Abstract:

Information obtained in telephone interviews of officers of Canadian Naval Maritime Command and RCMP indicated that an object bearing several colored lights glided with a whistling noise into the sea. Search by boats and divers found no debris or wreckage.

Investigation:

On the basis of a report from James Lorenzen (APRO), project investigators telephoned several sources in the area.

A watch officer at the Naval Maritime Command stated that reports indicated that an object about 60 ft. long with four lights on it had gone whistling into the sea; it flashed when it hit, and a white light remained on the water afterwards. He stated that the original report had come from two teenagers, and that the Navy was searching for wreckage. No aircraft were reported missing in the area. He mentioned also that sightings had been reported throughout the year.

A corporal of the RCMP stated that the first report had come from five young people, 15-20 yr. old, who while driving near the shore had seen three or four yellow lights in a horizontal pattern comparable in size to a "fair-sized" aircraft, descending at about 45° toward the water. The witnesses had lost sight of the object for about ten seconds while passing a small hill; they then saw a single white light on the water about where they estimated the object should have gone in. They observed the light while they drove on about .25 mi., then reported the incident to the RCMP detachment.

Two officers and the corporal had arrived about 15 min. later, in time to see the light on the water. It persisted about five minutes longer. Ten minutes after it went out, the two officers were at the site in a rowboat; a Coast Guard boat and six fishing boats also were on the scene. They found only patches of foam 30-40 yd. wide that the fishermen thought was not normal tide foam; the tide was ebbing, and the white light had appeared to drift with it.

The site of the presumed impact was in between an island and the mainland, about 200-300 yd. offshore. Apparently no one actually saw anything enter the water. However two young women driving on the island reported that a horizontal pattern of three yellow lights had tilted and descended, and then a yellow light had appeared on the water. Another witness, about two miles from the site, saw a horizon- tal line of three red-orange lights descending at "aircraft speed," with a whistling sound like a falling bomb. He thought the object was like an aircraft. It disappeared behind some houses, and the sound ceased a second or two later.

The RCMP corporal stated that the light on the water was not on any boat, that Air Search and Rescue had no report of missing aircraft in the area, and an RCAF radar station nearby reported no Canadian or U.S. air operations in the area at the time, nor any unusual radar object. The night was clear and moonless. A search by Navy divers during the days immediately following the sighting disclosed nothing relevant.

Five days later the Naval Maritime Command advised the project that the search had been terminated. The watch officer read a report from the RCMP indicating that at the time in question a 60 ft. object had been seen to explode upon impact with the water.

The captain of a fishing boat that had been about 16 mi. from the site of the earlier reports, reported to the project that he and his crew had seen three stationary bright red flishing lights on the water, trom sundown until about 11:00 p.m. The ship's radar showed four objects forming a six mile square; the three lights were associated with one of these objects. At about 11:00 p.m., one of the lights

went straight up. The captain had judged that the radar objects were naval vessels and the ascending light a helicopter; he had attached no significance to these observations until he had heard on the radio of the sightings; he then reported the foregoing observations to the RCMP. However, since the position he reported for the objects was about 175 n. mi. from the original site, the two situations do not appear to be related.

No further investigation by the project was considered justifiable, particularly in view of the immediate and thorough search that had been carried out by the RCMP and the Maritime Command.