World of Weird - April Things.

 

Photo by Michael Herren on Unsplash

I love ‘on this day in history’ stuff, so here is a roundup of weird events that have occurred in history during April.

17th April 2006 - Nahuelito Monster Photos Left at Newsroom.

An unknown man walked into a newsroom in South America with an envelope containing 3 photographs which he simply left with the receptionist saying:

“This is not a tree trunk with a capricious shape. This is not a wave. Nahuelito showed his face. Lake Nahuel Huapi, Saturday, April 15, 9 a.m. I’m not giving my personal information to avoid future headaches.”

This is one of many lake monsters reported to exist around the world. The Nahuelito Monster is said to live in Nahuel Huapi Lake in Argentina and Patagonia, resembling a pliosaur, and was first documented by the press in the 1920s, although sightings had been reported for decades before. I have been to Patagonia, it is vast, wild and primeval so who knows what is lurking there!

19th April 1972 - Gorleston-on-Sea Black Shuck Sighting.

Black dogs, hell-hounds and ghostly dog apparitions have been reported many times in history and the modern day, especially in the UK. In 1972, the Eastern Daily Press reported a sighting by on-duty coastguard, Graham Grant. Looking up the beach very early one morning as it was getting light, Grant spotted a large black dog, it was running then stopping as if looking for someone but no owner was in sight. He watched it for a few minutes then it vanished before his eyes, the beach had been recently flattened by bulldozers and there was nowhere the dog could have hidden from view.

18th April 1857 - The Spirits Book first published.

The Spirits Book by Allan Kardec is regarded as one of the most important books in the spiritist movement, it is composed mostly of a series of questions about the origin of spirits, what the afterlife is, the concept of good and evil and ultimately the purpose of life. The answers were apparently given by a group of spirits calling themselves ‘The Spirit of Truth’ with whom he communicated with in many sessions during the 1850s. The book is still available today (on Amazon would you believe?!) and it addresses many issues still grappled with today such as do spirits pre-exist? Are there good and bad spirits? What are guardian angels? Fascinating stuff.

21st April 1934 - The Surgeon’s Photograph of Nessie.

There have been countless sightings of the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland, however this one is reported to be the first visual of the creature’s head and neck. The photograph was supposedly taken by Robert Kenneth Wilson, who at the time refused to give his name, thus it was known as the surgeon’s photograph due to his profession. He stated that he was looking across the loch when he saw something strange, grabbed his camera and managed to take four photographs, two of which came out quite well, but one was much clearer apparently showing the head, neck and upper body of Nessie. For 60 years the photos were thought of as documented proof of the lake monster’s existence even in the face of scepticism saying it was driftwood, an otter or bird due to the scale and cropped nature of the image giving no scale. Since the early 1990s most agree that the photo was a hoax, it has been analyzed heavily over the years using modern techniques … but there are many other accounts that are yet to be dismissed.

23rd April 2007 - Alderney UFO Sighting.

Ray Bowyer, a seasoned pilot with 18 years experience was flying over the Channel Islands, UK on the afternoon of the 23rd April when he reported a cigar-shaped, brilliant orange / white light in the sky. Initially he thought it may have been light reflecting from the many greenhouses on the island of Guernsey, but the object appeared stationary, the size of a Boeing 737 and about 2000 feet in the air. A discussion between Bowyer and the air traffic control operator on the nearby island of Jersey revealed that there was no radar contact ahead of Bowyer’s aircraft, but there was a very faint ‘primary contact’ which the controller thought was weather-related. Bowyer later said that he had looked at the object through binoculars, that he felt no discomfort from the incredibly bright light and that he saw a second object in formation with the first but it was further away. The UFO was visible for 9 minutes.

After Bowyer’s report the Ministry of Defence said they would not investigate the incident as the craft appeared in French airspace, however a couple of weeks after that the MoD released a statement from a second pilot which reads;

“First object was bright orange/yellow. There was a gap in light or darker area. Second object was identical.”

Several passengers on Bowyer’s airplane were also said to have seen the object and two of them reported it to the Evening Standard newspaper. Patrick Patterson, another pilot from the Channel Islands reported he had seen a similarly described object in about the same position. So was it atmospheric conditions, a meteorological event or something far more strange?

The Howden Moor Incident

An incident that has the plot of a classic sci-fi film, but the events of March 24th 1997 are very real to those involved and it is well-documented. Was it simply a coincidence of unrelated happenings, or a wider cover-up by authorities? It looks like we will never know, but it is a fascinating tale from the Sheffield area of the U.K.

The first call came in to police at 10.15pm on the night in question, soon followed by many more - reports ranging from a triangular-shaped U.F.O being chased by jets, loud booming noises and a low-flying aircraft heading towards the hills, either way there followed a bright flash and loud explosion.

The police, kind of surprisingly, took these calls very seriously, and a major search of the area was quickly mounted involving the police helicopter, mountain rescue and the fire service ,with the local hospitals being put on standby to receive multiple casualties from a crashed airplane. They contacted the R.A.F and were told no aircraft were missing and there had been no military craft flying in the area and an exclusion zone was put in place by the R.A.F over the search area so there would be no interference from other aircraft. The search covered approximately 40 square miles … nothing was found.

The next morning the police set up a special phone line to take calls from the public, it was soon inundated by reports, again of low-flying aircraft and military jets chasing something. Theories included an aerial drugs drop gone bad and even a ghost plane that is said to haunt the moors. Following a T.V documentary called ‘Mysteries’ which aired in October 1997, the police issued a statement which read:

“No explanation was ever found and we remain open-minded about what was behind the sightings.”

On March 28th 1998 the incident was brought up in - of all places - the House of Commons. Edinburgh seismology department confirmed that two sonic booms had been recorded that night at 21.52pm and 22.06pm, the R.A.F denied any supersonic aircraft being in the area at the time stating it was illegal to break the sound barrier over land in the U.K.

The fruitless search and subsequent investigations cost the U.K taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds which some have speculated was the reason the military denied all knowledge. Some believe there was a cover up and that a triangular craft was indeed being pursued by Tornado jets, one of which crashed in a reservoir - the R.A.F did set up a 10 mile exclusion zone around the reservoir which seems odd. It has also been reported that there were secret, low-flying military operations in the area at the time, and that a jet may have gone supersonic creating the sonic booms. Logically speaking it is unlikely that the R.A.F would conduct such maneuvers so very near to a major built-up area, but who knows.

The mystery remains, questions go unanswered, but whatever happened that night, it was seared into the memories of the witnesses. Extraterrestrial activity, a simple accident that inexplicably left no wreckage or a military cover-up? We’ll never know.

Photo by Albert Antony on Unsplash

You can support this blog (if you so wish) by giving a small tip at Buy Me A Coffee - thank you.

 

The New Jersey Turnpike UFO Sighting.

Just after midnight on the 14th July 2001, droves of motorists including off duty police officer Lt Daniel Tarrant pulled over their cars along the highway at the New Jersey Turnpike and stared in awe towards the sky. A set of orange and yellow lights was sitting in a V-formation over the Arthur Kill Waterway between Staten Island and New Jersey and it was observed for around 15 minutes.

When asked, Air Traffic Control denied any military maneuvers or space operations that could be the lights so many people saw, however the New York Strange Phenomena investigators apparently have FAA radar data that corroborated the event. Still unidentified.

The Dechmont Woods Encounter.

On the 9th November, 1979, Robert Taylor, a Scottish forester parked his truck by the side of the road and walked with his dog up a forest track at Dechmont Law, West Lothian. Shortly after this he saw a flying dome shaped craft hovering above a clearing. He said the craft was a dark metallic sphere with small propellers around the rim and there was also a horrible odor in the area.

Smaller spheres like "sea mines" attempted to drag him to the craft at which point he lost consciousness. When he came to, the crafts were gone. He could not start his truck so walked back to his home. When he got there his wife recalled he was very disheveled and muddy, his clothing was torn and she called the police and a Doctor who treated his wounds. He took the police back to the site of the encounter, and they reported ladder-shaped marks on the ground. They recorded the incident as a criminal assault.

Robert Taylor's account is revered among ufologists and it became the only UFO sighting to be criminally investigated.

2006 O'Hare Airport UFO Incident

At approximately 4.15 in the afternoon on 7th November 2006, in broad daylight at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, a large number of witnesses both inside and outside airport grounds, including United Airlines pilots, mechanics and management reported a UFO hovering over gate C-17. They described a metallic, saucer-shaped craft between 6 and 24 feet in diameter which was totally silent. After several minutes it "shot through the clouds at high velocity" leaving a hole in it's wake which closed up shortly afterwards.

To have a sighting described in the same way, by so many witnesses, some of whom were very familiar with the airport and who were professionals in their field is astounding...even more incredible is that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 'declined to investigate' the incident as the UFO didn't show up on radar (even more reason to check it out in my opinion!) and explained it away as weather phenomenon.

NARCAP - The National Aviation Reporting Centre on Anomalous Phenomena published a 155 page report in the incident and called for a government inquiry on the basis that;
"Anytime an airborne object can hover for several minutes over a busy airport but not be registered on radar or be seen visually from the control tower, constitutes a potential threat to flight safety."