UFOs in Cadillac: Real or sci-fi?

By Kayla Kiley, Cadillac News

CADILLAC — Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Or, is it from another world …

Whether or not the “disk-shape” and “slender rectangular” objects in Dave Dunford’s photos are UFOs, they sure are strange.

“I can’t say they’re being piloted by little green men, but they’re UFOs,” said Dunford of Cadillac. “I saw what I saw — they’re unidentified, they’re flying and they’re objects.”

The sighting

Dunford was photographing the Cadillac sky on Aug. 27 at about 8:30 p.m. near his residence in Pheasant Ridge. The self-proclaimed amateur photographer was taking pictures of planes and the clear blue sky for his self described “deviant art” Web site — and that’s when he had his first sighting.

“When I brought my camera down, I noticed something strange and silvery in the sky,” he said. “There had been several planes in the air, and all had vapor trails. This one had no vapor trail and, unlike the planes, it made no sound. … It also wasn’t a blimp because there was no platform for people to stand on.”

Dunford quickly shot a few frames of the silver object and ran inside his home to tell his family to come outside. He was in-and-out of his house in less than 10 seconds, but when he returned outdoors, the object was out of sight, he said.

A little disappointed, Dunford downloaded the pictures to his computer to see what his digital photos would reveal.

“I didn’t get as clear of shots as I wanted to, but you could definitely see the object and tell it wasn’t a plane or blimp,” he said of his zoomed-in photos.

Dunford’s finger then slipped on the touchpad of his laptop, and he was “shocked” to discover “three dark objects” in the sky above the silver UFO.

These three dark objects were not visible to Dunford when he was outside, but his 4.0 megapixel camera picked up the images and he was able to see them in an enlarged photo.

“The three dark objects do not appear in any of the other pictures, even though the shots were all within about a minute of one another,” he said, noting that the objects must have been in motion.

After sharing his photos with some relatives, Dunford’s anonymous relative decided to zoom-in on some of her own pictures, which were taken near Mitchell Street in July 2006. Dunford calls the dark, disk-shaped object in his relative’s photos, “one of the best pictures of a UFO that I’ve ever seen — it’s just amazing.”

According to Dunford, he considers all other rational options before deciding that the objects are UFOs.

“I try to debunk my own beliefs before I say anything about it,” he said. “Before I say anything, I’ll do anything to make sure it’s something to look into.”

Dunford said he’s taken numerous photos of planes and birds, so he knows what to look for in a picture when trying to identify an object in a photo. He’s also said he’s taken pictures with dust on his camera, so he knows what dust looks like compared to UFOs. And in the zoomed-in photos, he looks for 3-dimensional objects, light reflecting off the surface, shadows being cast, a differentiation in color and a “halo” glow in order to deem the images possible UFOs.

If you wonder why you’ve never seen a UFO, Dunford would simply tell you, “You probably have.”

“I see (UFOs) because I look,” he said, noting that most people don’t notice the world around them. “Most peoples’ minds want to make associations with things that they already know about. The subconscious doesn’t like to think outside the box and will try and put it (objects) into something rational — like it could be a plane, blimp or bird. … I had to look at it (objects) and think, ‘Wait a minute.’ It took a conscious effort to say, ‘That’s not what I think it is.’”

The expert’s opinion

Cadillac News submitted four of what Dunford thought were the best photos to National UFO Reporting Center’s Web site in order to get another opinion on whether the objects in Dunford’s pictures are UFOs. Two of the four photos that were the least blurry were published with this article.

Peter Davenport, director of National UFO Reporting center said he inspected the four photos, and said, “none of them, in my opinion, is a photo of a genuine UFO.”

“Despite the photographer’s apparent belief that he has ‘UFO’s’ on film, I don’t think the data provided allow a serious-minded investigator to make that conclusion,” said Davenport, who is more focused on UFOs in terms of alien aircraft.

Davenport said the photo taken near Mitchell Street “clearly is a bird … with its wings extended.” In the photo of a silver, shiny object, Davenport said it’s not a genuine UFO craft from another world and noted “it’s blurry, it’s too far away in distance, and it’s indistinct.” He also stated that Dunford’s photo of “three dark objects” is too blurry to gather enough information to determine that they are alien aircraft.

Noting that photos of genuine alien craft are “extremely rare,” Davenport estimated that one out of every 1,000 photos sent to his center is a genuine UFO photo.

“I have seen probably not more that half a dozen (photos of genuine UFOs) in the 13 years that I have served as director of the National UFO Reporting Center,” he said.

While there is no one test for deciding whether an object is a UFO, Davenport holds strong to his belief that the Dunford’s photographs are not genuine UFOs.

“There’s no test that is definitive,” he said. “I cannot certify that they are not UFOs … but in the final analysis I assume they are not.”

Airport and police report

In some of Dunford’s photographs — whether they were UFOs or not — there were clearly objects in the sky.

If the objects were planes, John Jenkins, airport attendant at Wexford County Airport, said it could simply be the case that planes were in the air, but weren’t logged on Aug. 27; he also noted that no UFOs were reported on that date.

The only thing Cadillac’s airport would’ve tracked is if a plane had radioed the airport or if a plane landed at the airport and checked-in, Jenkins said. Pilots are not required to check-in at the Cadillac airport, and if it was after 5 p.m., there are no employees there to witness whether a pilot had landed and checked-in their plane, Jenkins added.

The operations manager of Minneapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center, whose traffic control center supervises Wexford County Airport, also said nobody at his station remembers anything about planes or UFOs being logged on that day; normally pilots won’t log anything “because it’s paper, and he’s not required to,” he said.

Elizabeth Cory, spokeswoman for Federal Aviation Administration, said there haven’t been any recent unusual sightings near the Cadillac area. But with 6,000 planes flying over the U.S. at a given time, she said the sky gets pretty congested.

“There’s going to be aircraft at any given time flying over your (Cadillac’s) area, and they’re not always logged,” said Cory, referring to the notion that the objects may simply be planes that haven’t been logged.

And according to Jenkins, the silver, shiny rectangular object Dunford saw could’ve been a low-flying plane.

Planes that fly at very high altitudes will leave vapor trails because the air is colder at higher elevations and the exhaust from the plane is hot, which creates the vapor trail, Jenkins said. However, if a plane is flying closer to the earth, the plane may not have a vapor trail, because the air temperature is warmer. Jenkins also added, “it’s not unusual for a plane not to make a lot of noise.”

Wexford County Sheriff Gary Finstrom said there were no reports regarding UFO sightings in Cadillac’s area on Aug. 27; Finstrom also has been an officer for 30 years and does not recall any reports of UFO sightings in the area. Michigan State Police Sgt. Sergeant Michael Salasky also said he didn’t receive any reports regarding sightings on Aug. 27; Salasky also has no knowledge of reported UFO sightings while he’s been in office for the past 20 years.

If there are aliens manning saucers in Cadillac’s sky, it seems they’re just like their buddy E.T. and want to go home, because police and traffic control centers in our area have not recently logged any UFO sightings.

But while there may not be any official documents of UFOs in our area, National UFO Reporting Center’s Web site shows there has been 1,080 reported sightings in Michigan to this date. With a total of 1,080 reported sightings, Michigan is currently ranked No. 10 out of a total of 69 states and provinces in North America. According to the Web site there have been nine sightings in the greater Cadillac area; the most recent sighting in our area was in Evart on approximately Aug. 27, 2006 at 1 a.m. two miles from M-115 on M-66 northeast of Evart. The report detailed a person witnessing an object that looked like a satellite, which turned very bright then went out of sight.

If any aliens are reading this, Dunford has a message for you.

“Come closer, I want a better shot of you!” he said.

PHOTOGRAPHING UFOS

Set your camera or video camera on a tripod. This way any apparent motion evident in subsequent photos is a result of the motion of the UFO, and not the camera.

It’s fundamental that people take good quality photos when photographing a UFOs, because blurry photos or tiny specs on the film cannot be analyzed sufficiently.

Take multiple shots of the same scene. If you do this, you’ll better be able to tell if the object in question is in motion. UFOs are typically in motion, which is something Dunford typically looks for.

Photograph planes, birds, insects while they’re in flight, because these objects are often confused for UFOs. This way you’ll be better able to distinguish a genuine UFO from a regular object.

Take all the pictures you have of the sky and put them on a computer. This was you’ll be able to zoom-in on your photos and look for UFOs.

Follow the scientific method. Look for dust and scratches, among others. And try to disprove yourself as much as possible before concluding that the object is a UFO.

Look for 3-dimensional objects, light reflecting off the surface, shadows being cast, a differentiation in color and a “halo” glow in order to deem the photos possible UFOs, according to Dunford.

Log all dates, times, places and witnesses of sightings.

Don’t get scared. Dunford said, “If this is true alien technology and they plan to invade, they would have.”

Source: Peter Davenport and Dave Dunford

ABOUT THE SIGHTINGS

What UFOs he saw: Dunford saw a strange and silvery object in the sky; then three dark objects in a zoomed-in photo; a relative’s picture revealed a dark, disk-shaped object.

What he believes: “I can’t say they’re being piloted by little green men, but they’re UFOs … they’re unidentified, they’re flying and they’re objects,” he said

Dunford’s camera: Nikon Coolpix 4300 4.0 megapixel digital camera

Dunford’s message: If aliens are out there, Dunford said, “Come closer, I want a better shot of you!”

Report your findings: www.ufocenter.com

Reported findings in Michigan: www.nuforc.org/webreports/ndxlMI.html

Michigan’s standings: With a total of 1,080 reported UFO sightings, Michigan is currently ranked No. 10 out of 69 states in North America. California zooms into first place with 5,405 reported sightings, while Virgin Islands zaps in the lowest number with only two reported sightings. Currently, there are nine reported sightings in the greater Cadillac area.