An article by Canadian ufologist Brian Vike.
What can cause so many residents in various communities from Kamloops through to the Okanagan and the Kootenays in British Columbia left scratching their heads, wondering what it was they all witnessed. Also many people became very frightened and ran into their homes. The answers to the questions I have been asked have been hard to come by, but we certainly know something extraordinary did take place on July 28, 2003 in the early morning hours.
The story begins with a family who was camping at St. Marys Lake, which is located approximately 12 miles east of Kimberley, British Columbia, Canada. Around 12:45 a.m. the husband and wife decided to do some stargazing as the children were asleep and the night was warm and the sky clear and full of stars. As the couple stood looking into the night sky they observed a very bright, white light heading in a southeasterly direction. The moon sized light was witnessed flying low over top Bootleg Mountain and across the lake and at times it's speed did vary. As it slowed, then picking up speed once again the witnesses watched the light zig zag slightly and at times it seemed to wobble until it was out of sight.
When they arrived back home from their camping trip they contacted the Kimberley RCMP detachment and spoke to a Cpl. Rod Carbonneau to enquire if others had reported seeing the object. Cpl. Rod Carbonneau said the detachment received no calls over this matter. The Cranbrook Airport was also contacted and asked if there were any aircraft in the area of the sighting ... but none were reported in the vicinity the object was observed. For the couple who watched this amazing sight on July 28, 2003 not many answers were fourth coming. A couple of area residents did telephone the folks who watched the event telling them what they also saw that night, and another did make a report to the local newspaper.
A report was made to Peter Davenport at the NUFORC in Seattle, Washington and then the sighting report was forwarded on to me here at HBCC UFO Research (Houston, British Columbia) for a follow-up investigation. What I did not realize at this time was just how large this one case was going to be. From a handful of witnesses the case exploded into a major event where I currently have 157 eye witnesses to something very mysterious.
Two things happened in the early morning hours that Sunday, a large moon sized object was seen by many area residents, and what followed left many folks in communities such as Kamloops, Vernon, Kelowna, Kimberley, Cranbrook and as far as Jaffray, British Columbia scratching their heads wondering what it was they saw. A beam, or ray of white light was observed from Kamloops as far southeast as Jaffray, British Columbia. People who watched the strange and puzzling event said the white light looked as bright as a florescent tube and was arced from horizon to horizon as if one was viewing a rainbow. The beam of light sat almost stationary in this position for approximately an hour before dissipating. Almost everyone who witnessed the beam of white light said they had never seen anything like this before. All said they have watched the northern lights many times, but they commented this was certainly not the northern lights.
A gentleman from Cranbrook, B.C. telephoned me and reported that he and his family were sitting outside and were discussing how bad the forest fires are throughout the southern interior when one of the family members spotted what they thought was a airplane with it's landing lights on and heading in their direction. As the bright white light drew closer to them, the size was growing rapidly and so was the brightness of the light. Before they knew it, the light/object was upon them. The family was so frightened due to the immense size of the light/object being almost at the edge of their property that the children ran into the house screaming. The mother followed closely behind. The father followed his wife and kids into the home, but stopped to take one last glance at whatever it was, and watched it make a 90 degree turn to the south. When I spoke to the dad he told me that they heard not a sound coming from it.
Another report came from a lady who was with a group of people on their holiday at their cabin on one of the local Kimberley, B.C. lakes. She told me they were sitting outside on the deck when one of the guests pointed towards the northwest. Low over one of the mountains came a huge, extremely bright white light traveling slowly in a zig zag pattern heading to the southeast. As it got closer to the resort area, many people became uncomfortable due to how strange the object/light was acting. As it passed straight overhead not a sound was heard. Some of the folks who were there said it was like looking at a full moon on a clear night. It was that big.
Two men in a pick-up truck traveling north along the highway just south of Wycliffe spotted the large bright object flying south. As they watched the large light/object close in on their location they pulled the truck over to the side of the highway, and jumped out of the vehicle to get a better look. Due to it being so low, so bright, and passing directly over top of them the light from the object lit up the highway and surrounding area. Both men stood frozen in their tracks and speechless. Both fellows said it moved quickly in a straight line and made no unusual maneuvers. Again no sound was heard which is remarkable due to how close it was to these men, and all the other witnesses.
The above is a small example of what folks saw that night. There are many more reports here of area residents reporting seeing the same thing.
One lady said what she saw was very strange, it didn't behave like the northern lights as she noted that the lights danced across the sky, or looked like a curtain of shimmering light. She wondered if the long dry hot weather may have something to do with what she was seeing. But her thoughts changed quickly as she watched the beam of light come from the northwest horizon and impaled itself on one of the local hills and that is where it ended, according to this witness.
A party of four witnesses were out for a few days on one of the areas lakes just outside of Kimberley, B.C. Everyone was having a good time talking and having a few spirits. One of the men who was sitting on a camping chair had just poured himself a drink, when he looked up and said to the rest of the people he was with, "do you see what I am seeing"? Everyone replied, "yes"! The man who asked the question was so surprised at what he was looking at, he poured his drink onto the ground and thought he'd had one to many that evening! They all watched a beam of narrow bright white light run in an arc from horizon to horizon. First they wondered if it might have been a search light as it was so bright but they soon ruled this out due to the miles and miles the light covered. Again all these witnesses said this event lasted for approximately one hour before it dissipated.
Some three weeks after people saw the beam of light on July 28, 2003, I had calls from Kelowna and Kimberley British Columbia reporting that the beam of light was back in the night sky. Two Kelowna residents stood on the patio with phone in hand reporting what it was they were seeing. The exact white beam of light sat stationary running from horizon to horizon and was extremely bright.
Four Kimberley residents stood outside watching the beam of light, they reported standing under a street lamp and even with brightness from the street light they could clearly see the beam of light sitting in the dark sky.
There is no doubt that something very unusual took place on Sunday, July 28, 2003 in the wee hours that morning. What folks saw in all these communities seems to be a mystery. But I have tried to come up with some reasonable answers for all the questions everyone had for me.
157 witnesses watched an amazing event unfold on July 28, 2003 (early morning). Some observed the object and others observed the beam of light. (Exact numbers are broken down for how many saw the object or beam of light below. What I didn't say is how many saw both).
31 witnesses observed a huge, bright white low flying light/object.
126 witnesses observed the reported beam of bright white light.
The International Space Station passed over Kimberley, B.C., at 00:24 hrs. on July 27, 2003.
A Fire Ball was observed flying in a southeasterly direction over the West Coast of Canada and the U.S.
Most of the witnesses reported the light/object and beam of light running from the northwest to the southeast.
There would have been a lot of air traffic in some of these areas due to the fire fighting efforts to control the devastating forest fires which raged through some of these areas in the summer of 2003.
Our hearts go out to the people who were affected.
So, the questions that need to be answered are... What was the strange, large, glowing bright object? Did the object cause the beam of light which sat stationary in the night sky for approximately an hour as the object traveled through the areas?
As for the object, this is certainly a mystery. After a lot of time speaking with witnesses, looking at data on astronomical events, checking on the flight paths, seeing if there were aircraft in these areas flying at the time of the sighting... I have come up against a brick wall. I have not found any rational explanation for what people saw that night. Fireballs for example as far as I know do not make 90 degree turns to another direction. Also seeing that the object was so low, traveling rather slow in many of the reports and not making a sound. This again is certainly strange. Something else I found rather interesting, was the fact that reported sightings had dropped from my area here in the pacific northwest of British Columbia and reports of unusual crafts of every kind were now being seen and reported by many people residing in the areas from Kamloops, the Okanagan straight through into the Kootenays. Almost every different shape, color and size have been reported to HBCC UFO Research. Did the over 800 forest fires attract visitors from above? I am sure we will never really know the answer to that question... ?
The beam of white light ended up still being as baffling as the object. When reports started coming in I was sure what everyone was seeing was nothing more than the northern lights. But as the list of witnesses grew, and hearing their comments, I started wondering if there was a connection to these unknowns and the beam of white light. Out of the 126+ witnesses who observed the ray of light running across the night sky from horizon to horizon, only one report was filed saying they believed it to be nothing more than the northern lights. (which I report on below). Everyone else said they have never witnessed anything like in their lives. All said they have watched the northern lights on many occasions, and in their words "this was not the northern lights". A radio station host put a question on air to the people in the area, asking "has anyone seen strange lights in the night sky?" I was told reports flooded in over this beam of light, and how everyone was left not knowing what it was they saw.
To be fair to all sides, I placed below an email I received from a person who did have some knowledge in astronomy, weather phenomena and the northern lights. One thing I would like to point out, is that what the gentleman viewed was not on the day of this major event.
The email came from a gentleman who, on the evening of July 26, 2003 and morning of July 27, 2003, stated that a sailing regatta was held by the Kelowna Yacht Club. Although the event discussed in the report above took place in the early morning hours of July 28, 2003, I thought the report below was important due to how close all of the events were to one another. Plus I want to give both sides on this case.
Mr. Brian Vike
Director HBCC UFO Research
Dear Mr. Vike,
Re: July 27, 2003
On the evening of July 26, 2003 and morning of July 27, a sailing regatta was held by the Kelowna Yacht Club. It was an overnight race north up Okanagan Lake centered on 50 degrees N. Latitude and 121.5 degrees west. The race commenced near the yacht club and the course was to be north up Okanagan Lake to Whisky Island and then returning to the Kelowna Yacht Club.
The race was attended by perhaps 100 members of the KYC both as participants and safety patrol boats. I was one of the participants in this race in the 25 ft sailboat (name deleted by HBCC UFO Research) along with 2 other crew.
The race continued for the entire night of the 26th and almost all of the boats were back into the Kelowna Yacht Club by 10 am of the morning of the 27 of July.
The sky conditions for the night was perfectly clear and very calm without interference from the light of the moon or city lights. After dusk a typical number of earth-orbiting satellites were observed. Around 11:30 pm the first appearances of typical shifty northern lights were visible to the north and north-west and continued to be visible on and off until early morning light.
At the peak of the night's darkness, a stable and continuous band of light was present overhead from horizon to horizon in the East/West direction. I estimate the apparent width of the band of light to be about 10 degrees at the azimuth. No indication of colour was observed in this band, nor did I observe any detail or shadowing effects. This band of light was, however, unusual in it's stability of form and linearity of line.
After this long and slow sailing event, some of the participants commented to me on the display of northern lights.
Nothing that I observed that evening could be attributed to paranormal activity. The display of light was interesting but certainly not out of the ordinary compared to many other displays that I have observed in my interest of amateur astronomy.
On a side note, one of my duties was a weather observer/recorder in the Canadian arctic while on station on the Distant Early Warning Line in 1967 and 1968 and was privileged to observe many spectacular light shows at that time. I am convinced that we observed nothing more or less than the Aurora Borealis and a few earth-bound satellites that night and I hope that my observations might shed some light on the matter.
Kind regards,
(Senders name and boat name deleted by HBCC UFO Research).
What folks saw in the early morning hours on July 28, 2003 has left myself and a lot of other people in the UFO field without any solid answers to all of the questions. The one thing I know is that there was an event which took place that left so many residents and myself baffled. It would be nice to be able to supply answers for these mysteries, but all I am left with at this point is another unexplained case!
Also keep in mind that three days later two women had a missing time experience in Kelowna, British Columbia and the green lights seen on this night were witnessed by others at different locations which backed up their incredible story. Their story can be read at: http://www3.telus.net/public/wilbur8/kelowna_missing_time.htm And please .. if you have any similar story to report... regarding any missing time experience you may have encountered... I'd love to hear from you. Relevant contact numbers and information can be found at the end of this page.
I would like to thank everyone who took the time to write or pick up the telephone to make a call reporting what it was they saw. All of this data is very helpful. I also would like to express my many thanks to the newspapers who ran an article on this event. The information provided readers with the relevant phone number, email address, fax number etc.. and toll free number so that more of you hopefully will also make a report on anything strange you may have witnessed happening in the skies above.
At the end of the day, there are more questions and answers.
As time allows, I will be posting all of the reports I received over this case to my website.
Take good care.
Brian Vike, Director
Contact:
