Brian Vike's Favorite
Cases.
Date: July 28, 2003
Time: Approxamtlty:
12:45 a.m.
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 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. Mary’s 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 star gazing 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.
From A Few Witnesses
To a Flood Of Calls:
A report was made to
Peter Davenport at the NUFORC in Seattle, Washington and then the sighting
report was forwarded on to Brian Vike 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 eyewitnesses 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 were left 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 Few Of The Eye
Witness Accounts - The Light/Object (July 28, 2003)
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
A Few Of The Eye
Witness Accounts - Beam Of Light (July 28, 2003)
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.
Conclusions:
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.
Here is what I know:
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 effected.
So, the questions
that need an 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 me. 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 (By the way, I no longer operate HBCC UFO Research, but do now operate
KBCC 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 foot sailboat (name deleted by Brian Vike)
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 Brian Vike).
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 woman 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.
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.
Take good care.
Thank you to everyone
for their reports.
Brian Vike, Director
Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research. Email: brian_vike@telus.net
The Vike Factor Blog.
Kamloops British Columbia Canada UFO Research.
