|
Mystery Around Noise,
Lights Continues
By Mark LaFlamme
Staff Writer
Email this story
Printer friendly version
The buzz over Wednesday night’s sky phenomenon intensified Friday as more
and more people reported their experiences. Accounts of strange, loud noises
and mysterious lights in the sky were coming from a wider area.
And as the mystery gained more attention, the number of theories grew. An
astronomer in Greene suggested meteor fragments burning up in the atmosphere
were the likely cause. Another Greene man was convinced the military was at
the root of the phenomenon. And two men, including one who used to work on
military craft, spotted jet fighters in the sky the night of the event.
There also were plenty of people who said they had not ruled out the
possibility of the presence of beings from another planet.
As the range of reports of the event widened, folks from Wayne and
Litchfield contacted the newspaper to relate their experiences. Those
accounts were consistent with those from all over Androscoggin County — men
and women, young and old told of a roar from the sky so loud it rattled
their homes. Some reported bright flares of light that made the night look
like daytime. Some were curious, many afraid.
“It sounded like it was right over my house, and it was loud,” said
35-year-old Karen Kenbrous, who lives in East Auburn. “I didn’t go outside.
I was nervous. I was expecting something to explode.”
A doctor who lives in Auburn reported his experience with the phenomenon in
a few terse but ominous sentences.
“That sound made me consider the end of the world,” said John Comis. “I am
not glad I heard it. But I never would have believed in it had I not.”
People were openly talking about UFOs and motherships. Some were joking,
some not. Others scoffed. And some solid theories were emerging.
“I believe that your observers were treated to an especially fine display of
some tardy Perseid meteors,” said John Neal, an amateur astronomer in
Greene.
The Perseid meteor shower peaked the weekend of Aug. 11 and 12. Neal
explained that bolides – extremely bright meteors leftover from that shower
— may be the culprits responsible for Wednesday’s display.
“These fireballs or bolides are in fact extremely common,” Neal said. “But
most of them occur over the oceans, and many occur during daylight hours and
so are not usually seen.”
The bolides “can be isolated phenomena or can occur when the earth’s orbit
crosses the orbit of a comet,” Neal said. “And it is in fact this latter
circumstance which I believe is the cause of the recent unexplained lights
and noises in the sky.”
Others suspect military officials are simply not talking about aircraft they
had in the sky Wednesday night.
“A friend of mine down the road, he saw it. It was a KC135 cargo jet,” said
Arthur Gagne, who lives in Greene. “He said it went right over the trees.”
The jet may have been revving its engines as it prepared to land, Gagne
said. And he suggested the military would not likely admit it had some
massive aircraft flying so low.
Maurice Gauthier of Greene used to work on F-106 jet fighters in the U.S.
Air Force. On Wednesday night, he said, several fighters flew over Sabattus,
headed toward Greene.
“If they’re in stealth mode, they probably didn’t even show up on the
radar,” Gauthier said.
He described a maneuver in which the jet engine’s thrust and an “after
burner” propels the craft at amazing speeds, fire blazing from the rear of
the plane.
“You get a rumble, and it lights up quite a bit,” Gauthier said.
He agreed with Gagne that military officials might not readily admit to
having jets in the area even though they were asked after Wednesday night’s
reports. On Thursday military officials in Maine said they had no aircraft
in the area at the time of the reports, about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.
A report from Chris Jordan, who lives in a remote area of Turner, backs up
Gauthier’s account. He said at about that time, his house was shaken. When
he went outside, he saw two fighter jets flying side by side.
“They were humming right along,” Jordan said. “They turned, they crossed
paths and then they flew off in different directions.”
In spite of those accounts, suggestions of other world visitors persisted
among some on Friday.
Stephanie Kelley-Romano, a professor at Bates College in Lewiston, has
interviewed people who claim to have been abducted by aliens. She is
teaching a course on it. She has been to Roswell, N.M., the site of the
notorious Area 51, a military base where many believe an alien spacecraft
landed decades ago. And she believes there is something to reports of
extraterrestrial craft visiting the planet.
“It’s always worth keeping an open mind,” she said.
But Kelley-Romano is not convinced what dozens of people saw Wednesday night
was necessarily a visitor from another world.
“What was reported doesn’t necessarily appear to be the result of something
intelligent. It didn’t have deliberate movement,” she said. “What would
excite me is a light that will go left or right and then back again.”
In East Auburn, Keneborus’ daughter was outside Friday looking for meteor
fragments, or anything that might be left behind by whatever caused the
sensation. Keneborus herself was not discounting beings from another planet.
But she was expecting a more earthly explanation.
“Well, you know that’s always a possibility. I’m open minded,” she said.
“But if I had to pick a side of that fence, I’d say it was something other
than extraterrestrial. Either way, the people who heard it will never forget
it. There’s no closure.”
mlaflamme@sunjournal.com
Back To UFO Report Menu
Back To Main Menu |
