At 2:30 pm, 22nd July, 2001 the witness, a ground crew worker, was busy servicing an
aircraft when a glint/reflection of sunlight caught us attention. He looked up and spotted
a metallic, highly reflective "ball bearing" shaped object in a northeasterly
direction that was slowly rotating in the sky and appeared to have a dark "oily"
patch on its underside. After some further thought he concluded that the dark area was
actually trees beneath it reflected onto the body of the craft. He watched the object for
about 5 minutes on his own. A young mechanic came off the aircraft so the worker called
him over to confirm what he was seeing but the young man just seemed to shrug it off and
left. A short time later yet another mechanic was at the scene and the two watched the
object for another 5 minutes (He later learned that there had been a 4th mechanic that
observed it also). As they watched the round object turned and appeared to become an oval
(possibly rotated). The object then moved left, then right, then back to its original
position then, after a pause, descended into the tree line west of the Fraser Arms Hotel.
Total observation time 12 - 15 minutes.The ground crew claimed that the object would have
been in view of the control tower. They were working at Gate #75. The original witness
described the object as being ½ the size of a 737. The sky was clear blue.
The worker also noted that air traffic on
the busy runway stopped during the sighting and resumed some time afterward. The next day
the worker noticed 2 unmarked Chevy Safari Vans with tinted windows and 3 YVR trucks in
the brush just past the airport fence in the same area that the UFO descended. There were
people in suites walking about the area.
In an attempt to seek confirmation I called the airport, Control Tower (5 times no
reply!); Operations Centre ("not under our jurisdiction!,"); Media Centre
('we'll get back to you' . . . they didn't); Airport Regional Control ("Dave Nowzek
is not in at the moment I will have him call you" . . . still waiting!). About
fifteen phone calls in all with no results.
On the 31st July, 2001 I received a phone call from Lisa Pike @ 604-666-9517 of Transport
Canada Systems Safety asking "for more details"! Again I provided everything I
had minus the name of the ground crew worker who I had spoken to. I was told they had
checked all their sources and found no reports or radar confirmation.
UFO*BC investigators visited the area
subsequently and the only thing of interest that was found that may have been associated
with the event was a series of orange spray-paint lines on the bicycle path several
hundred meters apart, roughly marking the span of the region where the UFO was seen. This
may had been coincidental. The bike path runs between the brush area and the Fraser River
so conceivably the object could have submerged into the river.
P.S. The worker described the direction of
the UFO as follows: The UFO was at the 12:00 o'clock position, a large green metal
treatment tank was at the 11:00 o'clock position and the Fraser Arms Hotel (on the other
side of the river) was at about the 1:00 to 2:00 o'clock position. All directions as
viewed from Gate 75.
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