2001 YUKON UFO SIGHTINGS

Dec-2000 or Jan 2001, Lewes Lake on Carcross Road: 11:00-11:30pm
The witness was driving towards Carcross when he came around the corner by Lewes Lake and saw a 3 foot high by 6 foot wide window lit-up about 100 metres in front of him on the lake side of the road. When the car's headlight hit the window, the light went out in the window. The witness drives that road often and there is no house at that location. He was very surprised and regrets that he did not stop to investigate. The window was split into 3 equal parts by two vertical dividers and the light was pure white with no visible features (curtains or persons). The window was perfectly level, no tilt. When the witness drove by the area where the window had been he could not see any object due to darkness.

1-Jan-2001, Lake Laberge, Yukon: 6:00pm
A man out at Deep Creek, Lake Laberge observed a bright white light in the sky that looked very strange to him. Very few details are available from this second hand report. The witness is urged to contact us.

5-Jan-2001, Whitehorse, Yukon: 9:53am
A woman who was staying at the Gold Rush Hotel in downtown Whitehorse called the CHON FM newsroom with a live UFO report. She was watching a silhouette of something over Grey Mountain (to the southeast). The woman asked the CHON FM employee to look out towards Grey Mountain and in a really excited voice she said, "Can't you see it! Can't you see it! It's gone"; the woman at the radio station didn't look out in time or missed seeing the object. She did ask the witness what it looked like. The witness replied "like a black frayed rope". What ever it was, it was strange enough to prompt the woman to call. Was it perhaps a silhouette of an aircraft vapor trail? These are usually white however. The witness was not available to provide further details.

5-Jan-2001, Whitehorse, Yukon: approx. 10:30am to 11:00am
A woman who just heard the CHON FM broadcast about the UFO drove out to Grey Mountain. She reached the large parking area at the base of a mountain and parked her vehicle facing west. She immediately noticed a white cigar shaped object in the sky in front of her. The white color appeared "self-lit". She got out of her vehicle and observed the object fly very slowly towards her and overhead. It had a slight vapor trail and she suspected it might be a jet aircraft at high altitude. She could discern no wings or tail on the object. She heard no noise. She did notice however that the front end of the cigar was "hopping" forward while the back of the cigar was travelling at a steady pace. The object continued on a straight and steady pace and eventually disappeared behind Grey Mountain. The witness was not sure what she saw and went for a walk further up the Grey Mountain road. A few minutes later the same object reappeared from behind the mountain and traveled the same speed and straight trajectory, but this time to the east. The woman watched it for about 20 minutes until it disappeared into the distance over Haeckel Hill. During this second observation a jet airliner at high altitude also flew over. The woman stated that there was no comparison between the two objects. The wings on the jet were plainly visible and the sound from it could easily be heard. The jet also flew faster than the object. The woman estimates that the jet took about 5 minutes (max) to cross the sky while the object took 15 to 20 minutes to do the same (on the second observation).

18-Jan-2001, Whitehorse, Yukon: 11:55pm
A man in McIntyre Village viewed a bright white moving light almost directly overhead. Every few seconds there was a flash emanating from the light. The light moved in a straight line until he lost it behind a roof about half way up from the horizon. It took about 10 seconds to travel this arc of the sky. The light was heading north. It was "kind of freaky and too fast for a high plane" the man added. No noise could be heard.

21-Jan-2001, Whitehorse, Yukon: 9:00pm
Three witnesses in Riverdale Subdivision saw red and white lights low on the horizon in the direction of the Whitehorse Rapids hydropower dam facility. The lights were pulsating. It "swiveled" right, and then left, up, down and then shot off towards Granger Subdivision (north). One of the witnesses estimated it was a big as a "timbit" (3 cm) at arms length. The lights were observed for about 5 minutes.

21-Jan-2001, Whitehorse, Yukon: evening
A woman who was at the lower end (north end) of Granger Subdivision was followed by a blue and red light to Herbies Grocery store. The lights then followed her towards McIntyre Village. At one point the lights "moved in a triangular shape". (Second-hand report: no further details available)

21-Jan-2001, Whitehorse, Yukon: evening
Witnesses in Porter Creek Subdivision viewed what appeared to be a laser beam shining from the sky down onto some houses and the ground. (Second-hand report: no further details available).

Feb-2001, Whitehorse, Yukon: 6:00pm
Two witnesses while driving down second avenue and turning onto the South-Access saw a "very bright star" moving very fast west to east and disappeared behind Grey Mountain. The witnesses were very surprised at its speed. Observation time was about 1 second.

31-May-2001 North Klondike Highway, Yukon: 4:30 pm
Justin Lemphers was heading northbound on the North Klondike Highway when straight ahead of him he spotted a thin horizontal black line just below the clouds. Conditions were overcast. At arms length it was about a one twonie across, and its thickness was about two twonie thicknesses thick. At first he thought it was a part of the cloud formation but the clouds were moving and this thing was stationary. It also had well defined square ends. "I watched it because I expected it to loose continuity as the clouds moved around it but it stayed solid!" A big cloud bank rolled over it so he pulled off at km 222 just before Deep Creek. He waited for about 10 to 15 minutes eyeing the sky, waiting for the cloud to move past the spot where the object had been. After the cloud past, the object was gone. Justin estimates that the object was about 12 degrees above the horizon and based on the look of the cloud cover ceiling, the object appeared to be at a height of about 5000 feet (1500 metres) above ground level. Duration of sighting was about 5 minutes.

Maximum size estimate
Using trigonometry and the information supplied by Justin we can calculate the maximum size of the object: The distance to the object is: Distance = 1500/sin (12 Degrees) = 7214 metres or 7.2 km. Using the "at arms length" of 0.65m and a size of a twonie (0.028m) and projecting it out 7214 m gives: Object Length = 0.028 x 7214/0.65 = 311 metres or 1020 feet across. Similarly, two twonies thick (0.0034m) gives an object thickness of 38 metres or 124 feet.

21-Jul-2001, Faro, Yukon: 1:00 am
A couple driving southeast bound on the Robert Campbell Highway about 10 km east of Faro observed two UFOs that took off from ground level. The first UFO described as egg shaped (color was white with a glowing light blue color) came up from the forest north of the highway ahead of them. It flew over the landscape, arched upwards and was gone in about 3 seconds. About 4 seconds later, another identical UFO came up from the same place and performed the same maneuver as the first. Total duration of both sightings was about 10 seconds. The witnesses were very surprised but not frightened as the objects were a fair distance away, about 6 to 10 km by the woman's estimate and 10 km by the man's. The size of the objects appeared to be about 1/8th the size of a full moon. Using this angular measurement and the estimated distances, the size of the objects could have been in the range of 6.5 to 11 meters or 21 to 36 feet. The sky was dark and clear.

5-Sep-2001, Whitehorse, Yukon: 9:48 pm
Justin Lemphers was making a turn from at the 4way stop from Industrial Road onto Copper Road northbound when he first spotted a grouping of unusual lights estimated 3 km to the northeast. There was also a small aircraft to the northwest southbound on final to Whitehorse Airport. The unusual lights seemed to be pacing the aircraft (also travelling southbound). The grouping of lights consisted of an intense white light on top and three smaller lights below it in a triangular pattern. One of these lights was red. There were no flashing lights. He kept on observing the lights and the inbound aircraft as he kept driving on Copper Road until he got to the top of the hill near the Range Road/Mountainview Drive intersection (a bit under 1 min duration). At that point he observed the plane disappear behind the trees to land southwest of his location. To his surprise the strange lights to now to the southeast seemed to react to the landing of the aircraft. "It looked as though as soon as he landed the lights quickly turned and vanished to a point off to the east" Justin remarked. He figures that the pilot must have seen these strange lights as well. The lights appeared to pace him until he landed. Justin pulled over and observed the sky for 10 minutes longer but saw no more lights or aircraft in the sky. The small aircraft was described as on having four porthole windows in the back and therefore not a Cessna and probably slightly larger. Perhaps one of the typical local charter aircraft.

26-Oct-2001, Downtown Whitehorse: 3:30 to 4:00am
A woman and her coworker were working nightshift and went outside for a cigarette. It was mostly clear with a few hazy clouds reflecting the city lights. Something moving in the sky caught the attention of the woman out of the corner of her left eye. Over the clay cliffs to the west was a grouping of lights, white, red and blue shaped in an oval pattern about the size of a Smartie at arms-length. None of the lights were flashing and it was low over the trees on the clay cliff. It flew around in a "weird" manner. It would go to the right, slow down, "waiver around" and then go to the left waiver again and go to the right. It kept repeating this for a period of 40 seconds to two minutes. It eventually traveled to the south (approximately over Shwatka Lake and the dam) where they lost site of it behind some nearby buildings.

11-Nov-2001, Policeman's Point Road, Yukon: approx. 4:00am
A youth was playing video games with some friends at a residence off the Policeman's Point road (about 20 km north of Whitehorse, near Lake Laberge). He went outside for a smoke when out of the west came a half oval-shaped formation of 4 to 5 lights traveling from west to south (towards Whitehorse). The drawing that the youth made showed the lights outlining a shape of an egg lying on its side. The bottom of it was cut off or flat. The lights were a very bright white, and the back and front lights were pulsating. He watched them for three minutes as they moved fast-slow-fast-slow. There was a flash of light and the lights appeared to slow down, then the lights quickly disappeared over the horizon near Whitehorse. He called out to his friends who were still in the house but by the time they came out the UFO disappeared.

11-Nov-2001, Downtown Whitehorse: 4:00 to 4:30am
A woman working nightshift went out on the deck facing the clay cliffs to the west for a smoke break. The sky was clear and black. As she was looking at the stars in a certain portion of the sky, an object suddenly appeared. It didn't fly into view from anywhere but just appeared in the same part of the sky she just happened to be looking at. She described it as "a glowing white, half of an egg" with the flat part on the bottom and the curved part on top. It was about half the size of a full moon but had the intensity of starlight. It was in motion when it appeared and over the course of about 10 to 20 seconds it traveled in a straight line and disappeared behind a nearby house. It had some sort of "exhaust coming from the back, something stirring up the atmosphere". She heard no noise.

14-Nov-2001, Whitehorse, Porter Creek Subdivision: 6:35pm
Report from Cher Davidson:
My husband, daughter, dog and I were out for our after-supper walk. We chose to walk around the neighborhood since darkness had already fallen. At approximately 18:35, give or take 2 or 3 minutes, we were heading south on Larch, walking on the east side. The sky was cloudy to the south but there was some clearing to the north; we were walking at about the point where the clouds met the clear sky just to our south, not quite above us. As we were walking down Larch, I kept hearing a "rushing" noise. I looked up several times, thinking it might be an international aircraft passing over Whitehorse but I saw nothing in the 4 or 5 times I looked up. As we approached Maple, I looked up again in a west-southwest direction, almost above us, and saw a light growing in the sky. It was a yellow light, round in shape and in the space of a tenth or two of a second, grew in size to about the size and brightness of a streetlight. It disappeared so quickly that by the time I alerted my husband and daughter it was gone. The size of the light was about size of a street light that would be 5 or 6 lights away and appeared to be at least two thirds the size of the full moon.

The rushing sound I heard was at about the same decibel level as an international flight passing overhead, i.e., not really loud but if someone were as curious as I am, it was loud enough for me to glance up and affirm the sound, which was, indeed, what I was doing. (I always like to see the flights if I am able; even better when I have binoculars and the sky is clear). The sound was, however, different than an international flight passing overhead. It sounded more like the wind sounds in the bush when you are far away from traffic and it's very windy and there are a lot of tall trees swaying in a valley. The sound was very similar to that I heard on a windy afternoon at Wolf Creek when we were hiking along the ridge tops. I cannot honestly say if I heard the sound simultaneously with the sighting of the growing light. I remember glancing upward about 4 or 5 times BEFORE I saw the light as a result of hearing the sound.

Follow-up: One possible explanation to this sighting was an Iridium Satellite, which fly overhead several times per day. These satellites are rotating and have large reflective surfaces on them and therefore suddenly get very bright and fade out rapidly as well. They get so bright that they are often referred to as "Iridium Flares" and at times can be seen during the daytime.

16-Nov-2001, Whitehorse: 3:15 to 3:30pm
While waiting for the bus at Wallmart, two witnesses observed a white circular object that was "really glowing, hovering, it moved forward a bit, then down then up" They observed it for about 10 minutes as it slowly gained altitude and was too small to be seen. Note: It is likely that this sighting was a weather balloon that is launched daily at 3:15pm near the intersection of Two-Mile Hill and the Alaska Highway which is only 1 or 2 km away (During Daylight Savings Time (summer) these balloons are launched at 4:15pm local time).

18-Nov-2001, Braeburn, Yukon: 3:00am
Just wondering if you had any reports of anything strange the night of the meteor shower.... besides the meteors? My family and I were out towards Breaburn watching the shower and definitely saw something that caught our interest and we watched it for about 10 minutes. At first we thought it was a plane until we realized it was after 3:00 in the morning. And watching it further it did not fly like a plane, it went up down and darted, it also got brighter at times and moved extremely slow and at times stood still, the lights also would go in a sequence in a line. What really freaked us out was when my sister said "well we won't see it for long because it is about to go behind the mountain" it went in front of the mountain really low which meant it was flying in the valley. Strangest display of lights I have ever seen, and I have watched many of planes at night with my children and never has a plane flown in this way or this low. Well just wondering if anyone else besides the five of us witnessed any such thing on that morning?
(e-mail report. Witness has been contacted for more details)