FOIA: SITREP - UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT - Shag Harbor

Shag_Harbor_File_RCAC.pdf
SITREP - UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT
This is a couple of reports and newspaper clippings combined in one document.
Document date: 1967-10-06
Department: CAF Operations
Author: Col. W.W. Turner
Document type: Report
pages: 13


Archivist's Notes: This document concerns the "UFO" sighting in Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia, on 4th October 1967. The object "landed" on the water and then sank. The object was described as being 60 feet in diameter. After the initial investigation any possibility of it being an aircraft, flartes, floats or other known objects was discounted. Underwater investigations were also done and nothing was found.

A well know ufo sighting and ufo 'crash'. For all the people involved in ufology Shag Harbour is known as Canadian Roswell but with a better and stronger evidence, documentation.

According to the document the story involves sighting of a UFO in October 4, 1967. The object with a diameter approximately 60 feet was seen to hover the water near the small fishing village of Shag Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada. The UFO, which displayed four bright lights that flashed in sequence, tilted to a 45-degree angle and descended rapidly towards the water's surface. Upon impact, there was a bright flash and an explosive roar. Witnesses, concerned with what was happening called the nearby Barrington Passage RCMP detachment. But witnesses didn't mentioned anything about UFO. Most of them believed that a large aircraft ditched into the harbour.

Three RCMP officers arrived at the shore near the impact site. Corporal V. Werbicki, Constable Ron O'Brien and Constable Ron Pond, who was on highway patrol on Highway #3, was heading towards Shag Harbour from a position west of the impact site, and his position allowed him to view the UFO while it was still in flight. The unusual lighting configuration and flight characteristics tipped Cst. Pond off to the unusual nature of the object long before he heard from Cpl. Werbicki, who received his information through the initial complaints to the detachment.

The story goes on with three officers approaching the impact site founding that the UFO was still floating on the water, about half mile from the shore. The object was surrounded with a pale yellow and was leaving a trail of dense foam as it drifted in the ebb tide. None of the officers had any knowledge about a missing craft, either military or civilian.

One important detail is (according to Cst. Pond) that the object was changing shape during its descent to the water's surface. The sulfurous-smelling yellow foam continued to well to the surface from the point where the UFO went down, and a 120 by 300 foot slick developed. The next morning a preliminary report was sent to Canadian Forces Headquarters in Ottawa. After communicating with NORAD, Maritime Command was asked to conduct an underwater search ASAP for the object responsible for the concern in Shag Harbour. Seven navy divers from the HMCS Granby searched throughout the daylight hours until sundown of 08 October 1967. On Monday, 09 October 1967, Maritime Command canceled the search effort claiming "nil results."

Is a great document with plenty of details, memos, steps that were followed by the official statement that the investigation produced no answer for what happened. According to the final words by Colonel Turner who was the director of operations, Department of National Defense failed to locate any tangible evidence which could be used to arrive at an explainable conclusion.

This is a map of the are where the incident happened.



Since then and especially in the recent years Shag Harbour has became a turist attraction. To promote what happened helped also the founding of Shag Harbour Incident Society, an organization which according to a official document of the government of Canada, has received the support from the government.

SHAG HARBOUR, Nova Scotia, August 5, 2008 - Residents and visitors to Shag Harbour will have the opportunity to take part in the Shag Harbour Incident Festival, thanks to an investment by the Government of Canada.

Gerald Keddy, Member of Parliament (South Shore-St. Margaret's), on behalf of the Honourable Josée Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women and Minister for La Francophonie, today announced funding for the Shag Harbour Incident Society.

Funding of $2,000 will help the Society organize the Shag Harbour Incident Festival, which will commemorate the famous Shag Harbour Incident, a historical and well documented sighting of an unidentified flying object in the skies above Shag Harbour which later crashed in nearby waters. Since the sighting in 1967, the area has attracted numerous visitors and researchers. The Shag Harbour Incident Festival will take place on August 8 and 9, 2008, and will feature lectures, artisan displays, tours of the site, and other activities.

"The Government of Canada is pleased to announce funding for the Shag Harbour Incident Festival," said Minister Verner. "We are proud to partner with communities to support activities that celebrate local history, arts, and heritage."

www.pch.gc.ca...

When I read through the document I saw something interesting.

- Memorandum (page 3 of the pdf), it says that "One light remained on the surface for considerable time, but sank before a boat could reach it." Now, it seems from this statement that the people on shore were mounting what they thought was a rescue operation for a downed aircraft possibly. How long did it take for someone to get a boat out there? Also, Telos says that there was a "slick" produced and a froth of some sort. If a boat was dispatched, and would have possibly arrived shortly after the light went under, I wonder why no samples, or documentation was made of the slick and the froth? It says on page 4 of the pdf that the RCMP corporal reached the area after the craft sank, but that "A search of the are failed to produce any material evidence". I can't believe that the corporal would have got there, and found no slick, no smell, no anything. It was only 300 yards off shore according to page 6 of the pdf. (In further reading, it appears that there were many small boats searching the area.

It also states on page 6 of the pdf that the Corporal will go back out and assist with the exact location of the object for the divers to check underwater. If there was no material evidence, how would he know the exact location after he came back to shore? I would think that it would be difficult to go back to the exact same spot you were previously in, especially when we are talking about out in a body of water.

If you read along further, page 13 of the pdf, in the last paragraph of the newspaper article. There it states "The only clue may be a wide patch of strange yellow foam sighted by vessels searching the area" Now, in the offical documents it did not say anything about the yellow foam being present while searchers were there.

True, in the document it doesn't say anything about the patch of yellow foam like substance but I remember from the documentary about Shag Harbor Crash that few of the ocular witnesses confirmed the presence of the yellow foam which dispersed after a while. At the same time considering the shallow waters of the harbor is quite baffling the fact that divers couldn't find anything, not even the slightest trace of the object. Can't remember all that is written in the document but strangely I can still remember very well the documentary in History Channel and as far as I can recall few witnesses claimed seeing divers coming out of the waters with empty hands. Meaning, the object most likely was still able to move and left the area of the crash before RCMP, marine forces and divers could find something. Still to this days this crash (considered as the Canadian Roswell) continues to be at the center of controversy.

Just posting off the top of my head here, so no links or references.

I heard that the object was tracked moving underwater away from Shag Harbour at some point. Also that a navy diver had observed entities who were non-human through ports in the craft. Other divers refused to talk about the incident at all.

Again with hearsay, I recollect that there was a report of another craft seen under water near the downed craft and possibly entities working underwater on the downed craft. I probably heard this stuff in an interview done by George Noory with someone who wrote a book about the incident.

[edit on 31-3-2009 by ipsedixit]

I've been watching the tv shows and reading he online articles about this incident for years. It's such an interesting and strange incident. i just can't even imagine what would begin to explain this other than an intelligently controlled craft, human or otherwise, that we know almost nothing about.