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   SUBJECT: TOWNSFOLK IN ALABAMA PUZZLED BY SIGHTINGS           FILE: UFO1268   
      
      
   NEWS CLIPPING SERVICE   
      
   DATE OF ARTICLE:  February 16, 1989   
   SOURCE OF ARTICLE:  State   
   LOCATION:  Columbia, South Carolina   
   BYLINE:  Dave Moniz   
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   TOWNSFOLK IN ALABAMA PUZZLED BY UFO SIGHTING   
      
   By Dave Moniz, Staff Writer   
      
        Fyffe's problem is everyone's problem.   
        UFOs spell trouble.   
        Especially  if they look like flying bananas and are  bigger   
   than jumbo jets.   
        So  Friday  night,  when a handful of Alabamans spotted  not   
   one,  but two giant vessels hovering in the dark sky above  them,   
   it put tiny Fyffe, Ala, on the celestial map.   
        Although  unexplained UFOs are fairly common,  the roster of   
   witnesses makes the Fyffe sighting more than just fodder for  the   
   next Geraldo Rivera special.   Officers from five law enforcement   
   agencies  said  they saw at least one of the two objects  buzzing   
   their bewildered corner of Dixie.   
        That has led those who monitor such phenomenon to  speculate   
   Fyffe is not crying alien.   
        Fred Works,  the town's assistant police chief, tracked both   
   UFOs.   The first,  spotted south of the town of 1,300,  had been   
   observed  by  a  woman  who watched for an  hour  before  calling   
   police.   She  described the first one -- which she  saw  through   
   binoculars  -- as looking like a giant,  upside down banana  with   
   red, white and green lights.   
        Works and Fyffe Police Chief Junior Garmany saw that object,   
   whose  shape they could not determine,  before they were diverted   
   by another.   
        The second UFO,  Works said,  appeared about 1,500 feet  off   
   the ground and was traveling, he estimated, 300 to 400 mph.   
        He dismissed as possibilities both airplanes and helicopters   
   because the UFOs were silent.   
        "That's the biggest mystery," Works said.   
        Elton Roberts,  a reporter with the Fort Payne, Ala., Times-   
   Journal, said police from Collinsville, Crossville, Geraldine and   
   one  highway patrolman reported seeing strange objects in the sky   
   at the same time.   
        The  resulting hubbub does not surprise Stan Gordon,  a  UFO   
   tracker  who  says  unexplained sightings  in  Pennsylvania  have   
   increased dramatically since 1987.   
        "I've been involved with this for 29 years,  and we've never   
   been  through  a  cycle  like this," said  Gordon,  head  of  the   
   Pennsylvania Association for the Study of the Unexplained.   
        "There are so many new cases now that we cannot dismiss them   
   easily," Gordon said.   
        UFOs, it seems, know no bounds.   
        George  Fawcett,  who  tracks the Southeast from  his  North   
   Carolina home, recently wrote that South Carolina, "40th in size,   
   ranks  high  for the number of excellent UFO encounters the  past   
   four decades."   
        Another   UFO  specialist,   Duquesne  University  chemistry   
   professor  Paul Johnson,  said all the heady talk isn't cause  to   
   run out and buy an intergalactic Gatling gun.   
        "About  90 percent of all UFO sightings can  be  explained,"   
   Johnson said.   
        "Normally,   people  are  misidentifying   Jupiter,   Venus,   
   helicopters or meteors."   
        But  that still leaves 10 percent of reported UFO  sightings   
   that cannot be explained, Johnson said.   
        Unidentified  flying  objects  have at  various  times  been   
   described  as looking like hot dogs and milk saucers,  suggesting   
   that  aliens,  like some of their earthly  counterparts,  have  a   
   sense of humor.   
        "We really don't know what UFOs are," Johnson said.   
        "The  possibility  that  they're extraterrestrials  is  more   
   prominent  in  the  minds  of  Hollywood  producers  and  tabloid   
   writers.   About  80 percent of people who have  sightings  don't   
   report them because they get laughed at."   
        Assistant Chief Works might agree.  As he fielded calls from   
   television stations in Huntsville and Birmingham,  and newspapers   
   across Alabama, he acknowledged he was reluctant to talk.   
        "I'd just be satisfied to leave it be.  If there's something   
   out there,  they're there.   I'm not gonna worry about it," Works   
   said.   
        "I'm  not  gonna  say  there are little  green  men  running   
   around."   
      
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