STATUS: Insufficient information DATE: October 10 1974 TIME: 1830 local (approx.) CLASS: R/V ground

STATUS: Insufficient information

DATE: October 10 1974 TIME: 1830 local (approx.) CLASS: R/V ground

radar/air visual
LOCATION SOURCE: Good ATS 1987 195

Near Gander Airport

Newfoundland
RADAR DURATION: 12 seconds approx. ("two or three sweeps")
EVALUATION: No official

PRECIS: A Canadian Armed Forces pilot, John Breen, was flying a Cessna 150 en route from Deer Lake to Gander. About 50 miles from Gander his passenger drew attention to a light which appeared to be following the aircraft. Breen described it as triangular or delta shaped, of a luminescent green colour, and initially intermittent. It was on for 2 4 seconds, then off, then on again with a "fairly regular" period. After a time it became "pretty well a steady light". 2530 miles out from Gander, Breen queried the airport about traffic in the vicinity, receiving the assurance that there was none. Breen reported that "we've definitely got an aircraft or something here with us." About 14 miles N of Gander the object was still there, and its reflection was clearly visible in the water of Gander Lake. Breen started a turn to the right, then "cut hard left", at which time Gander "picked up the object for two or three sweeps, which would have been about 10 12 seconds. When we turned around, I just saw it going off the other way and then I lost it because of the back of the aeroplane."

NOTES: There is insufficient detail to exclude the hypothesis that the visual object was a mirage image of, say, a rising celestial body. An expanding/contracting pulsation sometimes occurs in a mirage of an extended source. It is possible that such an image might be a detached portion of the lunar or solar limb in highly stratified atmospheric conditions;

alternatively a near point source such as a bright planet on or a little below the horizon (order of degree) might produce a superior mirage which could seem to flash on and off due to image wander. (The plane of the ecliptic would run low around the southern and eastern sky for the date, time and latitude in question, intersecting the horizon in the ENE). The

refractive separation of a white light source into vertically disposed images of different colours has sometimes been observed, and because in such a case the green image would appear uppermost it could conceivably appear in isolation. The change to "pretty well a steady light" could correspond to the changing elevation of the source in relation to the

critical mirage angle.
This is all very speculative, however, and it can be inferred from the distance flown and the likely speed of the Cessna that the "object" must have been in view for a period on the order of 15 minutes, during which time a celestial body would have moved nearly 4 degrees in Right Ascension. It appears that the aircraft was approaching Gander from the N, so that an object which appeared to have been "following" it for 15 minutes during a flight roughly N S was presumably visible off to port or starboard, and thus to the E or W. At the fairly low latitude of Gander (48 degrees N,

about that of Paris) 4 degrees RA on the E or W horizon implies a significant change in terrestrial elevation, probably several times the critical grazing angle (0.5 degree) required for simple mirage. It is therefore not so easy to explain why the image remained green, since refractive colour separations are especially sensitive to meteorological conditions and the geometry of viewing, typically lasting only a few seconds. It is possible, though somewhat improbable, that the critical angle could be maintained if the aircraft was in a long descent towards Gander with the rise in elevation of a source to the E being almost exactly compensated by the declining altitude of the observers.

The radar echoes, evidently on an airfield surveillance PPI with a scan rate of about 15 rpm, are not conclusively related by bearing or range information to the object observed visually. Undescribed echoes observed on "two or three sweeps" could be almost anything, and it should be noted that the same highly stratified superrefractive conditions which might create visual mirage would also predispose towards anomalous radar propagation and the detection of ground returns by trapping or partial reflection.

In conclusion, the radar report is unevaluable and there is no strong radar visual correlation. It is possible that both observations resulted from radar/optical mirage, although there is no direct evidence that the required atmospheric conditions obtained at the time.

STATUS: Insufficient information

*DATE: November 30, 1974 TIME: CLASS: Surface visual/surface radar
LOCATION: SOURCES: Ideal UFO Magazine #2, 6/78, page 54

Indian Ocean
RADAR DURATION: 17 minutes
Internet Presence: http:// www.waterufo.net
EVALUATIONS:
Case Added: Aldrich
NOTES: On November 30, 1974, dozens of crewmen aboard the U.S. Navy destroyer Blackburn (DD-756) in the Indian Ocean observed three round, luminescent objects flying in orbit above the ship, as if spying on it. The objects were tracked by the destroyer's radar. Although reports differ, the captain apparently sounded General Quarters and prepared for possible hostile action. Then, 17 minutes after the round objects had first appeared, all three dived into the ocean and vanished in a geyser of spray. Their movements were detected on sonar after they submerged.

3582.This reference: Ideals UFO Magazine #2, June 1978 AMystery Objects Sighted Beneath The Seas by F.B. Newman, p. 54

Carl Feidt made a search on Google for USN DD-756 the name that came up was the Beatty not Blackburn and was decommissioned 14 July 1972B CF. Aldrich further searched for the Blackburn in lists of US Navy ships. The results were negative.

STATUS: Hoax, probably journalistic in nature..