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   MSGID: 334.fidonet_ufo@1:3634/60 2d818f64   
   PID: Synchronet 3.19b-Win32 master/a2a9dc027 Jan  2 2022 MSC 1928   
   TID: SBBSecho 3.14-Win32 master/a2a9dc027 Jan  2 2022 MSC 1928   
   BBSID: RICKSBBS   
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   SUBJECT: WHIDBEY ISLAND UFO SIGHTING 1/88                    FILE: UFO1196   
             
             
          WHIDBEY ISLAND UFO REPORT CLASSIFIED AS AN "UNKNOWN"   
      
        After a thorough investigation of all pertinent facts, the    
   UFO sighting reported by Dan MacIndoe of Oak Harbor on January    
   21st, 1988 has been classified as a true "unknown".  The Mutual    
   UFO Network (MUFON)--a civilian organization of trained    
   professionals that investigates UFO reports--has ruled out all    
   possible conventional explanations for the object seen by Mr.    
   MacIndoe, his wife, mother, mother-in-law and father-in-law, and   
   three-year-old daughter.   
      
        Dan MacIndoe, age 32, an ex-Navy lieutenant with seven    
   years military service in the field of aviation    
   supply--including work assignments with the Navy's prestigious    
   Blue Angels squadron--was rated as an exceptionally credible    
   witness by the MUFON organization.   
      
        The UFO encounter began at 10:45 p.m. on the night of    
   January 21st at the MacIndoe home not far from the Whidbey    
   Island Naval Air Station.  Flight operations at Whidbey NAS had    
   by that time been over for 15 minutes, with the last plane    
   reported "on the deck" at 10:30 p.m.   
      
        The UFO was first observed by Cornelia MacIndoe, age 72,    
   Dan MacIndoe's mother, who sighted a bright, orange-yellow    
   stationary light in the southern sky when she went outside to    
   smoke a cigarette.  She called the entire family's attention to    
   the object, and together they watched as the UFO shot straight    
   up for approximately 3 degrees of arc from a position 25 degrees    
   above the horizon in the direction of the Naval Air Station.     
   The object then abruptly stopped, made a sharp right-angle turn    
   in the horizontal direction and came straight towards them.   
      
        According to MacIndoe's account, the object covered a    
   distance of one and a half miles in approximately 3 seconds.  As    
   the UFO approached the house it seemed to slow, taking    
   approximately 15 seconds to slowly drift directly over the heads    
   of the five adult witnesses and child.  It disappeared from view    
   as it travelled in a straight path to the NNE, passing behind    
   some tall fir trees behind the MacIndoe house.   
      
        While the object was passing overhead Dan MacIndoe was able    
   to observe the object through a 135 mm telephoto lens, and was    
   also able to determine that there was no sound associated with    
   its flight.  Mr. MacIndoe described the shape of the underside    
   of the object as that of "a perfect circle."   
      
        "The lights were blueish-white in nature and I estimate 15    
   lights spanned the circumference of the circle.  All remained on    
   forming a circle of 'running lights'.  The lights would pulse    
   brighter in sequence, I believe going in a clockwise direction,"    
   Dan MacIndoe reported.   
      
        He went on to say, "...during the event winds were calm,    
   there were scattered clouds in the vicinity.  We live in a rural    
   area.  There were no sounds.  During the entire episode none of    
   us heard the usual prop or jet noise associated with military    
   aircraft using the airfield.  At the time the object was    
   directly overhead I asked my family for complete silence to    
   listen for engine noise.  There was absolute silence."   
      
        According to Dr. Donald Johnson, Washington State Director    
   for MUFON, a combination of factors were sufficient to rule out    
   all mundane explanations for the sighting.  "The fact that this    
   overflight occurred in restricted military airspace, together    
   with the testimony of multiple witnesses, the complete lack of    
   sound, the observation of the unusual lighting pattern on the    
   object seen through magnification, and the lack of wind combine    
   to provide sufficient information to classify this case as an    
   unknown."   
      
        "In other words, there is little possibility that the    
   object the MacIndoes and others reported seeing that night was a    
   satellite, balloon, commercial or military airplane or    
   helicopter, or astronomical body."  The National Weather Service    
   and Whidbey NAS were called to confirm that there were no    
   weather balloons released at that time.  Additionally, several    
   of Mr. MacIndoe's Dugualla Bay neighbors and others from as far    
   away as Lake Washington, Edmonds, and Bellingham called him to    
   report that they had also witnessed unusual lights in the sky    
   that evening.   
      
        Dr. Johnson reports that the field investigation has been    
   evaluated by the national headquarters as complete.  The    
   sighting was assigned a strangeness rating of four on a    
   five-point scale--labelled as "strange, does not conform to    
   known principles", and it also received a probability rating of    
   four on a five point scale--"credible and sound".   
      
      
                    
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