Sir:

This event I am about to describe is so unnatural to me that I thought you might be interested. If not, please disregard this letter.

In order for me to tell the story completely I shall tell you there was another and myself who witnessed this event and we were parted by a distance of roughly 18-20 miles. First of all I shall tell you what the person 18-20 miles from me saw, on Friday, October 3, near noon. This man was sitting in a company truck and he had his lunch nearby as it was close to lunch time. He was in the driver's seat looking out the front window when all at once, he said, he thought he was imagining things as he had seen directly in front of his vision through the window a bright column or pillar starting to rise out of either the sea or land. It is hard for him to tell the exact spot as where he was sitting is situated between mountains that cut some of his view off.

This pillar started off in a thin white bright cloud. at the bottom and started to rise at a fast rate, always keeping a one-inch width, he estimated, as measured from where he was. He says it rose to a height he estimated to be 30,000 feet in three or four minutes, then it made a perfect right-angle turn and continued horizontal for close to the same distance. By this time he was out of the truck and watching intently.

Now this thing remained in the sky which was clear and not one cloud in the area. The sun was shining and it was fairly hot. A delta-winged aircraft appeared coming toward this pillar but it was a great distance away from it. It had four engines and could have been a U.S.A. jet bomber as it looked like a large new type.

This jet did not go near the pillar but actually went a little distance away from it as it passed by, at the same level as the horizontal pillar. As the plane passed by the end of the pillar that was level, at some distance away, an odd thing happened. The complete pillar, horizontal and vertical which was white against the sky disappeared. All that could be seen in the whole sky was a few exhaust trails the four engines were producing, which were minor. They were in small patches.

The person watching this searched the noon skies intently for this pillar, as he thought it might have moved, but could find no trace of it anywhere. Now, as he again observed the jet, to his surprise he noticed a most remarkable thing. I may have a little difficulty explaining this to you so that you might get the proper point, but I shall try.

There was a black line (solid black) that looked less than half an inch thick against the bright blue sky from where he was standing, connected to the nose of the jet. Now this black line was at the same height as the plane, or close to it, and it was stretched across the sky as far as he could see (the mountains cut his visibility off). As the plane flew across the clear sky, he said, to his amazement the black line was reeled into the nose as none appeared in the back of it or side of it or elsewhere. He watched this until the plane and solid black line went out of vision. He viewed all this from a remote logging area close to Victoria Lake.

Now I will tell you what I viewed at precisely 12:03 p.m. on the same day. I work in the company shop and it was lunchtime so I was walking downhill to our cookhouse when I noticed a large slope-winged four-engined jet directly over my head passing by. I also noticed coming out of the engines little billows of smoke which grouped together in small bunches. Then as I looked towards the front of the plane, I noticed a long black line in the sky as far as I could see, and let me tell you I could see pretty far as I was walking down a steep hill and the sky was very clear.

I would say quite accurately this line was 20-40 miles long, possibly longer, as it disappeared over the very distant horizon. As the plane flew, I noticed the line seemed to be gobbled up or reeled into the nose, like an eraser rubbing out a pencil line. I also noticed at the furthest point the line was still quite visible and the plane seemed to be a lot closer to the ground, or to lose height, as it appeared larger to my vision. Also there was no noise to the plane, although this could have been due to its height. I personally did not see the white pillar, only the plane and solid black line.

I will add something else that I have not previously mentioned, and it is that the solid black line disappeared, then appeared, then disappeared as if trying to go out but couldn't. Then it finally did and in its place was a celluloid or transparent line exactly in the same place, and the plane followed.

As nothing else happened to my astonished self, I went for lunch. Enclosed is a sketch of what I saw.

Gary Godfrey,
Port Alice, B.C.

There is evidence that various devices are sometimes used to disguise UFOs as conventional aircraft. In one U.S. case an odd-looking craft was seen with markings of a familiar type, and beside it was a "man" in normal-looking service fatigues. But the appearance of the machine, and the fact it was standing on a road where no experimental craft were likely to be, made the incident suspect. Also there have been reports of flying objects with wings and tails which in other respects were unlike any aircraft of earthly origin. Obviously the purpose of such camouflage would be to lessen the chance of detection. Possibly the "jet" described here was in this category. - Ed.