UFO Sightings in the 1980s
Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) became cemented into the public consciousness in 1947, when private pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing several flying disks over Mt. Rainier, Washington. His sighting and the thousands that followed throughout the ensuing decades have been the subject of endless debates.
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Sighting Types
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Astronomer J. Allen Hynek created a classification system for UFO experiences while working on Project Grudge and Project Blue Book, two of the U.S. Air Force's investigations of the UFO phenomenon. Nocturnal lights are bright lights seen at night, while daylight disks are disk shapes seen during the day. Radar-visual sightings describe UFOs spotted visually and tracked on radar. A close encounter of the first kind is a visual sighting of a UFO. A close encounter of a second kind involves sightings and physical effects on people, animals, objects or the environment. A close encounter of the third kind involves the sighting of the UFO's occupants. Other researchers have added the close encounter of the fourth kind, which involves an abduction, and the close encounter of the fifth kind, which involves communication.
Rendlesham Forest Incident
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The Rendlesham Forest Incident began around 3 a.m. on December 26, 1980, when a patrol near the Royal Air Force's Woodbridge airbase near Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk, England, witnessed strange lights moving through the trees. Three servicemen sent into the forest to investigate encountered a conical craft hovering over a clearing. Later that morning, the servicemen discovered burn marks, broken branches and impressions in the dirt. On December 28, the servicemen scanned the area with radiation detectors, but their readings were inconclusive. The U.K.'s Ministry of Defense never seriously investigated the incident.
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The Alfred Burtoo Incident
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On August 12, 1983, Alfred Burtoo was reportedly fishing in Aldershot, England, when a disk-shaped UFO landed nearby. Burtoo said he assumed it was a helicopter from a nearby military base and paid little attention to it. However, he eventually looked up to see a pair of tiny humanoids gesturing at him. According to his account, he followed the creatures aboard their ship, where they scanned him with an orange beam. The creatures released him as too old for their purpose after learning he was 78.
The Hudson Valley Boomerang Sightings
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The Hudson Valley Boomerang Sightings encompass more than 7,000 reported sightings in the Hudson Valley area between 1982 and 1995. The majority occurred between 1982 and 1986, when 5,000 people, many highly educated professionals and police officers, reported seeing a huge, boomerang-shaped object slowly flying over New York and Connecticut. In spite of hundreds of anxious calls, the Federal Aviation Administration repeatedly denied the object's existence; most authorities explained it away as small aircraft flying in formation.
Vancouver Island Photograph
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In October 1981, Hannah McRoberts and her family were visiting Vancouver Island, British Columbia, when she snapped a photo of local peak. After she had the film developed, McRoberts discovered that the picture included a disk-shaped craft hovering over the mountain --- something she hadn't noticed at the time. Careful analysis of the photo by experts such as engineering professor James Harder of the University of California at Berkeley and photography expert Percy Hennell proved inconclusive. According to Harder, if the photo were real, the disk would measure hundreds of feet across.
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References
- "Encyclopedia of the Occult"; UFOs and the Occult; 2001
- The Internet Encyclopedia of Science: Close Encounters
- The Internet Encyclopedia of Science: J. Allen Hynek
- Latest UFO Sightings: Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident
- Extraterrestrial Contact: Cases by Decade 1980s
- Extraterrestrial Contact: The Alfred Burtoo Encounter
Resources
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