By Tyler Marr

Two Prince Albert UFO reports on 2017 national sighting list

Jul 14, 2018 | 9:17 AM

It was January 20, 2017, at 10:07 p.m. when five people reported seeing a green object following them before it shone a beam on their car. 

They reported the encounter lasted 30 minutes and they ended up missing time. It has been classified as a close encounter of the second kind.

This is one of two UFO reports from Prince Albert in 2017 included this week in a report from UFOlogy Research. The Manitoba-based group annually publishes a Canadian UFO sightings survey and analysis. The goal is to provide data for use by researchers trying to understand this controversial phenomenon.

Last year, according to the report, there were 1,101 UFO sightings in Canada, more than three each day. This was the fifth-highest number of sightings in the nation since the organization started the survey in 1989. 

Eight per cent of those were deemed unexplainable, down somewhat from the average of 11.67 per cent. The number of unexplained cases has declined since the survey’s inception.

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“Results of this study show that many people continue to report unusual objects in the sky, and some of these objects do not have obvious explanations,” the report read. “Many witnesses are pilots, police and
other individuals with reasonably good observing capabilities and good judgment.”

Quebec had an all-time record high number of UFOs reported in 2017, with 518 reports, up from 430 cases in 2016 and the most out of all 10 provinces. Ontario had 241 reports and British Columbia, 128. Over 19,000 reports have been catalogued over the past 29 years.

Reports range from flashing or pulsing lights in the sky to random noises, or lack thereof, to objects in the shapes of spheres, triangles, boomerangs, discs, cigars and more. 

Though unidentified flying object reports remain high, the survey credits several theories, such as more secret or  classified military exercises, more people taking the time to observe their surroundings, easier access to
the Internet and portable technology to report sightings or even the downturn in the economy leading to an increased desire by some to look skyward for assistance.

“Popular opinion to the contrary, there is no incontrovertible evidence that some UFO cases involve extraterrestrial contact,” the report read. “The continued reporting of UFOs by the public and the yearly increase in numbers of UFO reports suggests a need for further examination of the phenomenon by social, medical and/or physical scientists.”

The Canadian UFO Survey is assembled with data from researchers across the country, online UFO organizations, government files, direct witness reports, media and some Internet posts. The information is used to determine the location, type of encounter, the reliability of the witness and overall strangeness of the sighting.

However, the report states the data “does not prove that aliens are visiting Earth,” but, if anything, shows the average witness is “misidentifying conventional objects or ordinary phenomena.”

“In short, witnesses are seeing real things, and the challenge remains to identify the conventional astronomical objects, aircraft, and other terrestrial objects in order to winnow out the truly unexplained UFOs, if any.”

Here are some other high-quality unexplained reports from 2017: 

March 12, 2017: At a point 65 kilometres north-northeast of Enderby, B.C.,  crews on two separate airliners reported a bright, white strobing light above them. Radar indicated no other known aircraft were in the vicinity.

July 22, 2017: At 10:15 p.m. three witnesses, including a particle physicist at a local university, were on the roof of a condo in downtown Montreal. They observed a stationary, “illuminated V, about ½ inch at arm’s
length, with arms of the V consisting of a number of bright, pinpoint emerald green lights, each surrounded by small halos.” It all faded within a minute of observation.

August 25, 2017: A close encounter of the First Kind occurred in Stewiacke, Nova Scotia. Two witnesses saw a dark triangular object silhouetted against the sky. It had three white lights in a triangular formation and an orange and red light in the centre, with two strobe lights on two sides. The object flew over the witnesses, making a humming noise.

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr