Several residents, both in Ottawa and in Gatineau, Que., reported lights smashing into the water around 10 p.m. Monday, along with a thunderous boom.
The calls prompted police, firefighters, paramedics and a helicopter from CFB Trenton to scour the waters for a downed aircraft.
Problem was, there was no physical evidence pointing to a plane wreck: No debris, no oil slick and no indication from airspace authorities that something fell off the radar. There was also no report of a missing aircraft.
The CBC has also reported the incident. Some Canadian bloggers say American authorities were on the scene before Canadian ones had time to respond. The mundane explanation would be that this was "space junk," but some observers report that the object changed direction as it was falling...
Addendum: Stan B makes note of the similarities to the Shag Harbor Incident in Nova Scotia.
Don't know the details on this one, but for a government that scoffs at the very mention of UFO's, the US of A certainly jumps at the very mention- here, Canada, anywhere...
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shag_Harbour_UFO_incident
I heard about this on local radio. I think it was around Britannia bay. It's a pretty urban area with a marina. Most of Ottawa's already forgotten about this little incident.
ReplyDeleteSpace junk can change direction, FWIW. Atmospheric heating burns the surface of the object. If it burns through a metal shell into something more combustible, you can get a directional jet. Could it be little green men in an ailing interstellar spaceship? Maybe, but we know we have tons of dead satellites in decaying orbits around our planet, and decades of dedicated work by SETI and others haven't turned up any confirmable evidence of extra-terrestrial intelligences, much less ETs capable of stopping by for a visit.
ReplyDeleteAs for government jumping on the very mention of UFOs, I imagine that what the government heard was "something fell in the river!" A belief in aliens visiting Earth isn't required for a prompt response to what might be:
a plane wreck,
a potentially interesting dead satellite,
a potentially interesting meteoroid,
a homemade missile,
a not-homemade missile,
or, yes, aliens visiting from outer space.
If we do ever find solid evidence of aliens visiting from outer space, you'll hear about it. There are plenty of people in all areas of science and government who would be too keen to claim credit for establishing contact with another species to keep quiet.
Then someone please explain this UFO Whacko to me...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvPR8T1o3Dc
@jsb - Your explanation about space junk changing course during descent is certainly feasable and aerodynamically possible.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with your point that governments have many valid reasons to respond quickly to (and perhaps hide the results of) non-extraterrestrial impacts.
But your reassurance that the public would certainly be told of any solid evidence requires a bit more faith than I'm willing to expend at this time.
The US government can't even keep military goofups quiet. Why would they be able to keep a lid on news of alien contact?
ReplyDeleteFor Stan B.:
ReplyDelete"Cooper flatly denied the long-standing claim".
People are sometimes recorded saying something and learn more about the subject and realize they were mistaken. Sometimes even while holding on to other, related beliefs, like that a reflection was an alien spacecraft.
Furthermore, how can you say that the US government would be able to suppress a real alien contact when they can't even take retracted video statements by former astronauts off the web? Especially with the increasingly tiny size of cameras these days. Someone would take pics or video and post it to the web, probably within days, if not hours. The skeptical community is a) worldwide so the US government doesn't have control of it* and b) full of people who would love to establish contact with an ET, or even have solid evidence of ETs.
*If the US government had enough control to threaten thousands of smart people scattered across the globe before they could post information to the web, do you really think Fidel Castro, Kim Jong Il, and Osama bin Laden would still be alive?
jsb, your mind lives in a very pleasant, safe, and comfortable world. It must be very reassuring for you.
ReplyDeletedanelle,
ReplyDeleteWith all of the possible worries in the world, from global warming to secessionists carrying loaded pistols near the President to fanatical terrorists and insane dictators trying to get a hold of nuclear weapons, you want me to worry about:
1) aliens who can manage to hide from scientists but can't hide from cell phone cameras
and
2) a US government conspiracy that can get anywhere in the world to capture downed alien spacecraft before the locals sell it for parts and internet fame but can't confiscate cell phone footage within the US
And I'm the one living in a fantasy world? That's the funniest thing I've heard on the internet today.
Oh, no no no Monsieur jsb - I am not at all mocking your comments about ufos, because I too agree that such things are most probable silliness.
ReplyDeleteWhat I tease you about (with good humor) is your faith in governments and perhaps militaries. You fear the terrorists and the dictators and the men with weapons, and you take assurance that the government and armie protect you.
I fear the government(s) and the armies, and they are more real than the flying saucers.
but I am glad to have given you the good laugh.
Now I'm puzzled, danelle. I comment that the military seems to be incompetent at keeping secrets, and you take from that that I rely on them to protect me? You lack logic.
ReplyDeletejsb16- If you bother to actually watch the video... towards the end, Cooper discusses personally witnessing a UFO land and take off directly in front of him (in other interviews he's stated it was close enough to throw a rock at), which was filmed, handed to the Air Force for development, and never to be seen again. He has never, ever refuted that!
ReplyDeleteI realize there is nothing I can personally say to convince you otherwise- no problem. But if you're serious about the subject (and I suspect you're someone who just wants to prove his side), do the homework and study the research and reports of countless aviation, military and police personnel who've seen them, tracked them on radar, done evasive maneuvers around them, risked careers and their physical well being...
You can start with (astrophysicist) Dr. Allen Hyneck who was hired by the US Air Force basically to debunk UFOs as head of Project Bluebook (you may have heard of it)- and who later quit in disgust after repeatedly having to curtail or dismiss investigations in which evidence was willfully ignored, altered, or deleted.
-Hynek, in his book The Hynek UFO Report (p.271 of the paperback edition) wrote that “commercial and military pilots appear to make relatively poor witnesses”.
ReplyDelete-"Sat surveillance is pervasive, covering nearly the entire surface of Earth from high altitude, there for many different reasons, which is good because it means the sats use many different technologies, optics, and ways of surveilling.
I’m unaware of any image of a ‘UFO’ taken by a satellite that has eluded explanation, but there is no lack of sat photos wherein believers see alien ships. There is one from 11/21/99 where a NOAA sat shot ’something’. UFO believers were already pointing out how it emitted steam and had windows when it was quickly identified as the moon. Another internet fable had believers mistaking an out of focus drop of condensed water on a sat-mounted camera lens as a ‘real’ UFO over Florida. Ironically, sats are frequently mistaken for UFOs, especially the NOSS sats, which orbit in a equidistant group of three, confusing witnesses.
Beyond satellites,another damning aspect is the prevalence of so many outdoor security cameras attached to building eaves, utility poles and other sites that afford recorded views of the lower portion of our atmosphere. Where are all the UFOs that should be recorded by these devices? This is even harder to sweep under the conspiracy theory."
-"This makes me think of Carl Sagan and his comparing todays UFO reports with the demon reports of oldern days. The similarities are remarkable. The only things that really has changed in the stories, is that the culprits now use a shiny space craft and look a bit different. The stories are the same though. Abductions, medical and sexual experimentations, walking through walls, coming into the bedroom at around midnight, unable to move or speak during the procedure…"
All from the comments here. Blogger doesn't permit me to use block quotes to make that easier to read, sorry.
Reasoning such as what I've posted and what's above, plus medical research such as these articles on the magnetic field-induced sense of an unidentified intelligent presence do, indeed, mean that you'll have to come up with extraordinary evidence to back up your extraordinary claims. One link to a video of one person claiming to have seen something he couldn't explain is not very convincing.
That "person" was a Mercury astronaut (you know- The Right Stuff), and he never claimed he couldn't explain it- it was as clear and obvious as the desert sun. But you're right- one sighting, just as one fragment of a comment taken out of context proves little. But you won't mind if I put a wee more faith in the word of an astronaut than in yours, jsb16?
ReplyDeleteI know--- What if a bunch of 'em flew in formation over Washington, DC? Let's make it... the Capitol building! Right over that big white dome. How about photographic proof of the event? Nah, too easy. Way too easy. How about confirmation on ground radar? Let's throw in confirmation on air radar from the interceptors that are dispatched to chase them down. How about if these unexplained lights accelerate and leave those interceptors in the dust when they approach? I know-- temperature inversion, swamp gas, meteor shower... mass hysteria (it really does happens you know)!
But whose gonna believe any of that, right? OK- let's up the stakes, what if the exact same scenario (saucers, interceptors, radar, etc) happens again... the very next weekend at the very same time in the very same place?!
Of course, there'd be a perfectly logical explanation for that too, right? Good, cause all the above really did happen in 1952 (see below), and I'm sure you got some twisted, convoluted, but very logical scenario (or dismissal) to cover both!
You're AOK in this country if you believe in winged spirits who live in clouds- but if you dare believe that there is "alien" life in this universe (that has more planets than grains of sand on this entire earth) that is more intelligent than us, there's really something wrong with you!
http://ufos.about.com/od/visualproofphotosvideo/p/washingtondc.htm
I'm not asking you to believe me, Stan. I'm asking you to believe the experts you've cited. Dr. Hynek, whom you brought up, is the one who said that military pilots (which would include Gordon Cooper) aren't reliable witnesses.
ReplyDeleteI looked at the about.com site. All I see is a blurry picture from decades ago, a claim of radar images which aren't presented, and no references to other sources that could confirm the story. To me, this webpage is more evidence that the government cover-up you allege is laughable, since they don't seem to be doing a very good job of hiding the evidence.
You make two extraordinary claims:
1) that aliens who cannot be detected by SETI, a concerted scientific effort to locate the extraterrestrial intelligences that are likely to be out there in the universe, are buzzing the White House and crash-landing in the Ottawa river
and
2) that SIX DECADES of US government, under wildly varying administrations some of whom hated each other, plus SIX DECADES of Soviet, Russian, and Chinese governments, who definitely did hate the US government, cooperated to keep the wonderful news of contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence from reaching the general public.
The US and Chinese governments can't even agree to keep weapons out of the hands of pirates. What evidence do you have that the Chinese would cooperate with the US to hide the existence of aliens? Why wouldn't the Chinese or the Russians claim that they've established such contact and allied themselves with the aliens if there was any evidence for that? Or do you believe that the UFOs are only visiting Western nations?
jsb16- Stick to your out of context quote since it obviously provides you great comfort- and just utterly disregard the second half of Dr. Hynecks's life in which he totally disassociated himself from the Air Force propaganda spin machine and devoted himself to the serious study of the phenomena which he came to believe was anything but smoke and mirrors, hoaxes and lunacy.
ReplyDeleteThe '52 flyover was reported in the paper, the interceptor pursuits are a matter of record, etc, etc. But as predicted, you can't explain it- so you disregard it. Besides, the picture was blurry- what did you expect at night in '52? Ironically, whenever UFO pictures are relatively sharp-- they're photoshopped!!!
Some of the comments you make reveal how little you know of the subject matter- the Russians are a lot more open about there experiences, although no government is going to state what there exact relationship (if any) is with ET's. Sightings occur world over by military, police and aviation personnel- sorry, forgot the word of an astronaut saying one landed right next to him is not good enough for you. If you want videos, there's quite a bit of footage showing UFO's repeatedly buzzing several Mexican military air shows in front of hundreds of witnesses- not to mention the recent footage taken by a Mexican anti drug task force. Belgium has military documentation of repeated waves of giant triangular craft in the '80s & '90s. The most famous aviator in all Japan (a national hero) stated there was a UFO the size of a football field flying next to his 747 in '86- that made network news! I could go on and on and on citing countless scientists and official military & aviation documentation- and you would pull stuff out of context and proceed to dismiss everything else along with it since it doesn't fit your paradigm- which you've already done and will continue to do, which is why I usually refrain from such arguments to begin with... Good Night!
Dr. Wernher von Braun- It is as impossible to confirm them (UFOs) in the present as it will be to deny them in the future.
If Dr. Hynek spent so much time and energy promoting the idea that aliens are
ReplyDelete1) capable of eluding notice by all-sky astronomical surveys, including those specifically designed to find objects moving towards Earth, and Earth-observing satellites
and
2) incapable of avoiding crashing into rivers in full view of people with cellphone cameras
Then surely there's a web trail of his efforts. All I'm asking for is evidence that can be followed, rather than unsubstantiated claims, and you're getting hysterical.