Interior News
Smithers, B.C.
Wednesday, March 20, 2002
95th Year - Week 12
Community Reporter
www.interior-news.com
By Timothy Schafer
The Interior News
Cross Roads For The Galaxy
A thick cloud cover blanketed the Bulkley Valley on the night of February 1, 2002. A day's shopping in Smithers behind them, three women drove down Highway 16 on that Friday, chatting casually about goings on in Houston, their hometown and the trip's destination.
After they passed through Telkwa, around 8:45 p.m., a light in the sky ahead of the car slowed their conversation. Even though the woolly sky reflected back moonlight glancing off the snow, this light stood out oddly in the luminescent, northeastern night sky.
And when it poked through the cloud cover and descended in their direction as they continued down the highway at 90 kilometers per hour. The woman driving slowed the pace of the car to 50 kph. What was this thing? They had to get a better look. But, when the intensity of the light increased as it neared the car, the image of some sort of craft also began to take shape, startling the driver, causing her to step harder on the gas and propel the car forward.
A boomerang-shaped craft, with seven, bright, white lights and two orange lights at either end, appeared. It took a few seconds for the car to pass from under the craft but soon the silvery glow of a winter night sky in the Bulkley Valley closed in around the three women.
That episode ignited one of the most active months of unidentified flying object sightings in the Bulkley Valley in some time. In fact, with 11 reported sightings from 19 witnesses, the area drew national and international attention from ufologists, said Brian Vike, a ufologist and UFO field investigator based in Houston. He has been besieged by calls and requests to provide supporting documentation and insight into this phenomena.
George Filer, the top ufologist in the United States and publisher of the Filer's Files, a weekly newsletter for sightings, has had him as co-guest on National Public Radio's Jeff Rense Show - particularly in the last month since the Bulkley Valley became the crossroads of interstellar traffic.
The February 1, 2002 sighting is on file with the Smithers RCMP but, although they aren't ruling out a craft of some sort, they feel it might be something less glamorous than a UFO. "Whether it was an aircraft or not hasn't been confirmed," said Cpl. Claudette Garcia.
Each of the reported cases Vike has investigated is unrelated. No sightings have been recorded in March so far; in the same time last month Vike had four already.
"So what happened in February? There was definitely a flap here," he said, using the ufologist term for a proliferance of objects being sighted. "We've had this big flap going on, it's just went through the roof. What is it they're seeing? "
The three Houston women, all thirty something, married adults, were credible witnesses, Vike said. But he could not reveal their names due to his intent to retain the confidentiality of the witnesses. "With UFO's people have a funny way of looking down on (witnesses). A lot of people get made fun of " said Vike. "People start coming up with some alien idea". Credibility is something which Vike has struggled with since he dedicated himself to investigating UFO sightings 4 years ago. Working in a field which most rational people consider to be populated by dreamers, charlatans, and daft fellows wearing multi colored beanies with a propeller fixed on top, he quickly established a name for himself internationally for the thoroughness and detail of his investigations. And living in a province where people are considered the most likely in the nation to witness a UFO sighting ... according to a survey done by Winnipeg based ufologist, Chris Ruskowski, in February gave the retired Houston forest products worker plenty to do.
"I don't just get a report, write it and post it to my website," Vike explained. "I investigate". "I do whatever I can do, make phone calls to authorities .... You've really got to try and track stuff down." In the month since the February first sighting, Vike has been narrowing the possibilities. Some explanations for the lights were: airport lights; helicopters; small, fixed wing planes; ski-doos on mountain sides; stars - all of which he ruled out for different reasons.
"What I'm working on here, I can't come up for an explanation for it," he admitted. "I've talked to guys across Canada and they can't come up with anything. Right now it's unknown, but I've got to try and figure it out for myself or it will go down as unknown."
Seven federal government and five military hits to his website have been recorded since the beginning of February. There was the odd hit to the website by government previously, Vike said, but so many its during a time of inordinate amount of sightings is peculiar. "So why are they all interested in it if they aren't really interested in UFO's to begin with, as they say?" Vike asked. Vike was certain there had to be other witnesses to the Telkwa sighting and yet, other than the three Houston women, no-one has come forward. A letter he wrote to the Houston Today uncovered unrelated sightings, but nothing further about February 1st. He hoped plain curiosity, the sort which transformed an amateur astronomer into a ufologist, would compel those people to call him. "I've always had this belief that we can't be the only ones in this vastness", he surmised. "There has to be life of some sort out there. If I can explain this, I will," he concluded. "If I can't .... I'm not going to sit here and pull the wool over anybody's eyes. I want to know too and that's the whole point of doing this."
Smithers, B.C.
Wednesday, March 20, 2002
95th Year - Week 12
Community Reporter
www.interior-news.com
By Timothy Schafer
The Interior News
Cross Roads For The Galaxy
A thick cloud cover blanketed the Bulkley Valley on the night of February 1, 2002. A day's shopping in Smithers behind them, three women drove down Highway 16 on that Friday, chatting casually about goings on in Houston, their hometown and the trip's destination.
After they passed through Telkwa, around 8:45 p.m., a light in the sky ahead of the car slowed their conversation. Even though the woolly sky reflected back moonlight glancing off the snow, this light stood out oddly in the luminescent, northeastern night sky.
And when it poked through the cloud cover and descended in their direction as they continued down the highway at 90 kilometers per hour. The woman driving slowed the pace of the car to 50 kph. What was this thing? They had to get a better look. But, when the intensity of the light increased as it neared the car, the image of some sort of craft also began to take shape, startling the driver, causing her to step harder on the gas and propel the car forward.
A boomerang-shaped craft, with seven, bright, white lights and two orange lights at either end, appeared. It took a few seconds for the car to pass from under the craft but soon the silvery glow of a winter night sky in the Bulkley Valley closed in around the three women.
That episode ignited one of the most active months of unidentified flying object sightings in the Bulkley Valley in some time. In fact, with 11 reported sightings from 19 witnesses, the area drew national and international attention from ufologists, said Brian Vike, a ufologist and UFO field investigator based in Houston. He has been besieged by calls and requests to provide supporting documentation and insight into this phenomena.
George Filer, the top ufologist in the United States and publisher of the Filer's Files, a weekly newsletter for sightings, has had him as co-guest on National Public Radio's Jeff Rense Show - particularly in the last month since the Bulkley Valley became the crossroads of interstellar traffic.
The February 1, 2002 sighting is on file with the Smithers RCMP but, although they aren't ruling out a craft of some sort, they feel it might be something less glamorous than a UFO. "Whether it was an aircraft or not hasn't been confirmed," said Cpl. Claudette Garcia.
Each of the reported cases Vike has investigated is unrelated. No sightings have been recorded in March so far; in the same time last month Vike had four already.
"So what happened in February? There was definitely a flap here," he said, using the ufologist term for a proliferance of objects being sighted. "We've had this big flap going on, it's just went through the roof. What is it they're seeing? "
The three Houston women, all thirty something, married adults, were credible witnesses, Vike said. But he could not reveal their names due to his intent to retain the confidentiality of the witnesses. "With UFO's people have a funny way of looking down on (witnesses). A lot of people get made fun of " said Vike. "People start coming up with some alien idea". Credibility is something which Vike has struggled with since he dedicated himself to investigating UFO sightings 4 years ago. Working in a field which most rational people consider to be populated by dreamers, charlatans, and daft fellows wearing multi colored beanies with a propeller fixed on top, he quickly established a name for himself internationally for the thoroughness and detail of his investigations. And living in a province where people are considered the most likely in the nation to witness a UFO sighting ... according to a survey done by Winnipeg based ufologist, Chris Ruskowski, in February gave the retired Houston forest products worker plenty to do.
"I don't just get a report, write it and post it to my website," Vike explained. "I investigate". "I do whatever I can do, make phone calls to authorities .... You've really got to try and track stuff down." In the month since the February first sighting, Vike has been narrowing the possibilities. Some explanations for the lights were: airport lights; helicopters; small, fixed wing planes; ski-doos on mountain sides; stars - all of which he ruled out for different reasons.
"What I'm working on here, I can't come up for an explanation for it," he admitted. "I've talked to guys across Canada and they can't come up with anything. Right now it's unknown, but I've got to try and figure it out for myself or it will go down as unknown."
Seven federal government and five military hits to his website have been recorded since the beginning of February. There was the odd hit to the website by government previously, Vike said, but so many its during a time of inordinate amount of sightings is peculiar. "So why are they all interested in it if they aren't really interested in UFO's to begin with, as they say?" Vike asked. Vike was certain there had to be other witnesses to the Telkwa sighting and yet, other than the three Houston women, no-one has come forward. A letter he wrote to the Houston Today uncovered unrelated sightings, but nothing further about February 1st. He hoped plain curiosity, the sort which transformed an amateur astronomer into a ufologist, would compel those people to call him. "I've always had this belief that we can't be the only ones in this vastness", he surmised. "There has to be life of some sort out there. If I can explain this, I will," he concluded. "If I can't .... I'm not going to sit here and pull the wool over anybody's eyes. I want to know too and that's the whole point of doing this."
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