TIMESNumber 24 July/August 1993 ISSN 0958-4846

A BUFORA PUBLICATION

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AIMSl. To encourage. promote and conduct unbiased scientific research of uDidentified flying object (UFO)phcnomena lhroughout rhc Uniled Kingdom.2. To collccl and disseminalc cvidcncc and data relaling 1o unidenlified flying objects(UFOs).3. To co-ordinate UFO .esearch throughoul the United Kingdom and to co-operale lvith others engagedin such research rhroughout the world.MEMBERSHIP Mcmbcrship is open to rll who srrpport the aims oflhe association and whose applicalionis approved by the execulive comrniltee. Applications. forms and general information can be oblaincdfrom BUFORA'S registered office.MEMBER SOCIETIES & ASSOCIATE CROUPS Includes Brita;n's oldesl UFO group, BFSB.3 OrchardRoad. Coal Pil Heath. Bristol, Avon. BS l7 2PB. Associate groups include: The Northamptonshire UFOReserch Centre and Skyscan.

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can be ohtained from lhe Diratorof Research

IIFO Times

CONTENTS

............ 13-16Fire in the Sky......................................................4 The Winged Serpent of Ashland

Philip Mantle Gordon Millinston

Pat Otter

The European Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I l-12 UFOCaII........... ....................... 20Gary Anthony is unwell, thus, there is noSpacenews for this issue. The Council of BUFORAwish Gary a speedy recovery.

Frofit co|er illLlstration reproducedwith the kind permission oJ United International Pictures

TIMESEDITOFlIAL

IJFO Times

FIRE IN THE SKYA FILM BY PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND UNITED INTERNATIONAL PICTL'RES.

BASED ON THE TRUE STORY OF TRAVIS WALTON.Certificale: 15, Running Tine: 1 Hour 50 Minutes.

Previewed by Philip Mantle

It is the evening of NoYember 5th1975. A group of loggers are in apickup truck on a mountain road ina northeastern Arizona forest whenthey observe a strange and unusuallybright light in the sky. Despite warn-ings from his co-workers, butconsumed by curiosity, Tra v isWalton leaves the safety of his truckto take a closer look. Suddenly,Walton is thrust to the ground by amysterious force ofenergy. His com-panions flee in fear. Later, theydescribe the events surrounding thedisappearance of Travis Walton.They report an occurrence theywould have considered impossible ifthey hadn't experi€nced it them-selves - an encounter with a UFO.

For five days the loggers are sus-pected of homicide until Waltonreappears, disorientated and unable to)ccount for his missing time. Walton'srecollections of being aboard an aliencraft bring intemational attention totheir small town o[ Snowflake, Arizona. There are accusations of a hoax,but all must considerthe possibility thatlhe men are telling the trulh. Is theiraccount ofwhat happened so incredibleit can only be true?

'FIRE IN THE SKY'is a JoeWizanllodd Black Production based

on the true story of Travis Walton,whose alleged abduction by a UFO isone of the most intriguing and contro-versial UFO cases.

Starring D.B. Sweeney (The CultingEdge), Craig Sheffer (A River RunsThrough It). Peter Berg (Late ForDinner)And Academy Award nominee,James Camer, the film was producedby Joe Wizan and Todd Black anddirected by Robert Lieb€rman from thescreenplay by Tracy Torme. The film'sspecial effects were created by Indus-trial Light and Magic.

The biggest mysteries and greatestmiracles in history have few witnessesand those compelled to relate unprece-dented experiences have inevitablyfaced contempt and ridicule. In 1975,an Arizona woodsman came forward totell about a startling sequence of

events. Seventeen years later, contro-veny still surrounds the incident. Thesubject of an autobiographical book,THE WALTON EXPERIENCE, andmany other publications concerningUFOS, the event is one ofthe best-doc-umented claims of an alien encounteron record, and is corroborated by agroup of witnesses whose stories havenot changed. Walton's ordeal calledinto question his beliefs about thenature of life as he and the otherloggerssimultaneously faced the challengesposed by those who couldn't accepttheir account.

"At first I was angry at people's dis-belief, even outraged," remembersWalton. "Back then, a lot of that had todo with the fact that there were so manyfalsehoods being told. I've gotten morephilosophical about the scepticism ofpeople. It's not such an unnatural reac-tion. It's an incredible thing (thathappened). What gets me upset is whenpeople refuse to examine the facts or toeven look at things."

"This is a story that speaks to humancharacter and behaviour about ourinclination to presume the worsl insomeone before considering ideas thatchallenge our own scepticism," com-ments producer Joe Wizan.

Director, Robert Lieberman, says,"Not only are we confronted with theenigma of truth or hoax, but the conse-quences faced by those who becomeostracised from their community."

Screenwriter. Tracy Torme. identi-fies the film as a study of"how a singleevent can alter your life foreverjust by(your) being unlucky enough lo be inthe wrong place at the wrong time.'FIRE IN THE SKY' is also aboutfriendship and betrayal - and forgive-ness." Torme first heard of the Waltoncase while listening to the radio in highschool. A decade later, he travelled toSnowflake with co-producer, RobertStrauss, to investigate the story. "lspoke extensively with Travis Waltonand the other men who were involved,including Mike Rogers," says Torme, a

Peabody Award-winner and screen-writer of 'INTRUDERS'. a mini-series

that also depicted UFO abductioncases. "Most of the gul s had not seeneach other in the past ten 1ears. I ques-lioned them indiriduallr and theiranswers always held up. Each manbelieved he was telling the truth. I thinkthey all had been traumatised by what-ever happened that €vening. It was a

nightmare for them."

Co-producer Robert Strauss adds,"Travis went ten years without a tele-phone to avoid answering questionsabout that night. He installed one onlya few days before Tracy Torme called.He must have considered that an omenbecause he finally agreed to talk abouteverything. He was really intrigued bythe idea of finally telling his story andtrying to do it in some way that wasmore honest than the way some of thenewspapers and the media portrayedit," adds Torme.

Comments executive producer,Wolfgang Glattles, "These men's storyhas never changed. As bizarre as theiraccount is, it's equally difficult tobelieve it was a hoax."

'FIRE lN THE SKY was released inthe UK in June 1993. The above mate-rial was supplied by UnitedInternational Pictures (UK) and editedby Philip Mantle.

COMPETITIONUnited International Picturcs havekindly donated a number of promo-tional 'FIRE IN TllE SKY' items. Towin an original copy of the soundtrackfrom the film on audio cassette, simplyanswer the question beloq All comrtentries will be placed 'in a hal' and onewinner will be dmwn out. Ten runners-up will each receive a colour brochuredetailing the movie. All entries shouldbe sent to: Philip Mantle, l, WoodhatlDrive, Batley, W. Yorks. WFIT-7SW.Closing date is August 31st 1993. Thewirmer will be announced in a futureissue of llFO TIMES.

The question is:-

ln which town in Arizona didTravisWalton live at the time of hisencounter in 1975?

UFO Times

Eritish Unidentified Flying Object Research AssociationCASE REPORT

Part 1

Date of incidents: JAS REPORT 75191 : l5-7 -91 &REPORT 51/91: 1-6-91

Report class: FB2-304 [Vall6e]

Sighting area: Sussex - N5042N E0044 [30 NM SE MAY]N5122 W0050 [l 2.5 NM wNW Ockhaml

AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS(or The Ballooning Alternative to Travel)

Case No. PHILCASE.076Statdqrd UFO report form not issued due to witness namesramaining confdentiql to the CAA.

lnvestigators: Diane Eakin & Ken Phillips

This report first became known to the investigator afterwatching a brief n€ws report on the BBC 6 O'Clock Newsin May 1992. There were very few details given other thanthe fact that the incident had involved a large passengerairliner over the Sussex. England airspace.

After contacting BUFORA's Director of Investigations[DOI], the investigator was told by her that, according to theinformation she had received, there were two separate inci-dents involving two different aircraft on two different dates.The DOI funher advised the investigator to contact another,local investigator living near Ashford, Kent - Diane Eakin -in order to prompt herto find out what she could from GatwickAir Traffic Control [ATC]. In the meantime, the first invesri-gator wrote a lener of inquiry to the CAA Headquarters inLondon in the hope their staff could shed some light on the

incident(s). Eventually, a reply came back from the JoinrAirmiss Section [JAS], Uxbridge postulating a 'SolarBalloon' hypothesis.

Meanwhile, Diane Eakin had managed to obtain further, burlimited, information from 'UK Airmisses Involving Commer-cial Air Transport', fiom its May-August 199 t edition, but thisadditional information imparted no really helpful data such asnames of penonnel and airlines involved; furthermore, thereports contained in this periodical were clouded by aeronau-tical 'jargon' which render the repofs difficult for the laymanto interpret.

Thus, in lieu of any funher substantial data, the followingreport is based merely on a sequential account ofa frustratingattempt to obtain supplementary data on the incidents inquestion.

LETTER FROM N. G. POPE, SECRETARIAT(AIR STAFF), 2a, ROOM 8245,

Dated 5th May 1992

Ministry of Defence,Main Building,

WhitehallLondon, SWlA-2HB.

Our ref: D/Sec(AS) 1213

Dear Mr. Phillips,

Thank you for your letter dated 29 April, in which you askedwhether we had any information on a near, mid-air collisionbetween an "Al Italia,/Dan air" aircraft and a "UFO".

I assume that you are referring to the incident that occurredon 2l April last year, when the pilot of an Alltalia MD80reported sighting a "flying object". In fact, while the MODwas forwarded a copy of the pilot's report to the CAA, wereceived no other reports that tied in with this.

If you have not alrcady done so, you may wish to contactthe CAA, with a view to seeing if they have any other infor-mation that might be ofuse to you.

I hope this is helptul.

Yours sincerely,

N. Pope.

LETTER OF R,EPLY FROM JOINT AIRMISSSECTION IN RESPONSE TO AN EARLIER LETTEROF ENQUIRY TO CAA HEADQUARTERS, LONDON

Grcup Captain J.E. Maitland, RARJoint Airmiss Section,

Hillingdon House,Uxbridge,

Middx. UB10-0RU.Tel: 0895-276120.

t5-6-92.

Dear Mr. Phillips,

Your letter to the 'Director of General Safety Operations'was forwarded to me because this section deals with all air-misses, civil and military, reported in UK airspace.

Of the two incidents you mention, neither was reported asan airmiss. However, an airmiss report involving an unident!fied object,[which was probably some sort of balloon] waspublished in April in the CAA's booklet, 'UK AirmissesInvolving Commercial Air Transport, May , Aug 1991'; thisdrew a lot of media aftention. The booklet can be obtainedfrom: The CAA Printing & Publication Service at CrenvilleHouse, 37 Gratton Rd. Cheltenham, Clos. GL50-2BN; tel0242-235151. I believe the publication, which comes outevery 4 months. costs f5 per edition.

UFO Times

If you get the May - Aug l99l edition, you will find thatthe incident which the press picked up is Airmiss 75191 whichtook place on the 15th July. You will probably also notice that51/91 referred to some other unidentified object, but almostcertainly a part-deflated balloon of some kind; this happenedon the lst June.

The information in these reports is in the public domain butI cannot let you have copies of the original pilots' reportssubmitted to JAS in confidence forflight safety purposes only.

Yours sincerely,J. Maitland.

PS: Airmiss 75191 - this [a LFO SOL.\R B.\LLOO\*] mightexplain a black, lozenge-shaped objecr nore heieht possibil-ity below...

* Solar energy airship exposed to the sun takes otT -sradually:-Dimensions: length approx. 10'. diameter appror. 1'. thickness

l0 microns - supplied with a 60' tll ing cableS

$ Waming: do not use your airship in strone * Lnd. Keep awayfrom obstacles such as trees, buildings relegraph poles &electricity pylons, etc... Tie up your airship to \ins cable,because, if released, it could reach e\traordinarr altitudes(30,000')

MAY-AUGUST 1991

AIRMISS REPORT No75/91Date/time: 151745 Jul

Type OperatorReportingAircraft: 8737 CAT

ReportedAircraft:Position:

Airspacetyp€:

Assessed Met. Conditions

VMC 40 km

the temperaturc rose from +8' to +12o.The top of convection \\'as was at4,500', above this was a ver)' drv areaup to about 15,000'. Wind velocity at14,000' - 305125, 10.000'- 295/25.

2) AIS(Mi]) undertook very thoroughtracing action but could reach no posi-tive conclusion. Their radar replay didshow a primary retum in the generalarea but it was seen to move about likea light a,/c or helicopter at low level. NoMet or other balloons could be tracedwhich having been released could havereached this arealtime nor which couldhave appeared black. The only possibleexception lo lhis was thal some hol-airballoon pilots launch small balloonswhich can be followed with a devicecalled a'Wind Tracker'. One balloonpilot contacted had released balloonson the 6th/7th July but then not againuntil the l9th. On the 2lst he trackedone of his black balloons to 7,200'before he lost sight of it and he assumedthey could go much higher than this.The CAASRG is well aware of this useof balloons; they and others of similarsize fless than 2 m] are exempted frommost restrictions of the ANO by article109(a). The object seen by the 8737pilot must be considered as untraced.

PART B: SUMMARY OF THEWORKING GROUP'S

DISCUSSIONS

The only information available tothe Working Group was the report fromthe pilot ofthe B737, photogaphs fromthe radar recordings and reports fromthe appropriat€ ATC and operatingauthorities.

A member commented that thenumber of sightings of balloons and

AIt,/FL

FL I4O

Black lozenge-shaped object

N5042N E0044 [30 NM SE MAY]

CTA

PART A: SIJMMARY OFINFORMATION REPORTED TO

JAS

THE 8737 PILOT - reports that hewas inbound to Gatwick and in com-munication with London Control on128.4 while squawking with Mode C.He was heading 308'and descendingthrough FL 140 at 355 kt with visibilityin the region of 40 km. His FO saw asmall, black lozenge-shaped objectabout 500 m ahead of the a,/c and at thesame level. Within the space of about1.5 sec it passed very close, Iess than100 yds away, down the portside of thea/c and, at the most, 30' above the levelofthe wing. He informed London Con-trol, yia the RT, who reported seeing asmall, primary radar contact asternof the a/c. No impact or disturbancewas felt on the a/c and no damage wasobserved during a post-flight inspec-tion. He assessed the risk ofcollision as

high.

AIC AI LAICC reports that dudnga moderate traffic loading on theBIG/EAS CCF sector the 8737 pilotreported an object passing his a/c in theopposite direction at a high closingspeed. The B737 was inbound to

Gatwick via the Eastwood Stack andpassing the BEXIL way point. He wasdescending through 15,000 andthought the object may have been a

balloon, or part of, describing it as

black and about 18" wide. The SCreports that a primary return wasseen about 10 NM behind the R737heading SE at about 100 kt. Afollow-ing a/c was given haffic informafionand avoiding turns to the left to avoidthe primary return, which hadappeared to change heading towardsit, but its pilot reported seeing nothing.The DVR CSC was also advised of thefacts in order that inbound traffic couldbe given vectors to avoid the area.

JAS Notesil) A meteorological balloon wasreleased from Crawley at 17.19 on rhispanicular day. it was light-brown incolour and was trailing a silvery-meshtriangle. Twenty six minutes afterrelease [7.45] it was at 27,000' bear-ing 085.76" and at a range of 30 kmfrom Crawley. It ascended through15,000' l3 minutes after release[17.32] when it was bearing 097.6'andat a range of l7 km. There was a sharpinversion between 4,000-5,000' where

IJFO Times

other unidentified objects seem to havebecome more prevalent in the S and SEof the country. Members took note ofthe AIS(M) comment on the pdmaryretum seen in the general area of theairmiss as being more akin to the move-ment of a light a/c or helicopter at lowlevel. They were at a loss to identifythe reported object since its shapeand behaviour did not seem to fit any

recognisable piece of aviation equip-ment, while the temperatureinversion made it unlikely that some-thing lik€ a piece of black polyth€necould haye been canied to that level.It was ageed that this airmiss was bestdescribed as a confliction between the8737 and the unidentified object.Whilst members wele unsure whatdamage could have occurred had the

object struck the B'737 the generalopinion was that there had been a pos-sible risk of collision.

PART C: ASSESSMENT OF RISKAND CAUSE

Degree of risk: B

Cause: confliction between the 8737and the unidentified object.

ReportingAircraft: 873'l

AIRMISS REPORT No. 51/91Date,/Time: 0l1438 Jun

Type Operator

therefore regretted that the objectmusl be considered as unidentifiedand untraced.

PART B: SUMMARY OF THEWORKING GROI]P'S

DISCUSSIONS

The only information available tothe Working Group was the report ftomthe pilot ofthe B737.

It seems unlikely, to the JAWG,that this was aDy type ofmeteorolog.ical balloon: they are manufacturedto disintegrate at a set altitud€ andthe radio sonde descends on a smallparachute. However. the FO's descrip-tion of"a wrinkled appearance" had allthe hallmarks of a half-deflated bal-loon. One member thought it morcpossible that rhis was an adverlisingballoon that had broken away from itstether, even though none had beenreported. One member wondered whatwould happen if an engine ingestedsuch a balloon. No aircrew member ofthe Group had encountered this actualproblem, but most thought it wouldseriousiy affect the performance of theengine just as does a polythene bagingested on the ground. Membersagreed that this incident was bestdescribed as a confliction with anunidentified object. Members consid-ered that there had been a possible riskof collision with the object.

PART C: ASSESSMENT OF RISKAND CAUSE

Degree ofrisk B

Cause: Confliction with an unidenti-fied object

The conclasion of this report will bepublished in UFO Times 25.

Assessed Met. Conditions

VMC 50 KmCAT

Ah/FL

FL 80

ReportedAircraft:Position:

Airspace type: LTMAPART A: SUMMARY OF

INFORMATION REPORTED TOJAS:-

The B737 PILOTreports that he wasinbound to Heathrow from Dublin andreceiving a radar control service fromthe former on 123.9 while squawking1454 with Mode C. He was headingll0' at 250 kt, level at FL 80 withvisibility of 50 km. The FO noticing theobject first, quickly brought the con-fliction to his attention. He then saw theobject initially through the windscreenand it then disappeared very rapidlydown the port side. He estimated thatthe FO saw the object for a maximumof 2 sec while he himself saw it for lessthan 1 sec. The FO's assessment oftheobject was: colour yellow/orange,cylindrical in cross-section with a pos-sible'wrinkled appearance'. It wasimpossible to estimate its actual sizebecause ofthe short pedod of time thatit was in view and there being no per-spective available. However, based onthe 8737's speed, assuming the objectLo be stationary and sighted at a mini.mum of 500'. he would estimate its sizeat about 10'. He wondered whethel dueto their proximity to Bracknell and a

NNE 15 kt wind, it may have been aweather balloon. However, the closurerate seemed very rapid for a station-ary obj€ct. He estimated the missdistance as 50-100'range at the same

Untraced Balloon

N5122 W0050 (12.5 NM WNw Ockham)

level and assessed the risk of collisionas 'A'. He comments that there was anopposite direction a/c below him at5,000' at about the same time.

JAS Note: both military and civilianagencies have spent considerable timestudying radar replays of the area inwhich the airmiss took place, however,no trace could be seen of the reportedobject.

Enquiries made with the Meteoro-logical Office at Bracknell haveconfirmed that they did not release anyballoons from Beaufort Park on the lstI|:lr]Le:. rhey are 99 ,9Vo sure that met. bal-loons could be ruled out. The CAAhave not received any reports of theaccidental release of any tethered bal-loons. The Meteorological Office, atthe request ofthe JAS, have studied themet. charts and such information as

was available to ascertain the condi-lions penaining to the lsr June. Theirconsidered opinion was that the N-NE'ly airflow was very unstable in thelower layers up to about 4,500'. It wasconsidered to have been quite feasiblethat a'polybag', or similar, could havebeen conveyed up to about this altitude.However, there was also a very stronginyersion above this level with a tem-perature difference in the region of5-6'. It was considered improbablethat anything could have been liftedthrough this inversion layer. It is

UFO Times

CAPTAIN SCHAFER'SLAST FLIGHT

by Pat Otten

The following is an account of the events leading up to the ditching in the North Sea of'lightning Foxtrot 9{'. a single-seatfighter from 5 Squadron at Binbrook, whose final flight is at the centre of one cf the most puzzling aviation stories sincethe war. Just what was it that its pilot, American, William Schafer, was sent to intercept out over the North Sea 22 Iearsago and why was he eventually ordered to ditch his aircraft off Flamborough Head rather than return to :{orthI-incclnshire?

The chain of events which led to thecrash of Lightning XS894 from 5

Squadron at RAF Binbrook and the dis-appearance of its pilot began at 20.17on rhe nighl of Sepiember 8th. I 970. inan isolated building on the ShetlandIslands.

Saxa Vord was one of the chain ofradar stations whose task it was to spotunidentified aircraft approaching theNorth Sea or the sensitive 'lcelandGap'. Remember, this was 1970 whenthe Cold War was at its height and Rus-sian long-range aircraft made regularsorties into the North Atlantic andalong the British coast to test the reac-lion of NATO fighters. On thisparticular night, a radar operator atSaxa Vord picked up the blip of anunidentified aircraft over the Noflh Seahalfway between the Shetlands andAlesund in Norway.

The contact was monitored for sev-eral minutes at a steady speed of 630nph, at 37,000'holding altitude and ona south-westerly heading. Then SaxaVord noted the contact was tumingthrough 30'to head due south. Itincreased speed to 900 mph (Mach1.25) and climbed to 44,000'.

Following laid-down procedures.radar controllers at Saxa Vord flashed a

scramble message to the Quick Reac-tion Alert Flight IQRAF] at the nearestNATO airfield, RAF Leuchars, on theeast coast of Scotland not far fromDundee.

There, two Lightning interceptors,which had been ready on the flight linefor just such an alert, were scrambled,and within minutes were airbome andheading out over the North Sea.

After checking the position of theirtanker, a Victor K I A, the two fighrerswere guided nonh by Saxa Vord. So far.it was a routine scramble lor what wasthen assumed to be a Russian Bear or

were able to pick up the mvstery con-tact themselves.

But when they, too, tried to get closeenough to identify what s.as by nowbeginning to cause some alarm toNATO commanders, they found theywerejust as irnpotent as the Lightnings.

The alert had reached such a levelthat the coniact was being monitoredby the Ballistic Missile Early WarningSystem at Fylingdales Moor, nearlVhitby, along with a second BMEWSin Greenland.

The information they were collect-ing was relayed to the North AmedcanAir Defence Command at CheyenneMountain and the US Detection andTracking Centre at Colorado Springs.

In the meantime, the cat-and-mousegame over the North Sea between theLightnings and Phantoms on one handand the mysiery contact on the other,was still going on. Then, at 21.05, afterthe fighters had made yet another abor-tive attempt to get close, the contactvanished off the radar screens.

The Lightnings were ordered toretum to Leuchars while the Phantomswere instructed to caJry out a CombatAir Patrol to the east of Iceland.

Then, at 21.39, radar controllerspicked up the contact again. This timeits speed was decelerating to 1,300 mph

almost the limit of both the Light-nings and Phantoms - at a holdingaltitude of 18,000'. It was on a south-westerly heading coming from thedirection of the Skagerrak, off thenorthem tip of Denmark.

Two more Lightnings were scrarn-bled from Leuchars and were orderedto rendezvous with a Victor tanker andthen maintain a CAPon a 50-mile. east-west front, 200 miles north-east ofAberdeen.

Pat Otter

Badger, the long-range reconnaissanceaircraft used to test the nerves of theRAF. But it was then that the radarplofters on the Shetland Islands sawsomething on fheir screens which theyfound impossible to believe.

The contact they had been tackingat speeds and altitudes consistent withmodern i{ussian warplanes, turnedthrough 180' on a due north heading,and within seconds disappeared offtheir screens. Later, they calculated thatto do lhis its speed must have been inthe region of 17,400 mph.

With the contact now gone, theLightnings were vectorcd south to ren-dezvous with the tanker and remainedairbome on Combat Air Patrol.

During the next hour, the mysterycontact reappeared several timesapproaching from the north. Each timethe Lightnings were sent nonh to inter-cept, it [the contact] turned anddisappeared again.

By now two F4 Phantoms of the USAir Force had been scrambled from theAmerican base at Keflavik in Iceland.They had much more sophisticatedradar than the British Lightnings and

tJFO Times

w

7

As a precaution, two further Light-nings were ordered into the air fromColtishall in Norfolk and, with anothertanker, to form a CAP 170 miles east ofGreat Yarmouth. The contact wassomewhere between these two lines ofsupersonic fighters.

While all this was going on, RAFstaff at Fyiingdales, which was in con-stant contact with NORAD atCheyenne Mountain, heard. omi-nously, that the Strategic AirCommandHQ at Omaha, Nebraska, was orderingtwo B52 bombers into the air. It was anorder which could only have comefrom the highest level: what had startedas a routine sighting of what wasbelieved to be a Russian aircraft, hadnow reached the White House and, pre-sumably, President Richard Nixon.

NORAD was told by officials at thePentagon that a USAF pilot of greatexperience was presently on anexchange visit with the RAF and wasstationed at Binbrook. the NorthLincolnshire fighter base a few milesfrom Grimsby.

Rapid inquiries were made and itwas discovered the pilot was on thestation and was, by coincidence, 'flightavailable'. At around 21.45, a requestwas made from a very high level within

NORAD, through Strike Command'sUK Headquaners at High Wycombe,for RAF Binbrook to send Capt. Wil-liam Schaler "iI at all possible" to jointhe QRAF Lightnings looking for themystery contact.

By this time, four Lightnings, twoPhantoms and three tankers werealready airbome and they were joinedby a Shackleton Mk3 from Kinloss,which was ordered to pahol on a north-south heading at 3,000', l0 miles outfrom the east coast.

Binbrook's QRAF Lightnings werebeing held in reserve, but it wasdecided to send out a single aircraftIrom the North Lincolnshire airfield -flown by Capt. Sihafer. The Americanswanted one of their own at the sharyend when it came to comering the mys-tery contact.

At precisely six minutes past 10 onthe night of September 8th 1970, a

single Lightning jet fighter took offfrom RAF Binbrook. Ground crew onthe flight line were accustomed toLightnings being scrambled in a hurryat any time of night or day. Binbrook,after all, was a frontline fighter stationand its aircraft shared QRAF - QuickReaction Alert - duty with other EastCoast airfields to provide cover should

any unidentified aircraft appear on theradar screens; but there was somethingdifferent about this scramble.

For a start, it was normal for QRAFaircraft to take offin pairs. Two aircraftwerc kept at a state of instant readinessat all times ready for just such an emer-gency. But on this occasion, only oneaircraft took off. And it wasn't one ofthe QRAF aircraft. Then there was themanner of the take-off: the pilot hadraced out from the 5 Squadron crewroom, adjacent to the apron, and hadclimbed aboard while the Lightningwas was in the process of beingrefuelled. He angrily waved awayground staff who asked him to sign theappropriate fbrm, required before allmilitary aircraft leave the ground, andordered the refuelling lines to be disen-gaged.

And this was no ordinary piiotstrapped into the cockpit ofthe Mach 2interceptor. This was Capt. WilliamSchafer o[ the USAE who was on hissecond tour as an exchange pilot withthe RAF. Schafer was a vastly experiencedjet fighter pilot with combat timebehind him in Viemam. He had been atBinbrook for some time and his wifewas living on the base with him.

No pre-flight checks were made and,as bemused ground crew looked on, theLightning taxied out to the end of therunway, tumed and immediately tookoff, using re-heat to gain speed andheight as quickly as possible.

The aircraft, XS894, a Lightning F6of 5 Squadron, whose call-sign thatnight was Foxtrot 94, tumed out overthe North Sea - and disappeared intowhat is fast becoming one of the greataviation puzzles of recent times. Earlythe following moming, XS894 ditchedin the sea off Flamborough Head. Theditching was yitnessed by the crew ofa Shackleton reconnaissance aircraft.Flares were spotted by the Grimsbytrawler, Ross Kestrel, as reported in theHull Daily Mail, but no trace of Capt.Schafer was ever found.

More than a month later. the wreck-age of the aircraft was found on the seabed by Royal Navy divers. Despite ear-lier repons to the conlrary. the cockpilwas empty and the canopy closed.Capt. Schafer had vanished - com-pletely and utterly.

Later the aircraft was recovered andtaken, unusually, to RAF Binbrook.There it was kept under wraps in thecomer of a hangar.

When a team from the MOD's CrashInvestigation Branch arrived from

UFO Times'

Famborough, they were permitted tospend only a very bdef time examiningthe wreckage ofXS894. What they diddiscover disturbed them. And whathappened later disturbed them evenmore.

I first came across the mystery storyof XS894 six years ago. An outline ofthe story was related to me by BarryHalpenny, an aviation enthusiast andauthor who lived at the time in MarketRasen, and who was researching for a

book on aviation mysteries at the time.He suggested I dig out the cuttings onthe crash and look further into it. Therewas more to the story of XS894 thanmet the eye, he told me.

I anticipated dilficulties in investi-gating a 16-year-old ditching incidentin the North Sea, but not on the scale Iwas to encounter over the next fewweeks. Normally helpful press contactsat the MOD responded initially bypromising to help, but then becamevery reticent.

Similar enquiries to the US Embassyand to the USAF at Alconbury provedalso to be dead-ends. Calls were notrelumed. Contacls were unavailable.

At this stage, I enlisted the aid ofBobBryant, then Nonhcliffe Newspapers'aviation correspondent and a man withclose links with both the RAF and

USAF. Bob was to spend weeks check-ing out a story he found more intriguingby the hour. He paid numerous visits tothe MOD and spent hours on the tele-phone to contacts in the USA. Buteverywhere he heard the ominoussound of doors being slammed: hefinally admitted defeat. But Bob wasabsolutely cenain there was an officialblanket of secrecy over the events sur-rounding the crash of rhar Lighrning inthe North Sea all those yea6 ago.

Barry Halpenny finally published an

abridged version of the story in a bookwhich appeared in September 1988.Subsequently, we were contacted bytwo fomer airmen who had both beenat Binbrook at the time and added fur-ther fuel to the mystery by recallingtheir own memories of that night.

It was a story which puzzled andintrigued readers but, perhaps mostinterestingly ofall, it was a story whichgrabbed the attention of a man spending l0 days in a Cleethorpes guesthouse, Sixteen years earlier, he hadbeen one ofthe crash investigators whowent to Binbrook to examine theremains of XSW894 [sic]. He was sopuzzled by both what he saw and to thetre atment the investigation teamreceived that he was determined to get

lo lhe t 0ia:- : :a: a:..::-_\ (rnce andtbr alL.

Norr. t..-: .::-. .. :.i r3lie\es hehas peeLeJ 1..i.. . r:: . ::: :r..re of themyster) \u:i-:.1:.: \S'-l lnd thedisappearan:t :: C.:: S-,-,ier I nowhave a coF\ r: :.. ,,- -:: ,ri rihat hebelieves happt-.: ::.:: : r:::. Srrme has

come iiom h:i : ::.: ..'.:.llgaliol'rs,some tionl !.i:ra:,. : ,-:-r':i. he has

obtained and :l::: :: -:::..islr.fromwhat he maini.lr:. .. . ::::.::ipt of thefinal conr er.::.,:::- :::..::n Capt.Schafer. a rrdlr a, .:: :: -:i Slr\tonWold, near ScarL,r: -_::. r:i rhe crewof the Shacklettn .i -::: .,.:::r:.'ed thecrash.

Our source h;r' i.. ::::::a :irrn\ mousand we cannot !orr!.:"...:: .-l the intbr-mation in this reFrr. \\ .:: :iri(rmralionwe can is cen.rinlr :: .::]e rrith theresults of ml o*n in;::ri: iour \earsago.

All we ask )ou ti c. i. i(r read ourstories carefulir .1ni rrlke up \'ourown mind

Ed's contntenr; l tni :,.;:t'itl ior PatOtter' s story wltit h.,,1 . .,-, ' ., . ,/

cannotterif i,t,t'. :.t. :.t. ";tltreaders' benefit. I slt,r!l , tti, lude his

fascinating uttount iti L T:: tlur outin Sept.'93.

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10 UFO Times

THE Extracts from Eurufon NewsNo3, April 1991

EUROPEANDIMENSION

BELGIUM - STRANGE MANIFESTATIONS 'N

fHE SKY

$This case was communicated to usby Thierry Veyt of the Belgiumgroup GEPSI. The witnesses are anofficer, whose name we haye con-cealed. and his wife: the following isthe olficer's account:-

This account is based on a series ofobservations made on llth December1989, approaching 18.45, when I wasdriving in the vicinity of GemblouxStation, coming from ERNAGE whereI reside. My wife was accompanyingme and was able to make the sarneobservations as I. Night-time hadalready fallen, the sky stary and therewas a full moon.

Coming at a height of a farm arSARTERNAGE, I saw in the sky to thedght of some trees situated behind thefarm, and at two-thirds of their height,a series of three or four panels of lightwhich were arranged in a generalnorth-south direction, coming from theMELLERY radar tower and above thevillages of CORTIL or SAINT GERYand going towards CORROY

The dimensions of these panels oflight did not vary and remained abso-lutely steady. Under this series ofpanels, and almost at the cenfte, therewas a gyrating red lighr which did notabsolutely correspond with the flashinglights which are found on classical air-craft. and which scintillated like stars-The height of the series of panels wasestimated to be ftom 200 to 300 metres.

The road that I was taking tums tothe left in the direction ofGEMBLOUX on a level with the farmar SART ERNAGE and the lightedpanels followed this general direcrionat a speed of 50 to 60 Km/h andremained to the rear of us.

In order to continue my observationI stopped at the point which culminatedin a country road situatcd directly afterthe farm at SART ERNAGE. My wifeopened the car window and the UFO,which had moved slowly past me to myright and continued on its way in theaforesaid direction; this part of theobservation lasted about 2 to4 minutes.

Next, the UFO suddenly directeditself in our direction with only onewhite headlight, enornous and biggerthan a headlight of a large airliner,being visible: al rhis poinr a ceflainapprehension seized me. My wifebecame frightened and asked me to re-start the cardue to the new direction theobject was now following and with theabnormally enorrnous, luminous masslooking just a little aggressive; a fearsubstantiated by the fact that we couldnot hear any engine noise: this machinewas silent!

Therefore, with my car re-started,the large light source disappeared andthee white headlights, less intense asthe previous one, appeared. These thrceheadlights formed a triangle which wasmore or less equilateral. At thecentre ofgravity, there was again a gyrating redlight seen practically in the plane.

The object manifested in the firstinstance a tum of 180' to its left - thedistance between the wh ite-lightsources was about l0 metes -whichseemed paradoxical to me at the time,for in spite of the moonlight impingingdirectly on to the countryside, it D,4snot possible for us to distinguish anymass outside of the t"iangle formed bythe luminous points,

The manoeuvre made by the objectwas majesric and slow, and lhe tum it

made was tight. It was useless to spec-ulate or concem oneselfwith tooking atthe object effecting its turn as onewould do so when following the prog-ress of a Boeing or similar aircraft, soshort was the tum.

Next, the light sources disappearedleaving only the gyraring red lighr inplan view still visible. Very rapidly, thislight was lost into the depths of thenight in the SSW direcl ion: rhe durationof the observalion was estimaled at 5 ro8 minutes.

Four characteristics have struck nre:the slowness of the UFO's movementsin relationship to the speed with whichit displaced itself at the end of theobservation: the outline of the mass,which presumably would have had tolocate itselfaround about the lights, didnot reflect any moonlight nor, indeed,was visible: the lack of any motornoise; it was too silent; finally, therewas the silence and these enormouslights situated in front of the objectwhich were coming towards us, caus-ing us to feel fear and apprehension,especially by my wife.

BELGIUM -THE FLYINGBALL OF

AUEVAUCAMPS

Narration gathered b! Patick Viilal.

We remain in 1989: this observationis very interesting because it wasmade in May 1989, therefore, wellbefore the wave of UFOs in Belgiumthat wespoke of; here isthe witnessesstatement:-

"This affair unfolded atQUEVAUCAMPS near BELOEILduring the night of Thursday 4th May(Ascension), Friday 5th May. My wifehad got up to go ro lhe toiler and. inreluming to the bedroom which is ori-ented to the south, noticed a strangelight moving about in the sky, and soshe called to me immediately. I got uphastily and followed the progression ofthe object which was coming towardsus emitting a yellowish light which wasa little more pronounced than that ofthe moon when full, thus, with the skyclear the object gave us a yellowish-white appearance.

The light emitted by the object wasnot blinding and was not in the folm ofa beam as one would see in the lights ofa car at night. Therefore, we couldeasily examine this machine, whichwas a cfucular shape with an apparent

UFO Times lt

diameter of 2.5 to 3 times that of themoon. and which moved in silencewithout leaving a rail behind it.

When the object went over our roof,we believed to have perceived a faintrrembling like the leaves of the trees inan orchard, and that the poplars havingbeen agitaled by the surrounding air

[when one looks at the moon with thenaked eye, one notices adark marbling-effect caused by the shading ofmountain chains or large, deep cratersl.As well as this, we could see across thislight, at first, 3 large circles arranged ina equilateml triangle, two in front andthe third at the rear ofthe object. Thesecircles were located near the pedphery,and the distance separating the circles

from each other would have allowedthe placing of three smaller circles oneach edge. Between the lwo circles infront there was a thin line which wascut up and bound together, and behindthis line there was an indescribablemarbling-effect which was reachingout from the centre towards the aftercircle. It was impossible to speak aboutthe use of it because the object passed

by very quickly.

When the object had passed over ourroof. we rushed into a room at the backand saw the object disappear towardsELLIGNIES-SI ANNE and AIH. andwithout doubt fufiher towards GANDand the Dutch Delta... One importantthing which needs pointing out: we

saw, neither in the front nor at the rear,

any flashing red-green lights which are

obligatory on ordinary aircraft.

I cannot give an exact appreciationof the height of the flying machine, butits speed ofmovement u,as clearly irtfe-rior to that of military aircrati which flyover each day and at lo\\ altitude in the

locality, causing a -sreat uproar...

I think it *ar ll)ine low enough inorder to avoid being detected by theradar at Glons or Cambrai. and themachine exceeded the linit of efficacyof these radars. According 10 the flightpath of the object, it lrad to come frcmthe region of SOISSON LAON and

directed itseif towards Ath.

BRITISH UFO RESEARCH ASSOCIATION

Presents

THE SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL UFO CONGRESS

THE UFO CASEBOOKUNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th July L993

UFO cases from around the world discussed by theworld's leading researchers

t2 UFO Times

ALIEN ENCOUNTERSThe Winged Serpent of Ashland

by Gordon Millington

One way to classify the various behaviours exhibited by UFO occupants is in terms of the ostensible aims to which theyappear directed.In this taxonomy the Villas-Boas case could be described as GENETIC, since the activities ofthe ufonautsseemed concentrated around a sexual act. Certainly that occasion was the forerunner ofa whole series of reports in whichtheir prime preoccupation seemed to be a concern with human reproductiv€ organs and processes, thus justifying theclassification. We should never forget, however, that any taxonomy is ultimately an arbitrary interpretation, for the trueairns of the ufonauts may in reality be quite other than we have supposed and their use of, for example, sexual themes bequite incidental to their main purpose, If ufonauts are totally alien we shall certainly fail to understand their motives,unless perhaps they are working under th€ control of human types which are often indistinguishabl€ from ourselves.

The major case I now wish to exam-ine would under this taxonomy beclassified as APOCALYPTIC, for rea-sons which will soon become apparent.It may be of significairce that in thiscase as in the previous one, eachufolaut wore a kind of uniform with a

distinguishing badge, thus lendingsome plausibility to a suggestion thatthere may even exist a corps ofufonauts organised into specialist unitsdenoted by such insignia. The Geneti-cist might appear as a crude, uncaringson of fellow, ruthlessly manipulatinghis captive by brute lorce or superiortechnology, while the Apocalypt wouldbe seen as more subtle though no lessmanipulative. An encounter such as

occurred in 1967 between a Nebraskasergeant of police and the agents of theWinged Serpent is fairly typical of thelatter approach.

Sergeant Herbert Schirmer was a

man of strong character, a formermember of lhe United States MarineCorps. As a police olficer he waswidely respected among the ranchersand well thought of by his supeiiors inthe police, who described him as

"dependable and truthful". Eventuallyhe became the youngest ever chief ofpclice in the cattle town of Ashland,and this was after his abduction reporthad become public knowledge.

On December 3rd 1967 the witnesshad been on duty since late aftemoonand at 2.30 a.m. was still in his car,cruising the deserted suburbs in searchof stray cattle. Approaching a cross-roads, he saw a number of red lightsahead, which he thought might indicatea broken down vehicle. As he camenearer, however, he saw the lightsresolve themselves into a row of small

windows round the circumference ofanoval object hovering above the road.FIis next conscious memory was of thecraft glowing incaldescently and risinginto the air. There was a high-pitchedsound as it swayed from side to sidewith a pendulum motion. Schirmerexperienced a temporary paralysis butdrove back to his oifice, though feelingweak and sickly. He arrived there at 3a.m. and wrote in the precinct log book:"Saw a flying saucer at junction ofhighways 6 and 63. Believe it or not!"He then went home and only later didhe realise that, although the journey tohis office had taken only ten minutes,there was a time lapse of twenty fufiherminutes for which he could notaccount.

In communication with JacquesVall6e (Vatl6e 1990) he afterwardsrevealed that at the time of the encoun-ter he had felt a brieftingling sensationand a pain behind the base of the earwhere later there developed a red weltwith tiny holes as if needles had beeninserted. For three weeks after theevent he had suffered from severeheadaches which disiurbed his sleepwith dreams of a landscape with threemountain ranges, strange domes andUFOs.

At the behest of the Condon Com-mitlee, which at the time was supposedto be conducting an impartial ofiicialenquiry into the UFO phenomenon,Schirmer voluntarily underwent a

series of psychological tests, includinga 'lie detector' session. None of thesegave any cause to doubt his veracity.The Condon team then flew in Dr LeoSprinkle. a psychologist from the Uni-versity of Wyoming, to attemptthroughhypnosis the recovery of the witness's

memories of the missing time. Underhypnosis Schirmer stated that, havingstopped the engine and extinguishedthe lights of his car, the UFO thenexerted some form of tracticn whichtowed the vehicle up the slope towardsit. Two entities left the UFO and one ofthein projected fiom a device he wascarrying a green glow, which appar-ently caused the policeman to enter a

sort of trance in which he got out of hiscar and awaited the approach of hiscaptors, They were described as beingabout five feet tall and wearing tighl-fitting one piece suits with a headcovering and boots.

Schirmer produced for Vall6e adetailed pencil drawing of one of hisabductors as remembered from thehypnosis. Though the forehead is wrin-kled, the major facial features arenormally humanoid, but the pupils ofthe eyes are enlarged, elongated andcatlike, producing a penetrating andunnerving stare. There is a small rounddevice over the left ear, with a shortantenna iess than two inches long, andover the right shoulder is a patch bear-ing insignia representing a wingedserpent.

"Are you the watchman over thisplace?" asked one of the ufonauts. inslow and measured tones whichseemed telepathically transmittedrather than actually spoken. Schirmeragreed that he was a'watchman'.(lnterestingly. lhe word is a genuinearchaism for a policeman.) He was thenled up into the UFO, where he wasshown spinning drums in a machinewhich flashed with a variety ofcoloursand was described to him as a powersource producing'reversible electricalmagnetism'. Captors and captive then

tlFO Times 13

floated together, apparently in ftee fall,up a gravity-reversing shaft to anotherlevel. where Schirmer was shown whatmay well have been a hologram of asun with six planets, which was said tobe the ufonauts'home system. As in theprevious case, we find the deliberatesuggestion ofan e xtra-terrestrial origin.

"Watchman!" exclaimed his com-panion, "One day you, yourself, willsee the universe as I have seen it."Vall6e writes that "at the time of ourmeeting, many years after the event, hisdialogue with the operator stood out as

lhe most signi[icant event inSchirmer's life", so impressive werethe deep authoritative tones of hisabductor and the shamanistic quality ofthe expedence.

Timothy Good (1987) quotes a state-ment allegedly made to SergeantSchirmer by his abductors to the effectthat:

"... They have been observing us fora long period of time and they think thatif they slowly put out repons and havetheir contacts state the truth it will helpthem... They have no paftem for con-tacting people. lt is by pure chance sothe govemment cannot determine anypaftems about them. There will be a lotmore contacts... to a certain extent theywant to puzzle people. They know theyare being seen too frequently and theyare trying to confuse the public'smind."

Good's own position is perfectlyclear and he expresses it unequivocally."lt is my conviction," he writes, "thatwe are being visited by several groups

of extra-tere strial s and that while somemay not be well disposed towa.rds us,the majority are essentially benevo-lent."

It is not only Erich von Ddniken whosuggests that in prehistoric times astro-nauts from ancient civilisations, whowere seen as gods by the early men,came to this earth and inauguratedgenetic and technical innovations. TheWinged Serpent or Dragon, said tohave been worn as insignia bySchirmer's abductors, is directly asso-ciated in myth and folklore with theseancient astronauts. As anthropologistJohn Michell (1967) put it:

"The discovery that flying saucars,the fiery discs in the sky, were reportedin the past as dragons or winged ser-pents reveais the significance of a greatdeal ol previously obscure mythologyand folklore in which these creaturesfigure... and all those myths where theserpent is descrited as the ai$hip ofthegods, the vessel from which all humanbenefits derive, can be seen as sym-bolic accounts of the early dealingsbetween the gods and men."

So were Schirmer's captors. b) theiruse ol the serpent symbol, claimingsome link with these ancient astro-nauts? The idea that celestial beingsoversaw the beginnings of human lifeon earth is an attractive one and espe-cially so when allied ro rhe belieflhat inlheir UFOs, as the Australian aborigi-nes believe, they are still keeping abenevolent and protective watch overus. Based initially on accounts to befound in the Sumerian and Akkadian

religious writings, it is also adduced toexplain the existence of many ancientanelacts u hich seem to imply the exis-tence of a technology far in advance ofwhat had been thought to be possible atthat time. Biblical references in supportof the hypothesis are made to Elijah,Enoch, Ezekiel and Jacob amongstothers, and mention is usually made ofthe destruction of Sodom and Gomor-rah. Archaeological anomalies includethe Pyramids, the Peruvian Nazcalines, the Easter Island megaliths,Stonehenge and Avebury, togetherwiththe Ziggurats and stone platforms atBaalbec in the Lebanon. There are gen-uine problems of interpretation relatingto all ofthe above to which some formof the Ancient Aslronaut hypothesismay indeed be relevant. but the question is too large for consideration hereand will be reviewed in a later chapterThe use ofthe Winged Serpent symbolby the ufonauts at Ashland suggestseither that (a) they are the AncientAstronauts or perhaps their descen-dants or (b) that they would like us tothink they are. There is. of course, thefurther possibility that the symbol hasno such connection and just happenedto be one they used to denote some-thing to us unknown. Whoever theymay .have been, they were certainlycommunicative to the point of didacti-cism. They told Schirmer that one oftheir purposes in landing had been toobtain elecfticity from a nearby source,and indeed UFOs have frequently beenobserved following power lines andhovering near generating plant fromwhich they may have been able to

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t4 UFO Times

extract energy. The phrase "reversibleelectric magnetism", allegedly theproduct of the machine he was shown,meant nothing to him and, as it stands,means little to anyone else. But con-sider the word "reversible" as appliedto the force of gravity in the elevatorwhich, Schirmer said, had carried himupwards inside the UFO.

James McCampbell ( 1987)remarked that UFOS appear to defygravity. "Not only," he writes, "doUFOs appear to be anti-gravitational,they behave as though they had no iner-tia." He uses the Principle ofEquivalence. as postu lated inEinstein's Ceneral Theory of Relativ-ity, to show that the observedmanoeuvres of UFOs, their instantstops and high speed right-angle tums,can be accounted for on the assumptionthat they have in fact achieved the con-trol ofgravitational forces described bySergeant Schirmer. Dr Leo Sprinklewas so impressed by the policeofficer's account, his first experience ofhypnotic recall in an abduction sce-nario, that he devoted much of hissubsequent professional career to fol-lowing up future cases. LikeVillas-Boas, Schirmer had an excellenteye and a retentive memory for details,some of which featured in later casesand therefore merit further consider-ation.

The traction beam said to havemoved Schirmer's car is paralleled bythe total disappearance of a car andpassengers enveloped in a 'whitecloud' on a road to Tokyo on 19November 1963 (Bowen, ed. 1977) andthe teleportation ofa car in Natal, SouthAfrica (Ibid.) on 30 May 1974. A truckand its driver were both temporarilyabducted from Fredricksburg. Virginia(Rimmer 1984) and the phenomenon ofmental control by ufonauts is a featureof vinually every abduction reported.The vision of an alien solar system,very like a modem hologram, couldscarcely have originated in thewitness's own mind at a time whenlaser technology was scarcely knownand it may well be that his subsequentdreams of an extra-tenestrial landscaperelate in some way to this 'vision'. TheAv€ley abductees, taken up fromEssex, England, on 27 Oaobet 1974,also claimed to have been shown holo-graphic videos of an alien world(UFOIN 1990), and of course Villas-Boas described a holographic sign onan intemal UFO door. The device withthe short antenna located over theufonaut's left ear seems to have been

unique, though it reminds one ofa moreintimate version of the modernpoliceman's personal radio. It shouldbe noted that the injuries to the base ofSchirmer's own ear may have been inpreparation for the insertion of somesimilar device at a later time, loraccounts of implants allegedly receivedby subsequent abductees tend to sup-port such an idea. Of course allinformation received through hypnosisi\ to some extent suspecl and always inneed of maximum confrmation.

Mllas-Boas, of course, had under-gone his experience without anyintenuption of normal consciousnessand is not alone in this. A woman inQuilmes, Argentina, did so on 3 July1968 (Bowen ed. 19'77) and at VenadoTuerto in the same country a twelveyear old boy also reported a consciousexperience on 6 September 1978(Valled 1990). In Aldershot, England,on 12 August 1983 a seventy-sevenyear old pensioner out fishing by acanal told how he had accepted an invi-tation to step aboard a landed UFO thatnight and had done so in the hope of anadventurous trip, only to be summarilyrejected, "You may go," said a voice."You are too old and infirm for ourpurposes." (Good 1987)

Despite a number of broad but quitepossibly misleading hints, these pur,poses of the Phenomenon remain asmysterious as the origins of its agents,though the latter do seem excessivelyanxious lo assure us they are not of lhisplanet. The UFO which landed atSocorro, New Mexico on 24 April 1964(Sachs ed. 1981) bore on its fuselagethe Arabic symbol for the planet Venus,while on the very same day twoEnglish-speaking humanoids from alanded UFO in Tioja City, New York(Vallee 1988) assured a farmer therethat they came from Mars. Maybe, as

Schirmer was said to have been told,they are indeed just trying to confusethe public mind. Perhaps the nearest toa straight answer to the origin questionwas given at Houston, Texas in April1897 by the pilot of an 'airship'UFOwho observed that he and his crew were"from anywhere, but we will be inGreece day after to-morrow."

The Schirmer case raises many inter-esting questions to which, inevitably,we still have no firm answers. This wasdoubtless why the Condon Report, longsince exposed as of spurious objectiv-ity, gave it just two pages as Case 42,expressed doubt that the reported expe-rience was physically real and thereforelisted it as "unexplained". Since then,

however, ufologists are beginning toconsider less restrictive paradigms ofwhat is physical and what is real. Takentogether, the cases of Herbert Schirmerand Antonio Villas-Boas can lead us, ifnot to answers, at least to some stimu-lating enquiries.

We might begin by asking why suchdifferent techniques of abductiol wereemployed in the two cases. The con-straints imposed on Villas-Boas werecompletely physical, while the controlexercised over Schirmer seems to havebeen mainly of a psychological or evenpsychic nature, for it is not necessarilythe case that the green ray exerted aphysical influence on lhe victim's brain

- it would need only the successfulimplantation of the suggestion that theray was disabling for it in fact to be so.Villas-Boas was not selected at random- lhe UFO had made two reconnais-sance visits before the aclual abductionand his brother was present as an alter-native choice on each occasion.Presumably the purpose of these visitswas lo ensure thal lhe potential victimmet whatever criteria the ufonauts con-sidered desirable and perhaps they hadsome means of assessing lhese, other-wise there would have been no purposein actions which would merely ala.m orforewam the one chosen.

The Ceres incident in 1954 seemslikely to have involved either the sameUFO which abducted Villas-Boas oranother very similar, and its occupantsseem to have established a telepathiccontact with one of the Cereswitnesses, of the kind which I suggestthey were unable to establish withVillas-Boas, though they may havemade an unsuccessful attempt on lheirreconnaissance visits to establish thekind of menlal ascendancy which isprobably Fe-requisite for such com-munication. Mllas-Boas was not afraidof the UFO occupants, nor did hebelieve they were any kind of superiorbeings. He had a robust self-conceptand made a vigorous resistance toaggression, so that his own powerfulbut unimaginative personality mayhave precluded any but purely physicalapptoaches to overcome him, and alsoensured thal lhe encounter was one inwhich he retained his normal con-sciousness throughout. In thesecLcumstances they might have thoughthim an unsuitable choice, but perhapsother considerations prevailed. He wasyoung, strong, doubtless physicallyattractive, and the female ufonaut'swishes may have had to be considered.Certainly Antonio thought she was one

UFO Times 15

of the snatch party and indeed the firstto lay a hand on him, thereby feelingthe weight of his fist. Throughout thewhole episode there was never anyattempt at communication other thanby signs and gestures from his captors,so it can reasonably be conjectured thatin this case it was the personality of theabductee which primarily dictated thenature of the encounter. Though it maywell have been the case that other andmore technical means of compulsionthan mere physical force were avail-able to the ufonauts, it was perhaps feltthat lhe use of any such might impairthe victim's ability to cary out therequired copulation.

No such sexual demands were to bemade on Sergeant Schinner, so thattechnical constraints could be used onhim. Villas-Boas was largely protectedfrom psychic pressures by his ownignorance; his conviction that theevents in which he was participatingwere taking place in the framework ofhis normal reality was perhaps respon-sible for also keeping it there, whileanger at the aggression to which he wasbeing subjected filled his mind andprobably slrengthened his mental resis-tance. His case suggests that abducteeswho fight back mentally can retain atleast a partial autonomy in their situa-tion. Herbert Schirmer, however, wastired, more sophisticated and thereforemore vulnerable. He had heard ofUFOs and could never have supposedthat what was happening to him was a

part of everyday normality, so that theUFO was able fo impose on him its ownorder of reality. He heard no growlingfrom his abductors instead he foundthem speaking inside his mind, and thewhole quality of his experience wastherefore of a different order to that ofthe Brazilian.It suggeststhat UFOS andtheir occupants are not confined in lheiroperations to one single level of realityand that exposwe to an alien way ofbeing produces both physical andmental effects on an abductee. In thecase of Villas-Boas the after-effects,though unpleasant. were wholly physi-cal and there was no apocalypse. Aslater incidents have abundantly shown,the types of GENETIC and APOCA-LYPIIC motivation I have postulatedare not mutually exclusive and indeedhave been so frequently complemen-tary that only these lwo cases made ilpossible to establish the distinctionclearly. Both are examples ofwhat MaxWeber called the pure or ideal type, so

valuable as a taxonomic tool. Villas-Boas'case contains no revelatory

element and Schirmer's is devoid ofsexual implications.

The third type of motivated ufonautbehaviour I call PROSPECTING,namely behaviour calculated to pro-duce the impression that some kind ofquasi-scientific survey of our planet isbeing conducted. In the Masse abduc-tion case at Valensole. to whichreference has aheady been made, theufonauts were apparenlly absorbed inthe study of the witness's lavenderplants when he came across them.Coral and Jim Lorenzen (1967) giveexamples ofthe collection of vegetableand water samples, specimens ofgrass,tomaio plants and even the soil itself.An inhabitant ofNew Je$ey claimed in1957 to have been confronted by a

three feet tall being with frogJike eyeswho said: "We are peaceful peoplewe only want your dog." There areeven stranger stories, well supponed bythe evidence of animal carcasses fromwhich organs have been removed in askilful surgical fashion, as though forlaboratory study.

Though we can only conjecture themotivation underlying such behaviour,we can still examine its social conse-quences for us. Humanity recognisesthis "scientific survey" as typical ofthe

kind of behaviour men would them-selves exhibit if they landed on a

slrange ne\\ planet and the inference is

therefore made (hal rhe ufonauts are infact visiting a strange ne.r planet,namely our own. If this is so, then ofcourse they must have come fromanother world to be so unfamiliar withours. The ufonauts seem to be tryingcontinually to convince us ofthe valid-ity of lhe e\lra-lerreslriar hyporhesis.They have tried for so long to propa-gate the ETH that it is hadly surprisingwe are becoming increa.ingl) suspi-cious of it. Where i\ thi\ place oloriginthey seem so anxious to conceal fromus? We can scarcely expect a simple,uncomplicated and universally applica-ble answerto this apparently ingenuousquestion.

* This account by Gordon Millingtottof Sitchin's work is.fi'om 5 titledbooks Ipaperbacks] u'hich areavailable from:-Specialist Knou'ledge Sei lices.Aldhelm,20, Paul St.,

Frome,Somerset, BAI l -l DX.

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An Exclusive offer lor the col-lector of historical UFO material.Over 1,000 pages of files (theresull of nearly 10 yearsresearch), including newspapercuttings, case files, governmentdocuments, illustrations and cor-respondence relating to the'airship waves' ol 1896-97 (USA),1 909 (Britain, New Zealand,USA), 1912- 13 (Britain andEurope) and 191 6-1 7, is now onoffer to the collector. lt is literally aonce-in-a-lif etime chance toobiain exclusive original materialon an important part of uFo-logical history. All offers to:

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l6 IJFO Times

REVIEWS.,.ROUND IN CIRCLES

by Jim Schnabel294pp hanlback, 18 plntes, Hamish

Hamilton {16.99. ISBN0-241-13414-5.

Over the many years I have watchedfrom the auditorium, the unfolding ofan epic performance. Many no-namesleaptonto the stage. passed the auditionand become stars ovemight. This reallife soap opera was to last for more thana decade with a following larger thanBrookside.

I am of course referring to the late,lamented crop circles saga with anappeal and visual majesty that couldnot be denied, but origins that could beholly debated to the poinl of issuinglawsuits and pistols at dawn. The sub-ject was weighed down heavily withstrutting prima donna's all wanting alarge slice of the pie. An&ews, Del-gado, Wingfield and last but definitelynot least Green, revelled in the mediaattention and loving the adoration of'their'public.

With the deflation of crop circle pop-uladty, the publication of a new bookon the subject would seem a preposter-ous suggestion - a book destined forthe remainder graveyard. A11 thosetedious measurements, endless scien-tific (or pseudo-scientific) narrativeswith the Hopi Indians popping up for apow-wow to add effect and more to theratings.

However. Round in Circles by JimSchnabel is a book that should be readby everyone who was interested in thesubject as it pulls the rug sharply ftomunder the feet of all the self appointedgurus of the crop circle myth. Thisbook is not aboutthe circles themselvesbut the people who researched and pro-moted them. The laughs, the cries, thetantrums and the gullibility of thosewho loved to bathe in the limelight butdisappeared into obscurity after theDoug and Dave revelations burst thebubble.

Schnabel has cleverly p iecedtogether the cicumstances behind theAndrews and Delgado marriage. theirseparations and final divorce. Explainswhen Meaden appears on the scene andhis tortuous relationship and clasheswith 'Fandango and Condrews'. And

details the emergence ofthe CCCS andits New Age leader Michael Green,who is described in the book as '... talland dignified, with vaguely exotic fea-tures broad face, blonde curly hair -fhat rccalled both Peter Ustinov and,perhaps a little inconguously, HarpoMarks.'

My favourite passage refers to theopening of the CCCS at a house in Ely,Cambridgeshire. 'It was a regularcountry house weqkend, with drinksand laughs and food everywhere ...Busty Taylor loved it. He had neitherseen nor heard anything like it in hislife: all these good looking old schooltie people with their high-tonedaccents. And he was right in amongthem, as an honoued guest. Except hecouldn't help noticing ... that whensomeone was needed to help in thekitchen, or to carry trays of food, or todo some spare-hand job, they wouldnever ask John Haddington, or GeorgeWinfield, or ever Richard Andrews.They would ask ... him.'

In his final chapters, Schnabel liftsthe lid on the secret underground circlehoaxing craze that gave birth to anobsession for the credulous and anopportunity for the entr€preneur. Butfinally killed the subject off with itsown popularity.

The hilarity, the horrors and the hys-teda ofthe crop circles fraternity are allin this well written and extremelyentertaining book. A must buy - youwill not be disappointed.

MikeWootten.*FAREWELLGOOD

BROTHERS'Sat. 10th Apil 1993: TV-Channel4:

Having watched RAIDERS OFTHELOST ARK ("A radio set for talking toCod".t, I would have missed thisremarkable documentary had not EdgarHatvany, a former editor ofSPACELINK, called me up.

It Ithe programme I featured Ameri-can Contactees from the 50s using oldarchive film mixed with recent iuter-views. The remarkable thing was thatnever once did you hear the prattle ofan interviewer. Contactees, GeorgeAdamski, George King and GeorgeVan Tassel were included. King seemedto have b€en inspired by Adamski.

George King founded the AetheriusSociety in the UK in 1955, but "wascommanded to come to America", wherehe lectured and eslablished the Sociery inHollywood. We were fteated to membersof the Society, smartly dressed in red orgreen robes, melodically chanting OMMANI PADMA HUM in the dfec,tion ofKing's crystal-frlled, prayer-power bat-tery. George King (not given any titles bythe film-maker), COULD have passed asan arniable old buffer running a steamrailway. While lacking modesty, he didadmit to ridicule and hard times in theearly days, and of having had his lifethreatened. But what can you say about aman who has had himself crowned as acount, a prince and an arch-bishop ANDproclaimed himself the Voice of Inter-planetary Parliament!?

Openers and sta$ of the show weleHoward and Connie Menger - a trulyhandsome 50s couple - of FROMOUTER SPACE TO YOU. "As now"interyiews compared with the 1950smade riveting viewing. Howard Menger,now 7 I , with hair dyed black, and blondeConnie, looked in remarkably goodshape, and as devoted as newly-weds!They still have a mission "to get the storyout", and this includes building a 406"electro-dynamically" powered saucer.But could they manage it on their SocialSecurity?

On the other hand, Daniel Fry of theWHITE SANDS INCIDENT andfounder of UNDERSTANDING,appeared to have passed his sell-by date.

Researcher, William Hamilton, saidthere was a theological content in themessages. Evangelist, Frank Stranges (heof STRANGERS AT THE PENTA-GON), and friend of "Valiant Thor". saidthat abducting aliens came from dre innerEarth. Both King and Stranges thoughttherc was a govemment conspiracy ofsilence.

Contactee Minister of The Blue RoseMinistry, Robert Short, was given someunmemorable mileage. Black and whitefootage from the 50s featured severalwe ll-known contactees - OrfeoAngeluca, Truman Bethurum and DanaHoward, etc., at George Van Tassel'sGiant Rock Spacecraft Conventions. Wesaw 90s footage of Van Tassel'sINTEGRETON, which looks like anobservatory and was built "to slow theaging process".

According to the credits, Robert Stoneprdduced, directed and edited the film.Surely a lesson to other aspidng film-makersl

Lionel Beer, April '93.

UFO Times t7

E! Ll FO R/ABOOKSFlyinE Saucers - Serious BusinessUFOS Global ViewUFO Encyclopedia'

Amazing UFOS and AliensUFO LexiconUFO/IFO A Process ol EliminationIJFO lnvesligation llandbookSkycrash*

Controversy ol the Circles"Perspectives

MAGAZINESBUFOA JournalBI.JFORA JournalBUFORA BulletinJTAPUFO Times

Myslely ol the CirclesFire in the SkyUFO World '87UFO World '89Close Encounter at LivingstonCongress'79Veh icle lnterlerence ProjectThe lnvestigator (issue 1)

PlJ El I-|C:/ATIOl.Reprinl of a classic by Frank EdwardsProceedings of 1991 Sheffield CongressComprehensive reference book, paperbackby John SpencerExcellent children's introduction to the subject S1.50 $3.00Essential multi-language phrase book S6.00 $12.00Published by Probe and SCUFORI t1.00 $2.00Loose leaf - dated but useful !3.00 $6.00Rendlesham Forest landing case, paperback !3.00 $6.00by Butler, Street and Randles

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Prices quoted are for single copjes. Please state year preferred or send lor ljst. Unbound pholo-copies will be supplied lor out of prjnt issues.

Unbound photocopies ol the lollowing publications are now available

Last few copies by P Fuller & J RandlesA keen look at abductions by J Spencer

' very lew left - first come first served

Published 1963Published 1965/1981Published 1981/1989Published 1979/1989Commenced 1989

ByPFuller&JRandlesCase study ol Peter Day Film by J RandlesYearbook compiled by J RandlesYearbook compiled by J RandlesCase study of forest landinglvlany interesting papers420 cases compiled by G FallaNIC Newsletter Feb 1973

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WANTED. . .

Names and addresses of active UFO groups and/or UFO publicationsI arn in. the process of trying to compile a comprehensive directory of all UFO groups from around the world. No group istoo small or too large. I would also like to include UFO publications, from news-stand magazines to the more simpler formof newsietters. If you are involved in any such activities please send us as much detail as you can to:-

Philip Mantle, l, Woqdhall Drive, Batley, W. Yorks. WF17-7SW.

18 UFO Times

Dear Ken,

Here is something that you may liketo put in UFO TIMES.

After reading Jenny Randles' book'Life Beyond Planet Earrh', 1991,researcher Anne Silk, being a cross-word buff, realised that the calls ArthurShuttlewood used to get, purpofiedlyfrom outer space, had hidden mean-ings. His ETs called from a phone-boxin Warminster Town in 1960, and gavetheir names as: CAELLSANSELORIK TRAELLISON KARNEand were from the planet AENSTRIA.

Anne reporrs, "These, if consideredas anagrams, re-assemble as: A.S. IT IS

ALL ONLY A TRICK. A LARK.R.E.S.S., R.N. ALONE. E.N.E.''

One does not need to have a Maste6Degree in code-breaking lo reali\ethat:-

A.S. = Anhur Shuttlewood.

R.E.S.S. = Royal Engineers School ofSignals.

R.N. = Royal Navy.

E.N.E. = East north east - the compassbearing of the R.E.S.S.

Credit must be given to Anne forthis, she comments, "There is no 'y'forONLY but all the others fit."

Another ET message bites the dust,

BRIGANTIA BOOKSBrigantia Books stock one of

the largest selections ofsecond hand and rare UFO titles

in Britain.

For a free book list please senda large SAE to:

Brigantia Books,84 Elland Road, Bighouse,West Yorkshire, HD6 2QR

and there is no Y about it! It was just alark...

Regards,

Albert Budden.

Ed's comment:-

Oh dear, herc we go again playing withanqgrams.

As it happens,'her indoors'. who isalso a bit ofa buffwith ctosswords, etc.[and not just a little 'flash' with it!]came up with enother messqgeentit'ely: ALL KEN [small 'k' ], ISRAELNASCENT, LOOK, IRAN ARISES,ALERT.

I am sure other rcaders could just aswell come up with a scot? or mot"ealternatives. The point is that ana-grams in UFO'messages' provenorhing and one tould waste much timedebating the issue and get nowhere.The real issue is: what do we reallyknov' qbout Atlhur Shuttlewood? Pre-cious little I should imagine; quitefrankly I do not beliew we shall everfind out anyhing about the man.

My udtice to Anne Silk ancl Albert is:forget space'messages' and anagrams ;they ate q complete waste o_f time .

BUFORA (IRELAND)

INYESTIGATING OFFICORS:Pat Delaney & Anne Griflin

BOX No 3070, WHITEHALL,DUBLIN 9.

BUFORA IRELAND is the ooly genu-ine UFO organisation in lreland. We arebased at BOX No 3070 Whirehall,Dublin 9.

If you have seen or have had aUFO/paranormal experience then pleasecontact us at the above address. We arefully qualified Accredited Investigatorsin this field and shall be only too happyto assisl you in any query you may havere: above, We are affiliated to BUFORAin England. Please send SAE for reply

Pat Delaney & Anne GriIIin,

Readers

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of High Wycombe in association with BUFORA. This one-hour VHS tape includes interviews with some of the world'i leadingUFO researchers, including Watt Andrus, Cynthia Hind, Odd-Gunnar Roed and John Spencer. No video collection is completiwithout it. [Note: this is only suitable for PAL video systems comparible with the UK's]

Copies of the tape are available at meetings or by post from: BUFORA, Suite 1, The Leys, 2c Leyton Rd, Harpenden,Herfordshire, AL5 2TL. Price is f12-50; if ordering by post, please include f I -50 extra for p & p.

IJFO Tirnes 19

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I4.OO WITNESS SUPPORT GROUP MEETING18.30 London lecture

Sat. 2nd Oct. '93

14.00 WITNESS SUPPORT GROUP MEETING18.30 London Lecture

NEWSFLASH! London Business School venue cancelled.

BUFORA London lectures are held eyery first Saturdq. of the month.Lectures start at 6.30pm. Enn'ance {.1 .50 members, f.3 .00non-members. The new theatre has wheelchair access andfacilitiesfor the disabled. All are welcome. Full lecture progt.ammes areavailable ft'om BU FORA (LP ), Suite I , The Leys, 2c Le,rtorl Road,Harpenden, Herfordshire, AI5 2TL.If you hat e an eNent that you wish to,publicise on this page free ofcharge then write to the editorial address (page 2) u,ith y'our request,three months in advance.

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20 UFO Times