On the evening of October 4, 1967, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police received several phone calls regarding a possible airplane crash in the small fishing community of Shag Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Witnesses reported four flashing orange lights in the sky, attached to an object some 60 feet in length. The object, they said, appeared to have dived into the Gulf of Maine — accompanied by a loud whistling noise — at a 45 degree angle.
A large splash occurred on impact.
A strange white light then appeared to hover near the water’s surface. At least one witness, Laurie Wickens, reported seeing the object floating offshore.
Several fishermen and police officers, responding to the calls, rushed out on boats to investigate.
By the time they arrived, it appeared to have sunk, and they found no signs of survivors or bodies. The white light had vanished. A search and rescue cutter from the Canadian Coast Guard, as well, was unable to locate any survivors or debris.
Perhaps even stranger, on their way to the object’s “crash site,” witnesses reported seeing a thick yellow or orange foam in the water.
Otherwise, nothing was found.
A subsequent underwater search of the area, headed by the Royal Canadian Navy, also failed to uncover any signs of the object.
All told, none of the Canadian agencies involved in the search succeeded in locating any evidence of a crash or the sighted object. No aircraft were reported to have gone missing at the time. The object was thus classified as a UFO, or an unidentified flying object, in official records.
The case, to this day, remains unsolved.
Strange Things Are Afoot At Shag Harbour
The incident at Shag Harbour is known well for its many witnesses and official government response. While perhaps not as popular as such purported UFO events as that at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, it stands as one of the more perplexing and unexplainable sightings in recent history.
According to the Library and Archives Canada website, “there is no trace of the RCMP reports of this sighting in the files,” and their only remaining document is a Department of National Defence memo.
What could have happened that night, over 45 years ago?
Ufologists and conspiracy theorists have their own opinions. Many claim it was an alien spacecraft that crashed into the Gulf of Maine, with some suggesting that a second craft was spotted attempting to assist the first. These claims appear to be unsubstantiated.
Others, however, believe its voyage into the sea was deliberate. Could it have been on its way to an underwater base? Or perhaps it was en route to an underground civilization, hidden deep beneath the Earth’s surface…
While these theories and hearsay are interesting, I believe the Shag Harbour incident, in its official description, stands well enough on its own.
