Atwater Incident Explained?

I was at the attempted recovery operation on Tadd Lake Saturday 1/23/99 when the divers searched for evidence of something breaking through the ice. Since then a theory came to me as a possible cause.

The reported appearance of the hole being melted instead of broken gave me the impression of a high energy plasma burst. This might sound odd but It was almost like it was hit by lightning. I didn’t know if that would be possible so I looked through some books and they said that lightning does strike in winter occasionally.

I then looked at last Sundays paper for the weather forcast on that day of the event 1/17/99. The prediction was for a band of heavy wet snow across the middle section of Minnesota with blustery winds and a high temp. of 30 degrees. The Saint Paul paper also predicted a few thunderstorms as far north as Des Moines, Iowa.

A nearby lightning strike (especially within 100 yards) does produce the effect of a sonic boom as the lady described and is more than enough to rattle some windows. I don’t know what it would do if lightning hits some ice on a shallow lake but it might be enough to whack a hole through it. Lighning can do funny things.

One book said that a lighning bolt can produce 3 billion joules of energy and reach temperatures of 25,000 degrees C. That might explain the ice being melted or vaporized in the 2 foot by 3 foot hole that was found. It would be interesting to see if there has been any other known reports of lightning hitting a frozen lake a what were the results.

I noticed the aeration system about 100 yards from the unusual hole. I wonder if bubbles in the water could have built up a static charge on the ice to help attract lightning to that area. There was a large tree on the shore close to the hole that might have helped too although I did not pay attention to see if it was damaged.

I am not saying this is what happened for sure but just that it might be possible. It would still be quite odd and possibly rare. Maybe you could run the idea past your weather people and see what they think.

I wonder if more people would have thought of this explanation were it not for the distraction of the possible meteor theory and the impression of something falling from the sky to make that unusual hole. Its shape could have tricked us.

A GROUP of retired and serving police officers are risking ridicule by coming forward to tell all about their alleged encounters with UFOs.

More than 20 officers have responded to an advertisement in Police Review inviting them to recount their close encounters of the third kind. These include stories of alien abduction and gigantic blocks of light hovering above their squad cars. At least two former officers claim to have photographic evidence of their meetings with extra-terrestrials.

Their extraordinary stories are to be collected in a new book Policing the UFO, to include interviews with at least 20 former and serving police officers and as many as 200 recorded incidents involving police from around the world. Many of the examples from the second category will be taken from previously unreleased Ministry of Defence papers.

The book’s author, Irene Bott, has chosen to concentrate on police officers because of their relative position of trust in society. “They are less likely to be written off as cranks, loonies or anoraks,” she explained.

Others may, however, think they are boldly going beyond the call of duty and risking ridicule and professional suicide.

For this reason, many officers appear to have waited until they have left the police service before speaking out, although others who contacted the researchers feel so strongly about what they have witnessed that they are prepared to be named.

There have also been several reports from officers in Sussex – one as recently as last month – an area which is considered a fruitful zone for UFO sightings.

While the majority of the police officers who have been in contact are retired, some are serving and include an Inspector.

Ms Bott said: “In a court of law the person who is most believed is usually a policeman. Also, these people are out day and night observing things around them so they are excellent witnesses.

“A UFO is simply an unidentified flying object, it’s not little green men.

“Many officers do not want to talk about it openly while they are still serving because they can kiss their promotion chances goodbye.”

So far she has been in touch with about 20 serving and former officers – two serving officers contacted her a couple of weeks ago and claim to have seen UFOs in the past month.

Nick Redfern, an author of several books on UFOs, who is assisting Ms Bott with her project, added: “These people are willing to fly in the face of potential ridicule, which shows how strongly they feel about what they have witnessed – these are strong, credible witnesses.”

One of those to come forward was former Pc John Hanson. His encounter with a UFO took place on the evening of 14 June 1995.

Mr Hanson, 52, who retired from the West Midlands police force in 1994, after 27 years service, was at his home near Redditch, Worcestershire, when he looked out of his bedroom window.

“I saw a silver pear-shaped ball of light hovering over a tree,” he recalled. “It was about 40ft off the ground, and about 20ft long and 5ft wide.

“Immediately opposite was a red cigar-shaped object, about 30ft tall.

“The pear ball suddenly moved and there was a piece cut out of it like a wedge of cheese. It then changed into the shape of a jelly bean and jumped onto the cigar shaped object. The two objects then fused together, produced a rippling light and were gone.”

He said the whole episode lasted about five minutes and took place at 10.35pm, and that a similar sighting took place 20 miles away on the same night.

“I am not talking about flying saucers or space men, but an unidentified object – some form of energy source,” he added.