Tok flying object gets attention of UFO center
Published Wednesday, January 7, 2009
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — A mysterious object in the sky that rattled Tok and perked ears with a sonic boom-type sound Dec. 29 was seen by others as far away as Healy.
While officials said the object was likely a meteor, at least one Alaskan reported the sight to the National Unidentified Flying Object Reporting Center in Washington state, and others recounted similar odd-objects-in-the-sky stories from years gone by.
Several people in Tok reported the mysterious noise shortly after 3 p.m. Dec. 29. The state troopers also fielded a call, and chalked the incident up as a meteor following confirmation with the Federal Aviation Administration in Fairbanks.
Since then, others have reported seeing a bright object on a northeastern trajectory around the same time, but from distant locations.
Tony Mueller of Healy was driving southbound near milepost 262 of the Parks Highway when a bright light seemed to explode.
“I was amazed that it was so bright in the daylight,” he wrote in an e-mail.
The light display happened so fast, he couldn’t pinpoint a location.
“It just came out of nowhere, quite amazing,” he wrote.
Others revealed on the News-Miner Web site that they’d witnessed a bright, flaring light around the same time — one from the Elliott Highway 15 miles northwest of Fairbanks, and one from about three miles north of Healy.
A Delta Junction man was snow-shoeing about 30 miles northwest of Tok when an erratic vapor trail traced several loops through the sky, according to a report he filed with the National UFO Reporting Center. As he watched, face turned skyward, an echoing boom resounded. Figuring a rocket or jet had twisted out of control, he rushed home and called for his wife to witness the vapor trail, which was slowly dissipating but still visible, according to the report.
Center director Peter Davenport has studied UFOs — or, ufology — for 14 years. While it’s difficult to speculate on the Alaska phenomenon without having witnessed the event himself, Davenport confirmed that objects flown by intelligent life from outer space are not out of the realm of possibility.
“I can’t say that a genuine UFO never forms a contrail or some kind of trail behind it,” Davenport said. “From my experience, it is a very rare occurrence.”
But spotting UFOs is not all that rare, he said, pointing to around 59,000 reports stored on the center’s Web site.
“We are being visited by UFOs certainly on a weekly basis, and probably more on a daily basis,” he said. Most alarming is the possibility an alien presence is already on Earth, influencing events here, he said.
Davenport issued a plea for witnesses to record their recollections by logging onto the center’s Web site at www.nuforc.org. The more reports, the better for his ongoing studies, and already too few of those who see a UFO are willing to speak out, he said.
“The trick to my kind of investigation is finding the witnesses,” Davenport said. He estimates that one of 10,000 Americans who see such a sight actually report it.
“It is very distressing,” he noted. “People think UFOs are unusual. I counter by saying there is nothing more unusual than the human being and human behavior. Human beings are vastly more bizarre than aliens or UFOs could ever be,”
Tony Delia isn’t prepared to say he saw a UFO about 11 years ago. Just the same, he’s certain the objects that lit up the sky about 50 miles south of Tok were neither meteors nor stray satellites.
He was washing dishes a few nights before Christmas in the village of Mentasta when his daughter, then 5, ran outside to tape a snowflake decoration to his truck. Moments later, she called out for her dad.
“She pointed up in the sky, and we saw these huge balls of fire, different colors,” he described.
Around 20 people living in the village stepped outdoors, lifting their faces to the brilliantly lit Alaska night sky. Eight or nine objects of varied size and color dipped over the mountains to the northeast, hovering over the mountainside, changing formation, colors and sizes before their eyes.
“The whole village was out looking,” Delia reflected. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve seen meteors. I’ve seen satellites. I don’t want to say I’ve seen UFOs, because I don’t know. There’s something out there we don’t know, we can’t explain.”
Community Discussion
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They're heeeeeere.
MrsS
It was probably just a "Transformer", hopefully an Autobot.
Ha!
I heard it was a weather balloon filled with swamp gas....
How often do they have fireworks in Mentasta ?
well I have decided that what I saw and heard was in actuality a UFO that wasnt prepared for our Cold snap..and as a result their craft just got too cold and it SNAPPED and exploded like water when its tossed into the frigid air at -65º (Smile) now they have to go back to the drawing board!! haha....
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If anyone thinks that the earth has the only "intelligent" life out of the countless billions of planets than you probably think that the earth is the center of the universe and that the earth is flat. There are probably lifeforms as far advanced beyond us as we are from the earthworm.
CPW
There's intelligent life on this planet?
If it were a UFO, they probably hooked a U turn and headed for warmer climates, like anywhere.
UFO's? Possible I guess. I have never seen one, but I suppose it isn't any more or less believeable than lots of other things in this world.
Got lost on the way to the Senate, wanted to talk to Mark.
I think there is a big difference btwn ufo's and an alien presence already on the earth.bzzzz poof (average joe just got vaporized by the t-1000 space modulator)
At least the topic is getting reported in the media. Finally!
It was the Starship Enterprise.
They heard Alaska was "The Final Frontier."
What we saw was one of the crewmen in red shirts getting beamed down to his death.
Moral of the story: never wear a red shirt on the Starship Enterprise.
Don't believe me? Here's the data:
http://www.sitelogicmarketing.com/blog/0...
Oh, and here's the graph version:
http://www.sitelogicmarketing.com/wp/wp-...
It was just Nick on an all night runner.
I am sorry to disrupt your lives one of my experiments got loose
(AGAIN)
I was riding behind on this snowmachine late at night about 15-16 years ago and saw this bright bright light out of the corner of my eye. We were in a group of about 10 snowmachines and I was the only one who saw it. I assumed it was a giant shooting star....hmmmmm....I wonder what it was.
They're tektites falling to earth, me and my neighbor have picked up 100s of them, and seen about 10 falling through the sky.
It's a conspiracy being covered-up by Govenor Palin and Brystol's Baby's Daddy.
how does this guy know that humans are more bizarre than aliens? that is a bizarre statement.
Obviously, alien life has influenced life on earth just as the article implies. The management of the United States economy over the last 8 years could only have been done by creatures from outer space that were out to destroy the country (or by moronic national leadership).
Palin did do it! I still have the probe with her prints on it!!
I have to admit, the posts for this story are more entertaining than the story itself. I see the cold spell we are going through has sparked peoples imaginations. I like it, keep it up folks.
I wonder how many are aliens are in Washington...Oh oh I just remembered something...What is the story on Obama's missing Birth Certificate? HMMMMMMMMMMM. Let's see he want to allow illegal aliens citizenship, and disarm us. No coincidence there, huh???
Over the many decades living in Alaska I have seen alot of objects in the sky. Back in the early 90's on the Glen Hwy. Gunsite mtn to be exact, I was night flagging and it was dusk and I saw what looked like a plane going down or something...I asked on the radio if anyone saw that light go down in the mountain pass, everyone replied I had been flagging too long and I am seeing things. About 30 second or less the sky lit up with a big flash. Then the crew was yelling on the radio did you see that? Ha! I told them I saw something. I asked a local pilot in the area to take a look, so he did and found nothing. I think our state is a military playground, we have alot of wide open spaces for testing so I am sure they have alot of confidential aerospace technology like the HAARP project! Keeps us guessing through the long winters! Who knows?!! Keep looking up! lol
HAARP site was also earmarked for some 'upgrades' a couple years ago, FWIW. Plasma physics anyone?
Anyone get a photo? I'm putting together a magazine called 'Strange Alaska' and this would fit perfectly in it. http://strangealaska.com
Who knows, maybe it was finally a sign of intelligent life other then I? ;-)
I keep hoping! :-)
I talked to a guy on Monday the 29th after he had driven to Central and he said that he saw something about the size of a VW bug falling out of the sky around 94 mile on the Steese. I didn't really believe him until the first story about this came out. It would have been around the exact same time in the day as everyone else saw/heard it. Kind of wierd if you ask me, for someone to see it in Tok and also way over on the Steese Highway, must have been pretty big whatever it was.
A new volkswagons from space? Everyone needs to chill out and enjoy the nature of life. Be happy and enjoy life while you can.
Damned Volkswagens. Always break down at the worst times, don't they? I guess that's why most hippies eventually take all their stickers and go buy a Subaru.
Yeah those old VW's dont run well when theyre air cooled engines in this type of extreme cold .....I cant believe the comment I posted here yesterday was removed just cuz I said I liked UFO's.
UnidentifiedFemaleObjects that is.
All this attention to the Aliens who landed in Tok got the attention of the boys of US Customs over at the Alcan border, so a couple days ago, they tried sneaking over here in an ambulance (so as not to draw attention to themselves). Well, Their junk rig broke down on the way, giving the Aliens time to hide in our root cellar coincidently, with the chihuahuas, who are naturalized citizens...I have posted a few legitimate pics to the website http://strangealaska.com as proof.
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