Out of this

world: A
scene from
Close
Encounters
Of The Third
Kind and
(below)
Allen Ilynek
NOBODY knew more about
the truth behind flying saucers
and other unidentified flying
objects, or UFOs, than Josef
Allen Hynek, a pioneer of
scientific investigation into the
unexplained sightings that still
intrigue the world.
The astronomy professor
and ufologist was born in
Chicago 100 years ago today.
Hynek led an extraordinary
life analysing many.of the
thousands of reports made
every year of extra-terrestrials,
spaceships, mysterious "crop
circles", alleged UFO attacks,
alien visitors, abduction claims
and inexplicable sightings
usually in remote places.
At first he was a sceptic
about the existence of UFOs
but his opinions, along with
his knowledge, slowly swung
around. He became concerned
that not all the reliable
witnesses who reported
sightings could be dismissed as
wrong, even if the sights could
not be scientifically explained.
He was technical adviser to
Columbia Pictures and Steven
Spielberg on the 1977 classic
film Close Encounters Of The
Third Kind, the story based
loosely on his own life. He was
seen stepping forward silently,
pipe in mouth, to view the
aliens disembark from the
"mother ship".
1111936 Hynek, with a
doctorate in astrophysics,
joined the department of
physics and astronomy at
Ohio State University. During
World War II, at the John
Hopkins Applied Physics
Laboratory, he helped develop
the US Navy's radio proximity
fuse (automatic explosive
device) which contributed to
the Allied victory in the war.
By 1948, Hynek, as a full
professor, was invited by the
US Air Force to act as
technical consultant in Project
Sign, set up to examine the
flood of UFO reports causing
rising public concern. This
became Project Grudge
1949-52 and Project Blue Book
1952-69, with Hynek as chief
scientific consultant_
At first he debunked any
idea that flying saucers did
exist. He believed his main task
for the air force was to educate
the public on scientific matters
of astronomy and atmospheric
phenomena. His opinions
began to shift as he realised
that not all UFO sightings
could be explained away as
mis-identification of known
natural occurrences. He found
some reports "deeply
puzzling". He was troubled
by the small but persistent
percentage of reports from
competent observers
astronomers, pilots, police
and military personnel
containing physical data which
could not be explained away.
Hynek decided many of these
must be genuine observations.
He concluded "that the
UFO phenomenon is a real
physical phenomenon and
represents an aspect of the
natural world not yet explored
by science".
By the 1960s his turnaround
and disagreement with the
attitudes of Blue Book, where
he was expected to "explain
away" as many UFO reports
as possible, was an open secret.
He became distressed at the
"arrogant" or "superficial"
attitude of most mainstream
scientists towards UFOs.
For decades, after the USAF
terminated Project Blue Book,
Hynek conducted his own
research. He was founder and
head of the Chicago-based
civilian Centre for UFO
Studies, opened in 1973. That
year, Hynek said he doubted
UFOs were spacecraft from
other planets. "It seems to me
ridiculous that super
intelligences would travel great
distances to do relatively
stupid things like stop cars,
collect soil samples and
frighten people. We must look
closer to home," he said. -
In a final hypothesis he
suggested there are stars
millions of years older than
the sun. "There may be a
civilisation millions of years
more advanced than man's,"
he said. "[They] may know
something that we don't
"The psychic realms, so
mysterious to us today, may
be an ordinary part of an
advanced technology."
In 1978, Hynek addressed
the UN general assembly, in an
attempt to initiate a centralised
UN authority on UFOs.
Still probing for the elusive
answers, Hynek died in 1986 of
a malignant brain tumor in
Scottsdale, Arizona.
Ann Beveridge
Online..
UFO experts fear Australian a
1.13y21.7.019
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PERHAPS we need to ;seat any alien visitors as
illegal immigrants and get them first to land on
Christmas Island for processing. If they fail to
meet the criteria, send them back to outer
space,
or tell them they
can have Afghanistan.
Pete Bateau
UFOs certainly exist, there has been too much
Bay

evidence not to believe otherwise. I find it hard
not to believe, as in
this
vast universe surely we
are not the only life that exists.
Jual Russell
SOUNDS like some people may have had one
too many Darwin stubbies. Please leave these
stories for the April 1 edition,
arry Central
HOW does one become a qualified UFOlogist?
Coast

Can one become an Easter bunny expert?
Carl Wollongong
IT'S Rudd and his cronies looking for their own
mine., . nothing to fear my friends.
Terry
IT IS Hans Solo coming to find spare parts from
Autobarn for the Millennium:Falcon:
UFO tax coming soon.

The Opinion
Sydney

Sqidda Boy
I BLAME the NSW State Government
Sydney

ABDUCT me, abduct me!

Dave Gosford

The Papp Five
Dock
GRAB the shotguns and don your alfoil hats .
THIS
ames
IS article was just
so funn . well do Sydney
done I
enjoyed reading it.

y

Min Sydney
SPACE Food Sticks are delicious, I say welcome.
Jono Carroll
THEY are here for one purpose only, to
Surry
remove
hills
the entire state of Queensland and their State of
Origin team to a planet far, far away .. may the
force be with them,
Greg
Mietherill Park
N A

EtIMATH
"!1 "0ipssoAir < sly
n invasion
Real or fake? Send
us your UFO pictures
tipaff@sundaytelegraph.com.au'
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a
Rocket,
so forget
the aliens
Blast off: The SpaceX rocket takes off from Cape Canaveral, Florida yesterday
By RICHARD CLUNE
THE sightings began just before the
break of dawn a strange swirling
light, spinning across the sky that
stopped early risers in their tracks.
It was definitely not a bird and
moved too quickly to be a plane.
From Melbourne to Caboolture, they
gazed upwards wondering the same
thing: Could this be the UFO to end the
debate about whether UFOs exist?
It took only two hours for that
question to be settled.
The unidentified flying object was
identified as a private rocket launched
from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
"Sadly for many, it's not aliens," said
Sydney Observatory curator Dr Andrew
Jacob. "We believe it to be the SpaceX
Falcon 9 rocket that was launched from
Cape Canaveral in Florida.
"lt launched at 4.45am Australian
Eastern Standard Time and that
puts it over Sydney and the eastern
seaboard about an hour later.
"They always launch eastward and a
little south from Canaveral."
Developed by a California firm and
subsidised by NASA, the rocket was on
its maiden test flight. Its supporters
hope it will be a cheaper way to launch
satellites into space and will take over
from the space shuttle as a supply
vehicle for the international space
shuttle. The SpaceX company was set
up by millionaire Elon Musk in 2002.
Hundreds of Australians along the
eastern seaboard reported seeing the
craft as it made its way across the sky.
Tamworth fireman Andrew Coe said
it was a sight to behold.
"I was getting the paper when I
looked up and saw the light. I thought it
was the moon but then realised it was
moving, swirling. I grabbed the boss and
we observed it for a couple of minutes. It
was really interesting to see it"
Kevin Watson, of Shellharbour,
reported a similar sight. He said: "I
couldn't believe my own eyes."
The rocket was also seen by workers
on an oil rig in the Cooper Basin, in far
west Queensland.
"My mate spotted it first and said,
'Have a look at that!' At first I thought it
was the moon," Garth Marks said. "It
moved slowly, then disappeared."
Dr Jacob said the craft's high altitude
explained the multiple sightings.
But some remain to be convinced.
UFO Research NSW spokesman Doug
Moffett labelled the rocket claims a
"convenient explanation".
Z,L3LO,_
Outback
UFO an
illusion
A MYSTERIOUS object seen
in film footage of British miss-
ile testing in the Australian
desert in 1964 set off decades
of conspiracy theories about a
UFO in the Outback.
When UK television viewers
in the 1960s watched BBC
footage of an abandoned test
of the Blue Streak missile at
Woomera in South Australia,
they were shocked by what
appeared to be a flying saucer
near the rocket launch pad.
The plot thickened in 1996
when documentary-maker
Jenny Randles went to investi-
gate the footage. only to find
the one canister containing the
evidence was missing from the
National Archives.
Newly released files from
the MOD reveal, far from
being a UFO, the flying saucer
was just a trick of the light.
UFO tale
banned
BRITISH prime minister
Winston Churchill banned for
50 years the reporting of an
alleged UFO incident during
WWII because it could create
mass panic.
Documents released yester-
day claimed that a wartime
reconnaissance aircraft photo-
graphed a UFO as it crossed
the British coast, with the crew
saying the mystery craft
"hovered noiselessly" near
them before moving off.
The documents claimed Mr
Churchill "made a declaration
to the effect, 'This event
should be immediately classi-
fied since it would create mass
panic among the population'."
Full report page 25
Space junk or UFO
WINDHOEK: A hollow metallic ball which fell out of
the sky on remote grassland in Namibia has baffled
authorities, prompting them to contact NASA and
the European space agency for answers.
The ball, urn in circumference, was found near a
village in the north of the country. Locals heard
several small explosions a few days before it appeared.
With a 35cm diameter, it has a rough surface and
appears to consist of "two halves welded together".
Made of a "metal alloy known to man" and weighing
6kg, it made a crater 33cm deep and 3.8m wide.
Several such balls have fallen on southern Africa,
Australia and Latin America in the past 20 years.
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UFOs a war secr et
Churchill feared mass panic if air encounter revealed

4 4 t ciE x r l
LONDON: Sir Winston Churchill
was accused of covering up a close
encounter between an RAF aircraft
and a UFO during World War II,
newly released files reveal.
The former British prime minis-
ter allegedly ordered the incident
over England's east coast be kept
secret for at least 50 years because it
would provoke "mass panic".
The claim, made by a scientist
Who said his grandfather was one of
Mr Churchill's bodyguards, is re-.
counted in declassified Ministry of
Defence UFO files made available
online by the National Archives.
Allegations of the cover-up
emerged when the scientist wrote
to the government in 1999 seeking
to learn more about the incident.
He described how his grand-
father, who served with the
RAF in the war, was present
when Mr Churchill and ps
General Dwight Eisenhower
discussed how to deal with
the UFO encounter.
The man, who is not
named in the files, said
Mr Churchill was repor-
ted to have exclaimed:
"This event should be
immediately classified
since it would create
mass panic amongst
the general population
and destroy one's be-
lief in the church."
The incident alleg-
edly involved an
RAF reconnaiss-
ance plane returning from a miss-
ion in France or Germany towards
the end of the war.
It was over or near the English
coastline when it was intercepted by
a strange metallic object which
matched the aircraft's course and
speed for a time before accelerating
away and disappearing.
Mr Churchill and General Eisen-
hower "agreed to cover up the RAF
plane's UFO encounter during
WWII", the files reveal.
"During the discussion with Mr
Churchill, a consultant dismissed
any possibility that the object had
been a missile, since a missile could
not suddenly match its speed with a
slower aircraft and then accelerate
again. He declared that the event
was totally beyond any imagined
capabilities of the time.
"Another person at the meeting
raised the possibility of an unidenti-
fied flying object, at which point. Mr
Churchill declared that the incident
should be immediately classified for
at least 50 years."
The files also revealed UFOs
were once taken seriously enough
to be discussed by intelligence
chiefs in 1957.
The latest batch of UFO files
from the National Archives in-
cludes details of a memorandum on
"aerial phenomena" prepared for a
meeting of the Cabinet Office's
Joint Intelligence Committee in
April 1957. And the files show that
modern reports of UFO sightings
reached a peak in 1996. Cover up: Documents about a UFO sighting were allegedly made secret by Sir Winston Churchill
LE U GU ST IQ R)
Unidentified flying Nazis: A flying saucer
allegedly developed by Hitler's scientists and
(inset) an artist's impression of the craft
cuagjs.mBLS_
Nazi UFO
flew over
UK in '44
LONDON: As Hitler's armies
began to crumble he turned in
increasing desperation to his
scientists to create a war-
winning super-weapon.
Some, like the V2 rockets and
the first jet fighters, sawaction
but came too late to halt defeat.
Others were so outrageously
ambitious that they never got
past the drawing board.
The idea of building flying
saucers to bomb London and
even NewYork could have been
just such a scheme.
Nowit is claimed Hitler's
scientists were so far advanced
with the project a prototype may
have flown up the Thames.
The program, under the com-
mand of SS officer Hans Kamm-
Ier, was said to have made
breakthroughs in anti-gravity,
according to a report in the
German science magazine PM.
It quotes witnesses who sawa
flying saucer marked with the
Iron Cross flying lowover the
Thames in 1944.
"The Americans also treated
the existence of the weapons
seriously," it said.
The magazine said the Ger-
mans destroyed much of the
paperwork on their activities but
in 1960, Canadian UFO experts
managed to recreate the device
which, to their amazement, "did
onthestreet
Do you believe in the
existence of UFOs?
BELIEVE in all possibilities
including UFOs. I'm very
comforted by the fact there's
intelligent life out there.
Alison Marshall
Waterloo
YES. I saw one on my balcony
with a friend five months ago.
There was a beam of light and
it was there for three hours.
Alexis Al(ache Padstow
YES. With how big the
universe is and how small
Earth is, it is statistically
probable.
Craig Anderson
Engadtne
I HAVEN'T seen any but
I saw .a documentary on
the History Channel which
swayed me.
Kayo Shoji Ryde
2 _ DsLahLetg....a_ 2 .0 Lo_
UFO? No,
Iranians
TEHRAN: It's not clear how
far or how high it can fly, or
even how big it is and what
... makes it take off.
But Iranian scientists claim
to have built the world's first
flying saucer.
The unmanned machine is
apparently designed for aerial
photography and is called the
Zohal Saturn.
"It is equipped with auto-
pilot, image stabiliser and GPS
and has a separate system for
aerial recording with FULL
HD quality," Iran declared,
keen to show it is at the cutting
edge of science.
Pine Gap
UFO files
released
Lucy Came
in London
UNIDENTIFIED flying discs
above Pine Gap space station
and an Australian sent by 'the
lights" to unify the human
race are among thousands of
alien claims made public by
the UK Ministry of Defence.
The files, released for the
first time this week, contain
more than 850 0 pages reveal-
ing UFO sightings and alien
abductions discussed by sev-
eral governments. They in-
clude accounts of UF0 s- acitiss
Britain, Norway and Australia.
One UK citizen in 2 0 0 1
demanded the Ministry of
Defence investigate an alleged
cover-up of flying objects seen
from the space shuttle Dis-
covery over Pine Gap, near
Alice Springs.
.NASA said it was debris
illuniinated by the sun, but the
MOD admitted it could only
offer a "disappointing" reply
because "there are some
aspects which, for reasons of
national security, are just not
I open for discussion".
_ In another . file, a London
mother claimed aliens chose
her second husband.
"He is Australian [white]
and I am Barbadian [black],"
she wrote. "We were being
brought together to represent
the Unity between the Op-
posite Forces -- the positive
and negative forces."
jaagstiL2 . 0
Shirley IVIacLaine: my wild affairs and
hunting UFOs with Andrew
SAMANTHA MAIDEN
NATIONAL POLITICAL EDITOR
SCREEN legend Shirley Mac-
LaMe has unlocked her Ex-Files,
revealing how she took Andrew
Peacock LIFO spotting on a date
at. a remote Mexican volcano
white he was foreign miniSter.
In a new tell-all book about her
string of prominent lovers, Ms
MacLaine discloses how the
future Liberal leader nearly
"climbed the sky" when they
thought they saw a flying saucer
and hinted that he had secret
government information about
their existence.
The Oscar-winning actress is a
lifelong believer in UFOs, spiritu-
ality and reincarnation and
claims she slept with King Char-
lemagne when she was a Moorish
peaSant girl in a past fife.
In this life, her affair with Mr
Peacock began when she was
touring Australia and later, as
both travelled the world, they
enjoyed assignations in Canada,
France, Cambodia, Thailand,
England, the US and Mexico.
In the book, entitled I'm Over
All That And Other Confessions,
she writes: "I thought as long as
'he's the Minister for Ftireign
Affairs, I might as well give him
one he'll never forget."
She claims her Australian
lover, with his access to govern-
ment files, knew more about
UFOs than he was willing to
reveal to her.
"Whenever I discussed my
spiritual and metaphysical ideas
with him, he listened, nodded and
more or less said: 'It could be,
Who knows?'
"On a UFO stakeout in Mex-
ico near Mt Popocatepetl, at one
moment we thought we saw a
craft and Andrew nearly 'climbed
the sky' to see if it was real.
"As foreign minister he con-
trolled all the information com-
ing out of Alice Springs (suppos-
edly the underground UFO
research facility in Australia).
Because he was sworn to secrecy,
he 'never told me outright that
UFOs were extraterrestrial in
origin and were present.
"When I told him I had gone
to see Jimmy Carter to discuss
UFOs, he just smiled again. He
was a trained diplomat."
Mt Popocatepetl is a repor
ted hot-spot for UFO ac-
tivity where' enthusiasts
claim the craft are regularly
captured by Mexican Gov-
ernment disaster cameras.
in the book, the 76-year-
old reveals her various "sex-
capades," including bedding
three lovers in one day. She
writes about affairs with
actor Robert Mitchum,
singer Yves Montand and
Prime Ministers Pierre
Trudeau (Canada) and OW
Palme (Sweden).
The book reveals Mr Peacock,
who was single, threatened to
have the "secret service follow
me if I was ever caught with
anyone else" but he didn't realise
she was also bedding Mr Palme.
"Once after leaving Palme in
Stockholm, I went directly to
Paris to meet Andrew. The pa-
parazzi were all over me when I
landed. Andrew thought it was
because of him, but it was actually
about both [Mr] Palme and him,"
she writes.
She describes Mr Peacock as
"charming, funny and a conserva-
tive". "He used his voice like a
snake oil salesman, which always
made me laugh because, as I told
him, I was also in the business of
professional seduction through
voice manipulation."
The Sunday Telegraph contacted
Mr Peacock but he did not wish to
comment on the book.
We thought we saw a craft
andAndrew nearly "climbed
the sky" to see if it was real

I
Shirley Maclaine with Andrew Peacock dancing at a hall in Washington in MB
APPIL
lers stuns police
By UGEL ADLANI
POLICE are convinced that
Territorians go a little bit
mad during the full moon.
They were shocked -- and
delighted that most people
behaved themselves during
Tuesday night's full moon.
Superintendent John
Ginnane said: "There were a
few incidents but generally it
was a quiet night"
He said emergency service
workers police, fire fighters
and ambulance officers
firmly believed that full moon
had a strange effect on people.
And the policeman said
other workers who dealt with
the public at night such as
taxi drivers and nightclub
bouncers were also con-
vinced of it.
"For some reason, a full
moon inspires behaviour over
and above what is expected,"
Supt Ginnane said.
Full moon madness doesn't
occur only in troppo season.
"It happens regardless of the
tune of year," Supt Ginnane
said yesterday.
Man has longbelieved in full
moon madness -- the word
lunacy conies fromlunar.
AccordMgto Wildpedia, pay-
chologists have found there is
no strong evidence for weird
effects on human behavior
around the time of a full. moon.
However, some studies have
been inconsistent.
A survey of dog bites hi
Britain showed they were
much more common duringa
full moon.
But a similar study in Aust-
ralia found the opposite.
irs Timo Partonen of the
Finnish National. Public
Health Institute carried out a
study of 1400 suicides and
found that people were more
likely to make an attempt on
their life when there was a
new moon.
A full moon occurs when the
moon is on the opposite side of
the earth fromthe sun.
It occurs every 29.53 days.
I
ash of phe Arta spar - 1 ' le. . i r S i n ? ' alien invasion

.
TRUE RELIEVER: Territory UFO-spotter Alan
Ferguson, of Acacia -1111s, who said he saw a
"bright white light" flashing past his house.
A f
Ruin Page It
phenomena" since the first sight-
inglast week. n,
Almost all of the sightings have
been in Darwin's rural area.
The At sightingwas reported
by a woman who wanted to
be identified only as Shirel on
April 21.
She said she saw the strange
lights from her Humpty
Doo home hovering over
Howard Springs.
"The lights were really low in
the sky, really bright, with flash-
battgli24414said.
"Three of themformed a semi-
circle and they hovered over ,the
area for at least half an hour."
There were three separate
sightings on Friday night Includ-
ing British backpacker Eylie
Myers who said she had "never
believed in anythinglike UFOs"
before her strange encounter.
The 27-year-old tourist said she
turned. into a "believer".
Ms Myers said she stopped her
car on the side of the road to grab
her camera fromthe glovebox,
but the light disappeared.
"It was prettAwatiwdko
There were more sightings at
Coolalinga on Saturday, Acacia
Hills on Sunday andgain in
Howard Springs on Tuesday.
But astronomer. Geoff Carr ;yes-
terday told the Northern Terri.t-
cry News he was "far from. believ-
ingany of this UFO stuff".
"Unless aliens have found a way
to travel faster than light speed,
it's a doubtful thingto believe they
came to visit us," he said.
Mr Carr said he believed
99.9 per cent of all the ITFO
sightings could be explained as
simple weathe :phenomena. *.
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'Gerrys'
helpto
rate UFO
sightings
THE following UFO sightings have
been reported to the NT News in
the past week. We've given each
sighting a credibility rating on the
Gerrymeter scale, named in
honour of the Territory's most
powerful man, independent MLA
Gerry Wood, who has seen UFOs
flying over his electorate in
Darwin's rural area.
THE GERRYMETER
5 Gerrys As credible as the
Territory's most honest
politician, Gerry Wood
k s z., /
4 Gerrys Definite alien
potential. Time to break out your
anti-abductionhelmet
3 Gerrys Was it a shooting
star? Or could it be something
more sinister?
2 Gerrys No wonder your
friends call you All
..A. .1 'k 1
? "
'Gerry Is that a UFOI cansee
throughthe wack y weed haze?
ck ? " --)
qttoi
April 21 , night-time, Humpty
Doo/ Howard Springs
Thirty eight-year-old Shirel
and her family see "strange
lights" from their Humpty Coo
home. The lights seem to hover
over Howard Springs.
"The lights were really low in
the sky, really bright, with
flashing dots.
"Three of them formed a semi-
circle and they hovered over the
area for at least half an hour."
3 GERRYS
t'gf
7e1 APRIL 2.011
April 23, 8pm, Howard Springs
SusanClarke and her family
spot a "huge spherical object
that was moving horizontally
across the night sky very slowly".
" It was amazing and unnerving
at the same time
"It was glowing red, orange
and gold none of us had ever
seen anything like it before."
A 48-year-old woman of
Woodroffe later confirms the
sighting and compares it to a
similar UFO sighting in Howard
Springs in September last year.
"It was sitting there, maybe 40
metres above the house I first
thought it was a huge full moon.
"When I looked around I saw
that there was a partial moon
further to the left, and I thought
'Oh my God, I'm not hanging
around here' and took off.
"It was unnerving, it was a
dark, very quiet night, and really,
it scared me to bits.
"It was an enormous orb, just
sitting there, as if it was waiting
for something."
4 GERRYS
Vp
April 23, night-time,
Stuart Highway, southof
Howard Springs
British backpacker Kylie Myers
is on the way to Adelaide River,
when she suddenly sees this big
light" in front of her, a few
metres above the road.
"It slowly moved to the right,
then to the left ... and then it
slowly flew to the left.
"A second later somebody
must have switched the light off
it was gone as suddenly as
it appeared.
" i never believed in anything
like that, I always thought people
would make it all up or see strange
things when they are drunk, but
this really happened to me and
it was pretty spooky."
4 GERRYS
April 24 , 1 0pm, Coolalinga
Twenty seven-year-old Renee Miller
sees a huge yellow light over the road.
" It was just there, it wasn't the moon
or anything.
"It was bright yellow and suddenly
it was gone. I have no idea what it was."
3 GERRYS
April 25, 8pm, Acacia Hilts
UFO-spotter Alan Ferguson sees a
"bright white light" flashing past his
house. "It just looked like the
By ANNIE SANSON
A MASS of UFO
sightings has Terr-
itorians wondering if we
are on the brink of an
alien invasion.
There have been seven
separate Top End UFO
sightings reported in the
in a semi-circle.
"It was a crystal clear night and we
all saw it. We watched it for half an
hour and the things changed their
shape a few times.
"It looked like a long piece with
lights on the side, but every now and
again it just looked like a star.
"We weren't worried as it was too far
away, but it's a bit of a worry to hear
more and more people report strange
things happening."
3 GERRYS
international Space Station a big
white light," he said.
"When it moves across it looks like
a satellite, except it's huge.
"It's exactly the same thing that I
saw at this time last year."
5 GERRYS
April 27 , 1 0.30pm, Humpty Doo/
Howard Springs
Humpty Doe-resident Shirei again
spots mysterious lights over Howard
Springs, together with her husband
and her two grown-up children.
"We saw the same thing again
there were three of them (bright lights)
past week. Hardly a night
has passed without a sight-
ing of some "unexplained
Continued Page 9
a Sacramento
Area 5i
San Francisco
Las Vegas
Conspiracy
theories
; .-1 That in
1947 a UFO
crashed near
the town
of Roswell
and the US
government
seized the craft
and the bodies of
several aliens
ill That the 1969 Moon
landing never happened - it
was filmed at Area 51
1111 That the latest revelations
about Area 51 are the
biggest cover-up of all
Shrouded in mystery: The US military says the A-12 spy plane (main picture) was often mistaken for a UFO and (bottom left to right) testing
the A-12, a pilot ejects, a top secret transport approaches Area 51 and an aerial view of the base Pictures: National Geographic/Area 51's Secrets
eceleo1 1 4,1 Mob,. Artttle1 a
- 1 4. . . w. .
Joe Hildebrand
AMERICANS have always liked to
believe in something, whether it be
God, the flag or spindly bug-eyed
aliens who look like an albino
version of Spiderman.
But after today they might have
to strike this last one from the list,
with extraordinary new pictures of
Area 51 confirming every conspir-
acy theorist's worst fear. There is
no conspiracy. The legendary top
secret military base in Nevada
and officially not anywhere has
captured the imagination of UFO-
spotters for half a century.
It was 1963 when a futuristic-
looking craft crashed in the nearby
desert. The US Government
quickly recovered it and covered it
up, which sparked suspicions they
had found an alien spaceship.
But phenomenal pictures un-
earthed by National Geographic and
to feature in its documentary Area
51's Secrets reveal it was an A-12
spyplane, pictures of which have
been released for the first time by
the CIA. The incredibly stream-
lined titanium vessel would have
looked at home in a Star Wars
movie but was in fact developed by
the US Government in the 1950s.
"Nearly undetectable to radar,
the A-I2 could fly at 2200 miles an
hour (3540km/h), fast enough to
cross the continental US in 70
minutes," the National Geographic
website reveals.
"From 90,000 feet (27,400m),
the plane's cameras could capture
foot-long (0,3m) objects on the
ground below."
Area 51 workers even built fake
cardboard planes and lit decoy fires
so as to fool Soviet satellites spying
from overhead.
The ruse was so elaborate that
even the fake planes themselves
were not intended to be seen but,
rather, to cast misleading shadows
that would keep the Russians
chasing red herrings.
The fires were used to simulate
aircraft landings. It was an extra-
ordinarily elaborate ruse and in-
credibly effective at deceiving the
Russians. The only catch was it
deceived a few Americans too.
1 . .Tt I
ADEE Why man is convinced he saw
two UFOs flyingover the northern
beaches at dawn on Sunday, despite
aviation experts rejectingthe claim.
Xavier Figarella believes he sawtwo
UFOs travellingacross the sky about
6amas he was waitingto watch the
sun rise fromhis balcony.
He said the objects were travelling in a
straight line but appeared to be chang-
ingshape as they moved.
By the time he was able to grab his
camera, only one remained.
"It was really weird," he said.
"I cannot understand what it was."
Mr Figarella said he did not believe in
UFOs until he witnessed the two
objects in the sky on Sunday.
Continued Page 2
Circled:above is one of the
two objects which sparked
a Dee Why man's UFO
sighting.
Picture: Xavier Figarella
*MYSTERY MUM.
ive on station U F O
AUK radio station known for its
lively discussions on world
affairs became rather more
other-wordly yesterday when it
broadcast a live account of a
close brush with a UFOfrom
one of itssports reporters.
"Freaked out sports journal-
ist. Mike Sewell said he was left
gobsmacked when he sawa
huge "disc-shaped" aircraft hov-
eringabove the Hertfordshire
countryside on his way to catch
a flight in the early hours of the
morning.
Sewell said he was drivingto
Stansted airport when he saw
the UFOover the village of
Coffered, near Buntingford.
He called his Radio 5 Live
employers and his interview
with presenter Nicky Campbell
was broadcast to millions of
listeners.
Sewell told howabout 25km
fromStanated at 4.15arn he
sawa "bigbright light in the sky
descendingtowards the road"
and howwhen it banked to the
left he could see underneath it.
"It wasn't an aeroplane, and
it wasnt a helicopter. Certainly
of a kind of - and I dread saying
this - disc shape. It had several
tights flashingall around it." he
said.
He said the craft "just sat or
circled a certain area above the
field for a fewmom_ents" when
he lost sight of it.
"Certainly for two or three
minutes I sawwhat, I think, was
not a normal aeroplane," said
the well-respected reporter, who
was on his way to Sweden to
cover a soccer match.
"I was wide awake and I'mof
sound mind. I was completely
freaked out by it" Sewell said.
UFOexpert Timothy Good
told the station that what Sewell
had seen was "clearly not a con-
ventional aircraft of any type".
"It might be extra terrestrial.
it might well be one of ours. Top
secret aircraft and spacecraft
have been flown by the USmili-
tar}, and by the British military
for quite some time now." Good
said.
AUGUST 201i_
al SE ?I uyttielL
How about a time and space portal from a UFO?
THIS week a Northern Territory
driver said he was freaked out by
an encounter with what he
claims was a UFO, somewhere
south of Tennant Creek.
Which of course had me won-
dering how come aliens only
make themselves known in
remote areas of Australia? Most
often to people towing caravans
to Perth.
Now there's a report of what
may have been two UFO's hover-
ing over Sydney's northern
beaches, so perhaps aliens are
becoming emboldened. On some
sort of inter-galactic meet and
greet. I'll be one of the first out
there to shake er whatever they
use for hands.
I'm fascinated by the possi-
bility of life on another planet
and sometimes wonder if I were
invited on board an alien craft,
would I go? Yes. I'd always regret
not going, if only to answer the
question: How come everything
alien is white, silver, translucent
or iridescent green?
I'd also like to be the first to
describe some piece of alien tech-
nology unknown to the human
race. When abductees return to
Earth after being probed, they
always describe a sick bay that
sounds uncannily like the one on
the Starship Enterprise and
medical equipment similar to
stuff your dentist uses.
No one abducted by super-
intelligent beings has been able
to describe one item of alien
technology that has advanced
Earth one jot - not even a new ;
design for a paper clip or a new
way to grate cheese - so I'd like to
bring back the actual blueprints 4
for a time and space portal and
then build one. If I could ever get
a DA from the council. (Which
seems unlikely, given the prog-
ress on next door's carport.)
A flying
saucer
literally in
action.
Picture.
NICK AN DR EAN
Aliens could be avoiding us
THERE'S an argument raging in
scientific circles about our ap-
proach to finding life on other
planets.
Since 1984 , the not-for-profit or-
ganisation, SETI Institute (Search
for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)
has been patiently sifting through
radio signals from deep space in
the hope of finding a message from
another world. Now, millions of
home computers, are linked across
the globe via SETI@Home to join
in the listening.
However, just a few years ago, a
band of SCI-FI aficionados from
Argentina and Russia - declared
that after decades, of being put on
hold and hearing nothing, zilch,
nada, (a bit like ringing QANTAS),
they were going to get active and
blast messages from earth into
space. Something like: "Hey! You
with the pointy-head! We're over
here!"
Some scientists fear we may be
inviting obliteration from ruth-
less Alien exterminators. What
will happen when we humans, the
"most ignorant technological race
in the universe" begin advertising
the fact? Not all E.T.'s can be
immobilised in under two hours
by the wily . Tom Cruise.
SETI founder, the late dad:
Sagan, said that as "the newest
children" in a strange and uncer-
-lain cosmos, we should listen
quietly and learn patiently.
There's now a SETI project that
asks: "If we discover intelligent
life beyond earth should we reply
and what should we say?"
One of hundreds of suggestions
is: "Come now! MAYDAY. HELP!"
Here's another: "If you are related
to E.T. We welcome you.
If you are related to the War of
World people. We are not receiv-
ing calls today. Maybe tomorrow.
Have to pack."
I'd go with: "Wow! You look
amazing. Have you lost weight?"
(Everyone loves that one.)
Strangely, no one's considered
the idea that Aliens have known
for years that we're here and are
studiously avoiding us. Our ozone
layer spells "HAZOHEM" and
visiting earth is the intergalactic
equivalent of taking the kids to
Fukushima. They'd love to visit,
but haven't the got the technology
in gumboots, block-out and long-
handled tongs.
As for those UFO's hovering
over Dee Why?
They won't be touching down
any time soon. They whizzed back
beyond Betelgeuse after failing to
find a place to park.
op
Wendy Harmer is the co-editor of
TheHoopla.coni.au, an online news
and opinion site.that keeps
Australian women In the loop".