Look up in the sky

DISCLAIMER: The Ol' Columnist has never seen Ogopogo or Big Foot or even a UFO. Yet. -- Dated: July 1, 2005.

Throughout history, there have been tales of little green men from outer space. And, undoubtedly, this year as it has been for generations, there will be a glut of supposed sightings of unidentified flying objects.
There have been accounts dating back thousands of years and a lengthy description of a "flying wheel" that Ezekiel encountered during biblical times.
Most UFO sightings will and can be explained as illusions, natural phenomena or one having too much caffeine, or something stronger in one's body.
Just last Friday in Xalapa, Mexico, a supposedly massive UFO sighting was witnessed by Xalapa's governor, Herrera Beltran, members of his staff, officers from the Xalapa police department, and even newspaper and TV reporters, who were in Casa Veracruz for an official ceremony for the delivery of new patrol cars. The "amazing incident" took place at 10:30 a.m. just after the governor had finished his speech.
According to a newspaper report, the spectacular UFO fleet of at least 14 unknown flying objects shocked the gathering who, pointing to the sky, screamed: "OVNIs OVNIs!!"
Then, the sightings came down to earth with a sudden thud when Monday's edition of the El Diario de Xalapa newspaper explained the objects were just balloons released by some kids on Friday morning.
Even closer to the ol' homestead, this May 13 report from someone in Vernon was sent to HBCC UFO Research director Brian Vike. It read: "Last night a star like object appeared low in the western sky and flew east over downtown Vernon. It was no higher than the small planes fly when they fly out of our airport. This star light object was flying about the same speed as the small aircraft do. There was no sound when it flew over my home."
While there are countless fables about UFOs, one that caught my attention, occurred on November 17, 1986. It seems that a walnut-shaped object, twice the size of an aircraft carrier, chased a Japan Air Lines 747 cargo jet over Alaska. It was captured on the radar screens of air traffic controllers.
Originally, both the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Air Force verified the large UFO had appeared on radar hovering within five miles of the cargo jet, which was traveling between Iceland and Anchorage, Alaska.
Then the U.S. authorities backtracked and called the sighting a "split image' and later claimed it was a computer malfunction.
Veteraan JAL pilot Kenju Terauchi, who was based in Anchorage, had a different take. He claims there were three UFOs -- one of spectacular immensity -- and two small, walnut-shaped craft with two panels of lights. The objects darted quickly and occasionally stopped suddenly -- once appearing in front of his cockpit. They instantly disappeared and reappeared. "They were flying parallel and then suddenly approached very close," he said.
Do you remember Mercury astronaut, Gordon Cooper?
During the final orbit of the capsule's 22-orbit journey around the earth on May 15, 1963, Major Cooper told the tracking station at Muchea (near Perth Australia) that he could see a glowing, greenish object ahead of him quickly approaching his capsule. The UFO was real and solid, because it was picked up by Muchea's tracking radar. When he landed, officials wouldn't allow him to tell about what he saw in space.
Cooper was a firm believer in UFOs, for 10 years earlier, in 1951, he had sighted a UFO while piloting an F-86 Sabrejet over Western Germany. They were metallic, saucer-shaped discs at considerable altitude and could out-manoeuver all American fighter planes.
In testifying before the United Nations, Cooper said: "I believe that these extra-terrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets... Most astronauts were reluctant to discuss UFOs. I did have occasion in 1951 to have two days of observation of many flights of them, of different sizes, flying in fighter formation, generally from east to west over Europe."
Later, Cooper was even more blunt: "For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists in astronautics. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us. And there are thousands of witness reports and a quantity of documents to prove this, but nobody wants to make them public. Why? Because authority is afraid that people may think of God knows what kind of horrible invaders. So the password still is: We have to avoid panic by all means."
In concludion, he was quoted as saying: "I was furthermore a witness to an extraordinary phenomenon, here on this planet Earth. It happened ... in Florida. There I saw with my own eyes a defined area of ground being consumed by flames, with four indentions left by a flying object which had descended in the middle of a field. Beings had left the craft (there were other traces to prove this). They seemed to have studied topography, they had collected soil samples and, eventually, they returned to where they had come from, disappearing at enormous speed .. . I happen to know that authority did just about everything to keep this incident from the press and TV, in fear of a panicky reaction from the public."
Gordon Cooper died at his home in Ventura, California on October 4, 2004. He was 77.