97 lines
4.5 KiB
Plaintext
97 lines
4.5 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: TOWNSFOLK IN ALABAMA PUZZLED BY SIGHTINGS FILE: UFO1268
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NEWS CLIPPING SERVICE
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DATE OF ARTICLE: February 16, 1989
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SOURCE OF ARTICLE: State
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LOCATION: Columbia, South Carolina
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BYLINE: Dave Moniz
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========================================================
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THIS FILE WAS PROVIDED BY THE UFO NEWSCLIPPING SERVICE
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AND PREPARED BY PARANET ALPHA -- PARANET INFORMATION
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SERVICE
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========================================================
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TOWNSFOLK IN ALABAMA PUZZLED BY UFO SIGHTING
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By Dave Moniz, Staff Writer
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Fyffe's problem is everyone's problem.
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UFOs spell trouble.
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Especially if they look like flying bananas and are bigger
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than jumbo jets.
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So Friday night, when a handful of Alabamans spotted not
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one, but two giant vessels hovering in the dark sky above them,
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it put tiny Fyffe, Ala, on the celestial map.
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Although unexplained UFOs are fairly common, the roster of
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witnesses makes the Fyffe sighting more than just fodder for the
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next Geraldo Rivera special. Officers from five law enforcement
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agencies said they saw at least one of the two objects buzzing
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their bewildered corner of Dixie.
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That has led those who monitor such phenomenon to speculate
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Fyffe is not crying alien.
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Fred Works, the town's assistant police chief, tracked both
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UFOs. The first, spotted south of the town of 1,300, had been
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observed by a woman who watched for an hour before calling
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police. She described the first one -- which she saw through
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binoculars -- as looking like a giant, upside down banana with
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red, white and green lights.
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Works and Fyffe Police Chief Junior Garmany saw that object,
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whose shape they could not determine, before they were diverted
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by another.
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The second UFO, Works said, appeared about 1,500 feet off
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the ground and was traveling, he estimated, 300 to 400 mph.
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He dismissed as possibilities both airplanes and helicopters
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because the UFOs were silent.
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"That's the biggest mystery," Works said.
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Elton Roberts, a reporter with the Fort Payne, Ala., Times-
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Journal, said police from Collinsville, Crossville, Geraldine and
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one highway patrolman reported seeing strange objects in the sky
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at the same time.
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The resulting hubbub does not surprise Stan Gordon, a UFO
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tracker who says unexplained sightings in Pennsylvania have
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increased dramatically since 1987.
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"I've been involved with this for 29 years, and we've never
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been through a cycle like this," said Gordon, head of the
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Pennsylvania Association for the Study of the Unexplained.
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"There are so many new cases now that we cannot dismiss them
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easily," Gordon said.
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UFOs, it seems, know no bounds.
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George Fawcett, who tracks the Southeast from his North
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Carolina home, recently wrote that South Carolina, "40th in size,
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ranks high for the number of excellent UFO encounters the past
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four decades."
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Another UFO specialist, Duquesne University chemistry
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professor Paul Johnson, said all the heady talk isn't cause to
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run out and buy an intergalactic Gatling gun.
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"About 90 percent of all UFO sightings can be explained,"
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Johnson said.
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"Normally, people are misidentifying Jupiter, Venus,
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helicopters or meteors."
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But that still leaves 10 percent of reported UFO sightings
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that cannot be explained, Johnson said.
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Unidentified flying objects have at various times been
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described as looking like hot dogs and milk saucers, suggesting
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that aliens, like some of their earthly counterparts, have a
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sense of humor.
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"We really don't know what UFOs are," Johnson said.
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"The possibility that they're extraterrestrials is more
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prominent in the minds of Hollywood producers and tabloid
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writers. About 80 percent of people who have sightings don't
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report them because they get laughed at."
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Assistant Chief Works might agree. As he fielded calls from
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television stations in Huntsville and Birmingham, and newspapers
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across Alabama, he acknowledged he was reluctant to talk.
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"I'd just be satisfied to leave it be. If there's something
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out there, they're there. I'm not gonna worry about it," Works
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said.
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"I'm not gonna say there are little green men running
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around."
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=================================================================
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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