near the water, of main route

Saw 13 UFO’s 6 large ships
4 Smaller crafts, blue and white, stayed in constant formation, like escorts for larger crafts, went from one horizon to the other in 1 second

4 huge rings ring’s with crafts flying out of the ring, multiple colors, seems to float up and up high in the sky and disappeared watch for atleast 30 minutes

3 saucer shaped crafts went about a mile a second, stopped hovered and seem to land in lake Michigan, ran down street to seem them but they were gone, called his cousin who was driving near the lake and saw them in the Bay between Michigan and Wisconsin.

witness estimates at least 30 crafts in the air at one time, the sky was filed with crafts.

None of these crafts made a sound, moved in all directions

Witness didn’t see it but Swears they landed on earth or in the water.

Number of crafts went directly over his head no more than a ¼ mile above him. States it looked like they were shooting missiles.

Seemed like military action with formation, Cousin saw 3 larger crafts 1 red, with blue crafts next to it, and 2 large crafts staying in constant formation with red craft, would change, positions, one would move up to front point the other would drop to the rear.

Closest craft got between 800-1000 feet from witness

Would like to show his drawings to an investigator,

Dr. Stephen Cox
Mufon Dispatch
Star Team

via Examiner.com

Movie blames Nome disappearances on aliens

Families suspected a serial killer. The FBI mostly blamed alcohol and the cruel Alaska winter.

This fall, a movie distributed by a major studio and marketed as a “dramatization” of real events is offering another explanation for decades of disappearances and suspicious deaths in and around Nome:

Abduction by space aliens.

"The Fourth Kind," a thriller, hits theaters Nov. 6. Marketing from NBC Universal says it’s based on “archival footage” of a psychologist who stumbled upon “the most disturbing evidence of alien abduction ever documented” while interviewing Alaskans.

Spooky. Except it all looks to be a “Blair Witch Project” style fake-out.

No one has heard of the psychologist, including the state licensing board and president of the state psychologists association. And while there have indeed been disappearances in Nome — mainly people traveling to the hub city from surrounding Inupiat and Siberian Yupik villages — blaming a real-life tragedy on alien abduction is not sitting well with the non-profit that pushed the cases into the open.

“The movie looks ridiculous,” said Kawerak Inc. Vice President Melanie Edwards, who watched the trailer online Monday. “It’s insensitive to family members of people who have gone missing in Nome over the years.”

Universal Pictures is distributing the film in the United States. The star, Milla Jovovich, is a veteran of three “Resident Evil” movies about diabolical corporations and zombies. In the trailer, she introduces herself as an actress and tells the audience that “every scene in this movie is supported by archived footage.”

But it’s all fake, right? Did the film-makers ever go to Nome? What about the idea that all this trivializes a string of tragic Alaska deaths?

The studio has no comment, an NBC Universal spokesman said in an e-mail Tuesday.

Despite an FBI conclusion in 2006 that no serial killer was to blame, emotions over the missing and dead are still raw in the region.

Dallas Massie is a retired state trooper who has been filling in as Nome police chief since early this year. Soon after he arrived, a relative of a St. Lawrence Island man who went missing in October 2004 called. He had heard there was someone new at the police department and hoped to see a re-energized investigation.

The 2004 case is Nome’s most recent major missing-persons case, Massie said. Police, he said, are still looking for leads. Within reason.

“I have yet to hear anybody with the theory that aliens are taking folks out of the region,” Massie said.

VILLAGE DEATHS
After years of rumors that Nome had become a dangerous place for travelers from the villages, local officials in 2005 released a list of about 20 disappearances and deaths in the city. The cases dated back to the 1960s. At the time, a Nome police officer was on trial for the murder of a young village woman, and some residents mistrusted city police.

The FBI stepped in, reviewing two dozen cases, eventually determining that excessive alcohol consumption and the winter climate were a common link in many of the cases. Unlike other commercial hubs in rural Alaska, Nome is a “wet” city, with bars and liquor stores.

Some of dead were killed by exposure or from falling off a jetty into the frigid Snake River, authorities said at the time.

Delbert Pungowiyi of Savoonga still believes that foul play claimed his uncle, who flew to Nome in 1998 to buy a snowmachine and never came home.

Despite the FBI’s conclusion, Pungowiyi suspects racially motivated, serial murders are to blame in at least some of the deaths.

As for the new movie?

“Oh my god, that is ridiculous,” he said.

To be fair, “The Fourth Kind” seems to be telling a different story altogether. Movie trailers can be deceiving, but the victims shown in the short clip don’t appear to be visiting villagers.

The movie’s title is a reference to a measurement system used to describe varying degrees of contacts with aliens. Think “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” A UFO sighting would be the first kind of contact. The fourth kind is abduction.

According to promotional materials from Universal, the film is framed around a psychologist named Abigail Tyler who interviewed traumatized patients in Nome.

But state licensing examiner Jan Mays says she can’t find records of an Abigail Tyler ever being licensed in any profession in Alaska.

No one by that name lived in Nome in recent years, according to a search of public record databases.

Still, there are shreds of “evidence.”

Try Googling “Abigail Tyler” and “Alaska.” You’ll get a link to a convincingly boring Web site called the “Alaska Psychiatry Journal” — complete with a biography of a psychologist by that name who researched sleep behavior in Nome. Except the site is suspiciously vacant, mostly a collection of articles on sleep studies with no home page or contact information.

Another site, www.alaskanewsarchive.com, features a story from the Nome Nugget about Tyler moving to Nome for research. The problem? The story is credited to Nugget editor and publisher Nancy McGuire, who says it's baloney and she never wrote it.

Both the news site and the medical journal site were created just last month, according to domain-name research sites.

Ron Adler is CEO and director of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute. Denise Dillard is president of the Alaska Psychological Association. They said this week they’ve never heard of the Alaska Psychiatry Journal, or of Abigail Tyler.

SHOT IN BULGARIA
“The Fourth Kind” follows a Hollywood tradition of releasing films set in Alaska but filmed somewhere else. Recently, the horror flick “30 Days of Night” told of vampires invading Barrow during the sunless winter. It was shot in New Zealand, according to Internet Movie Database.

“The Proposal,” a romantic comedy released this summer and set in Sitka, was actually filmed in Massachusetts. The state has created a tax incentive program to encourage Hollywood to actually shoot its Alaska-based movies in the state. But film office manager Dave Worrell said some of the biggest activity lately has been reality shows about rural law enforcement and wildlife officers.

Filmmakers shot the “The Fourth Kind” in Bulgaria, according to IMDB. That may explain why the trailer shows a city surrounded by lush mountains rather than a flat tundra town at the shore of the Bering Sea.

Nome Chamber of Commerce director Mitch Erickson watched the movie trailer at the city’s visitor center Monday. That fictional Nome is a pretty place, he said.

“I wish we had those trees.”

(Can't get the trailer video to play at the top of this story? Click here for the official movie site.)

via Anchorage Daily News