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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THIS FILE WAS PROVIDED BY THE UFO NEWSCLIPPING SERVICE
AND PREPARED BY PARANET ALPHA -- PARANET INFORMATION
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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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