'NUFF SAID? HARDLY

Residents of a Harbour Mille, a coastal community on the south coast, are still left to wonder if several “huge, oversized bullet” shaped objects seen soaring through the sky on a Monday evening were missiles. But there is another concern as well.

Emmy Pardy, one of the eye witnesses who observed the objects as they flew through the sky on Monday January 25th, says that not knowing what the objects were is one thing, but dealing with “so called experts,“ who claim they know, is quite another.

Since the sighting and the publicity that has surround it, many theories of what the objects might have been have been raised. According to Pardy, two of those theories are particular upsetting.

“I heard this guy on the news saying that I must have seen planes. He had this big, fancy, explanation, too. Fine enough, but I‘ve seen planes before. I’ve seen them at sunset before. That three in a row would all look like rockets and not planes is ridiculous. Remember, I had my binoculars out. I had a good view. They look like bullets,” she says.


Emmy stresses that she and the other two witnesses; Darlene Stewart who captured the now well-known photos, and Darlene’s partner Hubert Dominaux, all watched each of the three objects for almost ten minutes each.

“You would think in that time that the conditions would change somewhat and if they were planes we would see that at some point,” she says.

Pardy is also upset with talk that the area is frequented by amateur rocket enthusiasts. “I’ve lived here all my life and that’s the first time I’ve heard of that one, though I think I know where that rumour started from,” she says.

Patrick Farrell, a licensed pyrotechnician and a high level commercial fireworks supervisor level two, married a girl from the area. While the couple and their two children live in Sunnyside, they do visit the region from time to time.

Farrell says he has worked with all types of propellants and he was, as a child, a model rocket enthusiast. “I built my own rockets and developed my own rocket fuels. I also used commercial solid rocket fuel disposable engines and have owned various liquid fuel engines,” he say.So, he would consider himself, “somewhat of an expert on model rockets,” because he experimented on them for many years.

And he was in Harbour Mille that day; but only in the morning. The rockets were seen in the sky around five in the evening.

“Unfortunately we left that morning to go back to Sunnyside as I was scheduled to workin Clarenville that same evening. So to clear up anyone thinking that it was me doing some test firing in the area, no, I was not there at the time, but I really wish I was,” he says.

Patrick says he knows of no other model rocket enthusiasts that reside in that area, and because of his local fireworks experiences, he’s sure he would have heard of it if there were. Has he ever seen anything like what was in the picture before in the skies over Harour Mille? Never, he says. Neither has anyone he knows. So what does he think the object is? Patrick says he is more comfortable focusing on what the object isn’t.

“I have studied those pictures taken at Harbour Mille for a long time and with the angle and obvious size of that object and (for the eye witnesses) to be able to watch it for an extended period of time, it is obviously not a model rocket and I really do not know why the Prime Minister’s Office would ever have made such a statement,” he says.

Farrell goes on to explain that a model rocket, even the larger, more elaborate ones, will last well less than a minute in the sky. “To get a picture of one you would need to be very close and would have to use a special high speed camera. Even with that said, you still would not get anything even close to the picture that was taken the other night,” he says.

What about the airplane theory? Or that the object was a high flying jet? Farrell laughs. Not likely, he says. “Did they even see the pictures? What are the chances that three jets were flying at an angle where you couldn’t see their wings or tail? I would say it was impossible to have all three of these things flying at the same angle like that. No, not a chance,” he says.

When pressed, Farrell weighs in on the missile theory. “My opinion, from the pictures I have looked at and from the number of witnesses and their similar accounts of what they saw, I would have to say it was definitely a missile test. And judging from how close it was to our Island, something went wrong. It was much too close to land,” he says.

Farrell knows the eye witnesses quite well, and he feels bad for the pressure they are under. It’s difficult being doubted and teased, he says, referring to comments made recently by Peter Mackay regarding putting a landing strip for UFO’s in Harbour Mille.

“I just hope one day the truth will come out as the good people of this province deserve to hear the truth about this. It is obvious to the people of this town what this actually was and I would like to hear the truth about it from an official statement,” he says. Pardy agrees, offering that all these alternative theories are hurting the odds of the truth ever being uncovered. “With the way everyone is being so quiet on what it actually was and so vocal on everything that we know it wasn’t it makes you wonder,” she says.

In the meantime, Judy Foote, MP for Random-Burin-St. George's, says she is on this. She also stated in an email that she acknowledged rumours on this a “rampant.” She is, she says, determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. Foote is calling for the RCMP file to be made public.
　
Pardy, who claims she was originally told by the RCMP that the objects were missiles launched by the French, says she is in support of anything that’s gets the truth out there. While she says she is frustrated, she is also optimistic. Says Pardy; “I think the truth will come out one day. But for now, this is all one big cover up.”