HBCC UFO Research Note: With this report and in the media section which there are links to at the end of the report. You will find numerous questionnaires, drawings and newspaper articles.
Date: July 29, 2002 Time: 10:50 p.m.
Witness #1 (out of 6 witnesses)
On October 3, 2002 I had a telephone call from a lady who resides in Sayward, British Columbia which is located on the north eastern shore of Vancouver Island. It has about 1500 inhabitants and is approximately two hours south of Port Hardy, one hour north of Campbell River and four hours north of the provincial capital, Victoria.
She had read an article which I had written and which had been published in the North Island Gazette (in a letter to the editor) where I had asked residents to report any strange lights they may have seen recently in the area and which I could investigate.
I had heard from a colleague who informed me that a number of witnesses had reported seeing a large fireball over Sayward, B.C. on the evening of July 29, 2002.
The reason why I was so interested in hearing from these folks was due to the major sighting which took place here (Houston, Quick, Telkwa & Smithers, British Columbia) on the same evening where nine witnesses in four different communities watched an unforgettable event which seemed to be connected to the Sayward B.C sighting.
The lady went on to tell me that there was a total of six witnesses who she knew who had also observed the same thing. Her mother, aunt and three other women had witnessed this strange object, all within a kilometer from each other ... and to this day she can't figure out what it may have been.
When it was first observed she told me that she thought it was a meteor, but as it travelled along, she quickly changed her mind. She said after the event was over she logged on to the internet to seek help in trying to find an answer which might give some clue as to what she had seen.
She found a Meteorologist in Courtney, B.C. and wrote him a letter explaining what it was she had seen and heard. The gentleman told her that it was most likely a meteor, but she felt like she was getting the run around, and nothing basically came from her request for information. She'd been told to provide the latitude and longitude of her sighting .. and of course she was unable to do that. It was not her expertise !
However he did ask if he could send out a short questionnaire for her and the other witnesses to complete. She received the paperwork and forwarded it to the other ladies and they all filled it in. After the questionnaires were completed and collected, everyone's information was basically the same. Three of the witnesses drew pictures of their sighting.
Another trip to the internet (to my website) provided the witness with more accounts of the same sighting. A similar object had been seen further north (Bulkley Valley) on the same date .. much to her surprise. She immediately contacted me by telephone to tell me of her experience and how she thought it may have been the same object.
The only difference in all the reports is that this witness did hear noises and went on to say the other three ladies also heard the same sounds. She explained where she was standing, on her driveway and the object was "just there" in front of her "just" above the small mountain. I was told by this witness that it was the noise which had attracted her attention.
In her words she said the sound was like that of a "screecher" (fire cracker) which gave off a whistling noise. When she looked up, the first thing that was noted was a white tail. She also said the object looked as if it was hovering, moving really slowly. It also had a white core center and black coloring around the outside edges. It was also described as being covered with fire, or an orange color all the way around it.
As this was taking place, she heard a scream from her neighbours property behind her. Her comments to herself after hearing the screaming from the neighbors was, "exactly"!, meaning she was glad someone else saw it. After she lost sight of the object, a couple of minutes went by when her mother and aunty came driving up in their van. The witness got into the van and did not want to mention what she had just seen, but because it was such an amazing event she said to her mother and aunty you wouldn't believe what I just saw.
The two women just looked at her and said, "did you see what we've just seen"? She told them yes.
(HBCC UFO Investigators Note: I have talked to the two witnesses who were driving the van at the time and have their reports as well. They will be written up separately. Some of the witnesses work for the Provincial Emergency Program, so all are very credible and thought, at the time, that they were going to have to respond to crashed aircraft.
I asked the woman if she could give me a rough idea how far off the ground the object might have been, she turned and asked her boyfriend, he said their property was sitting about 100 feet above sea level, and the witness said the object was approximately 100 feet off the ground traveling horizontally. Her thoughts were that the object was going to go into the ocean. It seemed as if it had just crashed.
She explained that the Meteorologist she had contacted ... had said, in all his days...he has never heard of a meteor making any noise. When I asked the witness about the size of this object, she said it was "HUGE"!
I asked her what was the duration of the sighting and she replied that she had watched the object for approximately 3 to 4 seconds before she lost sight of it when the trees on her property blocked the view.
I will be receiving copies of the drawings made by the witnesses and also copies of the questionnaires and I will post them to my website as soon as I receive them.
Questionnaire from EMO Fireball Network Station Courtenay for the witnesses to fill out.
http://www.amsmeteors.org/spectra/majdenobs.html
So far we have had no reports on this object. Can you or someone that observed this event answer a couple of questions?
1. How bright was it as compared to the Moon or the planet Venus? Venus should have been visible low in the NW around evening twilight.
2. You mentioned sound associated with this object. Was this sound simultaneous or occurring at the same time you saw the object or was it delayed sound?
3. Did you hear a sonic boom? If so, how long after you saw the fireball did it occur?
4. What part of the sky was it in?
5. Did it pass overhead?
6. What was the duration of the fireball?
7. Would you say it was fast, slow, etc.
8. Did it break-up or fragment or was it just a solid object?
Please answer these questions as best you can. Ask them of each person who saw the event and try not to influence them as to what they saw. Have them report their own impression of what they observed or heard.
If we get any more reports I will let you know. Thanks for reporting this to us.
Below is an email I received from the Sandia Bolide Detection Station EMO Courtenay, B.C in which explained the gentleman's thoughts on what he felt the residents of Sayward saw. I do thank this fellow for his input and answering my email.
Hello Brian:
Thanks for your email. This object was probably a bright meteor. You get all kinds of strange reports when these events occur as most people that see a bright fireball are surprised by it and are not skilled at making such observations. We often get reports that the meteor landed just behind my farmer Joe's barn. If you see a bright fireball, it is still quite high in the atmosphere and many kilometres from you. The last portion of the flight is not visible. Directions are not accurate either. It can be moving toward you or away from you and still draw the same path across the sky. It is better to ask the observer if it was going from left-to-right or right-to-left. This way we can determined if we have observers on both sides of the path. This is necessary if you want to do a triangulation and plot a possible fall area. You should see the reports we get from UFO buffs! If the fireball is near you, a sonic boom is often heard, sometime after the event. Perhaps several minutes later depending on how far away it is. Some people report simultaneous sounds but this is still not proven. It is probably too late to do anything about this event but we are still interested in hearing about them.
Best regards: Sandia Bolide Detection Station EMO Courtenay, B.C.
Sayward, British Columbia - Witness #2 (out of 6 witnesses)
I interviewed a very nice lady who took the time to explain what she had seen the night of July 29, 2002. In this report two sisters were in their vehicle when the passenger exclaimed "oh my goodness, what is that"? The driver then spotted the object, and thought both women thought it was an airliner about to crash. She said it was very "low" and thought it was on fire. She again stressed just how low it was from the ground. (Maybe 150 feet when she watched it pass by.)
I asked the witness if the object was traveling in a horizontal position, or had any slight angle to it. She said it could have been going straight, meaning flying horizontally. She stopped for a moment, and said to me, "I know this is going to sound strange, but it looked as if it was being operated by someone !" She said she didn't think it was falling down at all, but more like an airplane which was coming into an airport to land and almost following a straight path.
As both women are part of the Provincial Emergency Program they were concerned that they would be called out that night to deal with an impending crash. They rushed down to the wharf to see if there was any activity in the water, island or on the mainland which isn't far from Sayward across the ocean. They were expecting to see flames, debris and a crash scene and couldn't not believe that there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary.
The witness described the object as being dark. It looked like a big black cloud with the moon behind it. She said it was very long, like a cigar shaped object.
(HBCC UFO Note: She did not want to use the words "cigar shaped", as she had heard of these types of objects before. She preferred to compare it to the shape and size of the body of a 747 aircraft. Next day she drove past the same spot where the object had been seen previously and realized what she had seen had indeed been flying "very low". There had been no sound heard from the object because the women were traveling inside a vehicle at the time.
She stressed to me it did not look like it was falling, but being handled. (She said I don't know if that is the right word to use, but it looked as if it was coming in to land, and looked to her as if it was on fire.) She went on to say, I couldn't tell you what it was, but I sure know what I saw !
The witness also drew what she saw on paper, and after everyone was done, all the drawings were compared and found to be identical. Her sighting lasted for approx: 4 seconds. It was also moving very slow, and like she mentioned to me, she had seen many meteors in her life, and this was no meteor.
Thank you so much to this witness for sharing her experience with me. Sayward, British Columbia - Witness # 3
I talked with the third witness who gave a brief description of what she saw on July 29, 2002. She said it looked like a plane blowing up ! (A huge fireball of flame). She also told me that the object was very low to the ground, but it was hard to estimate the exact altitude. It was traveling straight along, not falling at an angle. This witness said she heard no sound coming from it. She described the color as being orange/yellow. It also had a short tail following behind. In her estimation she figured the total time of the sighting lasted between 5 to 8 seconds. She claims the object was traveling in a northerly direction.
Thank you to this witness for her report.
To view the questionnaires, drawings and newspaper articles please click on the below links. This is the media section.
Brian Vike, Director HBCC UFO Research. email: hbccufo@telus.net Website: http://www.hbccufo.org http://www.brianvike.com, http://www.hbccufo.com, http://www.hbccufo.net HBCC UFO Research International: http://www.hbccufointernational.org/
HBCC UFO Research, Box 1091 Houston, British Columbia, Canada - VOJ 1ZO
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