| 05.19.2001 | New York City oval. |
| 05.15.2001 | Satellites? |
| 05.10.2001 | 23rd UFO over Dales, UK, is a giant disc. |
| 05.09.2001 | The german "Mr. UFO" is unhappy: too much sightings lately. |
| 05.01.2001 | UFO close encounter, Granada, Spain. |
In the area of Westhampton Beach, an apparent formation of 5 to 6 lights were observed traveling southwest to northeast through a breaking cloud cover on May 19, 2001, at 10:30 PM. The lights may have been part of one oval unit. Within ten seconds the same formation of lights reversed direction and were seen traveling from northeast to southwest. They were now higher in sky traveling east of the first sighting.
William E Ristau writes:
"On the night of May 15,20 01, I was "practicing" satellite observation in preparation for joining the P.R.O.V.E. group. I had missed the first two satellites on my Heavens Above schedule, but was keeping my eyes open, with the help of a good pair of binoculars, for anything moving in the clear sky. Suddenly, from the southwest appeared to be an "unscheduled" satellite that was high and bright. I followed it with my binoculars as it approached the zenith. I must have blinked, because I did not see it's 90 degree left turn to the northwest. I continued to follow with my binoculars when I spotted another "craft" headed northwest, as if it were trying to catch up with the first. It advanced, until it and the first "craft" were both in my binoculars field of view. Then, from a direction opposite of the first two "craft,” came another; somewhat dimmer and smaller light traveling very fast. I followed it to the southeast until it disappeared. I returned to locate the two original "craft” in only ten seconds but they had disappeared! With chills up my spine, I prepared to watch for the next scheduled satellite, due overhead at 21:45 EDT. It showed up on time, with no company. A night I won't forget."
Thanks to Jeff Challender and Bill Ristau,quietbirdman@juno.com
DERBYSHIRE, ENGLAND. Andy Darlington of the Matlock Mercury Newspaper writes, "The mystery of UFO sightings over the Peaks and Dales shows no signs of abating after the 23rd reported sighting in the last eight months." Since September, locals have spoken of strange lights, flying saucers, and huge triangular craft in the skies. One was even caught on video. Now a 34-year-old Wirksworth man, who asked not to be named, says he saw a giant disk-shaped craft over Idridgehay. He was driving to market in Derby at 3:00 AM when he saw the UFO hovering near the road. In addition, he was the first person who'd seen the UFOs to admit feeling afraid by what he saw. "It did frighten me because I couldn't explain what it was," he remarked. "I've never seen anything like this before and logic couldn't explain it. It was shocking. I've never been believer in UFOs and sightings but I believe in them now." The man said the craft was hovering above woods and seemed to rotate. It had blue, red, and white lights. The incident follows another sighting of three flying saucers above Youlgrave last Wednesday.
The very modest German UFO Registration Office is run by one weary man, Werner Walter. Walter is groaning and moaning because a new UFO craze has started in Germany since February. He has headed the Office for the past 10 years. "Forty unidentified flying objects in six weeks, that's more than in 1999 and 2000 put together." Mr. Walter puts some of the blame for this latest wave of UFO hysteria on increased television coverage of the crash of the Russian Mir space station, the planet Venus, and disco searchlights. Even the police called on one occasion; claim they had pursued a UFO in their patrol car. These were most likely the searchlights. A woman in the town of KONSTANZ, claimed she had seen a cylindrical object that was several hundred meters (yards) long above her on the market square in broad daylight. Someone in Hamburg observed a "classical" flying saucer with a diameter of 30 meters (100 feet).
A friend of mine who is German reports that after the newspapers propagated this complaint, UFO magazines and books have been withdrawn from libraries in his hometown.
Sociedad de Investigaciones Biofisicas (SIB-Betelgeuse), in Spain, reports a UFO close encounter in Finca Buenavista, vicinity of Cortijo de La Polilla, Municipality of Alhama de Granada. The Alhama Spa, a source of hot springs, is located in the vicinity. Alhama is one of the geotectonically most active places in Europe.
The witness is Jesus Maldonado, approximately 40 years old, single, tractor driver on an hourly basis, working for the owners of a number of farms.
The research team has José Antonio Martín Framit, Oscar Iborra, Antonio Salinas, and Juan Rodríguez as an assistant.
The description of the incident is as follows: Jesus Maldonado headed to work at the Buenavista farm early that morning. Curiously the road leads him to the point by which the tractor driver would later encounter the landed object and the witness cannot explain why he was unable to see it at that time.
Maldonado boarded his tractor and began plowing. At 8:30 a.m he became aware of an intense light toward the east, facing him. At first he thought the light belonged to a motorcycle owned by one of the area's goat herders, who was coming toward him for a chat.
Suddenly the light went off and he was able to see how a trunco-conical object began rising from the ground to an altitude of three meters. The object might have been three meters in diameter by two meters tall. Its appearance was metallic and a reddish-orange color. It was able to split in two parts, a lower one (roughly 1/3 of the object) which remained fixed and unmoving, and an upper part (roughly 2/3 of the object) which rotated very slowly from left to right. The object was windowless and lightless, and lacked signs or emblems on its structure. It was located at a distance of some 200 meters. Normally barley is cultivated and there were still remains of last year's barley around, since the tractor had not yet started its work.
Maldonado stopped the tractor's motor and observed the object. Something appeared to protrude from the lower, non-rotating part - a sort of appendix which could not be clearly seen because the sun was directly behind the object and the appendix was almost on its back. He also noticed that object was not completely circular - rather, it had some sort of gentle ondulations to its structure. The object began to fly toward the witness without making a sound, and moved at an extraordinarily slow rate of speed. The witness was standing in a location slightly higher than the object, so as the object moved toward him, it was also rising very slowly to match the terrain. Maldonado suddenly felt afraid and states in his own words that "I didn't know if to start crying or run the away."
The object placed itself at a distance of 50 meters from the witness, stopping its forward motion, and began to recede at exactly the same maddeningly slow speed. It went beyond its landing point and placed itself near a cattle farm known as La Polilla. It then stopped and began heading toward the witness once more, however, when it passed over him (heading westward) it was now quite high in the air.
The witness kept looking at it until the object seemed very small in the sky 30 minutes elapsed from the initial sighting until it disappeared completely. The witness composed himself and continued with his work. He drove the tractor to the object's landing area and finds an imprint measuring approximately 3 meters in diameter with a wedge (measuring approximately 1.5 meters) protruding through one of the sides of the circle. All of the grass (last season's barley) was crushed within the circle, although not extensively.
That very same day, feeling rather scared and nervous, he told a friend at Alhama de Granada about the incident. The friend (Antonio Cerezo) hada also had a UFO experience a few years ago. After thinking it over for several days, he decided to tell his story to a journalist from the IDEAL newspaper to see if other witnesses will step forward.
No further witnesses to this event have been found. The sighting took place at 8:30 in the morning and although neighboring farms are usually quite busy. Given the fact that it was Good Friday very few people went outside to work the fields. S.I.B. rebuilt the landing print based on the witness's recollections and descriptions, and headed to the site and made some electromagnetic readings which did not yield positive results. Soil samples were taken and shall be analyzed shortly in spite of the problem posed by the soil's tilling.
Translation © 2001. S. Corrales Institute of Hispanic Ufology (IHU) Special thanks to Antonio Salinas, S.I.B-Betelgeuse.
