Reports to the centre have occurred in two bursts of reporting activity, initially at the start of the year, then in May/June following publicity on a sighting near New Norfolk. Although it must be said the size of the press coverage was out of proportion to the excellent response from the public. However, as is often the case most calls referred to other sightings. Following the surge of calls in May initial contacts are on a par with 1997, this is encouraging as at one stage it looked as if our telephone number had dropped out of the system.
Listed below are the investigated cases, also those cases still Under Investigation (U/I) awaiting finalisation.
8th Jan 1998. 04.40 BURNIE. Witness noticed a flash from the window in the north east sky. She and her husband saw a 2 times Venus size elongated red and green shape in a clear patch in the sky. It was red on top, and green on the base but clear in the middle. The red and green lights looked to be pulsing. It was in view for some 30 minutes before being obscured by cloud.
16th Jan 1998. 16.30 GLENORCHY. Witness was moving furniture into new home when he noticed a shiny metallic shape moving across the northern sky. At times it looked to have a flame or glow beneath as it lost elevation into the north-west. It was a bit like a manta ray in shape but silent. It gained elevation in the distance and faded from view.
18th Jan 1998 03.30 TUNNACK. Witness was having trouble getting to sleep due to the warm night. Then he noticed two white lights moving south, it looked like a crashing plane then they levelled out and one started flashing red. The lights were well spaced and not on the same object. They passed across the window and out of sight. A deal of effort was made investigation aircraft movements but there were none in the Tunnack area.
25th Jan 1998 01.30 TUNNACK. Witness to 18th report saw similar lights a few nights later. Again two well spaced white lights were seen on a similar path and again one light changed to a flashing red light. Great effort went into uncovering aircraft moves but there were none in the area.
26th Apr 1998. 19.30 LAUNCESTON. Three yellow/white lights seen stationary for 20 seconds, then shot off up and away to north. (U/I)
10th May 1998. 02.00 BELLERIVE. Witness arriving home from work notices a bright white light to the south-east. The light then grew in size and took on more of a yellow colour. Suddenly it moved towards the west crossing the southern sky and disappearing behind clouds.
16th May 1998. 19.15 NEW NORFOLK. Witness home alone working in darkened room on a computer. A flash of light to the west caught her attention, as it was still there soon after a closer look revealed a ring of 6/7 blue lights with a red light in the centre. A small red light then appeared over the lawn of the house and came to within 10m before turning off. Witness then called a neighbour and together they saw the lights recede tot he west.
17th May 1998. 20.30 LAUDERDALE. Two witness see a bright light low to the east, it looks to have red, white, and blue colours. As they watch it rises up to a 15/30 deg elevation and stops near another star. Soon after it just blinks off. (U/I)
18th May 1998 20.30 BLACK HILLS. Two witnesses for six seconds on three occasions notice an oval light in the northern sky, it looks to have a beam pointing towards the ground below. On the third occasion the light moved very quickly to the north-west then back to the north.
21st May 1998. 17.45 KINGSTON. Two witness at differing locations called to report a large pink to white light low to the west, the light was moving away to the west or north-west. Immediate contact with the Airport revealed no air traffic in the area at that time. The location of the light not being on the normal flight path for commercial aircraft. (U/I)
28th May 1998. 20.07 MT LLOYD/SANDFORD. Two witness call to report a bright light low to their south-west. It looks to move back and forth, then a number of lights are seen moving about it. At 22.00 a witness calls from Sandford to report a similar light in the south-west. He says he saw two steaks of light in the sky then noticed the bright light which rose up the sky 15/20 deg: then blinked out. (U/I)
31st May 1998. 01.10 COLLINSVALE. The witness says he has trouble getting to sleep. In the early hours he noticed lights flashing outside every 3/4 seconds. The source was a series of triangle and square areas of light in front of the Big Rocky hill north west of his home. The area of light seemed to cover a 100m or more of hillside as they flashed on and off for some 2 minutes before everything went dark. (U/I)