UFO. Canada

Date: 1980s
Location: Near Toronto, Ontario

On Wednesday, January 14, I received the following e-mail from a Greater Toronto Area resident:

"Hello,

I had my own experience about 35 years ago (circa 1980?). You can read about it here - GoogleUFONews.com. It was reported in one of our local newspapers.

I've been trying to track down this article ever since to no avail. Perhaps someone in your organization can be of assistance.

I don't recall which newspaper, Toronto Star, Toronto Sun or The Mississauga News. It read and I quote, "Dozens of Mississauga residents report a UFO as big as a football field".

Here's a photo literally identical to what we saw.

Take a look at my drawings I made many years before 1988 – My Official UAP Report

Regards,

T. Blank

_______________

"In the winter of the late 70s or early 80s, January perhaps, I just got off work at 9:30 P.M. from the auto dealership. I was a car salesman at the time. I started driving towards the city of Toronto, Canada, on the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way) eastbound to meet some friends at a bar on the Esplanad (a street lined with nightclubs). I was not under the influence of any drug or alcohol.

As I was driving, I noticed a string of lights slowly rotating counter-clockwise over the city of Toronto, at about the ten o’clock position from my point of view. This caught my eye because these formation of lights were very unusual. The lights were evidently in a circular pattern with about two-thirds visible as the other third rotated out of view. Imagine a pie plate with about 25 lights around the circumference of it. As this “pie plate” would revolve, a third of these lights would be hidden from view as if they were obstructed by a solid body. It was at night so all I could see was these rotating string of lights, but they were definitely on a “fixed” platform as the lights were revolving in unison.

Although I’ve heard of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon and was curious, at that time in my life, I didn’t really give that much thought about them. I’ve always been interested in nature and especially about the universe. I’ve seen all kinds of aircraft and advertising blimps at night before. I drove taxi’s off and on for fifteen years on the night shift and have seen countless meteors, lightening, satellites, etc. On two occasions I’ve even seen extremely bright, slow falling, green fireball meteors lighting up the ground, for a couple of seconds, as if it was daylight. I’ve read, in later years, were other witnesses reported green fireballs as Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon. I chuckled to myself thinking how easily “UFO believers” can be fooled by natural phenomenon.

Anyway, these circle of lights were slowly descending and approaching towards me (westbound), while I was driving about 115 kilometers per hour on the highway (eastbound). These lights were getting closer and closer as “we” approached each other. I recall thinking to myself that this must be some kind of advertising balloon and those lights were letters. As I kept driving, I was paying more and more attention to this object because the closer it was getting, the more unusual it looked. I kept glancing at it, while driving, waiting until it was close enough to read what these letters were saying, still thinking it was some kind of advertising blimp. The closer it got, the more I looked at it. Now at my nine o’clock position, the string of rotating lights appeared to bank left like an airplane would “turning right”. Actually, it wasn’t banking at all. It was dipping forward pointing towards the ground. At this point, I realized that these lights were not letters at all. They were different shaped and sized, yellowish white lights. I surmised the reason these lights were different in shape was because they appeared to be “imbedded”, “recessed” into some solid body. I assumed that’s the reason they appeared to be different shapes and sizes.

During the time when this Strange Flying Object started to bank left, or I thought from my point of view, I was struggling with myself trying to understand whether this was a plane, blimp, or a balloon. It was flying too slow for a plane, yet, too fast for a blimp. Also, it didn’t appear to be flying or floating. The best way I can describe its motion is that it looked like it was “sailing” in the sky, as if it was in its own, separate environment, outside our sphere of perception.

What’s interesting here is that the human brain tries to associate what the eyes are seeing, to something already seen or experienced before. That’s why I was at war with myself trying to decide whether this object was a plane, blimp or a balloon. Every time I resigned myself to what I must be witnessing, I jumped to another conclusion. This jumping from one conclusion to another occurred during the whole experience.

I was imagining all kinds of things. For example, if it was a plane, the only way these lights could have been positioned was in a circle because this plane must have had some kind of supporting structure in a circle from wing tip to wing tip. This didn’t make any sense at all. I’ve seen advertising planes before. This was nothing like this. Not even close. Then I was trying to imagine a “Goodyear blimp” with these letters going across its side. This was nothing like it either. So here I was, trying to drive and watch this object at the same time.

As I was driving, I started to slow down because I kept looking at this circle of lights more than the road ahead of me. In retrospect, I don’t even know how I kept my car on the road because I was so awed by this display in the sky. As the object kept dipping forward more and more, it eventually ended up totally perpendicular to the ground! The first thing that came to mind was a big Ferris wheel rotating in the sky. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!

At this point I slowed down to about 50 KPH (30 miles an hour in a 60 MPH highway for my American friends) and put my four-way, flashing hazard lights on my car fearing that another car would crash into the back of me for going so slow on a 100 KPH highway.

As I was mesmerized by this strange Unidentifiable Aerial Object, a surge of adrenaline hit me like a ton of bricks. I didn’t realize how BIG this thing was. At first I thought it was the size of an airplane fairly close. IT WAS GIGANTIC! Absolutely ENORMOUS in size. At least twice the size of a football field, bigger than an aircraft carrier! It must have been miles away.

I don’t know what gave away its size. Maybe the reflections of light on the ground. The best way I can relate this sudden realization is like one of those illusions most of us have seen. You know, when you look at a pixel drawing with an image you can’t see until you stare at it for a while? After a period of time, you make out the face of a woman or something like that? That’s kind of the transformation I experienced. At first I thought the object was the size of a large plane, than suddenly I REALLY saw it. IT WAS HUGE!!! I yelled out loud to myself, “Holey F**k, IT’S HUGE!!!”. I don’t F***ing believe it, it’s F***ing HUGE!!!. I thought it was fairly close at first, then bang!, it was farther away and larger than my brain first comprehended it.

Speaking about this surge of adrenaline. Have you ever had a really close call having a car accident? When your heart rate skyrockets to about 180 beats per minute? That’s what I felt when I realized how Gargantuan this object was! I could actually feel my heart pounding like crazy. To be frank, that’s when it literally scared the hell out of me, when I realized how big it was. At this point, I rolled down my window and pointed to this giant “Ferris wheel” in the sky to the other motorists, but it appeared no one seemed to notice as they screamed by me at regular highway speeds. I remember how cold it was when I rolled down my window. It was something like minus 30 Celsius below zero.

After, I don’t know how long, probably only a few seconds of rotating in this perpendicular position, this Unidentified Aerial Object started to climb and right itself and “sail” back to the direction it originally came from. I rolled up my window, turned off my hazard lights, and started to speed up to chase it. Still, it seemed other motorists didn’t notice this object. That still irks me to this day why nobody seemed to notice.

As I was approaching the city limits, this object was in its flat position again climbing over the city. Then, all of a sudden, the rotating lights turned off except for a red “aircraft like” blinking light (which I never noticed before). After a few seconds, the rotating lights turned on again. It was like in the movie “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind“. The lights just blasted on. Then after a few seconds they turned off again as it seemed to be over the city. Strange behavior.

Now I was exiting off of the highway onto Spadina Rd. I lost track of these lights because of the tall buildings. When I was on the street where I was going, I saw a cop parked on the other side of the road writing a parking ticket. I stopped in the middle of the road and ran over to him. He was quite taken aback by my seemingly aggressive approach. I asked him, “how long have you been here?” I forgot what he said, but I asked, “did you see that big circle of lights flying in the sky? He said “no”. After parking my car, I met my friends at the bar, “Bailey’s”, (Dave B. and Craig C.) and told them what happened, but they didn’t take me seriously as they’ve already had a few drinks and were more interested in the ladies then listening to my astonishing, wild experience.

After sitting at the bar by myself for an hour or so I went home. I was living at my parent’s house at the time, temporarily, so when I got home around 11 P.M., I called the police. I didn’t know who else to phone at the time. They didn’t take me seriously of course so, after that, I phoned the Toronto International Airport and managed to get through to Air Traffic Control and asked them if they had anyone call in with a UFO report. Nothing. So I called the police again and convinced them to take me seriously as I wanted to make a report. They told me they can send a couple of officers to my house. As it was late and my parents were asleep, I told them I’d rather come to the station the next day to report. Next morning, when I contemplated going in I decided not to, fearing they would think I’m some kind of wacko UFO fanatic.

As the days went by, scanning the newspapers looking for a “UFO sighting” to no avail, I started doubting myself. I was trying to convince myself that perhaps I was somehow mistaken. Maybe it was something not out of the ordinary at all. Maybe it was a balloon or airplane of some kind. Maybe like thousands of others, I witnessed something that I misinterpreted for something else.

About a week or so later, on or about the tenth page of the Toronto Star or Toronto Sun, buried in the bottom right hand corner, there it was! A short article. “Dozens of Mississauga residents reported a UFO as big as a football field.” I don’t recall the whole article. “Finally” I said to myself. “I knew it was real”, “I knew I didn’t imagine this”. I’ll never, ever, doubt myself again, no matter how much ridicule I’ll be subjected to.

I have some regrets however. One is It didn’t occur to me at the time to contact the media instead of the police and the airport. My second regret is I wish I had others with me to have this one in a million experience. And most importantly, I wish I knew what I was witnessing right from the beginning so that I would have found a way to park my car and really pay attention to this strange, enormous “craft” in the cold night sky."