Lights descend into the sea off Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia, and a search finds nothing
October 4, 1967 · Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia · Sighting · Primary document linked
At about 11:20 pm on 4 October 1967, at least eleven people saw a low, lit object head toward the fishing village of Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia. They described three to five lights in a row, a whistling sound and a bang as it reached the water. RCMP officers arrived within minutes, assuming a plane had crashed, and saw a light on the water that went out after several minutes. Fishing boats and a Coast Guard vessel found only patches of foam. No aircraft were reported missing and no debris was found, and navy divers searched the seafloor for several days without result. The Condon Committee recorded the case (Case 34) and judged further investigation by its project unjustified because the RCMP and Maritime Command had already searched promptly and thoroughly.
Why it matters (4/5)
Police, Coast Guard and navy divers searched for an object seen entering the sea; the Condon Committee recorded the case but did not pursue it.
Caveats
No one clearly saw the object enter the water, and no wreckage was found. Witness descriptions differ on the lights' colors and the object's size. The Condon Committee worked from telephone interviews, and its account of a 60-foot object and an explosion came second-hand from a Maritime Command watch officer who read an RCMP report. The pages read differ on the sequence of the naval search. One source says official records do not support claims of a secret recovery. The RCMP, Department of National Defence and Library and Archives Canada files were not opened.
Sources
- Condon Report, Case 34: Canadian Naval Maritime Command (North Atlantic, fall 1967) (University of Colorado, for the U.S. Air Force), primary
- Shag Harbour incident (Obscurantist), context
- The 1967 Shag Harbour UFO splashdown: Canada's unsolved aerial mystery (New Space Economy), context
- 1967 Shag Harbour UFO Sighting and Related Research (Library and Archives Canada), context
- UFOs in Canada (The Canadian Encyclopedia), context