Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. Ian Fleming wrote that. While it hardly seems responsible to suggest that three sightings of the same “UFO” is equivalent to “enemy action” (don’t attack UFOs, literally nothing good could ever come from that), it’s a good quote and there’s a truth in there. Three separate sightings of the same weird thing in sky over the course of one week suggests that, despite the impossibility of identifying that weird thing, something’s puttering around up there. In early January, in the city of Hull, East Yorkshire, England, multiple witnesses reported seeing a glowing UFO on separate occasions and at different times of the day.

Artist’s rendition of orb UFOs

First, on January 6th, Hull Live reported that a woman and her aunt had seen a strange glowing red light hovering low in the sky while walking down the street at approximately 5:40 PM. The woman snapped a picture of the UFO and described the sighting:

“It didn’t seem to be moving and it just seemed really weird as it definitely wasn’t a laser, a helicopter or another light that was supposed to be there – it was just stationary in the sky and we thought it could have been a UFO.

As soon as we saw it, we took a picture of it on the phone, and when we were walking back from the shop, the red ball was still there – it was really freaky and shook us up a bit as it made us think that something else is out there.”

“Something else is out there” might be the most vague phrase ever used by anybody, but OK. The woman said that when she got home she showed the picture to her partner, who then went to the location of the sighting to try and get a video, but the UFO had disappeared.

On its own, that sighting would be pretty meaningless. It’s a red light in the sky in a populated area. There’s a thousand different explanations for that. Yet, on January 9th, Hull Livereported that another woman had come forward with a sighting. A 31-year-old woman says that at roughly 1:30 AM on New Years day, she was in bed and falling asleep when she heard a loud bang. She jumped up, thinking that it might be an intruder and looked outside. According to the woman:

“I thought it may have been someone booting in my gate to get my children’s bikes, so I peeked out through the blinds only to be met with a massive red orb in the sky opposite my street hovering above the local field.

My heart skipped a beat and I shut my blinds and dived back in bed because I was too nervous to look back out.”

On January 11, a third sighting was reported. This sighting occurred on Thursday, January 4th. A family was walking to a shopping center at approximately 4:45 PM when they saw a “scary, multicolored UFO” appear in the sky for a brief second. According to the unnamed witness, the object was circular and had lights of various colors and disappeared in the blink f an eye. However, 15 minutes later, the “UFO” showed up again, and the family was able to take a picture (you can see the picture here). According to the witness:

“We saw it again when we got to top of Midmere off Dorchester Road. It was flashing red, blue, green, yellow, all sorts of colours and when we blinked it disappeared into thin air.

It was circular in shape and we thought it was a plane at first but it was moving too quickly and it wasn’t shaped like one. It was flickering all different colours, normally a plane is one or two different colours when you see it. It was quite scary to see.”

This is actually pretty accurate.

So are these sightings related? The first two sightings aren’t reported as being anything other than a glowing red orb, while the third apparently upped its lighting budget. Of course, the third sighting also happened while it was still sort of light out. Do aliens use different headlights depending on the time of day?  The picture of the third UFO definitely looks like it could be some sort of craft, but it could also be a drone. Drones are small and quick. Because of their size, they can present the illusion that they’re further away and faster than they actually are. At the same time, they make a pretty distinctive sound, and one that we’re all kind of used to at this point, so it’s hard to say.

It will be worth keeping an eye on Hull to see if any other UFOs show up, or  if anyone crashes a drone.

Image Credit: The Mirror.

Is that the Death Star?

Image Credit: James Goldman.

Well, I just got finished watching the latest episode of the new History Channel show, Project Blue Book. The episode’s title: “The Flatwoods Monster.” If you know your UFO history, you’ll know the story. If you don’t, here’s a summary from me from me on the strange matter: On the night of September 12, 1952, something terrifying descended upon the small, West Virginian town of Flatwoods. Precisely what it was remains a mystery to this very day. All that can be said for sure is that it was hideous, fear-inducing and downright monstrous. It has, appropriately, become known as the Flatwoods Monster. Situated in Braxton County and dominated by a mountainous, forested landscape, Flatwoods is a distinctly small town – that much is apparent from the fact that, today, its population is less than four hundred. Back in 1952, it was even less. On the night in question, however, the town found its population briefly added to by one visitor from…well…no-one really knows where.

It all began as the sun was setting on what was a warm, still, September evening. A group of boys from Flatwoods were playing football in the town’s schoolyard when they were frozen to the spot by the sight of a brightly lit, fiery object that shot overhead, provoking amazement and wonder in the process. All that the boys could be sure of was that the object appeared to be either egg-shaped or circular. Its color fluctuated from orange to fiery red. As the stunned children watched in awe, they saw the object begin to descend – at a high rate of speed, no less – and then appear to come down on one of Flatwood’s largest hilltops. Not surprisingly, being kids, they saw this as a big adventure looming large. The result: they, with a woman named Kathleen May and a recent U.S. Army recruit, Eugene Lemon, headed off for the scene of all the action. It wasn’t long before the group reached the hill in question – and with nightfall rapidly closing in.

Braxton County

(Wikipedia)

The first thing the group noticed, as they reached the darkened peak, was something brightly lit within the trees. What it was, no-one had a clue. But, it clearly wasn’t the lights of a farmhouse, truck, or car. Suddenly, the air was filled with a sickening odor – not unlike that of devilish brimstone. That was not a good sign. To their credit, however, they pushed on, determined to figure out the true nature of the source behind the lights. They soon found out: as the air became filled with a strange, sizzling sound, nothing less than a pair of self-illuminated red eyes could be seen getting ever closer. Kathleen May had the presence of mind to bring a flashlight with her and she quickly focused it on the eyes. In doing so, she also lit up the abominable creature that possessed those fiery eyes.

Looming before the now-hysterical band of intrepid souls was an approximately ten-feet-tall, floating monster, which appeared to be humanoid in shape, and which had a large black cowling behind its head – that gave the entire head a kind of “Ace of Spades” appearance – and that was possibly even cloaked. Maybe. Oddly, its lower half was ice-cream cone-shaped and had wires and cables running from it. This issue of the cone-shaped lower portion led flying saucer sleuths to later suggest the monster my actually have been encased within some kind of remotely piloted vehicle.

As the creature then turned its attention to the group, and wildly fired laser-like beams from its eyes, the brave band was suddenly brave no more. They didn’t wait to see what might happen next. One and all fled, screaming – possibly for their lives. Mrs. May breathlessly shouted to the boys to follow her to her home, which they all did. On arrival, and possibly as a result of exposure to the noxious odor that hung around the hill, several of the boys became ill, feeling nauseous and even outright vomiting.

Braxton County Courthouse

Kathleen May quickly and shakily called the local police, who, rather intriguingly, were busy responding to reports of what was described as an “airplane crash” in the area. It turns out that no such crashed aircraft was ever found – something which suggests the “airplane” and the brightly lit UFO that descended upon the high hill that night were one and the very same. As a result of the fact that Flatwoods was, and still is, a very small town, word soon got out about what had happened. Local media were quickly on the scene, and even the U.S. Air Force sat up and took notice. Despite intense investigations by the press and the military, the mystery of the Flatwoods Monster was never solved – the creature was long gone by the time anyone else was on the scene. It is, however, decidedly interesting to note that Flatwoods is only around 125 miles from the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, where, from 1966 to 1967, yet another red-eyed monster was seen. Its famous name is Mothman. All of which brings us back to Project Blue Book and tonight’s episode.

In the show, the Flatwoods Monster of West Virginia is portrayed nothing like the Flatwoods Monster, which is a relatively minor issue of little consequence. The people of Flatwoods, however,  are presented as distrusting, gun-toting characters ready to blast the U.S. military with significant amounts of lead, which, in reality, did not happen. No one in town put a gun in the face of a U.S. military officer. Also, we see one of the characters jump, or get pushed, out of a window to her death. I’ve heard of TV companies being inspired by real events, but this is getting ridiculous. I wonder what the good people of Flatwoods are – tonight – thinking about the townsfolk who came before them and who have been portrayed in such a trigger-happy fashion. That’s my main gripe: the show-makers seem intent on making real people look bad. See my previous article here at Mysterious Universe, for example, in which I explain how, in episode 1, the creators of the show portrayed a WWII hero – pilot George Gorman – as someone who had descended into mental illness and who needed to be shot up with meds to keep him under control, something else which did not happen; not even in the slightest.

While investigators in the U.S. are checking into alleged close encounters with Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Putin is checking into close encounters with aliens. Specifically, he ordered the Russian army to investigate the suspicious collapse of a mountain in Siberia (when is the collapse of a mountain NOT serious?) which some people at the site say could only have been caused by a UFO. Just by chance, was the city near the mountain getting ready to hold an election?

“Me and colleague Mikhail were driving a truck with various food supplies for my shops towards Amga and in the general direction of Khabarovsk region. The night was clear. It was the sixth or eighth day of the lunar phase, so the Moon did not rise high and the sky was dark. Seconds before 1.30am the whole sky lit up. We saw a huge green-coloured body with a spectacularly bright and very long tail, falling almost vertically at about an 80 degrees angle. We saw it right in front of us, falling east to south. It all happened within three or four seconds.”

Meteor?

Eyewitness Alexey Dyundin is convinced what he saw on December 11th was a meteor, saying he knows what a falling rocket part looks like because the area gets a lot of those too. (And you thought pigeon droppings on your windshield were annoying.) Alexey Maslov, head of the Verkhnebureinsky district where the incident occurred, agrees – as any politician who doesn’t want to cause a panic would. However, records show there was no meteorite activity that night, nor is there a crater where the mountain collapsed. The other logical explanation is a landslide, but locals who have seen landslides say this river-blocking mountain of a slide is something else. (Many pictures of the pile here.) What else? The Siberian Timeshad this to say:

“Meanwhile, a poll of locals asked for views on the cause of the Bureya event. Some 27% said a meteorite crashing to earth, 40% a landslide – and 33% a UFO attack.”

The mountain of dirt that was once a mountain is blocking the river which drives the Bureyskaya hydro power reservoir, so the Russian defense ministry has a good reason as well as a good cover to send in the military, geomorphologists, geologists, hydrologists and land-surveyors to clear the debris and look underneath it for a possible cause.

“Given the significant size of the landslide, units of engineer and railway forces with special equipment, as well as army and transport aviation, will be involved in clearing the rock.”

Unfortunately, local residents won’t be able to see what the army finds because a state of emergency has been declared (of course) and the area is being evacuated because of “potential flooding.” Does Putin suspect something he doesn’t want them to know or see? Why do so many of them think the cause was a UFO? A tourist group from the neighboring Amur region was attempting to drive over the frozen river and inspect the site in the first week of January … there’s no report they arrived, what they found or if they made it out.

If one-third of the people in your town believed a so-called natural disaster was actually caused by a UFO, would our federal government investigate it? if it really was a UFO, would the Russian government share the information with ours? If they did, would our government share it with US?

“… and 33% a UFO attack.”

Why?

Over the last few days I have been asked for my views on the History Channel’s new show, Project Blue Book. I was on vacation up until last week, so I only watched the opening episode yesterday. Finally, I’m now catching up on things. So, here goes: In an article titled “Where in the hell is the outrage?”Rich Reynolds says of Project Blue Book: “The show was a disservice to J. Allen Hynek, his wife, Captain Ruppelt, and Lt. Gorman whose Fargo ‘dogfight’ with a UFO is one of the classic and intriguing cases in the UFO literature. That UFO enthusiasts are so desperate for something in their interested field they accept such idiocy is more than discouraging; it’s madness. The defaming History Channel effort should be condemned outright and loudly. It is, as I’ve already noted, a travesty of UFO history and a joke. To let it stand as representative of what Blue Book was and did and how J. Allen Hynek, a moderate and reserved academic was, is shameful.”

Then, there is this from Kevin Randle: “Back in the 1970s, Jack Webb of Dragnet fame created something he called Project UFO. It was based on the files of Project Blue Book and it was difficult to recognize the cases presented. The attitude of the program, if I remember it correctly, was to examine a case  that might have been inexplicable and find a rational and reasonable answer before the hour expired. Although I was excited about the show, I was quickly disappointed in the final product. It reeked somewhat, again if I remember correctly, of a debunking operation.”

Kevin continues: “This new incarnation, given the snappy tile of Project Blue Book, seems to be at the other end of the spectrum. It suggests a grand conspiracy that involves what most of us believe is the mythical MJ-12, Air Force officers who will go to about any length to prove a case has a terrestrial explanation and a hint of the Men in Black. In other words, it is filled with the paranoia of the UFO field and has very little to do with the reality of the situation as it was then or as it is now.”

And there are these words from Micah Hanks: “…as far as being an entertaining television program goes, we give it two thumbs up. So in conclusion, Project Blue Book may be one of the better UFO-themed productions to come out in recent years, and though it may not become renowned for its historical accuracy, it nonetheless presents some fun and entertaining food for thought on a subject that has remained both perplexing, and controversial, for many decades.”

As for me? Well, here’s my take on it all: if the show was specifically presented as pure fiction and used real people in a wholly fictional format (such as the 1990s series Dark Skies, which had actors playing such figures as JFK, RFK, and Dorothy Kilgallen – all of who have been tied to UFOs by certain elements of Ufology), viewers would at least know what they are getting: namely, fiction and absolutely nothing else, like it or like it not. But, that’s not the case with Project Blue Book. This new show blurs the lines to a point where many may not realize what amounts to fact and what amounts to fiction. For example, the show begins with the following words: “This series is inspired by Dr. J. Allen Hynek’s investigations for the U.S. Air Force into the existence of UFOs. The cases depicted are based on real events.”

Well, that is true. But, it’s these words we need to focus on: “inspired” and “based on.” Episode 1, “The Fuller Dogfight,” relates a classic case that dates back 71 years. As Wikipedia notes:  “The Gorman UFO dogfight was a widely publicized UFO incident. It occurred on October 1, 1948, in the skies over Fargo, North Dakota, and involved George F. Gorman, a pilot with the North Dakota Air National Guard. USAF Captain Edward J. Ruppelt wrote in his bestselling and influential The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects that the Gorman Dogfight was one of three ‘classic’ UFO incidents in 1948 that ‘proved to [Air Force] intelligence specialists that UFOs were real.^‘However, in 1949 the US Air Force labeled the Gorman Dogfight as being caused by a lighted weather balloon.”

In the show, Gorman is portrayed as being so traumatized that he is hit with a chemical cocktail that wipes out his memory. As Kevin Randle puts it (see the same link to Kevin’s article above),” Gorman is “…suffering from an acute case of PTSD and eventually ends up in the psycho ward before being given a shot and dragged off.”

The fact is that none of that happened – in the real world. What the Air Force actually said of the affair is that Gorman “…did not make the impression of being a dreamer. He reads little, and only serious literature. He spends 90 percent of his time hunting and fishing; drinks less than moderately; smokes normally; and does not do drugs. He appears to be a sincere and serious individual who was considerably puzzled by his experience and made no attempt to blow his story up.” That assessment is at significant odds with what we see in Project Blue Book.

Gorman was a man who fought for his country in the Second World War. In the post-war era he was a Second Lieutenant in the North Dakota National Guard. I don’t know if Gorman has any surviving relatives (he and his wife did have a child), but I wonder what they would think of the way in which he is portrayed in Project Blue Book. Also in the show, J. Allen Hynek has an encounter with a Man in Black (albeit very briefly). For those who are wondering which other parts of the show are “inspired,” you may like to know that Hynek never had such an encounter.

I was hugely unimpressed and the show did a disservice to the real George Gorman, a decorated, WW2 pilot. The one saving grace: the prospect of what looks to be a bit of hot girl on girl action on the horizon, which probably didn’t happen either.

“A very intriguing aircraft was being reported in the late 1980s. Some observers claim to have witnessed a vast black flying wing, estimated at between 600 and 800 feet in width, passing silently over city streets in California.”  

The quote above, featured at one time as part of a description featured online at the website of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), dealt with an alleged aircraft that, since the 1980s, has become a mainstay of modern UFO literature. 

“The craft moved so slowly one observer claimed that he could jog along with it,” the entry continued. “The aircraft reportedly executed bizarre maneuvers in which it stopped, rotated in place and hovered vertically, pointing its thin trailing edge toward the ground. This vehicle’s unlikely gyrations suggest that it is distinct from the other sightings, and could be a lighter-than-air craft pushed by slow-turning propellers.”

The description here is strange indeed, and although the FAS didn’t provide additional details about the circumstances or witnesses to the events described above, the description is generally similar to other written accounts of so-called “flying triangles” that have appeared over the years. 

A number of years ago, while filling in as host of a local radio program in my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, I received a call from a man named Brian, who shared his own story of seeing one of these aircraft over our town in 1988. Having discussed Brian’s story numerous times on my podcast, The Gralien Report, I had always hoped that some form of verification of the sighting might occur, since I was never able to track down the caller (despite numerous efforts, and a few near-misses, over the years). 

However, late last year I did finally receive word from a gentleman named Randy who, upon listening to a description of the events from 1988 on an episode of my podcast, wrote to me and shared his own experience from around the same time, and just a little North of Asheville. 

“Something caught my attention yesterday on my drive,” Randy said in his email to me. “I was listening to this weeks episode about UFO Cults & Odd Cases when you were recounting someone’s tale regarding a triangle shaped craft in the Asheville area back in the late 80s. The reason I’m writing is, I think I saw the same one.” 

Randy shared the following story about his sighting: 

“I grew up in Southwestern Virginia right on the VA/TN border.  My grandmother lived in Kingsport, TN and we used to visit her frequently. I must of been around 9 or 10 years old at the time.  One night, as we were about to leave to head home, my dad was already outside talking with my grandmother saying their goodbyes. Dad called for me to come outside. Hearing the urgency in his voice, my brother and I ran outside to see Dad and Grandmother staring up at the sky.”

“It only took a second to see what they were looking at,” Randy said. As he stepped outside, he saw an object at a distance he judged to be approximately 100 feet above the tree line in the distance. The object was “a large black triangle” which appeared to have a single light at each corner. Randy also remembered there being “a larger light in the center.” 

“It moved very slowly and made no sound.  I couldn’t make out any features other than the general shape and the lights. We all stood there and watched it as we discussed what it might be for what seemed like five minutes or so.  We watched it until it disappeared to the west.” 

“As you know, Kingsport is roughly sixty miles straight line distance from Asheville, and the time frame seems to fit.  So who knows, maybe it was the same thing.”

Did Brian and Randy see the same aircraft? Who knows… it’s possible, at least, although there’s no way to prove that. If anything, what it really suggests is that an aircraft that matches the description of both observers here—possibly some kind of military aircraft akin to a “stealth blimp,” as some have inferred over the years—is seen more often than some would expect. 

Or, at least, that such an aircraft was certainly making its rounds over the Southeastern United States during the late 1980s. Supposing for a moment that this aircraft was part of a highly classified black budget program, questions remain as to what it’s operational goals might have been (reconnaissance, weapons delivery, transport, etc). While reports continue today, it seems the “buzz” surrounding sightings of this aircraft hit their peak during the 1990s, with notable incidents that may involve a similar aircraft extending into the new millennium; most notably, the well-documented January 2000 Saint Clair, Illinois incident.

In any case, the intrigue that surrounds reports of these large “triangle” aircraft has persisted over the years; whether or not they are seen as frequently today, they remain indelibly a part of the culture of UFO and black budget speculations in modern America.

“Frankly, I think the federal government has done almost nothing to help us with this.”

What do you think the person who made this statement was referring to by “this”? If you said “UFO research,” thank you for joining our conversation, Senator Reid! Yes, those words were spoken in a recent radio interview given by the former U.S. senator from Nevada, Harry Reid. It’s not important what party he belongs to because a topic as important as this should be bipartisan, right?

It’s good to see Senator Reid back fighting for disclosure after he himself disclosed in 2017 that he was retiring from Capitol Hill after receiving a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. After two years of treatment and despite a fatalistic piece in The New York Times about him just last weekend, Reid says he’s strong and has a good life and looks to be in good enough health to kick that heavy Sunday edition of the Times into the street. However, what he came to KNPR Nevada Public Radio to talk about was UFOs and some other minor stuff going on in Washington and the White House. (Listen to the interview here.)

Former Senator Harry Reid

“I think it is something we can’t ignore. I personally don’t know if there exist little green men places. I kind of doubt that, but I do believe the information we have indicates we should do a lot more study. We have hundreds and hundreds of people that have seen the same thing — something in the sky, it moves a certain way.”

Many of those “hundreds and hundreds” of witnesses are military pilots, and Reid was getting ready to meet with an unnamed senator still in office about giving these pilots protection from retaliation for coming forward with their accounts – pilots have long feared telling about the strange crafts they’ve seen because previous witnesses were ridiculed, harassed, recommended for psychiatric evaluation, passed over for promotions and more. Reid hopes this senator will champion a safe place for pilots and other military witnesses – radar operators, sailors who have seen unidentified submerged objects, etc. – to share their experiences and possibly video or audio recordings.

“Oh sure, I’ve been to Area 51. I know Area 51. I don’t know if I should say many times, but lots and lots of times. I know Area 51 quite well, I know what they’ve done there. I don’t know in recent years, of course, but I know what went on there.”

Is Reid a witness who needs protection too? He didn’t give any more details about Area 51, which is in the state he represented. Nor did he say what should be done after the witnesses come forward. It was revealed in 2017 that Reid helped sneak $22 million into the annual Defense Department budget for the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, which we now know was shut down in 2012 after being run at the Pentagon by military intelligence official Luis Elizondo, who is now part of the To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences which is continuing its investigations and disclosures.

Those seeking UFO disclosure had a friend in Harry Reid when he was in the Senate. Can Reid convince his unnamed friend (rumored to be Reid’s former deputy, Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin who is the ranking member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee) to take up the mantle?

Can he convince anyone? Two other senators who supported the program — Ted Stevens of Alaska and Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii – died in office (Inouye) or shortly after leaving (Stevens). Reid was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer after leaving office.

Just a thought.