White County has had 13 reports over 20 years
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Scott Cantrell explained how UFO reports can be classified under a variety of categories by MUFON. He is shown with a tool used to gauge the angle of an object spotted, in relation to the horizon. (Photo/Stephanie Hill) -
Scott Cantrell spoke about MUFON at a recent program at the Cleveland Library. (Photo/Stephanie Hill) -
A MUFON patch worn by Scott Cantrell. (Photo/Stephanie Hill)
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a UFO?
When some people hear UFO, they think of aliens, but the term simply refers to an unidentified flying object. And what these objects could be was the topic a recent program at the Cleveland branch of the White County Public Library on Saturday, July 20.
Scott Cantrell, with the Georgia Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), talked about UFOs and MUFON, which looks into reports of UFO activity.
“To say we investigate UFOs is a little bit vague,” Cantrell said. “We have a database that anyone has access to on the front end. On the front end you get to see every single report that is submitted and the way it was submitted without the personal identification information.”
Georgia MUFON is a part of MUFON International, which was established after the closure of Project Blue Book in 1969, Cantrell said. There have been 101,000 reports internationally, he said, and over 38,000 reports in the last five years. Georgia MUFON was founded in 1974, and since then the organization has received 1,732 reports.
When MUFON investigates a report, it will eventually fall under several classifications. Those are:
• Unknown: UAV (unknown aerial vehicle) and other. Other is an object that can’t be classified as a vehicle.
• IFO (identified flying objects): These include natural phenomena – such as a planet or comet in the sky, or manmade objects such as satellites
• Other: Cantrell couldn’t define this category, but said it was there in case it was needed.
• Inadvertent hoax: somebody typed in some information wrong
• Intentional hoax: a purposely-reported hoax.
• Insufficient data: If there’s a situation where somebody files a report and provides wrong contact information or doesn’t provide any information.
• Information only: If somebody is watching something on television, such as a rocket launch, and sees something go across the screen.
In White County, there have been 13 reports over the last 20 years. There have been two unknown, three identified, one hoax, three insufficient data and four information only reports.
One of the reports talked about was Cantrell’s own personal experience from when he was 4 years old in 1978 and living in Sautee Nacoochee.
“It’s dark. My mom and grandmother are in Clarkesville taking a ceramics class, and my dad, sister and I are in the living room, and we’re watching of all things, the old reruns of Project Blue Book. I do remember watching Project Blue Book and knowing it was Project Blue Book. I will not say I remember sitting in the living room and seeing lights, but I remember having gone to the bay window, looking up to see what the source of the lights are … There are beams of light going by. There are four lights going by, maybe five, I can’t recall how many there were, but there were at least four.”
Cantrell said the lights were moving in a counterclockwise motion. In 1991, he talked about it with his dad, who also acknowledged remembering the exact same events as Cantrell.
There were a couple of more recent reports discussed during the program. A 2008 report involved a person making multiple reports about seeing lights in Cleveland, but this report was ruled as most likely being a military plane. A 2003 report in Helen was determined to be from a commercial airplane.
There were two reports that were classified in the unknown category that were discussed. The first was in 2009 at Unicoi State Campground, where a witness reported seeing three entities with large heads and eyes, and they appeared to have some kind of glow around them.
The second was in Helen in 2010, and the witness reported seeing a 1-inch bubble that seemed to be under intelligent control.
“You have an individual who is in Helen, he’s at the shopping mall, he’s walking down the shopping mall, minding his own business and he sees this bubble floating down the walkway,” Cantrell said. “It looks like a bubble if a kid blew a bubble. It’s floating down, it stops two-feet from the witness. It stops. He’s looking at it, and he takes a step forward, it moves back. He does that three times, he steps forward and it moves. It’s hard enough for a bubble to stay stationary. For a bubble to move in response to something, that’s got to be more than just air.”
Information about what to do if somebody sees a UFO is available on the MUFON website. To find out more about Georgia MUFON, visit gamufon.org or www.facebook.com/mufon.Georgia.