Hi all,
This is the third and final post in a series about events reported by a Victorian woman, Maureen Puddy.
RAAF file:
The RAAF file refers to media appearances. Investigators Garry Little and Bill Stapleton's report advises that on the 26 Jul 1972 Maureen telephoned three television stations and one interviewed her. Radio station 3AW had her speak on an open-line program, during which two other callers confirmed having seen something in the area at the time. The first, the wife of a man leading a cow, called to say that her husband had seen a blue light, but didn't go back to have a look. The second was one of a couple who reported having seen a blue light in the sky.
More events:
On or about 22 Feb 1973 Maureen says she heard the voice again, as it called out all night long. In the morning, she felt an eerie presence following her around. She received some type of "flash" telling her to go back to the place of contact. She rang Little and Stapleton but could get neither of them. She then contacted another UFO group and two of their investigators arranged to meet her at the spot.
While she was driving to the place of contact, a "man" appeared in the passenger seat of her vehicle, right beside her. The "man" had long, blonde hair and wore a ski suit of a fabric looking like white satin, tucked in at the arms. The trousers went over his feet and were baggy. He was sitting there looking straight ahead, legs together and hands placed on his knees. Maureen says she nearly ran the car off the road and almost crashed out of sheer shock. She noted that the headlights of oncoming cars shone "through him." After a while he just wasn't there any longer.
She arrived at the spot where she was to meet the two investigators and found they were already there. One of them got into her car on the front passenger's side and stated that there seemed to be a "presence" in the car. Their hair stood on end. Maureen then related what had happened to her on the way there.
All three sat in her car. The "man" appeared again on the side of the road, but only Maureen could see him. She thought that the "man" was motioning for her to get out of the car but she refused to do so.
The "room":
The "man" came over and stood right by the car. One of the investigators got out of the car and walked to where the "man" stood, but the "man" moved away from him. Maureen was asked to see whether she could make the "man" appear to them as well. She did this but the "man" shook his head.
Suddenly, Maureen went into a trance-like state, holding on to an investigator's hand. Maureen related that she was no longer in the car but instead was in a "round room.The 1.6m tall "man" was also there. There was a strange "thing" in the room with them. The man suddenly disappeared. The "thing" was described as mushroom stemmed, with a flat top and a dome on top of this. There was a half-sphere inside, apparently floating around in fluid. Roman numerals, with what looked like Egyptian hieroglyphics were on it. This "machine" was swaying from side to side.
The "man" appeared again, telling Maureen to describe what she saw, which she did. The two investigators, sitting in the car, heard her describe where she was. Then Maureen became upset because she could not see any doors out of the room, nor any windows. There were no visible sources of illumination, yet the room was well lit. She started to panic and began to cry, then woke up from the trance-like state.
No recall:
Maureen told the two investigators that she could not remember anything she had just said to them. The investigators recalled what she had just told them. They all then went back to Maureen's house for a cup of tea. While at home, Maureen again found herself in the mysterious "room." However, on this occasion Maureen was simultaneously aware of being both in this room, and at home. This duality lasted only a short time.
A week later:
About a week later, on a rainy day, Maureen was out driving with her son, who by this time was out of hospital. The "man" from the "room" suddenly appeared, sitting between Maureen and her son, on the front bench seat of Maureen's car. The "man" then simply disappeared. They were on the Mooraduc Road at the time, this time in broad daylight. While the "man" had been there the rain seemed to stop and visibility was good. As soon as he had gone the rain returned. In somewhat of an understatement, Maureen, said that "This was not a normal event."
My comments:
Here is an event which started off along similar line to that of Yerecoin and Boyup Brook, but then became very complex. It remains one of the oddest Australian cases of its type. We have two encounters with an unsual aerial phenomenon; odd voices speaking to Maureen; a being appearing on a number of occasions, and several other reports from the night of one of the encounters.
3 Jul 1972 - Initial encounter with an object.
25 Jul 1972 - Second encounter. Vehicle reportedly stopped itself. "Message" given to Maureen.
Ca 22 Feb 1973 - Eerie presence at home. Called back to the location. "Man" appears in her car. "Man" appears while she is in presence of two investigators who cannot see him. Maureen lapses into an altered state of consciousness and describes being in a "room" somewhere.
Ca 29 Feb 1973 - "Man" again appears in her car.
According to the sources I consulted there were multiple witnesses to other events on the 25 Jul 1972.
1. Main Ridge - 38.4S 144.97E. Ca10km S of Dromana. Mr and Mrs Beale. Ca 10pm. Light travelling W to E at high speed. Whirring/humming noise. 2 minutes. Marked fluctuation in electric power.
2. Montrose - 38.8S 145.35E. Ca40km NNE of Frankston. Mr and Mrs Toal. After 8pm. 50 secs. Glow in sky to SSW. 5 deg elevation. Blue white object. No sound.
3. Knoxville - Mr and Mrs Davis. Between 2100-2200hrs. Object travelling NW to NW. High speed. 3 seconds. Blue/red/yellow lights.
4. Mooraduc Road -Man with cow. Saw blue light.
Only 4. ties in closely with Maureen's report. Unfortunately, no one interviewed this witness. It is said his wife called in to the 'talk back' show.
A check of the night sky for the 25 Jul 1972 at around 2115hrs confims that the Moon was full, and some 64 degrees above the ENE sky.
All in all, this is a perplexing example of the "core" phenomenon.
I'd be pleased to hear from anyone who can suggest any explanation for this series of events.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Cold case investigation - Frankston, Vic - July 1972 - Part two
Hi all,
This post continues the intriguing story of a Victorian woman who reported two close encounters over a short period of time in July 1972, as told to me by investigators Bill Stapleton and Garry Little who conducted several interviews with the witness at the time. In addition, for the first time, the RAAF's account of these events is also discussed, with their perspective taken from now available RAAF files.
A voice calls her name:
Maureen Puddy visited her son in hospital every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The first encounter with the unusual object had been on Monday 3 Jul 1972. She continued this sequence of visits to her son, until the week beginning Monday 24 Jul 1972. In this week there was a petrol shortage, and she altered her schedule that week, intending to visit her son on Tuesday, and Thursday to conserve petrol.
Therefore, she was home on the evening of Monday 24 Jul, with her husband and daughter. At approximately 8pm, she thought she heard someone calling her name. She checked with both her daughter and her husband but it was neither of them. They had heard nothing to account for the voice. At 11.30pm Maureen went to bed, but throughout the night she was unable to sleep properly, because of a female voice calling her name slowly. It was definitely not her daughter.
Thinking it might be an old lady she knew from down the road, Maureen went outside to look, but no-one was there. Upon reflection, she believed that the voice may have been in her head, not coming from outside, like normal audio input. This voice sounded human, not mechanical.
The second encounter:
On Tuesday 25 Jul 1972 Maureen was again travelling home from the hospital, when, at the same location and about the same time as the event on 3 Jul 1972, another incident happened.
At the railway crossing she had stopped her car to let a man leading a cow cross first, then accelerated away. This placed her a few hundred metres from the crossing when the road was again lit up by a blue light. She recalls thinking "My God, it's back," then deciding she wouldn't stop for anything, and accelerated away from the location.
Suddenly, the vehicle's engine cut out, as it would if the ignition key had been turned to the off position. Maureen tried turning the key off, then on again, but this had no effect. The car glided to the side of the road and stopped, all by itself. During this brief period when it was gliding, its direction could not be changed by turning the steering wheel; pumping the brake was to no avail, and putting the gears through various positions did nothing. However, the vehicle's lights remained on all the time.
The message:
Maureen maintains that there was no usual road bumps as the car came to a stop. In fact, there was no sensation of the road being under the wheels. Naturally, by this time, Maureen was terrified. All sound "drained out of the air" and there was an eerie silence. She felt as though she was "sitting in a tube - a completely closed, vacuum tube." Next, she felt she was receiving some audio impressions, but could not understand them. She then heard the impressions in "perfect English," making them perfectly understandable.
She later stated that this voice or impressions sounded too perfect, just like a mechanical recording. It seemed to be inside her head. The voice said "All your tests will be negative," then there was a 2-3 second pause, then "Tell the media. Do not panic. We mean no harm." Then another pause estimated as a minute long, and finally the voice said "You now have control."
During this entire period, which lasted an estimated minute and a half, Maureen had sat with her two hands clutching the steering wheel. She believed she could have moved if she had wanted but decided to remain still. As the audio impressions finished, the car's engine started by itself, the blue light went away and the object was gone. It was no longer visible through the top of the windscreen. At this moment another motor vehicle approached along the road.
Report to the police:
Maureen put the car into gear and once more drove to the Rosebud police station to report seeing the object. The police took her statement. When she reached home she called the RAAF and they sent her out another form to complete and return.
RAAF files:
We now have access to the RAAF files, which were not available in 1972. I located this second report form on National Archives of Australia file series A703 control symbol 580/1/1 Part 7.
Page 91 of the file is a memo from Headquarters Support Command to Directorate of Air Force Intelligence dated 21 Aug 1972. "Attached are questionnaire forms completed by Mesdames Puddy, Beale and Toal, giving their impressions of unusual aerial sightings on 25 Jul 1972. The three reports have been treated as one and the C Intel's remarks appear as part 2 of the pro-forma" This memo was signed by Wing Commander W C Keitz.
File pages 91-93 are Maureen's report. The date of the event is 25 Jul 1972. Time 9.15pm (within 10 minutes). The duration "Approx 5 minutes." Location "Mooraduc." Weather "Fine." Object was "Above car." A "Blue light" attracted her attention. "Irredescent (sic) blue light." No obvious method of propulsion. No sound. 100ft up. "It did not move." Duration of stationary phase "5 minutes." Last observed "Above car." "Just vanished."
To the question "How many witnesses to the sighting?" she wrote "1 man said he saw the light, other reports of light being seen." A sketch was drawn and shows an oval object "70ft approx" high and width "60-70ft" compared to the "24ft macadam strip of roadway." The report was signed M Puddy and dated 28 Jul 1972.
Other sightings:
Pages 96-98 are a report by a William Beale, aged 63, and Mary Beale of Browns Road, Main Ridge, Vic. At about 10pm 25 Jul 1972 they observed, for two minutes, as they went outside the house; then from inside with window open, in perfect weather conditions, an unusual aerial object.
It was first observed to the West of their property. Their attention was drawn by the "fact that this object seemed to appear suddenly over tree-tops." "The object seemed surrounded by light." "Pinkish glow."
To a question about "any method of propulsion obvious?" the answer was "Rapid movement but not jet-like." Any noise "Sort of hum. No engine noise." It was never stationary and was last seen heading east," rising steadily." There was a final handwritten comment "Sorry this is so brief, but so was our sighting, but we are both quite sure of what we did see." The form was dated 31 Jul 1972.
Page 99-101 are a report by Florence May Toal, 53, of Montrose, Vic. After 8pm on 25 Jul 1972 (within 30 minutes) for 50 seconds, at home she saw, on a clear moonlit night, a glow in the sky. It was first seen in the sky, direction south-south-west at an angle of 5 degrees, "What first attracted observer's attention?" "A glow against the dark Dandenongs." It was a "Blue white glow." Its brightness was said to be a "Blue light headlight at 300 yards." There was no sound. There were two other witnesses, her husband and daughter. At the end of the form was a handwritten statement.
"I saw the light through my back window and called my husband and daughter to look because we are always conscious of the likelihood of a plane crash in the dark. I walked out in the yard to hear what it was but there was no sound at all. My daughter and I stayed and watched then turned to go inside as we did not see it travel at all. The reflection of the filament inside a 60 watt fixture of globe was approximately the size of the light. If it was at the Frankston area at the time it would be 15 miles from here sot it would have been quite a size." The report form was dated 1 Aug 1972.
RAAF evaluation:
Page 102 is "Page 4 -Part 2 - Unit evaluation." The observer's location is given as 3814S and 14510E. Wind was calm. No temperature invesrions.
Page 103 is page 5 Q40 "The cause (or likely cause) of this sighting cannot be determined." Q41 "The object reported probably was/may have been..." "Unknown."
There is then a lengthy handwritten note by the RAAF investigating officer, which continues on pages 104-105. "The information supplied by Mrs Puddy on the attached proforma differs markedly from that reported to the Duty Officer on the evening...On that occasion Mrs Puddy reported as follows:
She said that the object, like two saucers together, silvery blue in colour, appeared above the road emitting blue lights. The object "Took control of the car" so that Mrs P pulled over to the roadside but could not open the doors, nor could she restart the engine. She reported that she "sensed" but did not hear the following message. "All your tests will be negative. Tell the media not to panic. We mean no harm. You now have control." The UFO then vanished and a very scared Mrs P started the car and headed home via the Rye police station. It subsequently transpired that she had reported the incident to the Rosebud police station. Senior Constable Cox of Rosebud told me that Mrs P was known to him, and appeared to be a rational woman not given to great flights of fancy. He was somewhat amazed when Mrs P asked him the meaning of the word "media." She said she had never heard it before. Senior Constable Cox also advised that a Mr and Mrs Beale of Brown's Road, Main Ridge had advised him that while watching TV at about 2200 the same night there was a marked fluctuation in the electrical power which caused him to leave the house and check the emergency power in his poultry shed.
While outdoors (the Constable continues) Mr Beale said he saw an object over the hills which illuminated the whole area with a blue light. Const Cox said the B described the appearance of the object in similar terms to those used by Mrs P.
I telephoned Mrs Beale who stated that her husband, while doing a check of the temperatures in his poultry sheds at about 2200, saw a peculiar light travelling from west to east at high speed, emitting a whinning/humming sound. He rushed indoors, switched off all lights and tried to focus on the object with binoculars. The object disappeared before it could be focussed on. Mrs Beale said she would have put the matter out of her mind had she not heard Mrs Puddy talking on a radio "talk back" show.
The "talk back" show also prompted Mrs Toal to phone on Wednesday 26th to say that " Some time after 8pm" she had seen a blue light through gap in the lower Dandenongs to the south of Montrose. She said she would have ignored it had she not heard Mrs P on the radio "talk back" show.
A Mrs Davis of 61 Kathryn Street Knoxville ( who has not so far returned a proforma sent to her) also phoned to say that on the night in question between 2100 and 2200 while outdoors with her husband they saw an object travelling at "enormous speed" from NE to NW. The object was visible for about 3 seconds and appeared to have blue, red and yellow lights. Conditions were cloudless sky with bright moonlight, or in Mrs Davis' words "a (unreadable word) Moon." Her report was prompted by hearing a news item on the radio referring to an unexplained light in the Rye/Rosebud area.
On the previous occasion when Mrs Puddy reported sighting a UFO she showed reluctance to become involved with any investigation at official level; however on this occasion she talked freely with the announcer conducting the "talk back" show. Efforts to contact Mrs Puddy by telephone on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday following the alleged sighting were unsuccessful, however I believe she also talked to representatives from the press.
This report has been delayed awaiting the part 1 report, which was not received until 17 Aug 72."
Dated 21 Aug 1972.
(To be continued.)
This post continues the intriguing story of a Victorian woman who reported two close encounters over a short period of time in July 1972, as told to me by investigators Bill Stapleton and Garry Little who conducted several interviews with the witness at the time. In addition, for the first time, the RAAF's account of these events is also discussed, with their perspective taken from now available RAAF files.
A voice calls her name:
Maureen Puddy visited her son in hospital every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The first encounter with the unusual object had been on Monday 3 Jul 1972. She continued this sequence of visits to her son, until the week beginning Monday 24 Jul 1972. In this week there was a petrol shortage, and she altered her schedule that week, intending to visit her son on Tuesday, and Thursday to conserve petrol.
Therefore, she was home on the evening of Monday 24 Jul, with her husband and daughter. At approximately 8pm, she thought she heard someone calling her name. She checked with both her daughter and her husband but it was neither of them. They had heard nothing to account for the voice. At 11.30pm Maureen went to bed, but throughout the night she was unable to sleep properly, because of a female voice calling her name slowly. It was definitely not her daughter.
Thinking it might be an old lady she knew from down the road, Maureen went outside to look, but no-one was there. Upon reflection, she believed that the voice may have been in her head, not coming from outside, like normal audio input. This voice sounded human, not mechanical.
The second encounter:
On Tuesday 25 Jul 1972 Maureen was again travelling home from the hospital, when, at the same location and about the same time as the event on 3 Jul 1972, another incident happened.
At the railway crossing she had stopped her car to let a man leading a cow cross first, then accelerated away. This placed her a few hundred metres from the crossing when the road was again lit up by a blue light. She recalls thinking "My God, it's back," then deciding she wouldn't stop for anything, and accelerated away from the location.
Suddenly, the vehicle's engine cut out, as it would if the ignition key had been turned to the off position. Maureen tried turning the key off, then on again, but this had no effect. The car glided to the side of the road and stopped, all by itself. During this brief period when it was gliding, its direction could not be changed by turning the steering wheel; pumping the brake was to no avail, and putting the gears through various positions did nothing. However, the vehicle's lights remained on all the time.
The message:
Maureen maintains that there was no usual road bumps as the car came to a stop. In fact, there was no sensation of the road being under the wheels. Naturally, by this time, Maureen was terrified. All sound "drained out of the air" and there was an eerie silence. She felt as though she was "sitting in a tube - a completely closed, vacuum tube." Next, she felt she was receiving some audio impressions, but could not understand them. She then heard the impressions in "perfect English," making them perfectly understandable.
She later stated that this voice or impressions sounded too perfect, just like a mechanical recording. It seemed to be inside her head. The voice said "All your tests will be negative," then there was a 2-3 second pause, then "Tell the media. Do not panic. We mean no harm." Then another pause estimated as a minute long, and finally the voice said "You now have control."
During this entire period, which lasted an estimated minute and a half, Maureen had sat with her two hands clutching the steering wheel. She believed she could have moved if she had wanted but decided to remain still. As the audio impressions finished, the car's engine started by itself, the blue light went away and the object was gone. It was no longer visible through the top of the windscreen. At this moment another motor vehicle approached along the road.
Report to the police:
Maureen put the car into gear and once more drove to the Rosebud police station to report seeing the object. The police took her statement. When she reached home she called the RAAF and they sent her out another form to complete and return.
RAAF files:
We now have access to the RAAF files, which were not available in 1972. I located this second report form on National Archives of Australia file series A703 control symbol 580/1/1 Part 7.
Page 91 of the file is a memo from Headquarters Support Command to Directorate of Air Force Intelligence dated 21 Aug 1972. "Attached are questionnaire forms completed by Mesdames Puddy, Beale and Toal, giving their impressions of unusual aerial sightings on 25 Jul 1972. The three reports have been treated as one and the C Intel's remarks appear as part 2 of the pro-forma" This memo was signed by Wing Commander W C Keitz.
File pages 91-93 are Maureen's report. The date of the event is 25 Jul 1972. Time 9.15pm (within 10 minutes). The duration "Approx 5 minutes." Location "Mooraduc." Weather "Fine." Object was "Above car." A "Blue light" attracted her attention. "Irredescent (sic) blue light." No obvious method of propulsion. No sound. 100ft up. "It did not move." Duration of stationary phase "5 minutes." Last observed "Above car." "Just vanished."
To the question "How many witnesses to the sighting?" she wrote "1 man said he saw the light, other reports of light being seen." A sketch was drawn and shows an oval object "70ft approx" high and width "60-70ft" compared to the "24ft macadam strip of roadway." The report was signed M Puddy and dated 28 Jul 1972.
Other sightings:
Pages 96-98 are a report by a William Beale, aged 63, and Mary Beale of Browns Road, Main Ridge, Vic. At about 10pm 25 Jul 1972 they observed, for two minutes, as they went outside the house; then from inside with window open, in perfect weather conditions, an unusual aerial object.
It was first observed to the West of their property. Their attention was drawn by the "fact that this object seemed to appear suddenly over tree-tops." "The object seemed surrounded by light." "Pinkish glow."
To a question about "any method of propulsion obvious?" the answer was "Rapid movement but not jet-like." Any noise "Sort of hum. No engine noise." It was never stationary and was last seen heading east," rising steadily." There was a final handwritten comment "Sorry this is so brief, but so was our sighting, but we are both quite sure of what we did see." The form was dated 31 Jul 1972.
Page 99-101 are a report by Florence May Toal, 53, of Montrose, Vic. After 8pm on 25 Jul 1972 (within 30 minutes) for 50 seconds, at home she saw, on a clear moonlit night, a glow in the sky. It was first seen in the sky, direction south-south-west at an angle of 5 degrees, "What first attracted observer's attention?" "A glow against the dark Dandenongs." It was a "Blue white glow." Its brightness was said to be a "Blue light headlight at 300 yards." There was no sound. There were two other witnesses, her husband and daughter. At the end of the form was a handwritten statement.
"I saw the light through my back window and called my husband and daughter to look because we are always conscious of the likelihood of a plane crash in the dark. I walked out in the yard to hear what it was but there was no sound at all. My daughter and I stayed and watched then turned to go inside as we did not see it travel at all. The reflection of the filament inside a 60 watt fixture of globe was approximately the size of the light. If it was at the Frankston area at the time it would be 15 miles from here sot it would have been quite a size." The report form was dated 1 Aug 1972.
RAAF evaluation:
Page 102 is "Page 4 -Part 2 - Unit evaluation." The observer's location is given as 3814S and 14510E. Wind was calm. No temperature invesrions.
Page 103 is page 5 Q40 "The cause (or likely cause) of this sighting cannot be determined." Q41 "The object reported probably was/may have been..." "Unknown."
There is then a lengthy handwritten note by the RAAF investigating officer, which continues on pages 104-105. "The information supplied by Mrs Puddy on the attached proforma differs markedly from that reported to the Duty Officer on the evening...On that occasion Mrs Puddy reported as follows:
She said that the object, like two saucers together, silvery blue in colour, appeared above the road emitting blue lights. The object "Took control of the car" so that Mrs P pulled over to the roadside but could not open the doors, nor could she restart the engine. She reported that she "sensed" but did not hear the following message. "All your tests will be negative. Tell the media not to panic. We mean no harm. You now have control." The UFO then vanished and a very scared Mrs P started the car and headed home via the Rye police station. It subsequently transpired that she had reported the incident to the Rosebud police station. Senior Constable Cox of Rosebud told me that Mrs P was known to him, and appeared to be a rational woman not given to great flights of fancy. He was somewhat amazed when Mrs P asked him the meaning of the word "media." She said she had never heard it before. Senior Constable Cox also advised that a Mr and Mrs Beale of Brown's Road, Main Ridge had advised him that while watching TV at about 2200 the same night there was a marked fluctuation in the electrical power which caused him to leave the house and check the emergency power in his poultry shed.
While outdoors (the Constable continues) Mr Beale said he saw an object over the hills which illuminated the whole area with a blue light. Const Cox said the B described the appearance of the object in similar terms to those used by Mrs P.
I telephoned Mrs Beale who stated that her husband, while doing a check of the temperatures in his poultry sheds at about 2200, saw a peculiar light travelling from west to east at high speed, emitting a whinning/humming sound. He rushed indoors, switched off all lights and tried to focus on the object with binoculars. The object disappeared before it could be focussed on. Mrs Beale said she would have put the matter out of her mind had she not heard Mrs Puddy talking on a radio "talk back" show.
The "talk back" show also prompted Mrs Toal to phone on Wednesday 26th to say that " Some time after 8pm" she had seen a blue light through gap in the lower Dandenongs to the south of Montrose. She said she would have ignored it had she not heard Mrs P on the radio "talk back" show.
A Mrs Davis of 61 Kathryn Street Knoxville ( who has not so far returned a proforma sent to her) also phoned to say that on the night in question between 2100 and 2200 while outdoors with her husband they saw an object travelling at "enormous speed" from NE to NW. The object was visible for about 3 seconds and appeared to have blue, red and yellow lights. Conditions were cloudless sky with bright moonlight, or in Mrs Davis' words "a (unreadable word) Moon." Her report was prompted by hearing a news item on the radio referring to an unexplained light in the Rye/Rosebud area.
On the previous occasion when Mrs Puddy reported sighting a UFO she showed reluctance to become involved with any investigation at official level; however on this occasion she talked freely with the announcer conducting the "talk back" show. Efforts to contact Mrs Puddy by telephone on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday following the alleged sighting were unsuccessful, however I believe she also talked to representatives from the press.
This report has been delayed awaiting the part 1 report, which was not received until 17 Aug 72."
Dated 21 Aug 1972.
(To be continued.)
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Cold case investigation - Frankston, Vic - July 1972 - Part one
Hi all,
My last couple of cold case investigations have both involved single witnesses in a motor vehicle, when an unusual object has approached them, as opposed to cases where a witness comes across a landed object.
In the 15 Nov 1967 Yerecoin, WA event, Alan Pool was in his land rover when a grey, 3.6m diameter, 1.5m high object rapidly approached him and hovered close by his vehicle. It left vertically, at speed. There was no effect on the vehicle and Pool reported his encounter to police.
The 30 Oct 1967 Boyup Brook, WA event involved a man on his own, in a motor vehicle. His vehicle suddenly stopped and all electrical systems failed. A tube of light shone on him, from a 9m diameter, oval shaped object, some 30m above the car. The object left at speed. The witness told the police about the encounter.
When researching these two cases I immediately thought back to a similar event which happened in the state of Victoria in 1972. Here, the witness in this case reported two encounters and some really unusual side events. She reported the incidents to the police and to the RAAF. However, at the time of the events no researcher had ever seen the material which lay in the RAAF files until many years later. In this post I report on the case; including the RAAF material, which will be new to most readers.
The first encounter:
On 3 Jul 1972, 37 year old Maureen Puddy, a resident of Rye, in Victoria, Australia, was driving her station wagon near a railway crossing on the Mooraduc Road, between Frankston and Dromana, when an unusual event occurred.
The following details were provided to me by investigators Garry Little (now deceased) and Bill Stapleton of Melbourne who conducted a number of interviews with Mrs Puddy at the time the events were happening to her.
At 9.15pm local time (GMT plus 9hrs) Maureen was driving home alone in her 1963 Holden station wagon, after visiting her son who was in hospital in the Melbourne suburb of Heidelberg.
Just after she had passed the railway crossing, a blue light lit up the road. At first, she thought the light was coming from a helicopter, of the sort which had airlifted her son to hospital. So, she didn't take too much notice of it, though later, she recalled that she had heard no noise which was strange if it had been a helicopter. Even so, it was too low for a normal flight, so she became alarmed and accelerated trying to get ahead of the light. This didn't work, so she tried slowing down thinking that the light would be lost in this way. Instead, the light stayed with her.
Eventually she stopped the vehicle, reasoning that the helicopter pilot might have been trying to attract her attention for some reason. Maureen later said that stopping in the isolated locality is something she would not have normally done.
The object:
Shielding her eyes against the light, she looked up to see an object in the sky which was not a helicopter. She panicked, for it was shaped like "two saucers placed lip to lip." It appeared stationary, some 20-30m behind the car, at an estimated height of about 20-30 metres, thus making it at a 45 degree angular elevation in the sky.
At this location, the road is some 8m wide. Using this as an estimate, she thought the object was 32-40m across and 5-6m high. It had no seams, windows, aerials or other protruberances of any kind. A silver-blue iridescent light radiated from it and it was this that had lit up the road. When Maureen got out of the car she said she heard a low volume, humming noise, which she likened to a moving elevator (lift.)
Her immediate reaction was to get away from it as fast as she could, so she got in her car and drove off at high speed. As she was driving away, she noted that the object was visible through the driver's window and also through the top of the windscreen. In fact, the object appeared to be keeping station over the car. This situation continued on for 12 kilometres, after which the object moved backwards; there was a "streak" of light, and the object was lost to view.
Police:
As the Rosebud police station was nearby, Maureen drove there and reported seeing the object. The next day she called the RAAF and reported the encounter to them. They sent out a report form to her which she completed and returned.
RAAF form:
The form which Maureen completed can now be found in the National Archives of Australia on file series A703 control symbol 580/1/1 Part 7 pages 26-28. I have never seen this detail published before so it is well worth recording here.
The form identified the witness as Maureen Puddy, age 37 of Rye, Victoria. She gave her occupation as "housewife." The date is shown as 3 Jul 1972, and the time as 9pm. To the question "How accurate is the time of start?" she wrote "10 mins either side." The duration is given as "15 to 20 minutes." The location is stated as "Mooraduc level crossing (train)." Maureen wrote she had an "excellent" familiarity with that location.
The weather at the time is described as "Very good. Weather clear." The object was first sighted "Above car, 20ft forward." "Approx 45 deg angle." Her attention had been first attracted by "Irrodescent (sic) blue light." The object had been "Light blue" in colour. It was "exceptionally bright." Apparent size at closest approach is given as "Approx 100ft up. Size 2 stories high. Wide than the road." "No" was the answer ro "16. Was any method of propulsion obvious.?"
Asked about sound, she wrote "Light sound. Similar to elevator." It was "Approx 100ft off the ground." "Hovering." To "Give duration of any stationary phase" she wrote "2 minutes." Then "followed car." There was no trail, exhaust, vapour, or light seen. It was last observed at "Junction Mooraduc & Nepean Highway."
The form asked "What natural phenomenon...would be nearest to explaining your observation?" Maureen wrote "Nothing." "Nothing known like it or seen like it." A sketch is then provided showing an oval object - height "Approx 20ft." The form was signed M Puddy and dated 7 Jul 1972.
Page 29 of the RAAF file is a handwritten note by Maureen, which reads:
"First indication was blue light across road. Thought it was helicopter landing speeded to pass out of light. Kept up with me. I then slowed to approximately 20mph. It slowed down too. I speed up again light followed. I then pulled to the side of the road thinking helicopter was in trouble. Got out and there it was approx two light poles high off the ground and the only noise was a light purring sound like a lift.
I froze for about 2 minutes then got into the car and took off at high speed to escape. It followed me approx 8 miles according to the police at Rosebud to whom I reported it at aprox 9.15pm Monday 3rd July 1972.
Enclosed is a drawing I did on arriving home while it was still very clear in my mind. No portholes or windows only a very bright light."
Page 25 of the file is a sketch. Its shows an oval shaped object, 16-20ft high. There are hand written notes which say "Noise sound like moving lift. Not loud." Also, "static blue light. No smoke. No flashing lights. No portholes or windows."
Page 30 is Part 2 of the form headed "Unit evaluation." This is for the RAAF's investigating officer to complete. It shows there were no military or civilian aircraft in the area at the time. The observer's locations is given as about 38.13S, 145.04 long E. A meteorological balloon had been launched from RAAF Laverton at 2300hrs. Wind profile is shown as ' N6000 W1000 - WSW 10000. Maximum height tracked 10,000ft at 2300+."
Page 31 is a hand written note by Flt Officer R O Gibbs dated 11 Jul 1972. HQSC which reads "No military helicopter operating. Checked with DCA and local helicopter operators. Only traceable IFR helicopter based at Sale. When Mrs Puddy made initial sighting report by phone she expressed a wish not to be interviewed."
Page 23 is a memo dated 11 Jul 1972 from HQSC to DAFI which reads:
" Attached is a report received from Mrs M Puddy of Rye, giving her impressions of an alleged object sighted in the Mooraduc (Vic) area on 3rd July 1972.
2. This headquarters has no further comments to add to the information ssupplied at part 2 of the questionnaire." The memo was signed by Wing Commander W C Keritz.
(To be continued.)
Posted on behalf of Keith Basterfield due to posting problems.
My last couple of cold case investigations have both involved single witnesses in a motor vehicle, when an unusual object has approached them, as opposed to cases where a witness comes across a landed object.
In the 15 Nov 1967 Yerecoin, WA event, Alan Pool was in his land rover when a grey, 3.6m diameter, 1.5m high object rapidly approached him and hovered close by his vehicle. It left vertically, at speed. There was no effect on the vehicle and Pool reported his encounter to police.
The 30 Oct 1967 Boyup Brook, WA event involved a man on his own, in a motor vehicle. His vehicle suddenly stopped and all electrical systems failed. A tube of light shone on him, from a 9m diameter, oval shaped object, some 30m above the car. The object left at speed. The witness told the police about the encounter.
When researching these two cases I immediately thought back to a similar event which happened in the state of Victoria in 1972. Here, the witness in this case reported two encounters and some really unusual side events. She reported the incidents to the police and to the RAAF. However, at the time of the events no researcher had ever seen the material which lay in the RAAF files until many years later. In this post I report on the case; including the RAAF material, which will be new to most readers.
The first encounter:
On 3 Jul 1972, 37 year old Maureen Puddy, a resident of Rye, in Victoria, Australia, was driving her station wagon near a railway crossing on the Mooraduc Road, between Frankston and Dromana, when an unusual event occurred.
The following details were provided to me by investigators Garry Little (now deceased) and Bill Stapleton of Melbourne who conducted a number of interviews with Mrs Puddy at the time the events were happening to her.
At 9.15pm local time (GMT plus 9hrs) Maureen was driving home alone in her 1963 Holden station wagon, after visiting her son who was in hospital in the Melbourne suburb of Heidelberg.
Just after she had passed the railway crossing, a blue light lit up the road. At first, she thought the light was coming from a helicopter, of the sort which had airlifted her son to hospital. So, she didn't take too much notice of it, though later, she recalled that she had heard no noise which was strange if it had been a helicopter. Even so, it was too low for a normal flight, so she became alarmed and accelerated trying to get ahead of the light. This didn't work, so she tried slowing down thinking that the light would be lost in this way. Instead, the light stayed with her.
Eventually she stopped the vehicle, reasoning that the helicopter pilot might have been trying to attract her attention for some reason. Maureen later said that stopping in the isolated locality is something she would not have normally done.
The object:
Shielding her eyes against the light, she looked up to see an object in the sky which was not a helicopter. She panicked, for it was shaped like "two saucers placed lip to lip." It appeared stationary, some 20-30m behind the car, at an estimated height of about 20-30 metres, thus making it at a 45 degree angular elevation in the sky.
At this location, the road is some 8m wide. Using this as an estimate, she thought the object was 32-40m across and 5-6m high. It had no seams, windows, aerials or other protruberances of any kind. A silver-blue iridescent light radiated from it and it was this that had lit up the road. When Maureen got out of the car she said she heard a low volume, humming noise, which she likened to a moving elevator (lift.)
Her immediate reaction was to get away from it as fast as she could, so she got in her car and drove off at high speed. As she was driving away, she noted that the object was visible through the driver's window and also through the top of the windscreen. In fact, the object appeared to be keeping station over the car. This situation continued on for 12 kilometres, after which the object moved backwards; there was a "streak" of light, and the object was lost to view.
Police:
As the Rosebud police station was nearby, Maureen drove there and reported seeing the object. The next day she called the RAAF and reported the encounter to them. They sent out a report form to her which she completed and returned.
RAAF form:
The form which Maureen completed can now be found in the National Archives of Australia on file series A703 control symbol 580/1/1 Part 7 pages 26-28. I have never seen this detail published before so it is well worth recording here.
The form identified the witness as Maureen Puddy, age 37 of Rye, Victoria. She gave her occupation as "housewife." The date is shown as 3 Jul 1972, and the time as 9pm. To the question "How accurate is the time of start?" she wrote "10 mins either side." The duration is given as "15 to 20 minutes." The location is stated as "Mooraduc level crossing (train)." Maureen wrote she had an "excellent" familiarity with that location.
The weather at the time is described as "Very good. Weather clear." The object was first sighted "Above car, 20ft forward." "Approx 45 deg angle." Her attention had been first attracted by "Irrodescent (sic) blue light." The object had been "Light blue" in colour. It was "exceptionally bright." Apparent size at closest approach is given as "Approx 100ft up. Size 2 stories high. Wide than the road." "No" was the answer ro "16. Was any method of propulsion obvious.?"
Asked about sound, she wrote "Light sound. Similar to elevator." It was "Approx 100ft off the ground." "Hovering." To "Give duration of any stationary phase" she wrote "2 minutes." Then "followed car." There was no trail, exhaust, vapour, or light seen. It was last observed at "Junction Mooraduc & Nepean Highway."
The form asked "What natural phenomenon...would be nearest to explaining your observation?" Maureen wrote "Nothing." "Nothing known like it or seen like it." A sketch is then provided showing an oval object - height "Approx 20ft." The form was signed M Puddy and dated 7 Jul 1972.
Page 29 of the RAAF file is a handwritten note by Maureen, which reads:
"First indication was blue light across road. Thought it was helicopter landing speeded to pass out of light. Kept up with me. I then slowed to approximately 20mph. It slowed down too. I speed up again light followed. I then pulled to the side of the road thinking helicopter was in trouble. Got out and there it was approx two light poles high off the ground and the only noise was a light purring sound like a lift.
I froze for about 2 minutes then got into the car and took off at high speed to escape. It followed me approx 8 miles according to the police at Rosebud to whom I reported it at aprox 9.15pm Monday 3rd July 1972.
Enclosed is a drawing I did on arriving home while it was still very clear in my mind. No portholes or windows only a very bright light."
Page 25 of the file is a sketch. Its shows an oval shaped object, 16-20ft high. There are hand written notes which say "Noise sound like moving lift. Not loud." Also, "static blue light. No smoke. No flashing lights. No portholes or windows."
Page 30 is Part 2 of the form headed "Unit evaluation." This is for the RAAF's investigating officer to complete. It shows there were no military or civilian aircraft in the area at the time. The observer's locations is given as about 38.13S, 145.04 long E. A meteorological balloon had been launched from RAAF Laverton at 2300hrs. Wind profile is shown as ' N6000 W1000 - WSW 10000. Maximum height tracked 10,000ft at 2300+."
Page 31 is a hand written note by Flt Officer R O Gibbs dated 11 Jul 1972. HQSC which reads "No military helicopter operating. Checked with DCA and local helicopter operators. Only traceable IFR helicopter based at Sale. When Mrs Puddy made initial sighting report by phone she expressed a wish not to be interviewed."
Page 23 is a memo dated 11 Jul 1972 from HQSC to DAFI which reads:
" Attached is a report received from Mrs M Puddy of Rye, giving her impressions of an alleged object sighted in the Mooraduc (Vic) area on 3rd July 1972.
2. This headquarters has no further comments to add to the information ssupplied at part 2 of the questionnaire." The memo was signed by Wing Commander W C Keritz.
(To be continued.)
Posted on behalf of Keith Basterfield due to posting problems.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Cold case investigation - Boyup Brook WA - 30 Oct 1967
Hi all,
One reason for taking a look at older Australian cases, is that I am updating my Australia wide catalogue of reports. I have been working my way up from the early 1950's re-checking sources cited in my original catalogue which I started back in the 1980's. It is interesting to find that as careful as one was at the time, that inevitable errors of facts have crept in. I have been able to detect and fix quite a few of these, having found that the dates cited for some events were incorrect; and finding a more original source, has altered my perception of what others have, till now, regarded as a classic case. On the other hand some cases remain rock solid as evidence of the "core" phenomenon. The one I am about to write about is in this latter category.
Newspaper report:
The Boyup Brook case was first heard of via a short account in "The West Australian" newspaper of Wednesday 1 Nov 1967 page 7:
"Man tells of strange object.
Bunbury Tues: An Unidentified Flying Object was sighted on the Mayanup-Kojonup road last night by a man who refuses to give his name because of possible public ridicule.
The sighting which was made about ten miles from Mayanup about 9.30pm was reported to constable L Johnson of the Boyup Brook police station. Constable Johnson said "The man was travelling about 60mph when suddenly his car stopped, the engine and lights went off, but he had no sensation of stopping. A tube of light descended towards the windscreen of his car and he could look up it and he thought someone was looking down at him. Up the tube of light he could see a 30 ft pulsating bluish football shaped object which was iridescent and made no noise. He just sat looking at the object. In a flash the object was gone and he was once more driving at 60mph with the lights on."
Original source material:
I was fortunate, some time ago, to obtain copies of 23 pages of interview notes, courtesy of a Perth psychiatrist, Dr Paul Zeck. Dr Zeck conducted an extensive interview with the witness, after locating him through the police. The following is a summary of information coming out during that interview, which took place a short time after the event.
The event:
Mr Harris (pseudonym) a wool classer by profession, was a married man with three children. He had about 60 men working for him and finished paying off one team at the CSIRO research farm, Glen Lossie, near Kojonup at about 8.30pm local time. He stopped in at Kojonup to have two drinks, then headed roughly westwards towards Mayanup, some 66 kms away. From Mayanup he intended to travel a further 15kms north to Boyup Brook to visit another team of men. He travelled these roads quite frequently and the terrain is undulating, with fairly tall, 18-21m, high trees.
The incident happened some distance before Boyup Brook, which places it to the east of, but close to, Mayanup. The time of the incident is about 9.30pm. It was a dark, starlit night.
Harris was travelling alone at a speed of about 100-105kph when all of a sudden "My machine just stopped dead and all electrical systems, motor, radio everything went dead. I had no feeling of deceleration at all...the car just instantaneously came to a stop...I didn't feel any - no feeling of deceleration..."
He felt the car had stopped. Then an object was present and a hollow "tube of light," "clear" in colour, descended out of the object, down onto him. He was able to look up the tube as "...there was no glare or anything inside this tube," although it was bright and glary on the outside. The tube was an estimated 60-90 cms in diameter.
Mr Harris stated that he "...had a feeling that I was being observed from this, through this tube..." He couldn't see anything up this tube; felt no fear, didn't think of anything, just stared up the tube.
After about five minutes, "...the tube of light closed off...like you switch a light off." The object itself was described as at least 9 metres in diameter, about 30m off the ground, and "...the tube came out of it on about a forty five degree angle as it came down on the windscreen of my vehicle...it sort of focused right on me..."
Shape wise, it was like an Australian football, oval. "I could only see the underpart of it...It was all glowing itself, it was an iridescent sort of a light bluish coloured light, and sort of all glowing."
After the tube switched off, the object "Took off at terrific speed...it vanished out of sight within seconds..." It left to the west with a slight darkening of its colour.
"The moment it left, my machine was doing exactly the same speed that it was doing before it stopped and I had no feeling of acceleration at all. It was just like gravity had stopped." There was no difficulty controlling the vehicle. During the event he had not tried to move and simply sat holding the steering wheel.
Mr Harris noted that there "...was no noise whatsoever and incidentally while this was on - whilst it was there, everything around the place was dead quiet. There wasn't a sound of any sort."
After the object had left, he stopped the car, got out and looked around. He then drove to the Boyup Brook police station and reported the incident.
When he reached Boyup Brook he noticed that his Omega chronometer watch was five minutes slow; although it didn't usually lose time.
Other witnesses:
A week later, Harris returned to the area and stopped at the Kojonup Golden Fleece garage. Here he found that a man had seen the same object, and that two other farmers around Mayanup , one named Bock, had seen something.
Questioned by Zeck on his health, Harris said he'd never had blackouts, faints or concussion; although since the event he'd had "...terrific headaches in the last couple of weeks." The interview was conducted on 2 Dec 1967.
Mr Harris' GP, who was present at the interview with Zeck, advised that Harris had consulted him for 3.5 years and no psychiatric issues had ever arisen.
Dr Zeck contacted Bock; a Mr O'Halloran and the Golden Fleece garage owner. In Zeck's opinion O'Halloran saw a satellite. The garage owner and Bock denied seeing anything unusual.
Dr Zeck's thoughts:
Dr Zeck considered four possible explanations.
1. A hoax.
2. Dropping off to sleep at the wheel and dreaming the event.
3. Temporal lobe epilepsy.
4. A genuine encounter.
On the second possibility Zeck wrote "...whole experience could have been an hallucination - hypnagogic if you like - although I would tend to think of it as a brief dream. Such experiences are usually, but certainly not invariably recognised for what they are immediately."
On the third possibility, Zexk wrote "Temporal lobe epilepsy hallucinations may be less recognisable to the sufferer but still tend to have a quality iof unreality about them."
On the possibility of a hoax, Zeck made no comment. However, the event was reported to police and ended up, even though anonymously, in the West Australian newspaper. It wouldn't have been hard on the information available to have deduced Harris' real name.
Newspaper search:
I reviewed the contents of the October and November issues of the "West Australian" and "The Sunday Times" newspapers and found one interesting account in the 16 Oct 67 issue of the "West Australian" on page 3.
"Ottawa. Sunday. The Royal Canadian Air Force has intensified an investigation into flying saucers after reports that mysterious objects with flashing lights had been seen near Calgary, Canada. A woman claimed a dazzling light stabbed out of the night sky as she drove home on Wednesday. Then her car's engine and electrical system cut out while a dark oval shape slowly circled over her at a height of about 1000ft..."
Other details:
The "West Australian" paper gave sunrise on that day as at 0522hrs with sunset at 1840hrs. Moonrise was at 0328hrs and moonset at 1518hrs. So, neither Sun nor Moon were above the horizon at 9.30pm that night. A check of Skyview cafe confirmed these details.
In Perth that day the maximum temperature was 78.2 deg F and minimum was 62.4 deg F.
Comments:
I checked the RAAF's main file for reports and there was no record of Harris' case.
This, despite there being one witness, is a very well documented event.
One reason for taking a look at older Australian cases, is that I am updating my Australia wide catalogue of reports. I have been working my way up from the early 1950's re-checking sources cited in my original catalogue which I started back in the 1980's. It is interesting to find that as careful as one was at the time, that inevitable errors of facts have crept in. I have been able to detect and fix quite a few of these, having found that the dates cited for some events were incorrect; and finding a more original source, has altered my perception of what others have, till now, regarded as a classic case. On the other hand some cases remain rock solid as evidence of the "core" phenomenon. The one I am about to write about is in this latter category.
Newspaper report:
The Boyup Brook case was first heard of via a short account in "The West Australian" newspaper of Wednesday 1 Nov 1967 page 7:
"Man tells of strange object.
Bunbury Tues: An Unidentified Flying Object was sighted on the Mayanup-Kojonup road last night by a man who refuses to give his name because of possible public ridicule.
The sighting which was made about ten miles from Mayanup about 9.30pm was reported to constable L Johnson of the Boyup Brook police station. Constable Johnson said "The man was travelling about 60mph when suddenly his car stopped, the engine and lights went off, but he had no sensation of stopping. A tube of light descended towards the windscreen of his car and he could look up it and he thought someone was looking down at him. Up the tube of light he could see a 30 ft pulsating bluish football shaped object which was iridescent and made no noise. He just sat looking at the object. In a flash the object was gone and he was once more driving at 60mph with the lights on."
Original source material:
I was fortunate, some time ago, to obtain copies of 23 pages of interview notes, courtesy of a Perth psychiatrist, Dr Paul Zeck. Dr Zeck conducted an extensive interview with the witness, after locating him through the police. The following is a summary of information coming out during that interview, which took place a short time after the event.
The event:
Mr Harris (pseudonym) a wool classer by profession, was a married man with three children. He had about 60 men working for him and finished paying off one team at the CSIRO research farm, Glen Lossie, near Kojonup at about 8.30pm local time. He stopped in at Kojonup to have two drinks, then headed roughly westwards towards Mayanup, some 66 kms away. From Mayanup he intended to travel a further 15kms north to Boyup Brook to visit another team of men. He travelled these roads quite frequently and the terrain is undulating, with fairly tall, 18-21m, high trees.
The incident happened some distance before Boyup Brook, which places it to the east of, but close to, Mayanup. The time of the incident is about 9.30pm. It was a dark, starlit night.
Harris was travelling alone at a speed of about 100-105kph when all of a sudden "My machine just stopped dead and all electrical systems, motor, radio everything went dead. I had no feeling of deceleration at all...the car just instantaneously came to a stop...I didn't feel any - no feeling of deceleration..."
He felt the car had stopped. Then an object was present and a hollow "tube of light," "clear" in colour, descended out of the object, down onto him. He was able to look up the tube as "...there was no glare or anything inside this tube," although it was bright and glary on the outside. The tube was an estimated 60-90 cms in diameter.
Mr Harris stated that he "...had a feeling that I was being observed from this, through this tube..." He couldn't see anything up this tube; felt no fear, didn't think of anything, just stared up the tube.
After about five minutes, "...the tube of light closed off...like you switch a light off." The object itself was described as at least 9 metres in diameter, about 30m off the ground, and "...the tube came out of it on about a forty five degree angle as it came down on the windscreen of my vehicle...it sort of focused right on me..."
Shape wise, it was like an Australian football, oval. "I could only see the underpart of it...It was all glowing itself, it was an iridescent sort of a light bluish coloured light, and sort of all glowing."
After the tube switched off, the object "Took off at terrific speed...it vanished out of sight within seconds..." It left to the west with a slight darkening of its colour.
"The moment it left, my machine was doing exactly the same speed that it was doing before it stopped and I had no feeling of acceleration at all. It was just like gravity had stopped." There was no difficulty controlling the vehicle. During the event he had not tried to move and simply sat holding the steering wheel.
Mr Harris noted that there "...was no noise whatsoever and incidentally while this was on - whilst it was there, everything around the place was dead quiet. There wasn't a sound of any sort."
After the object had left, he stopped the car, got out and looked around. He then drove to the Boyup Brook police station and reported the incident.
When he reached Boyup Brook he noticed that his Omega chronometer watch was five minutes slow; although it didn't usually lose time.
Other witnesses:
A week later, Harris returned to the area and stopped at the Kojonup Golden Fleece garage. Here he found that a man had seen the same object, and that two other farmers around Mayanup , one named Bock, had seen something.
Questioned by Zeck on his health, Harris said he'd never had blackouts, faints or concussion; although since the event he'd had "...terrific headaches in the last couple of weeks." The interview was conducted on 2 Dec 1967.
Mr Harris' GP, who was present at the interview with Zeck, advised that Harris had consulted him for 3.5 years and no psychiatric issues had ever arisen.
Dr Zeck contacted Bock; a Mr O'Halloran and the Golden Fleece garage owner. In Zeck's opinion O'Halloran saw a satellite. The garage owner and Bock denied seeing anything unusual.
Dr Zeck's thoughts:
Dr Zeck considered four possible explanations.
1. A hoax.
2. Dropping off to sleep at the wheel and dreaming the event.
3. Temporal lobe epilepsy.
4. A genuine encounter.
On the second possibility Zeck wrote "...whole experience could have been an hallucination - hypnagogic if you like - although I would tend to think of it as a brief dream. Such experiences are usually, but certainly not invariably recognised for what they are immediately."
On the third possibility, Zexk wrote "Temporal lobe epilepsy hallucinations may be less recognisable to the sufferer but still tend to have a quality iof unreality about them."
On the possibility of a hoax, Zeck made no comment. However, the event was reported to police and ended up, even though anonymously, in the West Australian newspaper. It wouldn't have been hard on the information available to have deduced Harris' real name.
Newspaper search:
I reviewed the contents of the October and November issues of the "West Australian" and "The Sunday Times" newspapers and found one interesting account in the 16 Oct 67 issue of the "West Australian" on page 3.
"Ottawa. Sunday. The Royal Canadian Air Force has intensified an investigation into flying saucers after reports that mysterious objects with flashing lights had been seen near Calgary, Canada. A woman claimed a dazzling light stabbed out of the night sky as she drove home on Wednesday. Then her car's engine and electrical system cut out while a dark oval shape slowly circled over her at a height of about 1000ft..."
Other details:
The "West Australian" paper gave sunrise on that day as at 0522hrs with sunset at 1840hrs. Moonrise was at 0328hrs and moonset at 1518hrs. So, neither Sun nor Moon were above the horizon at 9.30pm that night. A check of Skyview cafe confirmed these details.
In Perth that day the maximum temperature was 78.2 deg F and minimum was 62.4 deg F.
Comments:
I checked the RAAF's main file for reports and there was no record of Harris' case.
This, despite there being one witness, is a very well documented event.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Westall - the answer?
Dear readers,
The 6 April 1966 event, where hundreds of school children and at least one teacher, plus others, reported seeing an unusual object(s) in the sky and near the ground, near Westall High School, Clayton, Melbourne, continues to puzzle me. Specifically one fact stands out and that is, it is reported that there was an immediate Australian government response. It seems that officialdom knew that the event was going to happen. Secondly, that no-one has ever found any document in any Australian government agency UFO files.
These two apparent facts have led me to speculate in past posts (click here and here) looking for non-UFO explanations for Westall. This approach received some negative comments from blog readers who suggested I should just accept that what was seen at Westall was a UFO. Other comments were more positive, noting that it would be useful to be able to demonstrate that alternative explanations to the event being a UFO, were not valid.
Before my own suggested alternative explanations, Keith Basterfield, my co-blogger, had speculated about whether or not there was a possibility of the involvement of the USAF U-2, under Operation Crowflight (click here.) His detailed re-examination of Australian Government files on Crowflight, led him to conclude that the U-2/RB57 USAF Operation did not have anything to do with Westall.
Since then I have been, behind the scenes, been examining a number of other known Australian military projects to see if somehow they link into Westall.
Area 51:
The reason for my renewed interest in a non-UFO explanation for Westall came while I was recently re-reading the book "Area 51" by Annie Jacobsen, published in 2011, by Orion. London. ISBN 978-1-4091-41136. I was fascinated by what events had been covered up by the Americans. The book had at least two examples.
Back on 29 May 1947, the White Sands Proving Ground, in New Mexico, USA, launched a Hermes (former V-2) rocket. This went astray and "...the rocket crash landed into the Tepeyas Cemetery, three miles south of Juarez, a heavily populated city of 120,000...The missile left a crater that was fifty foot wide and twenty-four feet deep...Army officials rushed to Juaewz to smooth over the event while Mexican soldiers were dispatched to guard the crater's rim. The mission, the men and the rocket were all classified top secret; no one could know specific details about any of this..." (p34.)
On 24 May 1963, an USAF Oxcart aircraft crashed in the USA. The pilot ejected and landed safely to be picked up by three local men. The pilot told them a cover story that he had been flying an F-105 aircraft with a nuclear weapon on board. 100 men were brought in to clean up the area of the crash. "The press was told that an F-105 crashed, and as of 2011, the Air Force still has it listed that way." (p.197.)
Cover-up:
The fact that the cover story for a crash of a classified aircraft, should be so dramatic as the loss of a nuclear bomb, set me thinking again about Westall.
If Westall were a non-UFO event, what could possibly have worried Australian government officials so much? Was the stimulus behind the event a military experiment gone haywire, such that the RAAF had to go around telling witnesses to be quiet, and threatening the Westall High School teacher Andrew Greenwood, with the Official Secrets Act?
If we eliminate the USAF Operation Crowflight; the idea of a USAF 'broken arrow'; the US Corona satellite; there cannot be many Australian or joint Australian/US projects which were being conducted in 1966, left.
Dear readers, won't you put on your thinking caps and conduct some research into possible programs which were being conducted in 1966 which just might explain Westall? I'll start your brain going with a few observations you might like to pursue:
1. "The Age" newspaper of 2 April 1966, page 5 tells us that the HMAS Perth, the first Australian destroyer to be fitted with the new Tartar guided missile system (click here) was docked in Melbourne on that day. Could a Tartar missile have gone astray?
2. The former Australian Department of Supply had numerous projects on the go, in 1966, such as "Project Dazzle" and "Project Blue Scout."
3. As early as 1961 the Aeronautical Research Laboratories based in Melbourne, had a file on Project Hibal. See National Archives of Australia file series B788 control symbol M2/60. My co-blogger. Keith Basterfield has posted previously on this project (click here and here.)
Would Australian officials cover up any event?
Would the Department of Defence cover-up a non-UFO event at Westall in 1966? It was only recently revealed that, unknown to the general public, the USAF had been flying the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle out of the RAAF base at Edinburgh in my home state between 2001 and 2006 (click here.) It was reported that civilians knew about the flights and that Department of Defence security officials asked them to keep quiet. So, yes it is perfectly possible that way back in 1966 government officials asked Westall witnesses to keep quiet about a non-UFO event.
Over to you, dear readers, will any one take up the search for a non-UFO explanation for Westall, or do you think this isn't worth trying, as the Westall event was certainly a UFO?
The 6 April 1966 event, where hundreds of school children and at least one teacher, plus others, reported seeing an unusual object(s) in the sky and near the ground, near Westall High School, Clayton, Melbourne, continues to puzzle me. Specifically one fact stands out and that is, it is reported that there was an immediate Australian government response. It seems that officialdom knew that the event was going to happen. Secondly, that no-one has ever found any document in any Australian government agency UFO files.
These two apparent facts have led me to speculate in past posts (click here and here) looking for non-UFO explanations for Westall. This approach received some negative comments from blog readers who suggested I should just accept that what was seen at Westall was a UFO. Other comments were more positive, noting that it would be useful to be able to demonstrate that alternative explanations to the event being a UFO, were not valid.
Before my own suggested alternative explanations, Keith Basterfield, my co-blogger, had speculated about whether or not there was a possibility of the involvement of the USAF U-2, under Operation Crowflight (click here.) His detailed re-examination of Australian Government files on Crowflight, led him to conclude that the U-2/RB57 USAF Operation did not have anything to do with Westall.
Since then I have been, behind the scenes, been examining a number of other known Australian military projects to see if somehow they link into Westall.
Area 51:
The reason for my renewed interest in a non-UFO explanation for Westall came while I was recently re-reading the book "Area 51" by Annie Jacobsen, published in 2011, by Orion. London. ISBN 978-1-4091-41136. I was fascinated by what events had been covered up by the Americans. The book had at least two examples.
Back on 29 May 1947, the White Sands Proving Ground, in New Mexico, USA, launched a Hermes (former V-2) rocket. This went astray and "...the rocket crash landed into the Tepeyas Cemetery, three miles south of Juarez, a heavily populated city of 120,000...The missile left a crater that was fifty foot wide and twenty-four feet deep...Army officials rushed to Juaewz to smooth over the event while Mexican soldiers were dispatched to guard the crater's rim. The mission, the men and the rocket were all classified top secret; no one could know specific details about any of this..." (p34.)
On 24 May 1963, an USAF Oxcart aircraft crashed in the USA. The pilot ejected and landed safely to be picked up by three local men. The pilot told them a cover story that he had been flying an F-105 aircraft with a nuclear weapon on board. 100 men were brought in to clean up the area of the crash. "The press was told that an F-105 crashed, and as of 2011, the Air Force still has it listed that way." (p.197.)
Cover-up:
The fact that the cover story for a crash of a classified aircraft, should be so dramatic as the loss of a nuclear bomb, set me thinking again about Westall.
If Westall were a non-UFO event, what could possibly have worried Australian government officials so much? Was the stimulus behind the event a military experiment gone haywire, such that the RAAF had to go around telling witnesses to be quiet, and threatening the Westall High School teacher Andrew Greenwood, with the Official Secrets Act?
If we eliminate the USAF Operation Crowflight; the idea of a USAF 'broken arrow'; the US Corona satellite; there cannot be many Australian or joint Australian/US projects which were being conducted in 1966, left.
Dear readers, won't you put on your thinking caps and conduct some research into possible programs which were being conducted in 1966 which just might explain Westall? I'll start your brain going with a few observations you might like to pursue:
1. "The Age" newspaper of 2 April 1966, page 5 tells us that the HMAS Perth, the first Australian destroyer to be fitted with the new Tartar guided missile system (click here) was docked in Melbourne on that day. Could a Tartar missile have gone astray?
2. The former Australian Department of Supply had numerous projects on the go, in 1966, such as "Project Dazzle" and "Project Blue Scout."
3. As early as 1961 the Aeronautical Research Laboratories based in Melbourne, had a file on Project Hibal. See National Archives of Australia file series B788 control symbol M2/60. My co-blogger. Keith Basterfield has posted previously on this project (click here and here.)
Would Australian officials cover up any event?
Would the Department of Defence cover-up a non-UFO event at Westall in 1966? It was only recently revealed that, unknown to the general public, the USAF had been flying the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle out of the RAAF base at Edinburgh in my home state between 2001 and 2006 (click here.) It was reported that civilians knew about the flights and that Department of Defence security officials asked them to keep quiet. So, yes it is perfectly possible that way back in 1966 government officials asked Westall witnesses to keep quiet about a non-UFO event.
Over to you, dear readers, will any one take up the search for a non-UFO explanation for Westall, or do you think this isn't worth trying, as the Westall event was certainly a UFO?
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Cold case investigation - Yerecoin WA - 15 Nov 1967
Hi all,
This is a classic Australian close encounter case. My own Australian catalogue recorded the following:
16 Nov 1967 Yerecoin WA CE1 1830hrs Poole
A farmer, Mr A Poole, was out mustering sheep in a land rover when he became aware of a humming sound which increased in intensity. He then saw an object at a distance of half a kilometre. It approached his vehicle and stopped next to it at about one to two metres distance. The humming noise was very strong and he could feel vibrations from it. It looked like an inverted saucer, being some three to six metres in diameter and one point six to two metres high, with four windows, two round and two square on the side visible to him. It was a grey metallic colour. It seemed to hover just a metre off the ground. He demanded to know what it was doing there and he heard an echo of his own voice. No unusual electromagnetic effects were noticed. He attempted to get out of his land rover but as he did so the object ascended. By the time he was out, two to three seconds, it was out of sight, although he could still hear a humming sound. No traces were left. The source I cited was AFSR No 8 p13.
NICAP/APRO:
I started my search for more a more original source with the NICAP "UFO Investigator," but a search through my electronic copies, found nothing on the case. However, the November/December 1967 issue of "The APRO Bulletin" did, on page 5. This report reads:
"Another landing among Australian UAO Incidents.
Mr Allen Pool, 43. a farm manager of Yericorn, Western Australia has made the claim that a saucer landed in a paddock beside his land rover on the night of the 17th of November. According to his story, Pool said the object was circular, about 15 to 20 feet in diameter and about the same height as his land rover. He said it was so close to him that he barely had room to open the car door. At the same time that the object landed, Pool claimed, his wife noted interference on the TV set inside the house. This all took place at about 6.30pm.
Chronologically, the events occurred thusly. Pool was in a paddock about a half mile from the farmhouse and was driving slowly looking for sheep when he heard a whine like an electric motor at high speed. He said he looked up and saw the object coming straight at him. He figured it was about a half mile away and 400-500 feet altitude when he first spotted it. He brought his land rover to a halt and the disc stopped right alongside him.
"It was flat on the bottom and dome-shaped on top just like an upturned saucer," Pool told the police when he reported the incident. "It appeared to be made of a metal which was smokey-grey in colour, there were no lights on it but there were portholes like windows around it and there seemed to be a cabin in front."
Pool said he wasn't able to see inside of the object, that the machine did not touch the ground when it stopped but seemed to hover just above it. When Pool stepped out of his vehicle the disc took off "like a rocket."
This article in "The APRO Bulletin" doesn't provide the source for the account it gives.
Original source of the story?
In looking for the most original source of the Yerecoin account, I could find, I took a visit to the South Australian State Library and consulted a microfische copy of the main West Australian newspaper looking for any story.
There, on pages 1 and 13 of "The West Australian" for Friday 17 November 1967 I found a lengthy account. This account provides a date for the event of Wednesday 15 Nov 1967 and is more likely to be correct than the other dates I have provided previously. Note also that the newspaper provides the witness' name as Alan Pool and the location as Yerecoin.
Newspaper account;
"WA man: Flying saucer near me
Yerecoin farm manager Alan Pool (43) said yesterday that a flying saucer had landed in one of his paddocks a few feet from him.
It was so close that he was unable to fully open the door of the vehicle in which he was sitting.
Mr Pool's employer, Mr D V Waters of Yerecoin, who owns the farm, said that Mr Pool had worked for him for 11 years.
Mr Waters said: "If Alan says he saw a flying saucer you can take it from me there was one."
The saucer had been reported to the police and the RAAF.
Loud noise:
Mr Pool said that he was in his vehicle in a paddock about a mile away from the farmhouse at 6.30pm on Wednesday when he heard a loud, penetrating, humming noise similar to that of an electric generator.
"I saw this thing about 400 ft in the air, half a mile away, and approaching rapidly from the east."
"I thought it was an aircraft. It sped towards me and landed next to the vehicle."
"The whirring noise was loud and frightening."
Hovered:
He said it seemed to land, but when he looked closer it was hovering a few inches from the ground. It was a grey metal colour, about 12 feet in diameter and about 5 feet high. There were six portholes. Two in the centre were square and two more on each side were round. It looked like an inverted saucer. There were no other protruding features. There were no signs of propulsion and he could not see through he portholes. (More on page 13.)
"Saucer seen" (A photo of Mr Pool appears here.)
Mr Pool said "I did not know what to do. I partly opened the door and swore aloud. "To my astonishment the words were repeated. It could not have been an echo. There was a strong wind and it would have been impossible to receive an echo in that position."
"I partly opened the door and got one leg out of the vehicle when the saucer took off vertically. I lost sight of it as it rose above the roof of the vehicle. I pushed my head outside and looked up, but it had vanished."
He said he thought he was going mad. He sat in the vehicle in fright and rolled a cigarette.
No sign:
Then he got out of the vehicle and looked at the ground - but there was no sign of where the saucer had been. The grass was undisturbed and there were no burn marks. He did not know whether to report the sighting or to say anything about it.
He finally decided top drive home and tell his wife. His wife told him that she had been watching television at the time and the picture rolled. The only time this had happened before was when a satellite passed overhead.
Mr Pool reported the sighting to the New Norcia police, who advised him to telephone the CIB in Perth. He also telephoned the Pearce RAAF base but he said the people there sounded sceptical.
He thought that the white roof of his vehicle might have attracted the flying saucer.
Mr Waters said Mr Pool was very level-headed. he said "Alan came to see me about an hour afterwards and he was still frightened. He was white-faced."
Later Mr Pool said he had been sceptical about flying saucers. "I am not offering any theories about it," he said "All I know is that it was unlike anything we know on earth."
Not on radar:
Wing Commander G Shadford, of the RAAF at Pearce said that no aircraft from the base was flying at the time of the reported sighting and nothing was picked up on radar. Mr Pool's report was the only one received on Wednesday night. Mr Pool would be asked to fill in a form to give the complete details of the sighting and the RAAF would decided if further investigation was warranted.
A spokesman for air traffic control at the Perth airport said there would have been many aircraft in the New Norcia area at the time of the reported sighting. These would range in size from a Friendship to light planes.
A weather bureau spokesman said the only weather balloon released on Wednesday evening went up from the Perth airport at 7.15pm."
Second newspaper article:
"The West Australian" of 18 Nov 1967, page 12 carried a follow-up article.
"Saucer: No inquiry yet.
No official inquiry had been started yesterday into the reported flying saucer sighting at Yerecoin.
A RAAF spokesman at Pearce said that an airforce inquiry would be held only after all possible explanations for the sighting had been disproved.
A Department of Civil Aviation spokesman said reports of unidentified flying objects did not come within the department's jurisdiction.
Farmer manager Alan Pool who reported seeing a flying saucer in a paddock on Wednesday evening said yesterday that nothing would convince him the object was not real."
Air Force files:
Is there an account of this event in the files of the RAAF? The logical place to find one would be in file series A703 control symbol 580/1/1 Part 8 which is the main series of UAS report files. Part 8 contains UAS reports dated between 4 Jul 1967 and 31 Dec 1967. There is only one report on the file dated 15 Nov 1967 and this is of a fast moving lighted object travelling to the south,. reported from Gympie, Queensland at 2125hrs. There is no report listed on this file, from Mr Pool. Perhaps he felt that RAAF Pearce were too sceptical and decided not to officially report it on paper.
The other possibility is that Pool did report it to the RAAF on paper, but the form did not make it to the RAAF's central main UFO files, but ended up on Pearce's files. I looked for such files in the NAA. File series PP959/1 control symbol 5/3/Air is titled [Western Australian Squadron Air Training Corps] Investigations of Unidentified Flying Objects with a date range of 1966-1972. It is a 52 page file but again there is no report from Mr Pool.
Some other data:
Yerecoin is 156km NNE of Perth, the capital of Western Australia.
New Norcia is 132km N of Perth.
A check of the internet failed to find any detailed investigation report published by an Australian UFO research group.
A check of Australian Flying Saucer Review No 8 published 23 August 1967 (UFOIC) revealed nothing on the event. It wouldn't be expected to, as it was published in Aug 1967 and the event was in Nov 1967. It appears my Australian catalogue reference is in error.
A check of two different electronic sky charts reveals that the Sun was still above the Western horizon at 6.30pm 15 Nov 1967.
Comment:
Based on the information in "The West Australian" as the most original source material, which I can locate, the event remains a compelling one, despite there being only one witness.
Have blog readers come across any fully investigated accounts of this event?
This is a classic Australian close encounter case. My own Australian catalogue recorded the following:
16 Nov 1967 Yerecoin WA CE1 1830hrs Poole
A farmer, Mr A Poole, was out mustering sheep in a land rover when he became aware of a humming sound which increased in intensity. He then saw an object at a distance of half a kilometre. It approached his vehicle and stopped next to it at about one to two metres distance. The humming noise was very strong and he could feel vibrations from it. It looked like an inverted saucer, being some three to six metres in diameter and one point six to two metres high, with four windows, two round and two square on the side visible to him. It was a grey metallic colour. It seemed to hover just a metre off the ground. He demanded to know what it was doing there and he heard an echo of his own voice. No unusual electromagnetic effects were noticed. He attempted to get out of his land rover but as he did so the object ascended. By the time he was out, two to three seconds, it was out of sight, although he could still hear a humming sound. No traces were left. The source I cited was AFSR No 8 p13.
NICAP/APRO:
I started my search for more a more original source with the NICAP "UFO Investigator," but a search through my electronic copies, found nothing on the case. However, the November/December 1967 issue of "The APRO Bulletin" did, on page 5. This report reads:
"Another landing among Australian UAO Incidents.
Mr Allen Pool, 43. a farm manager of Yericorn, Western Australia has made the claim that a saucer landed in a paddock beside his land rover on the night of the 17th of November. According to his story, Pool said the object was circular, about 15 to 20 feet in diameter and about the same height as his land rover. He said it was so close to him that he barely had room to open the car door. At the same time that the object landed, Pool claimed, his wife noted interference on the TV set inside the house. This all took place at about 6.30pm.
Chronologically, the events occurred thusly. Pool was in a paddock about a half mile from the farmhouse and was driving slowly looking for sheep when he heard a whine like an electric motor at high speed. He said he looked up and saw the object coming straight at him. He figured it was about a half mile away and 400-500 feet altitude when he first spotted it. He brought his land rover to a halt and the disc stopped right alongside him.
"It was flat on the bottom and dome-shaped on top just like an upturned saucer," Pool told the police when he reported the incident. "It appeared to be made of a metal which was smokey-grey in colour, there were no lights on it but there were portholes like windows around it and there seemed to be a cabin in front."
Pool said he wasn't able to see inside of the object, that the machine did not touch the ground when it stopped but seemed to hover just above it. When Pool stepped out of his vehicle the disc took off "like a rocket."
This article in "The APRO Bulletin" doesn't provide the source for the account it gives.
Original source of the story?
In looking for the most original source of the Yerecoin account, I could find, I took a visit to the South Australian State Library and consulted a microfische copy of the main West Australian newspaper looking for any story.
There, on pages 1 and 13 of "The West Australian" for Friday 17 November 1967 I found a lengthy account. This account provides a date for the event of Wednesday 15 Nov 1967 and is more likely to be correct than the other dates I have provided previously. Note also that the newspaper provides the witness' name as Alan Pool and the location as Yerecoin.
Newspaper account;
"WA man: Flying saucer near me
Yerecoin farm manager Alan Pool (43) said yesterday that a flying saucer had landed in one of his paddocks a few feet from him.
It was so close that he was unable to fully open the door of the vehicle in which he was sitting.
Mr Pool's employer, Mr D V Waters of Yerecoin, who owns the farm, said that Mr Pool had worked for him for 11 years.
Mr Waters said: "If Alan says he saw a flying saucer you can take it from me there was one."
The saucer had been reported to the police and the RAAF.
Loud noise:
Mr Pool said that he was in his vehicle in a paddock about a mile away from the farmhouse at 6.30pm on Wednesday when he heard a loud, penetrating, humming noise similar to that of an electric generator.
"I saw this thing about 400 ft in the air, half a mile away, and approaching rapidly from the east."
"I thought it was an aircraft. It sped towards me and landed next to the vehicle."
"The whirring noise was loud and frightening."
Hovered:
He said it seemed to land, but when he looked closer it was hovering a few inches from the ground. It was a grey metal colour, about 12 feet in diameter and about 5 feet high. There were six portholes. Two in the centre were square and two more on each side were round. It looked like an inverted saucer. There were no other protruding features. There were no signs of propulsion and he could not see through he portholes. (More on page 13.)
"Saucer seen" (A photo of Mr Pool appears here.)
Mr Pool said "I did not know what to do. I partly opened the door and swore aloud. "To my astonishment the words were repeated. It could not have been an echo. There was a strong wind and it would have been impossible to receive an echo in that position."
"I partly opened the door and got one leg out of the vehicle when the saucer took off vertically. I lost sight of it as it rose above the roof of the vehicle. I pushed my head outside and looked up, but it had vanished."
He said he thought he was going mad. He sat in the vehicle in fright and rolled a cigarette.
No sign:
Then he got out of the vehicle and looked at the ground - but there was no sign of where the saucer had been. The grass was undisturbed and there were no burn marks. He did not know whether to report the sighting or to say anything about it.
He finally decided top drive home and tell his wife. His wife told him that she had been watching television at the time and the picture rolled. The only time this had happened before was when a satellite passed overhead.
Mr Pool reported the sighting to the New Norcia police, who advised him to telephone the CIB in Perth. He also telephoned the Pearce RAAF base but he said the people there sounded sceptical.
He thought that the white roof of his vehicle might have attracted the flying saucer.
Mr Waters said Mr Pool was very level-headed. he said "Alan came to see me about an hour afterwards and he was still frightened. He was white-faced."
Later Mr Pool said he had been sceptical about flying saucers. "I am not offering any theories about it," he said "All I know is that it was unlike anything we know on earth."
Not on radar:
Wing Commander G Shadford, of the RAAF at Pearce said that no aircraft from the base was flying at the time of the reported sighting and nothing was picked up on radar. Mr Pool's report was the only one received on Wednesday night. Mr Pool would be asked to fill in a form to give the complete details of the sighting and the RAAF would decided if further investigation was warranted.
A spokesman for air traffic control at the Perth airport said there would have been many aircraft in the New Norcia area at the time of the reported sighting. These would range in size from a Friendship to light planes.
A weather bureau spokesman said the only weather balloon released on Wednesday evening went up from the Perth airport at 7.15pm."
Second newspaper article:
"The West Australian" of 18 Nov 1967, page 12 carried a follow-up article.
"Saucer: No inquiry yet.
No official inquiry had been started yesterday into the reported flying saucer sighting at Yerecoin.
A RAAF spokesman at Pearce said that an airforce inquiry would be held only after all possible explanations for the sighting had been disproved.
A Department of Civil Aviation spokesman said reports of unidentified flying objects did not come within the department's jurisdiction.
Farmer manager Alan Pool who reported seeing a flying saucer in a paddock on Wednesday evening said yesterday that nothing would convince him the object was not real."
Air Force files:
Is there an account of this event in the files of the RAAF? The logical place to find one would be in file series A703 control symbol 580/1/1 Part 8 which is the main series of UAS report files. Part 8 contains UAS reports dated between 4 Jul 1967 and 31 Dec 1967. There is only one report on the file dated 15 Nov 1967 and this is of a fast moving lighted object travelling to the south,. reported from Gympie, Queensland at 2125hrs. There is no report listed on this file, from Mr Pool. Perhaps he felt that RAAF Pearce were too sceptical and decided not to officially report it on paper.
The other possibility is that Pool did report it to the RAAF on paper, but the form did not make it to the RAAF's central main UFO files, but ended up on Pearce's files. I looked for such files in the NAA. File series PP959/1 control symbol 5/3/Air is titled [Western Australian Squadron Air Training Corps] Investigations of Unidentified Flying Objects with a date range of 1966-1972. It is a 52 page file but again there is no report from Mr Pool.
Some other data:
Yerecoin is 156km NNE of Perth, the capital of Western Australia.
New Norcia is 132km N of Perth.
A check of the internet failed to find any detailed investigation report published by an Australian UFO research group.
A check of Australian Flying Saucer Review No 8 published 23 August 1967 (UFOIC) revealed nothing on the event. It wouldn't be expected to, as it was published in Aug 1967 and the event was in Nov 1967. It appears my Australian catalogue reference is in error.
A check of two different electronic sky charts reveals that the Sun was still above the Western horizon at 6.30pm 15 Nov 1967.
Comment:
Based on the information in "The West Australian" as the most original source material, which I can locate, the event remains a compelling one, despite there being only one witness.
Have blog readers come across any fully investigated accounts of this event?
Friday, September 7, 2012
RAAF jets on alert for "flying saucers"
Hi all,
National Archives of Australia (NAA) file series A9755 control symbol 8, formerly file number 17/26/AIR was a file titled "Exercise Close Encounter" and owned by RAAF base Williamtown. It is held by the Canberra office of the NAA, is 99 pages long, with a date range of 1983-1983, and has just been released and digitised by the NAA.
Jets on alert:
On 1 Jul 1983, HQ RAAF base Williamtown, NSW, issued an unusual Operational Order, number 11/83. It advised that Williamtown had been tasked "...to provide air defence resources for the identification of unknown radar contacts reported by Department of Aviation (DOA) air traffic control agencies in Sydney. The radar contacts, travelling at high speed, have appeared to the north of Sydney out to 150nm and have been assessed by D of A as almost certainly resulting from man-made objects..."
Two Mirage jet aircraft were placed on alert to take off and intercept any future contacts. Restrictions on supersonic flight were waived.
By 2 Jul 1983 further information was known. "The majority of reported tracks to generally north of WLM usually heading in a northerly direction 355-030 and fading toward the limit of Sydney radar coverage 150-165nm.
The RAAF's own radar failed to see any such tracks. A suspicion arose in the RAAF personnel's mind that the issue was "...a radar fault causing the majority of these observations..."
Final report:
The final report by the RAAF investigation team of three Air Defence Controllers, who went to Sydney radar to investigate included the following:
"The investigation team proved beyond reasonable doubt by Sunday 3 July 1983 that the unidentified objects were generated entirely from interference with the processor of the Sydney Route Surveillance Radar (RSR.)"
The jets were stood down and so ended one of the few RAAF alerts in response to the phenomenon.
Earlier instance:
This wasn't the only time that Sydney radar was reported to have picked up unusual objects on their radar. NAA file series A 6180 control symbol 6/6/74/83 is a single photograph which is labelled "Research-scientists probe the sky atSydney
To take a look at the digital file for Exercise Close Encounter, go to here , click on search the collection, then begin your search, then RecordSearch Advanced search, then click on items, then in the box labelled series number type A9755 and in item control symbol type 8. Click on search and the file comes up, click on the digitised file image and read the file.
National Archives of Australia (NAA) file series A9755 control symbol 8, formerly file number 17/26/AIR was a file titled "Exercise Close Encounter" and owned by RAAF base Williamtown. It is held by the Canberra office of the NAA, is 99 pages long, with a date range of 1983-1983, and has just been released and digitised by the NAA.
Jets on alert:
On 1 Jul 1983, HQ RAAF base Williamtown, NSW, issued an unusual Operational Order, number 11/83. It advised that Williamtown had been tasked "...to provide air defence resources for the identification of unknown radar contacts reported by Department of Aviation (DOA) air traffic control agencies in Sydney. The radar contacts, travelling at high speed, have appeared to the north of Sydney out to 150nm and have been assessed by D of A as almost certainly resulting from man-made objects..."
Two Mirage jet aircraft were placed on alert to take off and intercept any future contacts. Restrictions on supersonic flight were waived.
By 2 Jul 1983 further information was known. "The majority of reported tracks to generally north of WLM usually heading in a northerly direction 355-030 and fading toward the limit of Sydney radar coverage 150-165nm.
The RAAF's own radar failed to see any such tracks. A suspicion arose in the RAAF personnel's mind that the issue was "...a radar fault causing the majority of these observations..."
Final report:
The final report by the RAAF investigation team of three Air Defence Controllers, who went to Sydney radar to investigate included the following:
"The investigation team proved beyond reasonable doubt by Sunday 3 July 1983 that the unidentified objects were generated entirely from interference with the processor of the Sydney Route Surveillance Radar (RSR.)"
The jets were stood down and so ended one of the few RAAF alerts in response to the phenomenon.
Earlier instance:
This wasn't the only time that Sydney radar was reported to have picked up unusual objects on their radar. NAA file series A 6180 control symbol 6/6/74/83 is a single photograph which is labelled "Research-scientists probe the sky at
To take a look at the digital file for Exercise Close Encounter, go to here , click on search the collection, then begin your search, then RecordSearch Advanced search, then click on items, then in the box labelled series number type A9755 and in item control symbol type 8. Click on search and the file comes up, click on the digitised file image and read the file.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
To the Stars Academy The other day, I was re-reading the list of team members of the To The Stars Academy (TTSA) , to refresh my memory ...
-
Background Some interesting individuals come and go in the field of UAP research. One of these, is an American woman named Valerie Jean R... -
Hi all, Introduction: The disappearance of Australian pilot Frederick Valentich, on 21 October 1978, over Bass Strait, Australia, has al...