UFO sightings around Havre dismissed

(Created: Monday, February 11, 2008 11:53 AM MST)

Krista Corner Havre Daily News

Whoa — it's a UFO! Or is it the Air National Guard? Odd lights in the sky between 6 and 8:30 p.m. Friday night amazed a number of Havre-area residents who phoned the Havre Daily News to report sightings of what people were calling unidentified flying objects. Reports of UFOs began circulating within the community by 11 p. m. Thursday night. In the Bears Paw Mountains, 12-year-old Josh Herrig said he saw flashing white lights between 6:15 and 6:30 p.m. Thursday. "The lights — about five of them — moved really fast," he said. "The lights would blink then disappear and blink again farther away." Another report said a strange blue and orange light hovered above the ground north of Havre and droplets of light fell to the earth. F-16 fighter jets then appeared, presumably from Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, to investigate. Neither the Havre Police Department nor U.S. Border Patrol received any calls reporting the unusual sightings. No evidence of UFO sightings appeared on the Hill County Sheriff's Office dispatch log either. Malmstrom Air Force Base officials said they, too, were unaware of the strange sight. "Not that I know of," said staff writer for Malmstrom Airman Dillon White. "We don't have an air mission here." White referred further questions to the U.S. Air Guard. So, what was the strange sighting? It turned out that a combination of the Air Guard performing training operations combined with the atmosphere refracting light was a possible explanation. Major Tim Lincoln, U.S. Air Guard acting public affairs officer said Friday that U.S. Air National Guard pilots and ground crews were in the area training Thursday night, was not in response to reports of strange lights. "What we were doing last night was night flying and our jets took off just to do some regular training," Lincoln said. "At about 6:30 p.m. they went up into our training air space — that's the same area we train in every day — and landed about 830 p.m. last night. They weren't responding to anything, they were just doing training at night. I have no idea what the other lights were, but our pilots reported nothing unusual." Lincoln said the pilots are required to perform a certain amount of night flying hours per Air Guard training requirements. "One week each month we do night flying," he said. During the training operations, Lincoln said, ground crews spot for the air crew in combat simulation. "We have a vehicle that is a spotter for our pilots," he said. "We're training to go over to Iraq in about a month, and what they're training to do in Iraq is close air support." Lincoln said the simulation involves spotters acting as ground troops under fire, which would shoot a laser to the point from where they are being attacked. "Our pilots are then able to come in with the F-16s and target the bomb on the place where the laser is focused," he said. "That is essentially what was happening." But were the pilots responsible for the strange lights seen by residents north of Havre? "I would say that's possible, but I cannot definitively say that's what happened," he said. "In my official capacity, the only thing I can comment on is what our people were doing. I honestly can't say something to (what people saw), because I didn't atually see it." A physics instructor at Montana State University- Northern, Robert Christeck, Ph.D, said fragments of light refracted off particles in the atmosphere could also explain the strange lights. "It could be very definite," he said. "If rain droplets or snow droplets are in the air, it could change the color prisms. It's hard to say with the wind blowing last night if it could cause that, though." Christeck said he, too, saw the F-16s and the lights on the jets gave off a strange glow. "When I first went out, there was kind of a glow around the light that wasn't a true blue," he said. "I don't know if it was the garbage in the atmosphere, but I noticed it." According to Havre Daily News staff member Josalyn Nordenstrom, who was on a ride-along with the Air National Guard Thursday evening, she believed the strange lights were a reflection of the lasers used during training.