Your February eNewsletter |
|
Director’s message
David MacDonald
|
|
The Evolution Continues
As with everything in life, things change.
As humans, we are often resistant to change, but in the long run it happens.
MUFON is no different. We continue to evolve, and, in our case, it is all for the better.
We are now in the process of “beefing up” our database, the way that data is handled and who can access it. These changes are necessary as we are maintaining the largest UFO database in the world. Although we make some of this data available to the public, some of it is highly guarded. Witness anonymity is
a prime concern. In the near future, you will see changes in who can access what data. For
most investigators the changes will be imperceptible. In the case of our ERT operations, their data will be stored in a highly secure “vault” accessible only to the ERT specialist involved and a very limited number of
MUFON oofficials with a need to know.
Additionally, we have made many changes in office operations, membership, communications,
finances and a host of other areas that make a big difference. For example, at the end of the second quarter of 2020, MUFON had about 3300 members. On December 31, 2021, we had 4608 members. Of those new members, the number of them buying the VIP and other enhanced packages has steadily
risen. In the same 18 months, the number of Field Investigators grew from 325 to 653. The number of subscribers, viewers, and followers, globally, is in the hundreds of thousands.
And, to top it all off, MUFON is in the most stable position it has ever enjoyed.
So, yes, change is inevitable and sometimes uncomfortable, but in the case of MUFON it has been good.
|
|
Introducing Your 2022 Symposium Speakers |
|
Travel to Denver in style!
|
|
Monthly Chapter Meetings
MUFON Arizona Phoenix MUFON welcomes David Hatcher Childress on Saturday, March 26. Arizona Historical Society Museum in Tempe. 12noon-3pm. All details at phoenixmufon.com
MUFON Connecticut now meets in-person - first Saturday of the month 11:30am to 2 pm at AD’s Pizzeria Restaurant & Lounge, 377 South Center Street, Windsor Locks, CT 06096. Info at www.mufonct.com
MUFON Orange County, CA. Go to www.mufonoc.org and scroll down the page to register for monthly live streaming lectures.
MUFON San Diego ZOOM meetings are held monthly on the 3rd Sunday at 6:00 pm. Contact Wil Wakely at wilw31@gmail.com to receive instructions on attending the Zoom meeting. They are free and open to all.
MUFON Marin Sonoma ZOOM Meetings until further notice,1st Saturday of the Month 3pm PST. Visit MUFONMarinSonoma.com for meeting information.
MUFON Missouri We have Zoom presentations with guest speakers on the second Thursday of the month at 6:30 pm and these are open to the public. www.missourimufon.org
MUFON Main line (PA) is having meeting via Zoom March 15, 2022-7:30 pm with Ron Olch - a systems engineer doing research and development on the UFODAP project (the UFO Data Acquisition Project).
MUFON Oklahoma - meets via Zoom from 2- 4 PM on the 3rd Saturday of each month. Next meeting is Saturday, March 19th where the OK MUFON Team will present "A Year in Review - Best Unknown Cases of 2021". This presentation is rescheduled from the cancelled January meeting. Please visit our website at www.MUFONOK.org to register and to be added to our list. You will receive an email invite and Zoom link prior to the meeting.
United MUFON Exciting, interactive, and educational on-line MUFON meetings! Teri Lynge-Kehl, MUFON Director of Memberships, will be your host.
2:00pm Central time. To register for the meeting, watch the live-stream or find out more information about upcoming meetings, info on mufonmeetings.com
February 26th Eric Tessier MUFON Canada
March 26th Sev Tok Symposium MC
April 23rd John Schussler BOD MUFON
|
|
NEW PUBLICATION IN MUFON STORE!!!!! |
|
MUFON What's Up KGRA Radio program |
|
The Official MUFON Podcast
|
|
The Oklahoma Vortex and an Accompanying Mystery
By Bob Spearing
MUFON Director of Investigations International
On the evening of January 31 st , 2022, MUFON began receiving reports of a strange swirling vortex with a
brilliant white center in the skies over Oklahoma. In all, six reports came in between 6:45 P.M. and 7:30
P.M. Central Daylight Time (CDT) from Choctaw, Tulsa, Purcell, Salina, Edmond and Gunthrie. Several of
the reports contained video and photographic backup. Initial indications suggested we were dealing
with a UFO flap.
Mindy Taulfest, MUFON’s Oklahoma State Director and Michael Dickerson, her Chief Investigator were
on the case almost immediately and quickly closed all six cases out as an Identified Flying Object (IFO).
Additional cases began coming in from Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas and Florida. Field Investigators G.
Kurt Veale in Tennessee and Margie Kay in Missouri also closed out their cases as an IFO. The remaining
midwestern cases were still in progress as of this writing.
So, what was this mysterious spectacle in the midwestern skies on Monday Night?
|
|
|
It was the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral at 6:11 P.M. Eastern
Standard Time (EST) whose mission was to place in orbit an Italian satellite that will track maritime
shipping, natural disasters and climate change. While the lower stage of a Falcon 9 is reusable and
returns to Earth in a controlled landing, stage two, in this case, circled the planet not quite one
revolution and released its unused fuel before re-entering the atmosphere and burning up. The vortex
was the stream of fuel released by the tumbling rocket. The bright center was the reflection of the sun’s
light on it.
However, the story doesn’t end there!
A case in Melbourne, Florida (# 120656) occurred at approximately 6:13 P.M. only two minutes after
launch where the witness filmed an object with no contrail approach the ascending Falcon 9 from above
and seemed to overtake it speed wise. Distance of the unknown object from the camera and from the
rocket makes it almost impossible to determine its speed and if it was only an illusion of it overtaking
the rocket. However, one of our best aviation experts, Ohio State Director Tom Wertman used the
metadata from the Melbourne video and pinpointed the exact location of the witness and determined
that they were facing north and thus looking into the North-South flight routes of planes enroute to or
from Miami for example. Therefore, it is possible the object above the rocket may be a simple airliner.
More analysis needs to be done here and MUFON is trying to ascertain the specific trajectory of the
rocket from NASA for comparison.
|
|
However, (yes again), the story doesn’t end there either!
Another witness in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (Case # 120625) was also video filming the launch at
approximately 6:14 P.M. and filmed something equally unusual. After stage one separated from stage
two and began returning to a controlled landing, stage two seemed to release two additional objects
that flew in tandem until lost to the camera. The object was visible to the witness who comments on
seeing them and the video clearly shows the object go behind clouds ruling out a lens reflection.
|
|
At this point, MUFON has its work cut out for it trying to ascertain a logical answer for these two
seemingly anomalous events which present as far more interesting than the vortex about an hour later.
Stay tuned!
|
|
Notable Departures!
Ken St. John, MUFON’s long serving Chief Operating Officer, has retired! Ken was the guiding light behind MUFON University and The MUFON Anomalous Research and Reporting System (MARRS) that digitized thousands of newspaper articles and old paper UFO reports. He was the “Go To Guy” for just about every project we have undertaken this decade. His guidance has built MUFON into the robust, well respected worldwide organization we have become today. We will sorely miss him!
We also need to say good-bye to our long time National Director of The United Kingdom,
Jack Turnbull, who is packing it in on his 80th birthday this month! Mysterious to the end, he rejected our
request for a photo saying “Not even the CIA has a photo of me! “His most famous case was the 1990s
affair of a British Police Constable bathed in neon blue light as a Black Triangle hovered above his
head in Yorkshire! Good luck Jack!
|
|
|
|
Become a Field Investigator Today! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
