UFOs CAUSE TWO MORE BLACKOUTS IN BARILOCHE

UFO ROUNDUP

Volume 3

Number 17

April 26, 1998

Editor: Joseph Trainor

UFOs CAUSE TWO MORE BLACKOUTS IN BARILOCHE

Two more unexplained power failures blacked
out Bariloche last week at the same time people
reported seeing UFOs passing overhead.

The city, also known as San Carlos de
Bariloche, is a popular resort in the Andes of
Argentina. Located on the south shore of Lago
(Lake) Nahuel Huapi, the city is about 1,040
kilometers (650 miles) southwest of Buenos Aires.

The first in the series of inexplicable blackouts
took place Sunday, April 12, 1998 when witnesses
reported seeing two UFOs “fuse together” over
Cerro Carbon (hill).

On Tuesday night, April 14, 1998, “a great part
of the city was totally darkened.” Cooperativa
Electricidade de Bariloche (CEB), the city’s power
company, traced the source of the blackout to the
transmission lines along the Avenida Bustico near
the transformer substation at Puerto Moreno. CEB
said the sobrecorriente (power surge) “was five to
six times greater than normal.”

In the barrio Melipal, eyewitness Julio Posse
stated, “I saw an interesting glow to the east of the
Cerro Otto (hill). With my family I saw it from my
yard. My sons shouted, ‘Papa, the OVNIs!’
(Spanish acronym for UFOs–J.T.) All I said was
‘Yes, the OVNIs.'”

According to the newspaper Diario La Manana
del Sur, “Officially no one has cited the word OVNI.
But, to all of the questions, no one (at CEB) can
explain the phenomenon. The lines were hit with
a charge of 1,050 amperes. The automatic meters
at the transformer substation Los Cipresales
indicated the same surge at the moment during which
witnesses sighted OVNIs last Sunday in the skies
over Bariloche.”

CEB spokesman Luis Baigorria said, “At present
we do not have an explanation that can determine
the cause of the surge.”

Claudio Campo, an engineer for CEB, said, “That
which occurred Tuesday night was identical to the
incident Sunday. But in this case it was reported by
the meters at the substation in Puerto Moreno.”

The third blackout occurred Thursday night,
April 16, 1998. Again Bariloche was completely
blacked out for several hours.

Meanwhile reports of UFO sightings poured in
from the Lago Nahuel Huapi shore and the hills
and valleys east of Bariloche.

A man named Zuber “videotaped an OVNI about
15 kilometers from home, near School #255 at the
intersection of Rutas 23 and 237. His three-minute
tape shows a great black object with a light that
‘shines intently and incessantly’ with twinkling
red, blue, yellow and green lights. The object can
be seen with better clarity when he zooms in. A
slight luminous halo surrounds the object.”

Zuber’s Sony camcorder tape was aired on
Canal (Channel) 6’s noontime news broadcast
in Bariloche the following day.

Other witnesses reported seeing “two or
three OVNIs” flying eastward over the city
towards Cerro Leon” hill. (See the Argentinian
newspapers Diario la Manana del Sur for
April 15, 1998 and Diario Rio Negro for April 17,
1998, “Filmaron un OVNI Cerca del Cerro Leon
en Bariloche.” Muchas gracias a Carlos Iurchuk
para esas noticias.)

CIGAR-SHAPED UFO HOVERS OVER A STADIUM IN ECUADOR

A luminous, cigar-shaped UFO hovered over the
municipal stadium in Guayaquil, Ecuador on Tuesday,
April 21, 1998, at 7 p.m., interrupting a professional
futbol (soccer in the USA–J.T.) game.

Guayaquil, Ecuador’s port city on the Pacific
Ocean, is located 380 kilometers (224 miles)
southwest of Quito, the national capital.

The game pitted the Guayaquil pro futbol
team against the pro team from Barcelona.

Midway through the game, people in the stands
noticed “a very bright light” rising in the southwest
sky. As it drew nearer, more and more spectators
pointed it out and shouted. The UFO was
described as “a white cigar-shaped object
surrounded by a strong luminosity.”

The UFO crossed the city and then hovered
over the stadium for ten minutes. A cameraman
for Canal (Channel) 7 in Guayaquil, who was
covering the game, aimed his videocam at the
object. His footage was broadcasted by Canal 7
the following day.

The UFO flew away to the north “at a
tremendous velocity.” (See the Brazilian newspaper
Correio Brasiliense for April 22, 1998. Muito
obrigado a Pedro Cunha por eso caso.)

FIRST CROP CIRCLE APPEARS IN ISRAEL

On Thursday, April 16, 1998, Israel Television
Channel One broadcast an interview with Golan
Nasrir, 30, an Israeli Arab who discovered a crop
circle in a wheat field in the Emeq Yisreel (Valley
of Jezreel.)

The crop circle was found near the village of
Bet Zarzir, located about 40 kilometers (24 miles)
southeast of Haifa.

According to Israeli journalist Barry Chamish,
“On the evening of April 12, a resident of the Jezreel
Valley Arab village of Bet Zarzir heard dogs bark
wildly, looked outside and saw small lights darting
in a nearby wheat field. The next day he told his
friend Golan Nasrir about the incident, and he (Golan)
went to the field, thus discovering the crop circle.”

Chamish described the crop circle as “a 26-meter
half-circle with an equally long and straight ‘tail’
attached.”

“Within the circle were seven round pods in the
mud. All vegetation within was killed, and the ground
was severely dessicated compared to the surrounding
soil. In four of the pods, the soil was covered with a
white powder, while, in the other three pods, there was
a red oily fluid.”

Israeli ufologist Gil Bar painstakingly took samples
of the white powder and red oil. Chamish showed the
samples to Dr. Marvin Antleman, who reportedly
speculated that the oil might be a derivative of cobalt.
Dr. Antleman is making arrangements to have the
samples analyzed in a laboratory. (Many thanks to
Barry Chamish for this news story.)

UFOs AGAIN ACTIVE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

On Saturday, April 18, 1998, at 8:30 p.m.,
Richard Macedo was at his home in Temple City,
California (population 31,100), a suburb of Los
Angeles, with his wife and sister. Macedo is
a 39-year-old quality assurance manager for a
Boeing subcontractor.

“My sister saw it first,” Richard reported,
“She was looking east and saw the object in a one
o’clock position. She was sitting under a 2-foot eave
so I imagine her viewing angle was around 80 degrees.
My wife responded to my sister’s shouting and spied
the object somewhat lower in the sky.”

“I saw the final part of its descent with a large
tree in the foreground, and it seemed to be blinking as
the foliage partially blocked out my view. But my
sister claimed it was blinking all the way down, even
when it was in the open sky. It appeared to be
falling at an 85 degrees angle.”

The trio watched the UFO from their porch near
the intersection of Olive Street and Halifax Road
in Temple City. Richard said the UFO was “utterly
silent” and might have gone down in the area of
lower Azusa Avenue.

“The object appeared to be illuminating the roof
of the church next door…I thought I might have
noticed a bluish glow from the bottom of the object
before it vanished completely.” (Email Interview)

On Wednesday, April 22, 1998, Cinde Costello
of San Bernardino MUFON received a phone call
from a woman employed by the Job Corps. The
woman reported that “fifty people had witnessed
three bright lights heading east towards the Big Bear
mountain area” at about 8:30 p.m.

San Bernardino (population 164,164) is located
65 miles (84 kilometers) east of Los Angeles.

At first the woman “thought they might be hang
gliders with lights.” She described the UFOs as
“the lights were bright amber-yellow and appeared
to be floating or hovering. The three objects then began
to move south and changed color from amber to bright
red. The objects were viewed for more than 10 minutes.”

The UFOs were an estimated one mile from the
50 witnesses. Some claimed to have seen a “wing-like
structure or an object with what she described as
‘like a seagull’s wings.'”

According to Cinde Costello, a gull-winged UFO
was seen over San Bernardino on January 5, 1998.
(Many thanks to Jerry Glass and Cinde Costello of
MUFON for this news story.)

FLYING-WING UFO SIGHTED OVER SAN FRANCISCO

On Saturday, April 18, 1998, at 10:15 p.m.,
designers Amy S. and Jennifer K. were in the
backyard of a home near Army Street in San
Francisco (population 723,959) when Amy
spotted a strange-looking object high in the
sky.

Jennifer reported, “The object was moving
northwest” over the city “really slow, way up.
We were out looking at the stars–looking for
satellites. No sound, no trail. We had it in view for
35 to 40 seconds.”

“There was no fuselage. It looked like a wing
flying in the air. No tail section,” she added.
“Wings were not bigger than the fuselage because
there wasn’t any.” The object was primarily
“perpendicular wings with some sweeping back,
the ends were bent slightly. It was moving in a
forward direction. There was no glow, just a faint
gray color. Other friends of ours didn’t see it
because it was so fast. It seemed very high up.”
(Email Interview)

MARFA MYSTERY LIGHTS DAZZLE FAMILY IN TEXAS

On March 13, 1998, at 7 p.m., Nicole Prescott and
her grandmother, mother and sister were at their home
near Marfa, Texas (population 2,424) when the area’s
most puzzling phenomenon–the Marfa Lights–made a
sudden appearance.

The lights appeared “at 70 to 75 degrees above the
horizon. They were crackling bright lights of white and
orange.”

Nicole reported, “They seemed to come towards you.
Some were the size of a basketball. Others were no
bigger than the head of a pencil.”

The Marfa Lights were first reported in 1881 by a
local cowboy. A Japanese scientific team videotaped
them in 1994. Science has never been able to explain
the mysterious darting lights, which usually appear over
Mitchell’s Flat, southwest of Chinati Mountain.

Marfa is at the junction of U.S. Highways 67 and 90,
about 194 miles (310 kilometers) southeast of El Paso.

According to Nicole, a local man was driving across
the flat prairie north of the Cuseto del Punto mountains
last winter when a Marfa light entered his car through
the rear window, hovered over the back seat hissing
and crackling, and then vanished several minutes later.
(See American UFO Newsletter #7 for 1998. Many
thanks to editor Stefan Duncan for this news story.)

GLOWING TRIANGULAR UFO SIGHTED IN FRANCE

On Wednesday, April 15, 1998, at 11:40 p.m.,
law clerk T. Tony was at his home on the Rue d’Authie
in the quartier Chemin Vert in Caen, a city in northern
France, when he spied a triangular UFO.

“I found myself at home when my attention was
drawn to the window by a luminosity in the night
sky, which that night was very clear,” M. Tony reported.
“The moon was in its first quarter but could not be seen,
the wind slight and there were few clouds. It (the UFO)
appeared to be a luminous mass, vaguely triangular,
like a triangle with rounded edges but very sharp in
the front. It was a bright orange luminosity, with a band
of light red across the middle that was quite visible.
It was followed by a red rectilinear hind part. There
weren’t any beacons or clusters of lights.”

“The object was in rapid descent when I saw it,
but without any noise. In 20 seconds, the object
performed a multitude of aerobatic maneuvers that
did not appear to have any logical purpose, passing
in pirouette and looping without ever changing its
speed. Then it left my field of view, and I saw
nothing more.”

Caen is in Normandy, in the department
Calvados, about 250 kilometers (150 miles) west
of Paris. (Merci beaucoup a Franck Marie et
Banque OVNI pour ces nouvelles.)

(Editor’s Note: In July 1944, Caen was the site of
a big battle of World War II.)

FLOURESCENT GREEN UFO SPOTTED IN AUSTRALIA

On Saturday, April 4, 1998, at 10:30 p.m.,
residents of Healesville, Victoria state, Australia
spotted “a flouro (flourescent) green illumination
crossing the northern sky.”

The UFO flew very quickly and “traveled from
the east to the north, taking about five seconds
to pass. There was no sound, no tail and no
trail. The respondents described it as ‘a green
fireball.’ It appeared to be the size of a half-moon.”

Healesville is 120 kilometers (72 miles)
northeast of Melbourne. (Many thanks to Ross
Dowe and the Australia/New Zealand 24-Hour
UFO Hotline for this report.)

IRISHMAN REPORTS UFO SIGHTING IN DUBLIN

On April 2, 1998, at about 5 p.m., David
Martin “was walking in an area called
Blanchardstown” in Dublin, capital city of
Eire. As he approached “the Bell Pub, I saw
an object flash across the sky. It stopped and
hovered over my head. It seemed circular in
shape. It flew off to the east in the direction
of Raheny.” (Many thanks to John Thompson
of ISUR and David Martin for this report. See
Filer’s Files #15 for 1998.)

SATURN-SHAPED UFO BACK IN NORTH CAROLINA

On Monday, April 20, 1998, Stefan Duncan, editor
of American UFO Newsletter (AUFON) began a skywatch
“on a pier approximately 300 yards (270 meters) east of
Panter’s Point” on High Rock Lake. The lake is located
just east of Salisbury, North Carolina (population 23,087),
a city on Highway 29 about 115 miles (184 kilometers)
west of Raleigh.

At 9:45 p.m., “looking towards the east end of the
lake, I saw my reddish UFO,” Duncan reported. “Similar
to the one I saw April 2, an object whose light was a
non-blinking reddish-white” with “the shape of Saturn
when the rings are seen edge on. The object was
probably a mile down the lake. The object rose from
the treetops and hovered for about five minutes and
then descended.”

At 10 p.m., the UFO “moved from the treetops but
just to the top of the trees and went no higher.” An
attempt to videotape the object failed when Duncan’s
camcorder jammed. “It stayed in position for two
seconds before descending.”

At 10:14 p.m., “the object rose a third time but
just over the treetops. It brightened, then went back
to normal glow. After two minutes, it descended.”

The UFO flap began December 15, 1997 when
local resident James Minster spotted four flat discs
hovering over High Rock Lake. (See American UFO
Newsletter #7. Many thanks to Stefan Duncan for
this report.)

WHITE TUBULAR UFO SEEN IN NORTHERN NEW JERSEY

On Friday, April 17, 1998, at 7:30 p.m., Sam
Sherman and his wife were driving to dinner on
Route 516 in Old Bridge, New Jersey (population
6,090), heading for nearby East Brunswick, when
Sam spotted a UFO.

“Directly overhead storm clouds were gathering,
although low on the horizon,” Sherman reported.
“The sky was still blue and the sun was shining
brightly prior to setting. I looked up in the sky and
saw what looked like a contrail between two clouds.
It was like no contrail (condensation trail–J.T.) I had
ever seen, and it moved forward in a northerly
direction (towards New York City–J.T.) but did not
have a tail or vapor or smoke behind it.”

“This was of definite and finite length. To
describe what I saw, as follows–at arm’s length, it
appeared to be 3 or 4 inches (6 or 8 centimeters) in
length and tubular in shape. The color was white but
with luminescent color overlying a bluish-green tinge.
As the sun appeared to be behind it, the object did
not appear to be reflecting the sun’s rays…The tubular
bright object was moving north and threading its way
through the clouds.” He eventually lost sight of the
UFO “behind a dark cloud to the north.” (See
Filer’s Files #15 for 1998. Many thanks to George A. Filer,
Eastern MUFON director, for this report.)

AIR SYSTEM FAILURE MAY SHORTEN NEUROLAB FLIGHT

The space shuttle Columbia may have to end
its 15-day Neurolab mission days earlier than
planned because of a failure in the spacecraft’s
air cleansing system.

Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral,
Florida on April 17, Aboard are seven astronauts,
led by pilot Scott Altman and mission commander
Rick Searloss, and animals scheduled for inflight
tests, including 152 rats, 18 pregnant mice, 60
snails, 75 snail eggs, 1,514 baby crickets and 233
swordtail fish.

The shuttle, nicknamed Altman’s Ark, now holds
the record for the largest number of passengers–
living creatures from Earth–to enter outer space.

“If Columbia’s crew can’t fix a unit designed to
remove carbon dioxide from the cabin air, the
spacecraft may have to return to Earth late
Wednesday or early Thursday, several days early.”

“NASA Mission Control spokesman James
Hartsfield said the carbon dioxide system may be
repairable.”

“In the meantime, the astronauts are using cans
of lithium hydroxide which cleans carbon dioxide out
of the air chemically. They’ve got enough cans to
last seven days.” (See the New York Post for
April 26, 1998, “Shuttle landing is up in the air.)

from the UFO Files…1937: STRANGE CRUISE OF THE O.M. McFARLAND

One of the weirdest disappearances in the history
of the Lake Michigan Triangle occurred on April 28,
1937, sixty-one years ago.

According to the Cleveland Press, “A new mystery
of the Great Lakes was unfolded today when the
freighter O.M. McFarland docked in Port Washington,
Wisconsin and crew members reported the
disappearance of the ship’s master.”

It was a big day for the McFarland’s skipper,
Captain George R. Donner–his fifty-eighth birthday.
Born in 1879, Donner “had sailed for ten years on
the old Valley Camp Steamship Company boats
until the firm was taken over by Columbia
(Transportation Company). It was his first command
under the Columbia house flag, although he had
been on the lakes for years and had served as a
skipper for several of them.”

Days earlier, the McFarland had picked up 9,800
tons of coal at the dock in Erie, Pennsylvania. The
vessel sailed out of Lake Erie, across Lake Huron,
and through the Straits of Mackinac into Lake
Michigan.

“At 10:15 p.m. on the night of April 28, 1937,”
Captain Donner “left the pilot house, giving instructions
to the second mate to call him when the McFarland
was off her destination of Port Washington, Wisconsin,
some three hours hence. Stating that he wanted to
get a couple of hours sleep, he went below, out of sight
of the mate and the wheelman. The desire for rest was
understandable, for the McFarland, on her first trip of
the season, had encountered the usual heavy ice in the
Straits of Mackinac, losing considerable time. And,
once in northern Lake Michigan, a sharp watch had
to be kept for roving ice fields.”

“After leaving the pilot house, Captain Donner must
have busied himself with paperwork before retiring, for
he was later heard moving around in his room.”

“At 1:15 a.m. (April 29, 1937–J.T.) as the
McFarland neared Port Washington, the mate, as
instructed, descended to the captain’s room to
summon him. There was no response to his
knocking on the door, so the second officer opened
it and peered in, assuming that the captain was
merely sleeping heavily. But Captain Donner was
not in the bed or anywhere else in sight.”

“On the possibility that the captain had walked
aft to get coffee or partake of the night lunch, the
mate hurried back to the galley, but except for a
couple of off-duty firemen finishing a midnight
snack, it was deserted. Quickly summoning the
other mate and the chief engineer, he organized a
thorough search of the McFarland, crew members
combing every nook and cranny of the thirty-four
year-old vessel. Without a doubt, Captain Donner
had disappeared!”

Yes, indeed, Captain Donner had vanished
from his locked room. There was no other hatch
except the one leading into the companionway,
and he was too large to pass through the room’s
two portholes. No one had seen him in the
companionway between midnight and 1:15 a.m.,
when the mate knocked on his door.

Interestingly, during this critical hour, the
McFarland was 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest
of Ludington, Michigan. Ludington is reputed to
be the nexus of the Lake Michigan Triangle.

“Ships along the McFarland’s route were asked
to keep a watch for Donner’s body, and the same
request was passed on to communities along
the shore.”

“Captain Donner’s body never did turn up, and
his disappearance from his cabin aboard ship is as
much a mystery now as it was in 1937.”

(See STRANGE ADVENTURES OF THE GREAT
LAKES by Dwight Boyer, Freshwater Press,
Cleveland, Ohio, 1974, pages 223 to 225. Also
THE GREAT LAKES TRIANGLE by Jay Gourley,
Fawcett Publications, Inc., Greenwich, Conn.
1977, page 176. Also GATEWAY TO OBLIVION
by Hugh Cochrane, Avon Books, New York, NY,
1980, pages 34 and 35. And the Cleveland
(Ohio) Press for April 29, 1937.)

FUN UFO WEBSITES:

Mars continues to interest the UFO community.
Check out MUFOR’s image of Cydonia at this site:
http://www.mufor.org/ares/mgs/structure-comp.jpg

The Pathfinder Anomalies Analysis Group has a
site at http://mufor.org/mars.html

Stephen Miles Lewis has an Anomalous
Experience page devoted to Forteana at his site.
Drop in at http://www.sogweb.com/~elfin/links/ELFLinks1.html

More on recent crop circles in the UK, the
Netherlands and Israel can be seen at Circles
Phenomenon Research (CPR-Canada). Try them
at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/3310

There’s more Forteana available at Jacques
Poulet’s site at http://www.generation.net/~jpoulet

Kenneth Green of UFO TIMES has a new
page that organizes sightings in the USA on a
state-by-state basis. Drop in and look it over at
http://ufo-times.home.ml.org

Definitely not to be missed is our parent
site, UFOINFO, with its vast array of news,
photos and features. Check it out at this URL:
http://www.ufoinfo.com

Back issues of UFO ROUNDUP can be
accessed and downloaded at our website at
https://ufoinfo.com/roundup/

On this date sixty-five years ago, i.e. on
April 26, 1933, physicist Arno Allen Pezias
was born. In 1978, Pezias won the Nobel Prize
for his discovery of the existence of microwave
cosmic radiation in space.

That’s it for this week. We’ll be back next Sunday
with more saucer news from “the paper that goes
home–UFO ROUNDUP.” See you then.

UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1998 by Masinaigan
Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post
news items from UFO ROUNDUP on their websites
or in newsgroups provided that they credit the
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of issue in which the item first appeared.

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