Extraordinary UFO/UAP Sighting: Final Report
An Investigation Report On An Unusual Event, South Coast NSW, 29 MAY 2014. Paul Dean, Keith Basterfield and Unnamed Associate, December 2014
Introduction
In my previous blog post I gave some
preliminary details of a rather extraordinary case which landed in my lap last
month. I enlisted the help of Keith Basterfield and a researcher who wishes to
remain unknown at this time. At the request of the witnesses I cannot be more
specific about the location, or, provide personal details about the witnesses.
I spent several hours in email, telephone and in-person communication with both
witnesses. I have no doubt that the witnesses have been open, and forthcoming
with all details surrounding the event. They have been overwhelmingly
responsive to my many questions, and they have been rather pleasantly surprised
that someone would take them so seriously. They have supplied a map of the
property and its surroundings to us; plus provided copies of ground level
photographs of the locality. However, for transparency purposes in terms of
this investigation report, we, the authors as listed above, need to advise
readers that we have not been able to visit the property; nor conduct a door to
door cold call to determine if there were any more observers of the event. In
addition, we have not been able to contact local news media looking for
additional witnesses. The account therefore stands on the verbal testimony of
the witnesses, whom we have no reason to disbelieve. Here then, is a more
detailed account of the event, than provided for in the preliminary report;
plus investigation notes; discussion and analysis. What happened in the early
hours of that night, Thursday 29 May 2014, when the witnesses were sitting outside
watching the clear, moonless sky in a rural area of scattered dairy farms?
What happened?
There were several stages to the events
and these will be listed below, in the order in which they occurred:
1. A hazy, white, foggy light became
visible in the distance, to the west. "It was just over the hill so we
could only see a misty glow at first, below the false horizon formed by the
hill. It kind of looked like a house on fire, but less red/orange and more
white...It's a hilly area and it was so dark (no Moon) so it's hard to be
precise...It looked as though it was down in the valley but I could not see an
actual source of the hazy light...To me it looked like the glow caused by a
bright outside light belonging to a house, exaggerated by the mist that came
with it."
2. This foggy light became larger/more
obvious. "In the distance the haze grew from the size of my thumb nail,
then eventually stretched to the size of my thumb...We were not looking at it
consistently as we kept chatting, then each time we glanced over (about 3 times
overall) it had changed significantly each time..."
3. The white hue became a red hue/fog.
It seemed to "split." Instead of a vague fog, it became a row of
about ten, red and blue circular lights lined up, with a bright white beam, at
the front. Asked about this formation of lights, the response was "They
started out in a row...then seemed to rally around a central, larger craft with
a stronger white light on the front, like an eye. The smaller
"escorts" had lights which were alternating between red and blue,
like a slowly rotating police light but with with some occasional green thrown
in...They seemed to compact together and surround/follow the white beam as it
was scanning the hills/valley."
This "thing" then
"...scanned the terrain of the hills and valley, just opposite to us, very
low to the ground (around tree level) shining this incredible bright white
light through the trees to the ground, as well as in front of itself. It was so
bright it would have been able to see about 400 meters ahead. The red and blue
lights were hovering around it. Whatever it was, it was looking for
something...Also it made this weird oscillating sound that terrified us. It
definitely was not a helicopter...It scanned in a grid pattern at what seemed
to be a constant speed of around 80 km/hr.". This "scanning"
light "At first, it looked like a bright motorbike light, as it came out
of the scrub in the distance. When it was closer, or when it got more
"active" it seemed brighter, more like a single train headlight.
Quite a focused beam but definitely spreading and slightly conical...It had a
back and forth motion, quite regular, like it was covering all the terrain as
it ran through its "search pattern" through the valley. It never
seemed more than 20 metres off the ground, except when it occasionally
traversed over the tree tops."
4. "If that wasn't enough, at the
same time this was happening, all around us was this foggy hazy light...this
"fog" was coming from these 3 different rhombus shapes, 1 green, 1
yellow and 1 red. They had cross hatching effects/sort of laser light effects
creating their shape and overlapping one another. I estimate it would have been
about 10-20 metres above us. It was just hovering there above us, making no
wind/breeze or anything. It was basically just this maelstrom of lights and
terrifying noise. We're pretty sure the noise was coming from the scanning
light and not the one above us, but can't be 100% as obviously they were
"working" together.
The female witness paid more attention
to the "thing" that appeared to be close and almost overhead of them.
The male witness stated "That was definitely a different craft...I paid it
very little attention due to my focus on the other objects. I do remember the
fog which came with it and the way the lights cut through the layers of fog
like lasers at a music festival...I don't think I looked up at it
properly..."
5. "...the really bright light that
was scanning the terrain was getting closer to us and its spotlight was
scanning in our direction. By this point I was so scared I thought I was about
to have a heart attack as it shone its light on us." The two witnesses
decided to retreat into the nearby house.
6. They stayed inside the house for an
estimated 40 minutes. During this time the noise went away. "The noise
continued for maybe 5 minutes, may be longer with the odd random beam flicking
past the window. It seemed to take 20 minutes to half an hour before the sound
had faded into the distance and another 40 minutes for me to build up the guts
to go back outside." Then, on going outside, "...there was still some
light activity, going on on the other side of the valley/hill, except instead
of the really bright light making noise/scanning, there was lots of little
ones. We watched for a while, then they quickly joined together to make
"one" and left the mountain and as it did so. all the dogs within a
few kilometers started to howl."
That was the end of the event.
In a piece of rather detailed sketching art, the female witness drew a picture of the event in a notepad, and I have been furnished with that imagery for everyone to ponder. Below is a copy of the drawing.
In a piece of rather detailed sketching art, the female witness drew a picture of the event in a notepad, and I have been furnished with that imagery for everyone to ponder. Below is a copy of the drawing.
What did the witnesses think it was at
the time?
1. Regarding the initial haze/fog.
"1) It's the neighbours back sensor light (over the hill behind us). 2)
It's a car headlights coming around the road."
2. Regarding the circular lights.
"It must be a milk truck/cattle truck (it's dairy country)..."
3. Once the lights compacted. "It
must be a farmer on his quad bike..."
4. On the end lights. "...we
rationally thought that maybe there were a whole bunch of farmers running
around with flashlights..."
Investigation
How does one go about investigating such
an account, where you do not have on-site access, or the ability to conduct
on-site checks with the neighbours, or through the media? In the end, it boils
down to checking the information provided by the witnesses, against potentially
mundane explanations, to try and eliminate these as a source of the
observations. A check of the lunar cycle revealed that there was a new Moon on
29 May 2014, so there would be no Moon in the sky in the early hours of that
night. A check of the weather for the nearest Bureau of Meteorology site, which
was 24 kilometers away, showed that the cloud cover was most likely 1/8th at
that time. Winds were light. At 3pm on 28 May, 19km/hr from the NNE and at 9am
on 29 May, 20 km/hr from the SW. Thus the best estimate from this data would be
relatively clear skies at 2am on the 29 May. There is no radar coverage
available of this area, so there was not an opportunity to obtain this via an
FOI request.
Discussion and Analysis
One of the authors, Keith, commented as
follows:
1. The usual suspects, such as stars,
planets, meteors, aircraft etc. seem not to apply here, due to the direction,
movement and description of the phenomenon.
2. The report initially came to us via a
Facebook account. The witnesses responded to an email inquiry, and then
followed up with detailed descriptions via email, telephone and in person.
3. Keith notes that the detailed
accounts supplied include what J Allen Hynek used to call an escalation of
hypotheses. That is, at several points during the event, the witnesses tried to
provide themselves with rational, non UAP explanations for what they were
seeing. The witnesses now believe that they have ruled out any conventional
explanations.
4. We can suggest only one conventional
explanation which sceptics will put forward. This covers only some of the data
points and would of necessity involve misperception by the witnesses. Could it
be that they did indeed misperceive an "official search operation" of
some kind? The fact that there were no roads in the area where the light was
scanning, would not preclude a ground search, perhaps supported by a
helicopter. The male witness at one stage in his account told one of the
authors (PD) that "We quizzed a local farmer...he'd woken up to the sound
of a helicopter at around 2am on the night in question." The male witness
also stated, about the end of the event. "There seemed to be smaller
lights amongst the distant scrub for 10 or 15 minutes, moving around randomly
like men with torches."
Against this generalised explanation,
one needs to match the witnesses' detailed description of the number and
movements of the light sources, particularly the female witness' account of the
close, nearly overhead extended angular diameter "object". All in
all, on the supplied data, I'd be inclined to assign a low possibility (though
not negligible) to this search operation hypothesis.
I checked with both NSW Police and an
person in a current Army Aviation role, and found that helicopters are required
to have the standard red and green navigational lights showing, and do not use
blue lights. In addition, as the witnesses were outside for some time before
the event began, where would a fully crewed helicopter suddenly come from? Overall, the witnesses dismiss the idea
of a search operation and any involvement of a helicopter.
5. Another thought by one of the
authors, Keith, regarding the close, almost overhead light display (reported in
detail by one of the witnesses) was the possibility that could it have been a
display of the Aurora Australis? These displays feature red and green, laser
like rays, and are seen to the south (the light display was to their south). It
also had an extended angular size of perhaps 5-10 degrees (as do Aurora.) The
Aurora prediction service issued a bulletin dated 29 May 2014 alerting
observers to the fact that auroral displays were to be expected in coming
months. One of the authors (PD) put this hypothesis to the female witness, who
said no, it was not an aurora.
Conclusion
We studied this case from quite a few
angles. I, along with Keith and the other researcher who wishes to remain
unknown by name for now, all agree with me that this event is very hard to explain
in terms of the mundane or man-made. Thus, this case should be considered as an
example of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP.)
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