UFO flying over the Yuma/Foothills, AZ area on a cold December night

On a cold December night around 10 p.m., Christina Kylochko and a friend of hers were driving from Foothills, AZ to Yuma, AZ on Gila Ridge Road while having a nice conversation when all of a sudden, they saw something that made them stop their discussion and shift their attention to the nighttime sky. Christina described the object that they saw that night as a shining green and red light flying through the sky and suddenly disappearing. Christina stated that the object couldn’t have disappeared behind a mountain or trees since there were none on the object’s trajectory. After the sighting, Christina heard from a friend of her sister who lived around the area of the event describing a light shining green and red lights and then disappearing.

What could Christina and her friend have seen that night? The famous Yuma Proving Grounds and the Marine Corps Air Station could offer explanation since aircraft are seen flying all the time around the Yuma/Foothills area. Though by that explanation, it would imply that Yuma citizens are not strangers to aircraft and are not likely to confuse helicopters and jets with UFOs. Also, how can the sudden disappearance of the object be explained? Again it is up to the reader to decide.

–Abel Muñiz Jr., UFOs Over the Desert

Shameless advertising- Using a fake UFO to promote grocery store in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mx

During the Mid-90s, a renewed interest on the subject of UFOs was sparked in modern culture by movies like “Independence Day” to actual events like the Phoenix lights on 1997. It seemed like one could not get away from UFOs. If Hollywood was taking advantage of the attention that was being given to UFOs, why couldn’t others? This was the case of a market store in San Luis Rio Colorado Sonora, Mexico (a border town) in the early 1990s. B&H was a local grocery store located in San Luis where the owner got the idea to use the public’s interest on UFOs to promote his store. Using a remote control airplane and customizing to look like an UFO, the owner of B&H started flying his remote control “UFO” around San Luis, sometimes even flying it close to the border so people in the U.S. could see it too.

Maria Muñiz remembers how the fake UFO flew just over nearby houses and  landed somewhere on the outskirts of the city. Though like many, she noticed something weird on the side of the strange aircraft. What were the people seeing in the side of the fake UFO that was even stranger than the actual aircraft? Well, the fake UFO was using electronic signage that had a message promoting the B&H store. Even though there were some people who actually read the message and knew immediately that it was a marketing ploy, those who saw the fake UFO from afar actually fell for the trick and thought that they were witnessing a real UFO. With time, the UFO craze died down and eventually people stopped seeing the B&H UFO. Concurrently, B&H closed down some time later.

Such a story makes one think how some people can be clever enough to pull schemes like these and trick people. Next time a UFO is flying near the skies, pay close attention because it might not be what it seems.

Strange blue ights flying over Celaya, MX – Folklore or UFO activity?

When interviewing Dolores Montenegro about her UFO experience in the 1980s, one could not help but notice how the traditional folklore of a community can be interpreted as UFO sightings in the modern era. Dolores used to work in a factory called ACROS that was located on the city of Celaya, Guanajuato Mexico. One night in 1984, she completed her shift at one in the morning and took the bus that would eventually take her home in a one hour ride away from Celaya. The bus passed through the countryside and its hills. It was here where she noticed a strange light moving through the area. She described it as a blue glowing sphere made of flames that was flying up and down through the hills and fields at high speeds. She was not the only one who noticed this event as several co-workers who were also in the bus witnessed it. However, the people on the bus, including Dolores, did not think they were witnessing a UFO of extraterrestrial origins, but instead they thought it was a witch, or in Spanish, a “bruja”. She went on to explain that it was pretty common seeing these strange lights in Guanajuato and sometimes they would even chase people. There is even a place outside of Celaya called “El Cerro de las Brujas,” translating to “The Mountain of the Witches,” where these lights are sometimes seen. The way people in this part of Mexico described the strange lights is identical to many UFO reports throughout the last 50 yrs.

Could people in Guanajuato be confusing UFOs with supernatural beings of their folklores?

On Jan. 16, 2004 a young police officer named Leonardo Samaniego Gallegos was patrolling the streets of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Mexico when he was attack by a weird being he described as a witch. When doing a sketch of said creature, it resembled  an alien rather than a witch.  There have also been many reports of flying objects and even flying humanoids throughout the Monterrey area.

Is this another case of mistaking actual UFO activities for local folklore? Are the people imagining what they are seeing or mistaking it for a natural phenomenon? Like always, it is up to the reader to decide.

–Abel Muñiz Jr., UFOs Over the Desert

Strange lights seen shooting across the sky through Arizona, Southern California and Nevada

On Sept. 14, 2011 around 7p.m to 8:30p.m, people living in Arizona, Southern California, and Nevada reported seeing bright green lights shoot across the sky. Yohanna Cuen, Jose Quintana and Melissa Rodriguez who are all from the Yuma/Somerton, Arizona area reported seeing this event on Wednesday night. Yohanna Cuen, stated that they all saw two bright green lights that were flashing as they crossed the sky followed by two other lights. The Los Angeles Time reported that meteorologist Curt Kaplan of the National Weather Service stated it was just probably a meteor moving from west to east.  The L.A. Times also reported that a Federal Aviation administrator commented that it was not related to any aircraft activity. Also, NASA had reported that by the end of September, the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite would fall to earth. Whether it was this that people saw has not been stated by NASA. A television station Fox 5 has a video of the flying object that was taken in the San Diego area. ABC15 from the Phoenix area also has video and photographic evidence of what people described as an orange light.

Update: September 15, 2011- Veronica McGregor, a spokeswoman at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has stated that what people saw was probably a tiny piece (the size of basketball) of an asteroid that burned up while entering the atmosphere. Source CNN

What makes this sighting weird is that they are reporting how the object started to slow down and fly horizontally before disappearing while also behaving irrationally unlike something that falls from the sky. Even though meteors sometimes seem to follow this pattern, it is because of optical illusions and the point where one is watching the event. Also, like the sighting reported by ABC15, some people in Arizona saw a bright orange light before seeing the lights people saw shooting across the sky. Another weird fact about this sighting is how many people saw shootings lights from as early as 7p.m. to as late as 8:30 p.m.

What did witnesses report seeing? Was it a meteor shower? Was it the debris of a dead satellite? Or did witnesses see the debris of a UFO?

–Abel Muñiz Jr., UFOs Over the Desert

Unidentifiable Metallic Sphere over Albuquerque, New Mexico

New Mexico is an important place to the UFO community since on June-July 1947, one of the most important UFO events occurred there. The Roswell event occurred when a farmer named William Ware “Mack” Brazel found the debris of a strange object near a farmhouse he worked at. Walter Hault, the public information officer of the Roswell Army Air Field, issued a press release stating that the debris of a flying disk had been recovered near the location. The next day the press reported that the Army had changed their story and stated that it was not debris from a flying disk but rather a weather balloon. It wasn’t until the 1970s that UFO researchers would “discover” the story again and the rest is history. Due to these events, New Mexico became infamous for having UFO crash sites and people reporting witnessing strange objects in the sky.

This is one of those stories about seeing strange objects in the sky.  The events of this account is set in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the year 2002 where John Doe (this name has been giving to the witness as he wishes to remain anonymous) went to his back porch around 4:30 p.m. to check for any UFO activity.  Using the “John Bro Technique,” (which consists of creating an “artificial eclipse” by blocking the direct rays of the sun with a cement overhang, exposing only the corona so that one might see UFO activity around it) John Doe started scanning the skies for any UFO activity on a day with a perfectly clear sky. It was then that John Doe saw something startling in the sky; this is what he had to say of his analysis:

“It was metallic, the size of a mini-van and a few hundred feet above the ground (and me) as it zoomed by my left side. It was moving incredibly fast and went invisible (or sped up so fast that it seemed to disappear as it was going behind the building that blocked my view).  It was a perfect sphere; no windows, gleaming metal and it came straight down from above the sun and zoomed past me to my left. No sound (should have broken the sound barrier, but didn’t). Turned my head from straight on all the way to the left as it traveled (meaning, I was watching it now without the aid of the sun’s corona). Scared the living hell out of me and I ran back in the house, shaking. I’ve seen others, but nothing like this.”

UFO trajectory as described by the witness- Illustration provided by witness

Two days later, John Doe saw the object shooting up into the atmosphere again; only this time, he brought his brother as a witness. Even though John Doe still sees things in the sky that are unidentifiable, he states that they are not quite the same as his experience in 2002. John Doe is not alone as evidenced by the 676 cases reported from 1945 to 2011 in New Mexico’s National UFO Reporting Center. Some cases were even similar to John Doe’s experience. What are the people seeing in the New Mexico skies? Is it unknown military aircraft or extraterrestrial disks? That is up to the reader to decide.

–Abel Muñiz Jr., UFOs Over the Desert

Welcome to UFOs Over the Desert- Strange lights over Somerton, AZ

On a warm summer night on June 2011, Somerton, AZ, Jocelyn Lopez goes out to her backyard to witness six strange lights in the sky. “They were flying in formation, two rows of three, the lights vanished and then appeared again, this happen for 10 minutes”, she commented on her experience. Jocelyn is not the first person to see unidentified flying objects in the sky. Ever since the famous Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine mysterious lights near Mount Rainer, Washington on June 24, 1947, the reports of UFO sightings have been rapidly increasing by the thousands. Just last year, the National UFO Reporting Center had 4,903 reports of UFO sightings. In the state of Arizona 2,269 UFO sightings have been reported in total.

What are all those people seeing in the sky? Are they truly seeing extraterrestrial spacecraft or merely mistaking it with an average aircraft from this planet? “UFOs Over the Desert”  will present accounts and experiences for the reader to decide for themselves.

— Abel Muñiz Jr., UFOs Over the Desert