The Phoenix Lights
On March 13th 1997, a series of strange lights were seen floating over Arizona and Nevada. Although the descriptions varied slightly, between 7:30 and 10:30 that night, but they were thought to have traveled around 300 miles, and were witnessed and photographed by multiple people.
The first reports of these lights described them as five lights in an arc or V shaped pattern. Some witnesses reported these lights as a set of individual crafts, while others maintained they were inset into a single V shaped craft. Either way, the lights moved silently overhead and witnesses included actor Kurt Russel, who reported the lights to air traffic control as he was piloting his own aircraft.
By 10pm, the lights were seen over Phoenix, Arizona, producing a large number of photos and videos, resulting in one of the largest mass UFO sightings in history.
Obviously, not everyone feels that way. According to Robert Sheaffer of the Skeptical Inquirer, the sighting was actually the culmination of two separate events. The earlier descriptions of the flying V was allegedly due to five A-10 jets. As these were military jets, they were not bound by civil aviation rules, thus flying without the blinking lights typically seen on commercial planes.
He goes on to state that the lights over Phoenix itself were the result of different A-10s dropping military flares.
Still, people continue to believe the craft, or crafts, were extraterrestrial in nature.
After the incident, Fife Symington III, the then governor of Arizona with one hell of a name, held a press conference where a fancy-dress alien was paraded on stage, however, Symington later alleged that he’d seen the lights himself. Although he was unsure of their origin, he agreed to “keep quiet” about his own experience and beliefs in fear it would “panic the populace”.
Standard military activity, secret military activity, flares or aliens? Perhaps the true origins of the Phoenix Lights will remain a mystery.
Lead Mask Case
This isn’t a typical UFO sighting. Still, the deaths of Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana, two Brazilian electronic technicians, has become associated with UFO folklore and is certainly weird enough to to earn a place in this case file.
On August 20th 1966, a young boy found the bodies of two men, on Vintém Hill, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro.
When police investigated – allegedly the day after the initial report due to the terrain – they found the pair laying next to each other, dressed in suits and waterproof coats, each with their own pair of lead eye masks – later confirmed to have been made by the pair.
There was no evidence of any struggle and no obvious damage to the men’s bodies. A water bottle, two wet towels and a notebook where recovered at the scene, along with a selection of other items. One of the most important items recovered was a small notebook that contained the entry:
16:30 be at the specified location. 18:30 ingest capsules, after the effect protect metals await signal mask
The “protect metals” segment of the note may be the reason that a watch and wedding ring were found in the the respective pockets of the deceased and although an autopsy – delayed and with no toxicology report – could not conclude a cause of death, it’s not a stretch to assume the “capsules” might have killed the pair.
There are a few theories proposed to explain how and why these two young men met their end on a Vintém Hill. The first is a potential suicide, however, among the items found at the scene was a receipt for the water bottle, which included the reimbursement for its return. According to the waitress serving them, Miguel seemed “nervous” and repeatedly checked his watch, though they specifically asked for the receipt. Would they have carried out this extra step if neither intended to come back for the reimbursement?
It’s more likely the pair’s death was accidental, but what were they doing on the hill? Well, as the title suggests, it might have to do with aliens.
Manoel and Miguel were thought to be members of a “scientific spiritualist” group. As this detailed break down of the case suggests, were supposedly interested in UFOs and contact with aliens. According to skeptoid.com, two months before the deaths, the pair, along with another man, attempted to build a a device that would allow them to contact beings of Mars. This device exploded in Manoel’s garden.
In fact, the same sources also reports that a different electrical technical was found dead on a hill close to Vintém Hill, with a similar mask on his person.
So what happened to Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana? Could they have accidentally overdosed on whatever strange capsules they took? Did they go to the hill to intentionally end their lives? Or is the answer out of this world?
I’ll close this section by saying that around 7pm on August 17th, five days before the bodies were discovered, a local woman and her children reported seeing strange lights in the sky around Vintém Hill.
1566 UFO Phenomena Over Basel, Switzerland
According to a pamphlet produced in 1566, the town of Basel, Switzerland witnessed a series of bizarre celestial phenomena.
Between July 27th and 28th a strange sunrise rose across the town, turning the streets blood red, followed by a bizarre series of black spheres dancing across the face of the sun. A translation of the original text is as follows:
It happened in 1566 three times, on 27 and 28 of July, and on August 7, against the sunrise and sunset; we saw strange shapes in the sky above Basel.
During the year 1566, on the 27th of July, after the sun had shone warm on the clear, bright skies, and then around 9 pm, it suddenly took a different shape and color. First, the sun lost all its radiance and luster, and it was no bigger than the full moon, and finally it seemed to weep tears of blood and the air behind him went dark. And he was seen by all the people of the city and countryside. In much the same way also the moon, which has already been almost full and has shone through the night, assuming an almost blood-red colour in the sky. The next day, Sunday, the sun rose at about six o’clock and slept with the same appearance it had when it was lying before. He lit the houses, streets and around as if everything was blood-red and fiery. At the dawn of August 7, we saw large black spheres coming and going with great speed and precision before the sun and chattered as if they led a fight. Many of them were fiery red and, soon crumbled and then extinguished.
What could have caused this strange phenomena? Aliens? Maybe.
The answer is more likely celestial rather than extraterrestrial. The strange sunrise could have been caused by an eclipse, a meteor shower, or comets. Even ball lightning, a rare phenomena that can produce strange glowing lights of different sizes.
Or maybe, just maybe, alien beings were doing battle overhead. Perhaps we’ll never know for sure.
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The Hawthorn Files 