Brian Vike's Favorite Cases.
Newspaper Article.
By
Jennifer Lang
Terrace
Standard News
4-8-4
Have
you seen anything unusual in the skies over Terrace lately? You're not alone.
From
the Horseshoe to Ferry Island, and from Krumm Road to Highway 16 West,
residents of the Terrace area are seeing weird things in the sky that no one
has been able to explain.
According
to the latest annual UFO survey, Terrace remains a hotbed of activity,
accounting for about 10 per cent of all the sightings reported in B.C. last
year
Terrace
is ranked in fourth spot in the country for UFO reports, according to the 2003
Canadian UFO Survey.
We're
just behind Houston, B.C., Toronto, and Vancouver, which has emerged as the
Canadian UFO capital.
"There's
something happening, and I don't know what it is," says Brian Vike, a
Houston, B.C.-based researcher who operates a 1-800 UFO hot line and sends in data
to the UFO survey.
A
while back, every time he got a new UFO report from somewhere in B.C., he’d put
a pin into a map of the province he’d hung on the wall. An unmistakable pattern
has emerged.
To
Vike, it sure looks like most of the reports are coming from inside a band that
stretches southeast from Terrace to the Cranbrook area in the Kootenays.
"This
is where the majority of sightings of unusual craft are being seen," he
says, adding a number of the locations along this line are larger lakes, mines and
power stations.
"Terrace
has a number of natural and manmade things which may attract these
objects," he adds, pointing to Alcan, a relatively close source of hydro
electric power.
The
natural thermal power of the hot springs may also be responsible for local
sightings over the years.
"I
get lots of reports around there of strange lights," Vike says, pointing
out that seismic activity is sometimes associated with UFO reports.
But
that certainly doesn't account for other unexplained Terrace area reports Vike's
logged over the past year.
In
February, 2003 a couple driving home from Prince Rupert spotted a huge,
disk-shaped object travelling north across the Skeena River, about 85 km west
of Terrace on Highway 16
It
was dark, with two large, rectangular glowing lights on the bottom.
The
husband wanted to pull over, but his wife insisted they keep driving, Vike
says. Both were disturbed because the object moved so slowly.
In
March of last year, a Tuck Ave. resident noticed a bright glowing object in the
sky above the Eby St. intersection that looked like a meteor hurtling down to
the ground.
The
eyewitness said it was moving from side to side, and didn't make any noise.
In
July, a couple with a great view of Terrace and the Skeena Valley was enjoying
the view, relaxing with cup of coffee.
At
around 11:45 p.m., they saw a large, glowing object moving slowly along the
side of the highway near the 16/37 intersection. At first they thought it was
some sort of aircraft. because it kept pace with some of the cars. But then
they realized it was flying too low.
It
appeared to stop suddenly before shooting off towards the west.
Other
witnesses reported seeing a flying cross -- a huge, dark-coloured object with
lights along the bottom panels -- above the Skeena River.
The
sighting lasted for just a few seconds, before the object flew behind some
trees, blocking their view Vike is convinced people are seeing something. He
just doesn't know what.
Last
year, Canadians reported nearly two UFO sightings a day, adding up to 673 in
all.
That's
an all-time high for the Canadian UFO Survey, released by Ufology Research of
Manitoba, an independent study group based in Winnipeg.
Most
UFO reports are eventually identified as planets, meteors, or aircraft.
"Popular
opinion to the contrary, there is yet to be any incontrovertible evidence that
some UFO cases involve extraterrestrial contact," study author Chris
Rutkowski said.
Just
seven per cent of sightings in the survey's "unexplained" category
are deemed "high quality" unknowns.
Many
eyewitnesses are pilots, police and other individuals who are expected to have
good observational skills -- and good judgment, Rutkowski said.
Nation-wide,
the number of UFO sightings climbed by 39 per cent in 2003.
British
Columbia leads the rest of the country in terms of sheer volume of sightings,
with 304 reported here last year, compared to 150 in Ontario and 76 in Alberta.
Most
sightings have two witnesses and last for 10 minutes.
Mass
sightings sometimes stem from a big event -- like a major fireball in 1993 that
hundreds across Canada witnessed.
Similarly,
last year, a major event in the Okanagan helped boost the number of sightings.
"Literally hundreds of people" saw a band of white light arching
across the sky" on July 28, the report says. That mass sighting is
unexplained, but some think it may be a phenomenon long-time residents call the
Okanagan Arch, a whitish band that crosses the sky.
The
reports offer no "positive proof that UFOs are either alien spacecraft or
a specific natural phenomenon," the report cautions, but notes something
people call a UFO is continually being observed.
Various
agencies and individuals participate in the survey, including the Houston,
B.C., Centre for UFOs, which supplied seven per cent of the reports in this
year's survey.
Vike,
meanwhile, says the northwest's growing reputation as a UFO magnet, is
resulting in a tourism boom. He fields many calls from people who want to visit
the region.
That's
why he's started to showcase the region's natural and tourist attractions on
his website.
"I
get lots of letters about the beautiful scenery," he says. "That's
what's catching people's attention, too. They're saying, 'Yeah, I'm coming up
your way.,
People
are saying, 'This sounds good – you’ve got fishing and hiking.,"
He
can't understand why the towns of Terrace and Houston don't capitalize on their
reputations as great places to see UFOs.
Vike
is in demand as a guest on talk radio shows in the U.S. He also runs his own
website, tracking the reports from northwest B.C. -- and far beyond. "I
reach about 13 million people now a month," he says
The
Terrace Standard Newspaper - http://www.terracestandard.com
