SUBJECT: MICHIGAN UFO NEWSCLIP 04\93 FILE: UFO2742
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UFO Watchers Look To The Stars In Hopes Of Seeing Fire In The Sky
by Douglas Lila
THE DETROIT NEWS - Monday, April 12, 1993
Aliens from outer space are saying yes to Michigan.
And they're even taking state residents for a ride, say local UFO
-- unidentified flying object-- "watchers".
The recently released movie _Fire in the Sky_ tells the supposedly true
story of Travis Walton, an Arizona Forest Service tree cutter who claims
he was abducted by aliens in November 1975.
Such close encounters of the third kind -- contact with extraterrestrials
-- are happening right in our back yard, UFO students say.
There have been 33 abductions in Michigan since Jan. 1, said Shirley Coyne,
statewide director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).
Have any of these abductions been documented and publicized? "Absolutely
not," Coyne said. "People come to me in confidence. They don't come to me
to have their stories publicized.
"These people are traumatized. This is not like driving down the road and
seeing a deer. These people have had a hard experience, and they don't want
to talk about it in public. More than 60 UFO sightings have been reported
in Michigan, according to MUFON. The most celebrated occurred 27 years ago
in the Dexter and Hillsdale areas.
Officials wrote off reports of the pyramid-shaped object with blinking red
and blue lights as swamp gas, even though sheriff's deputies in Washtenaw
County engaged the UFO in a high speed chase.
But skeptics say UFO watchers t should get their heads out of the clouds.
"I've had some contact with MUFON in the past when they rented the Kellog
Center on campus," said Doug Murphy, program director for Michigan State
University's Abrams Planetarium. l believe they tend to look at this as a
religion, as opposed to a scientific point of view. They're very quick to
jump on the UFO bandwagon"
Murphy agrees there have been a great number of UFO sightings, but said
most of them are explainable.
Even President Carter was fooled by a bright object he saw that turned out
to be the Planet Venus," Murphy said.
And he was trained in astral navigation at the Naval Academy. We get lots
of calls about people seeing unusual things in the sky. The absolute
bottom of my list would be a visit by "UFOs".
According to Murphy, the odds are astronomically slim that an advanced
civilization would want to visit Earth.
Our Milky Way is one of billions in the Universe," Murphy said. "If you were
to shrink it to the size of the United States, our solar system would fit
inside the palm of your hand. The nearest star would be a quarter mile away.
That gives you some idea, of the size and depth of space."
Murphy gives an example of the relative distances a UFO would have to travel
to visit our planet.
The United States launched Voyager in 1977," Murphy said. "Using the image
of the solar system being the size of your palm, Voyager would only have
travelled from the center of your hand to the edge of your palm in 12 years.
And thats traveling at 40,000 mph."
But that does not stop people from reporting sightings:
* In July 1952, officers at the Selfridge air base in Harrison Township were
swamped with late evening calls from residents who reported seeing mysterious
orange and blue lights and flying disks in the sky.
Among the witnesses were a World War II bomber pilot and a Baptist minister.
* In October 1973, two Detroit police officers reported seeing a UFO with
red aad white flashing lighs at 6 a.m. while patroling near Marygrove
College. Both agreed it couldn't have been a airplane because, one said,
"Planes can't travel that fast straight up."
* ln September 1967, three people, including a United Press lnterntional
business manager, reported seeing 8 UFOs behind an Air Force jet over
Detroit one night. They thought it was a bright star or weather balloon
until they noticed it was keeping up with the jet. The object atopped
completely for a minute, then sped away from the plane, they said.
UFO devotees hope _Fire in the Sky_ will bring more people forward to
tell their tales of abduction. The movie focuses on Travis Walton,
then 22. He and five crew members were returning from a job on a back-
woods road near Heber, Ariz., about 100 miles southwest of Flagstaff, when
they saw a bright light.
They said a UFO appeared in front of their truck. Walton got out to
investigate and was hit by a ray from the craft, the workers said.
The remaining workers fled in terror. When they returned, Walton was
missing. Walton turned up several days later, and staggered into Heber,
supposedly suffering from shock and partial amnesia.
Walton's story of abduction was revealed under hypnosis with three
physicians in attendance. ln his retelling, Walton described his exami-
nation in the spacecraft by aliens with large heads and hands that had
no fingernails.
Others called Walton's story bunk. Philip J. Klass a retired senior editor
for Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine concluded Walton and logging
crew leader Michael Rogers concocted a hoax to win a National Enquirer UFO
-sighting contest and manufacture an excuse for missing a logging deadline.
Walton, Rogers and the others split a $5,000 prize, but have denied any
hoax Klass said Walton flunked his first lie detector test, and respected
polygraph examiner John J. McCarthy concluded Walton committed "gross
deception," and, "in concert with others, is attempting to perpetrate a
UFO hoax.
Coyne disputes Klass' findings saying: "I wouldn't give you 2 cents for
for Phil Klas. He's thebiggest debunker out there. He's an armchair inves-
tigator. He's a liar. He's never even talked to anyone who has been abducted.
These abductions happen and they happen to people just like you and me.
Does MSU's Muphy believe human beings have been abducted by UFOs?
"Maybe I'm not the best person to ask about that,"Murphy said. "Talk to
to a psychologist. I think there are some disturbed people out there who
need some help."
But he does believe life exists ouside the solar system.
"The materials are all out there," Murphy said, "The substances of life are
found freely in space. If the conditions are right there's a good chance
that life does exist, but for it to be intelligent and want to visit us
is a huge stretch of the imagination."
Coyne and other students of UFOs say the cynicism hasn't stopped them from
enjoying _Fire in the Sky_.
"I thought it was well done," she said. "It sticks exactly to wht happened
to Travis Walton."
Detroit News Staff writers Mike Best and Tom Greenwood contributed to
this report.
-END-
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-SIDEBAR-
Most alien abduction storys share these elements:
> A UFO is sighted.
> Victims report a period of unaccounted, missing time.
> Details of the abduction are revealed only after the victim undergoes
hypnosis.
> Someone appears to have medically examined the abducted victims.
> Victims display psychological problems and sometimes physical after-
effects.
> Victims' story is substantiated with a lie detector test.
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SIDEBAR: SOUNDOFF
Have you ever seen a UFO? Tell us about your experiences.
Please include your name, town and a daytime phone number.
You can:
> Fax your response at 222-2335.
> Call the hotline at 222-2284 or 222-2287.
> Or write Soundoff, The Detroit News, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit MI 48226.
-END-
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