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     Arizona's new UFO flap swept into its second
week with hundreds of sightings reported in and
around Phoenix and the city of Casa Grande
(population 19,082), located on Highway 387
51 miles (82 kilometers) to the southeast.
     On Wednesday, January 14, 1998, Village Labs
in Phoenix received "hundreds of calls" from local
residents who sighted "orange lights" and "spherical
red-orange UFOs" over the Estrella Mountains.
     The laboratory received seven amateur videotapes
of the UFOs for analysis.
     At 7 p.m., "two large orange lights" were viewed
for 11 minutes over the mountain range.
     Other witnesses described "a formation of orange
lights" and a "giant triangle" of lights.
     The Michigan Air National Guard issued a
statement that their planes had dropped "military
flares" over the area.
      On Thursday night, January 15, 1998, Tom King,
director of Arizona Skywatch, staked out the area.
He reported, "I took a position halfway between
Phoenix and Casa Grande.  We sighted some of the
orange lights fifteen to twenty miles west of our
position (i.e. near the western border of the Gila
River Indian Reservation--J.T.)  We took photographs
and two separate videotapes, including the ultra-high-
speed Super camera.  These objects appeared under
1,000 feet and did not have any sign of smoke," as
flares normally do.
     On Sunday, January 18, 1998, investigator
Robert M. Collins "first observed" a UFO "while I was
driving up past Casa Grande.  I pulled off (Interstate
Highway I-10) onto Route 387 north of Casa Grande.
At that time I counted 9 to 11 orange globes all the
way from west to east north of my position, over
Phoenix."
     "I had Bushnell binoculars and thought I could
make out some sort of 'disc' structure on one or two
of them.  But because the light appeared to be so
cohesive and (due to Phoenix's air) pollution, I was
getting a lot of atmospheric diffraction effects from
the lights."
     Collins observed the UFOs from 7:25 to 7:55 p.m.
"Two orbs were still visible" when he left the area.
(Many thanks to Tom King and Robert M. Collins
for these reports.)
UFO FLAP ERUPTS NEAR
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
     MUFON Georgia is investigating a number of
UFO sightings around Atlanta during the past
two weeks.
     On Thursday, January 8, 1998, around 7:30 p.m.,
a couple driving down North Greenwood Street in
LaGrange, Georgia (population 25,597), a city
near the Alabama state line approximately
64 miles (102 kilometers) southwest of Atlanta,
when they suddenly saw "a strange intense beam
of light" coming from the clouds "down to the
ground."
     LaGrange was the site of intermittent UFO
sightings throughout 1997.
     On Saturday, January 17, 1998, at 7:30 p.m.,
a 38-year-old women and her parents "were driving
south on (Interstate Highway) I-75.  About 50 miles
(80 kilometers) north of Macon (population 106,612),
they saw a circle of blue-white lights hovering just
off the interstate.  The lights formed a continuous
circle and one solid (mass), like a piece of 'Swiss
cheese.'  The craft was the size of a small jet
airliner.  The lights were hovering over some nearby
trees."  Other motorists also saw the lights "and
slowed down" for a better look.
     At 8:45 p.m., as the family "was driving on
(Interstate) I-16, twenty miles (32 kilometers) southeast
of Macon, she saw a strange beam of light go to the
ground.  Then they saw a very bright light shooting
across the sky in a 'strand' of flashes.  Only one light
was involved, but it darted across the sky going from
north to south."
     On Sunday, January 18, 1998, an elderly lady of
LaGrange, Georgia phoned John C. Thompson, state
director of Georgia MUFON, and reported seeing "a
real shiny dot moving extremely fast" and zipping
across the sky about a half-mile north of North
Greenwood Street, site of the January 8 incident.
    "The perfectly round ball had sunlight reflecting
off it and was moving from north to south," she reported.
"But at a high rate of speed at least twice the speed
of a commercial airliner (meaning the UFO's airspeed
was between 900 and 1,000 miles per hour--J.T.)  It
made no noise and disappeared in clear open air as
I watched."
     At 6:06 p.m. on January 18, about three hours
afterward, a man reported seeing two UFOs over
Conyers, Georgia (population 7,380), approximately
27 miles (43 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta.  He
described the UFOs as "two black circular objects
flying west to east with no lights.  The second pulled
up and slowly disappeared.  The first UFO kept going
straight and disappeared."  (See Filer's Files #3 for
1998.  Many thanks to George A. Filer, John C.
Thompson and Todd Ganas for these reports.)
MYSTERIOUS LIGHT FLASHES
SEEN BY MOTORIST NEAR
CHESHIRE, CONNECTICUT
     On Friday, January 16, 1998, at around 6 p.m.,
Robert D. was driving home from work on Interstate
Highway I-691 west of Meriden, Connecticut
(population 59,479), about 25 miles (40 kilometers)
southwest of Hartford, the state capital.
     "I saw a very strange, very bright blue light off
to the southern horizon," Bob reported.  "It was
after an ice storm" and the area "was without
power."
     He estimated that the light was 11 miles to
his south, in a wooded area just beyond the town
of Cheshire (population 5,759), near Sleeping Giant
State Park and the Broad Brook reservoir.
     "It was an unbelievably bright blue light.
Hundreds of times more bright than lightning.  It
was so bright it left shadows of the trees to my
right.  It lasted for two seconds, then a 15-second
pause, then another two second flash," he said.
     "I'm an electrical engineer with a fascination
for lightning, and this was definitely not lightning,"
he added.  "Nor was it a transformer exploding,
etc. High voltage lines would not show this
intensity.  What's strange is that where they were
located there are no towns or people, just woods."
(Email Interview)
(Editor's Note: Similar mysterious blue flashes
were seen in Los Alamos, New Mexico last
October.)
from the UFO Files...
1988: ATTEMPTED ABDUCTION
          IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA
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