Accounts of strange, loud noises and mysterious lights in the
sky have been coming from witnesses in Maine. No
explanations have been found, but the number of theories is
growing.
An astronomer in Greene suggests meteor fragments burning
up in the atmosphere, like those recently seen in Colorado,
are the cause. Another Greene man is convinced that the
military is at the root of the phenomenon. And two men,
including one who used to work on military craft, spotted jet
fighters in the sky on a night when the lights were seen.
There are also people who said they have not ruled out the
possibility of beings from another planet.
As reports of the sightings have increased, witnesses have
contacted local newspapers to relate their experiences. Their
accounts are all the same? they heard a roar from the sky
so loud it rattled their homes. Some reported bright flares of
light that made night look like day.
?It sounded like it was right over my house, and it was loud,?
says 35-year-old Karen Kenbrous. ?I didn?t go outside. I was
nervous. I was expecting something to explode.?
?That sound made me consider the end of the world,? says
John Comis, a doctor who lives in Auburn. ?I am not glad I
heard it. But I never would have believed in it had I not.?
?I believe that your observers were treated to an especially
fine display of some tardy Perseid meteors,? says amateur
astronomer John Neal. The Perseid meteor shower peaked the
weekend of Aug. 11-12. Neal thinks that bolides - extremely
bright meteors leftover from that shower - may have been
responsible for the display. ?These fireballs or bolides are in
fact extremely common,? Neal says, ?but most of them occur
over the oceans, and many occur during daylight hours and
so are not usually seen.?
The bolides ?can be isolated phenomena or can occur when
the earth?s orbit crosses the orbit of a comet,? according to
Neal. ?And it is in fact this latter circumstance which I believe
is the cause of the recent unexplained lights and noises in
the sky.?
Others suspect military officials are not talking about the
aircraft they were flying that night. ?A friend of mine down
the road, he saw it. It was a KC135 cargo jet,? says Arthur
Gagne. ?He said it went right over the trees.?
The jet may have been revving its engines as it prepared to
land, Gagne says. And he suspects the military would not be
likely admit they had some massive aircraft flying so low.
Maurice Gauthier used to work on F-106 jet fighters in the
U.S. Air Force. On the night of the lights, he says, several
fighters flew over Sabattus, headed toward Greene.
?If they?re in stealth mode, they probably didn?t even show up
on the radar,? Gauthier says. He described a maneuver in
which the jet engine?s thrust and an after burner propels the
craft at amazing speeds, with fire blazing from the rear of the
plane. ?You get a rumble, and it lights up quite a bit,? says
Gauthier.
He agrees with Gagne that military officials might not admit
they had jets in the area even though they were asked about
it. Military officials in Maine say they had no aircraft in the
area at the time of the reports.
A report from Chris Jordan, who lives in a remote area, backs
up Gauthier?s account. He says his house was shaken. When
he went outside, he saw two fighter jets flying side by
side. ?They were humming right along,? Jordan says. ?They
turned, they crossed paths and then they flew off in different
directions.?
Stephanie Kelley-Romano, a professor at Bates College in
Lewiston, interviewed people who claim to have been
abducted by aliens and is teaching a course on the subject.
She believes there is something to reports of extraterrestrial
craft visiting the planet and says, ?It?s always worth keeping
an open mind.? But she is not convinced that what dozens of
people saw was necessarily a visitor from another
world. ?What was reported doesn?t necessarily appear to be
the result of something intelligent. It didn?t have deliberate
movement,? she says. ?What would excite me is a light that
will go left or right and then back again.?
Karen Keneborus? daughter was outside Friday looking for
meteor fragments, or anything that might be left behind by
whatever caused the sensation. Keneborus doesn?t discount
the alien theory but thinks there?s probably a simpler
explanation. ?Well, you know that?s always a possibility. I?m
open minded,? she said. ?But if I had to pick a side of that
fence, I?d say it was something other than extraterrestrial.
Either way, the people who heard it will never forget it.
There?s no closure.?
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