SUBJECT: MICHIGAN UFO NEWSCLIP 04\93 FILE: UFO2742 ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ 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- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -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. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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- ********************************************** * THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo * **********************************************