- These pictures are from a videotape
taken from Maple Ridge, about 20 miles east of Vancouver, B.C. Thanks for
Bill Oliver and UFO*BC for providing them.
Shortly after 9:00 pm local time on Friday
evening, November 14, residents of the U.S. Pacific Northwest witnessed
what one person described as "the most bizarre thing I've ever seen...
like something out of 'Star Trek.'"
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- Several brightly luminous objects flew
in formation across the night sky, from west to east, reportedly visible
from parts of British Columbia to as far south as Sacramento, California.
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- Radio and television stations in the
Seattle, Washington metropolitan area were flooded with calls. The Seattle-based
UFO Reporting Center Hotline took more than forty calls in one hour. By
11:00 pm, the three network TV affiliates in the Seattle area, KOMO, KING,
and KIRO, all featured the sightings as their lead news story.
-
- On Saturday morning, CNN showed a brief
video clip shot in Seattle which showed several large, luminous objects
with very long trails of glowing debris arcing over the city.
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- According to the Associated Press, the
phenomenon was the result of a Russian rocket breaking up and burning as
it entered the atmosphere from orbit. The AP quoted Milt Maas at the National
Weather Service in Spokane as saying that pieces of the rocket fell harmlessly
in the Pacific Ocean off the Washington coast. However, other pieces clearly
flew eastward over land, and there was some speculation that debrise may
have fallen in eastern Washington.
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- CNI News received more than a dozen email
reports from people who witnessed the extraordinary aerial show, and additional
mail from people with theories on what it was.
-
- Some agreed with the "official"
story that an aging Russian SL-12 (Proton) rocket, used for launching satellites,
came down more or less as previously predicted by the U.S. Space Command
in Colorado Springs, which tracks all of the thousands of man-made objects
(including numerous fragments of defunct rockets and satellites) currently
orbiting the earth.
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- A writer named Dave reported that "an
excellent video of the lights was recorded by a Vancouver, B.C., TV station
[and] was shown on the local news (KING 5 TV, Seattle). It looked exactly
like the films of the demise of Space Lab over Australia years ago. Definitely
man-made debris re-entering the earth's atmosphere."
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- Other writers pointed out that the annual
Leonid Meteor Shower is nearing its peak (the actual peak date is November
17) and that this year is predicted to be one of the most spectacular meteor
showers in the past 30 years. Occasionally, so-called bolide or fireball
meteors create a display similar to that seen on Friday night. But it would
be highly unusual for a group of bolides to fly across the sky in perfect
formation, as was reported.
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- Several witnesses commented that the
luminous objects seemed to be moving very slowly. One witness estimated
the speed at 200 miles per hour. Several commented that there was absolutely
no sound. One witness contacted the Art Bell "Coast to Coast"
radio program Friday night to say that he had seen a triangle-shaped object.
However, nearly all witnesses reported a group of bright, moving lights.
-
- "These things were flying in formation....
straight across the horizon, but low. My wife thought it was planes at
first, flying in formation here in the valley," one witness wrote.
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- Another writer reported: "My friend
called me from about 10 miles south-east of Everett (Washington). He saw
what he described as a 'circle of white lights.' At least 6 or 7 lights,
maybe more. It appeared as if they were attached to something. They were
not blinking and not rotating. Entire circle of lights was about the size
of thumbnail at arm's length. It was decending 'very quickly' in a nearly
vertical fall. He watched it until he couldn't see it any longer because
the trees in his yard blocked the view. Total duration of sighting was
perhaps 30 seconds."
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- Yet another witness in Aberdeen, Washington
said he was alerted by a phone-call from a fellow worker at 9:07 pm "that
there was a 'really low flying aircraft outside'.
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- "I moved to an exterior landing
which just happened to be facing north and couldn't believe what I saw,"
he said. "A large group of mixed-size objects, red-orange in color,
were traversing the sky from west to east approximately 30 degrees above
the northern horizon. Most of the smaller objects appeared to be 'spark
like' in appearance and slowly winked out... Two red-orange colored objects
larger than the rest appeared to lead the smaller objects. Approximately
fifteen seconds before it passed from view, a third large sized object
appeared to break out... ahead of the two large objects.
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- "I have seen dozens of meteors in
my life and this was most emphatically not acting like any meteor I've
ever seen," this witness wrote. "It maintained a constant speed
and a slightly downward course."
-
- Noting that the local KOMO-TV news was
reporting the cause of the phenomena as "space junk," this witness
added: "If that's the case, 'something' in the space junk ejected
before impact and you and I will never know the truth about this one."
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- Some witnesses clearly were not buying
the official explanations.
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- Mary, a resident of Wenatchee, Washington,
wrote: "I thought at first I was seeing a reflection of traffic [in
the window], because the lights I saw (four of them) were not moving that
fast, and there was a definite formation. I told my husband to look, and
he and my son ran out in the parking lot, just in time to see them disappear
over the plateau, moving east... It is pretty ridiculous to expect anyone
who saw it to believe it was ANYTHING that plunged into the Pacific, or
anything as random as meteors. There was definite formation to it, and...
SO LOW OVER THE LAND...
-
- "I could SEE these objects passing
between me and the hills," Mary insists. "I could SEE that the
objects were between us and towers. It was BELOW the mountain top, IN
THE VALLEY. It was no optical illusion, as I had PLENTY of time to watch
it, resume eating my dinner, look up again and watch some more, before
I decided that it was not a plane, not a reflection, not a fireball.
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- "I don't chase aliens or UFOs, and
there is absolutely no reason for me to make anything like this up,"
she added. "Why is it so hard to expect government or media to tell
the truth, even if the truth is 'We just don't know what it was'?"
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- CNI News is a twice-monthly electronic
newsletter addressing UFO phenomena, claims of human-alien contact, space
exploration and related issues, including the cultural and political impacts
of contact with other intelligent life. CNI News is edited by Michael Lindemann
and distributed by the 2020 Group.
-
- CNI News is a subscription newsletter.
First-time recipients may receive two free issues before subscribing. For
more information on how to subscribe, please see the notice at the end
of this issue. Questions and comments may be addressed to: Editor, CNINews1@aol.com.
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