Secrets Of Shag Harbour: The UFO Crash They Can't Explain Away
Secrets Of Shag Harbour:
The UFO Crash They Can't Explain Away
by Bill Knell
What became known as the Shag Harbour UFO Crash involved the October 4, 1967, impact of a large unidentified aerial object into waters near a fishing village called Shag Harbour in Nova Scotia on the Atlantic coast of Canada. The incident was investigated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Coast Guard and the Canadian Armed Forces. It also became a part of the U.S. Condon Committee investigations of UFOs and was covered in their report. The object was seen in the sky multiple times prior to the impact.
At 7:15 pm (ADT) Air Canada Flight 305, en route from Halifax to Toronto, was flying at 12,001 feet over Sherbrooke and Saint-Jean, Quebec. First Officer Robert Ralph spotted something strange on the left side of the aircraft that he spotted through the cockpit window. He immediately pointed it out to Captain Pierre Charbonneau. The captain's report said that an object a few miles away was flying on a parallel course with his aircraft. He described it as a bright rectangular object with a string of smaller lights trailing it. At 7:19 pm, the pilots noticed a “sizable silent explosion” near the large object. A second explosion occurred two minutes later which faded into a blue cloud around the object (this may have been an attempt to shoot it down).
Darrel Dorey, his sister and mother were sitting on their front porch in Mahone Bay, when they noticed a large object manoeuvring above the southwestern horizon. The next day Darrel wrote a letter to the RCAF Greenwood Base Commander asking if he knew anything about the object they saw? He also mentioned that the family had never seen anything like it before.
Captain Leo Mersey was in the wheelhouse of his fishing vessel when four stationary blips appeared on his Decca radar. When he looked out the wheelhouse windows, Mersey saw four bright objects aligned in a rectangular formation. He estimated them to be about 17 miles away. His crew of nearly twenty fishermen stood on deck watching the objects in the northeastern sky. Mersey radioed the Rescue Coordination Center and the Harbour Master in Halifax asking for an explanation for what he and his crew were seeing. Mersey filed a report with the Lunenburg RCMP outlining his sighting when they returned to port.
The Chronicle-Herald newspaper reported a glowing object that was seen by many people who called their newsroom. They all reported witnessing strange glowing objects flying over Halifax at around 10:00 pm. Local radio stations also received many of the same reports. Later that same night, at around 11:20 pm (Atlantic Daylight Time), witnesses reported that a large aerial object crashed into the waters of Shag Harbour.
Eleven people saw a low-flying bright object heading towards the harbour. Some other witnesses closer to the object reported hearing a whistling sound "like a bomb" dropping, then a "whoosh," and finally a loud bang. Because the object was never officially identified, it was referred to as an Unidentified Flying Object in Government of Canada documents. The Canadian military became involved in a subsequent rescue and recovery effort.
The initial “crash” report was made by local resident L. Wickens and four of his friends. They spotted a large lighted object descending into the water while driving through Shag Harbour on Highway 3. Wickens and his friends moved in closer for a better view and saw an object floating about 900 feet offshore in the waters of Shag Harbour. Wickens contacted the RCMP detachment in Barrington Passage and reported he had seen something like an airliner crash into the waters off Shag Harbour.
Assuming an aircraft had crashed, three RCMP officers arrived at the scene within 15 minutes. They saw the large object and were able to watch it as it slowly began to sink. Still unsure what it was, they contacted the Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) in Halifax to advise them of the situation and ask if any aircraft were missing? At the same time the object's lights could still be seen as it slipped under the water before any rescue attempt could begin.
In less than 30 minutes of the crash, local fishing boats went out to the crash site in the waters of the Gulf of Maine (off Shag Harbour) to look for survivors. No survivors, bodies or debris were found by the fishermen or the Canadian Coast Guard search and rescue vessel, which arrived about an hour later from nearby Clark's Harbour. By the next morning, RCC Halifax had determined that no aircraft were missing. The captain of the Canadian Coast Guard vessel received a radio message from Rescue Coordination Centre Halifax that all commercial, private and military aircraft were accounted for along the eastern seaboard, in both the Atlantic provinces and New England.
That same morning Rescue Coordination Centre Halifax also sent a priority telex to the "Air Desk" at the Canadian Air Force headquarters in Ottawa because they handled all civilian and military UFO sightings. RCC informed them of the crash and that all conventional explanations had been dismissed. The head of the Air Desk sent a priority telex to the Canadian Navy headquarters regarding the "UFO Report" and recommended an underwater search. The naval command ordered the Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic to carry out the mission.
Within two days of the incident a detachment of navy divers from Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic was assembled and combed the seafloor of the Gulf of Maine off Shag Harbour for three days looking for the object. Their final report claimed that no trace of an object or debris were found. There is a summary of the event from the Department of National Defence files located at the national Library and Archives.
The Shag Harbour reports received front page coverage in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald. The newspaper ran a headline story on October 7, 1967, titled, "Could Be Something Concrete in Shag Harbour UFO – RCAF” by Ray MacLeod. It included eyewitness descriptions of the object and crash, the air force's search and rescue effort, and the navy's underwater exploration which was still ongoing at that time.
The UFO Gazebo and picnic site can be found about 3 minutes up the road from the Shag Harbour Museum Centre, where visitors can look out on the ocean to the location where the object crashed in 1967.
Squadron Leader Bain of the “Air Desk” was quoted as saying that the air force was "very interested" in the matter. "We get hundreds of reports every week, but the Shag Harbour incident is one of the few where we may get something concrete on it.”
The Chronicle-Herald newspaper ran another story on October 9, 1967, titled "UFO Search Called Off," stating that the navy had ended "an intensive undersea search for the mysterious unidentified flying object that disappeared into the ocean here Wednesday night." As to what was found, the navy stated, "Not a trace... not a clue... not a bit of anything." The story of the search being called off for an alleged "mysterious dark object" was also carried by The Canadian Press in other newspapers. But that's not the end of the story.
Hundreds of people witnessed the UFO Crash or sightings leading up to it. None were skeptical about what they saw. The Canadian Forces labeled it a legitimate “UFO Report” giving credence to the event. Things get even more interesting when you realize that Canada, the USA and even Russia were ultimately involved.
By 1967 the SOSUS (Sound Surveillance System) was fully operational. It was designed to use high tech underwater listening devices to detect and follow the movements of underwater objects like submarines. The Soviets had nothing comparable to it which gave the USA and NATO nations a distinct advantage. However, it also alerted the Russians that we had detected something strange when it occurred and subs and other U.S. and NATO assets were dispatched to deal with it.
It comes as no surprise to discover that the SOSUS system, other high tech tracking devices and secret facilities co-owned and operated by the USA and Canada immediately detected the UFO crash into the water at Shag Harbour. Within short order U.S. subs and underwater recovery teams were busy locating and retrieving the object. Watching in the background were Soviet submarines hoping to pick up any scraps.
A secret tracking facility in Canada co-owned and operated by the USA and Canada.
The U.S. and Canada eventually learned that an object larger than the first one that crashed into the water was also seen and mistaken for the first object. The second UFO had some relationship with the first because it apparently managed to recover things and beings from the first. According to information leaks there were still plenty of things for the U.S. to recover and share with Canada. The Soviets went away empty handed.
All the statements and alleged recovery efforts by Canada made for an excellent smoke screen to allow the USA to recover the object quickly and quietly. By 1967 UFO recovery operations had become almost routine. While each one was unique, they all required certain standard operational tools, personnel and methods that the USA was ready, willing and able to provide at a moment's notice.
Most of the early captured UFOs were brought to Wright-Patterson AFB for study by the Foreign Technology Division of the Air Force. I believe the Shag Harbour object was one of them. Consider the secrecy involved…
U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater (AZ) has admitted and described an encounter in the 1970s where he asked his friend General Curtis LeMay for access to a secret facility at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, nicknamed the "Blue Room," which was rumored to hold UFO evidence. LeMay reportedly became very angry and said “Hell NO! I can't go there, you can’t go there, and don't ever ask me again!”
Read this ebook for MORE about the Shag Harbor incident…
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