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Info on the Lake Erie UFO sightings
N.E. OHIO FLAP
by Richa
rd P. Dell'Aquila
Richard P. Dell'Aquila and Dale B. Wedge, MUFON S
tate Section
Directors for Cuyahoga, Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula Counties (Oh
io)
have been investigating a series of sightings, beginning about March
4,
1988 and seemingly centered around the Perry Nuclear Plant, and the
CEI coal
burning plant at Eastlake, both on the shore of Lake Erie,
east of Cleveland
, Ohio.
March 4th was a clear, crisp night and the stars were clearly
visible, especial
ly to the north over the lake where there are no city
lights. Venus and Jup
iter were bright and in close proximity to each
other in the western sky. A
t about 6:30 P.M., S.B. (name and address
provided to MUFON) and her childre
n were driving home to Eastlake
along the lake shore when they observed a la
rge blimp-like object with
bright white lights at each end, hovering over th
e lake and rocking
end to end like a "teeter-totter." One light was brighter than the
other and was strobing. On arriving home, she asked her husband to
accompa
ny her to the beach about 200 yards north for a closer view of
the object wh
ich they later described as "larger than a football held
at arm's length."
She and her husband walked onto the beach. The noiseless
object w
as gun metal gray and seemed to cause the ice on the lake to
rumble and crac
k loudly in an unusual way which frightened her. The
witnesses had to shout to be heard by e
ach other, and were surprised
that no dogs were out barking as would have be
en expected.
After observing the object for a while, the couple beca
me
concerned for the safety of their children in the car when the object
re
volved slowly about 90 degrees, coming almost overhead (about 1/4
mile high)
and pointing its "front" end down toward them. They drove
the children home
and continued watching the object from their living
room window which faces the lake.
A neighbor was phoned and she and
her son went to the beach, reporting the s
ame thing. They took
photographs which did not turn out.
The objec
t began to descend and the witnesses returned to the
beach, where it was now
observed to have red and blue blinking lights
along its bottom edge. It emi
tted 5 or 6 noiseless, intensly bright
yellow triangular lights from its sid
e. They intermittently hovered
around the larger object, darted and zig-zagged into the night
sky at
velocities far in excess of known aircraft. Mr. B stated the
triang
ular objects were smaller than a one-seat Cessna and "crossed 50
mile stretc
hes low over the ice in the snap of a finger." They were
said to be able to
approach the shore, turn abrupt right angles due
east toward the Perry Nucle
ar Plant about 12 miles away, climbing
rapidly and returning again, all with
in several seconds. By this
time, a Coast Guard patrol vehicle had arrived on the bea
ch in
response to S.B.'s several phone calls.
The triangular object
s came closer to the shore, causing the
witnesses to become concerned that t
he lights on the Coast Guard
vehicle would attract the objects and the light
s were turned off. The
triangles continued to fly off at high speed northwa
rd over the lake
and eastward toward the Perry Nuclear Plant. About an hour
later,
they returned one at a time into the large ship, which then landed on
the ice. Sever
al multi-colored lights now came on for about 5 minutes
(Page 1 of 3)
on the bottom of the object "in a wave like a movie theater sig
n" and
the brighter white light on the end began strobing red and white.
W
hen these went off, the ice stopped making noise and everything
became "dead
silent." The object could no longer be seen within about
a half hour and it was assumed to have gone below the surface. The
next day, unusually huge
pieces of broken ice were observed in the
area of the landing.
The
Coast Guard informed Mr. and Mrs. B the following day
that the Army and NASA
, whom S.B. had also phoned, instructed them not
to investigate the matter f
urther or go out on the lake in their
cutter to examine the ice in the area
of the landing, since the matter
was "out of their league and out of their hands." They informed the
coup
le that all information was being forwarded to Wright-Patterson
Air Force Ba
se and a facility in Detroit, Michigan. In response to a
Coast Guard inquir
y, Wright-Patterson refused to confirm or deny any
interest in these activit
ies.
On the next night, the same witnesses observed several
triangu
lar objects over the lake for about 45 minutes. By the time
Coast Guard personnel arrived on the scene, the objects were gone.
On March 7, 19
88, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Lake County
News-Herald carried articles
which attributed a series of reports of
large brightly lit objects over Lake
Erie on the prior weekend to
several witnesses' misidentification of the pla
nets Venus and Jupiter.
The newspaper accounts indicated that the Fairport H
arbor Coast Guard
went to the area and saw a large bright object that seemed to dispurse
smaller, bright m
ulti-colored objects. But when they called the local
air traffic controller
s, they were "informed" that Jupiter and Venus
were in alignment and that th
e colors were the result of "spontaneous
gas emissions from the two planets.
" One article even attributed this
amazing explanation to a professor of as
tronomy at a local university.
On reading the articles, Dell'Aquila felt it was unlikely
that U.S. Coast Guard personnel, trained in navigation
and
identification of basic celestial objects such as the planets, could
ha
ve made such a gross misidentification. Likewise, the statement
attributed
to the professor of astronomy was equally unacceptable, in
that no other sim
ilar "spontaneous gas emission" from the planets
cited, of the necessary mag
nitude, had ever been noted, particulary on
this weekend.
In the course of the follow-up investiga
tion by Dell'Aquila
and Wedge, a Coast Guard incident report was found (pres
ently in
MUFON's possession) which states that Coast Guard personnel respond
ed
to several calls reporting UFOs over Lake Erie on the night of March
4,
1988. When the Coast Guard arrived, the report confirms that a
large object
"dispersed 3-5 smaller flying objects that were zipping
around rather quickly. These objects had red, green white, and yellow
lights on them that st
robed intermittently. They also had the ability
to stop and hover in mid-fl
ight." The incident report confirms Mr.
and Mrs. B's reports, including the
abnormal cracking of the ice as
the object came closer to it and apparently
landed. "The smaller
objects began hovering in the area where the large obj
ect landed
(about 1/4 mile east of the CEI power plant) and after a few minutes
they began flying around aga
in." The report states that, "One of the
small objects turned on a spotligh
t where the large object had been,
but [the Coast Guard personnel] could not
see anything, and then the
object seemed to disappear. Another object appro
ached [these
personnel] approximately 500 yards offshore about 20 feet above
the
ice, and it began moving closer as [the Coast Guard] began flashing
its headlights, then it moved off to the west."
(Page 2 of 3)
A subsequent Coast Guard report (also in possession of
MUFON)
prepared after the sightings of the following night attributes the
s
ightings to misidentifications of the planets Venus and Jupiter and
says, "t
he flashing lights are gases in the atmosphere...Request
incident closed thi
s unit." In response to a classified advertisement
placed by the investigators, other witnesses contac
ted Dell'Aquila and
Wedge, and have been interviewed as the investigation co
ntinues.
On the same night (March 4th) at about 10:00 P.M., and
con
tinuing until approximately 10:30 P.M., C.H. (name and address
provided to M
UFON) also reported a UFO near her home, which is a few
miles south of the l
ake shore and just east of the Perry Nuclear
Plant. C.H. was walking a pupp
y when she noticed the stationary
triangular object in the southeasterly sky.
It was much brighter than
the moon, and seemed to upset the puppy, which she
took back indoors.
Returning outdoors, she reported that the object began s
equentially
flashing multi-colored lights, suspended in rows below the base
of the
triangle. The witness responded by flashing her cigarette lighter an
d
the UFO's light pattern became more erratic. At one point, the
triangle
revolved clockwise, turning its apex about 90 degrees to a
horizontal position, but still flashing the
rows of light. After
several minutes, it turned back counter-clockwise as i
t simultaneously
accelerated away to the south at a high rate of speed, disa
ppearing
behind some trees. No noise or odor was reported.
At abou
t 10:30 P.M. that night T.K. (name and address
provided to MUFON), took a ph
otograph in his back yard, within a few
miles of the Perry Nuclear Plant, sh
owing a portion of a brightly lit
triangular object travelling across the sky (
Photograph in possession
of MUFON). This object was later confirmed by Mr.
and Mrs. B and C.H.
to be identical to the triangular objects they were also
observing
about the same time a few miles away, and is also similar to one
reported to Phil Imbrogno as having been near the Indian Point Nuclear
Power
Plant in New York State on the same night.
T.K. and his friend were
outdoors on the night of March 4th,
observing the stars through his telescope. Venus and Jupiter wer
e
reported to be in the western sky behind a stand of trees. While
looking
southward through the telescope, out of the corner of his left
eye, T.K. not
iced a bright, moving object in the sky. He and his
friend were awe-struck
by the triangular object, but he did have the
presence of mind to take 3 pho
tographs with a small "snapshot" type
camera loaded with Kodak 110 color fil
m, with which they had intended
to photograph stars through the telescope. Only
one photograph
turned out. It is the last in the series, taken while
panni
ng ahead of the object, and shows the front portion of the
triangle. The ob
ject was described as about 3-4 inches tall at arm's
length and glowing an i
ntense yellow/orange to white, with a bright
orange/red glow behind it. It
seemed to pulse brighter and dimmer,
moving in a roughly southwesterly direc
tion until it was obscured by
trees. As it moved, it accelerated, slowed and accelerated again. No
sound or smell was noted, although his dog had a strong reaction,
running i
n circles and tugging on T.K.'s sleeve, apparently in an
attempt to urge him
away from the object. Total time of observation
was a few minutes.
Dell'Aquila and Wedge continue to receive reports of
additional UFOs over th
e same period, some supported by photographs,
as the sightings continue to t
he date of this writing. Supplementary
reports will be provided as the inves
tigation of the flap progresses.
(Page 3 of 3)
File: LAKERIE.UFO 13868-T
02-APR-88
Dir: 12 Sec: 1 - UFOlogy
From:
Rick Dell'aquila
Acc: 9
LAKE ERIE UFO: Investigative Report
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