Documents
Today, no known RCMP reports of this sighting remain. However, several other Canadian government documents do mention the event. The first was a "UFO Report" Priority Telex message on the morning of October 5 to CANFORCEHED (Canadian Forces Headquarters) -- later known as National Defence Headquarters since unification of the Canadian Armed Forces would take place in February 1968 -- from RCC (Rescue Coordination Center) Halifax, advising that a "UFO" (also referred to as a "dark object") had impacted in Shag Harbour. The report named the RCMP officer in charge as a witness, mentioned six other witnesses, summarized sighting details, and said possible conventional explanations such as aircraft had been ruled out.
This was followed by another Priority message, October 5, "Subject: UFO", was from CANFORCEHED to CANMARCOM (Canadian Maritime Command) -- also known as the Royal Canadian Navy which was renamed to Maritime Command in February 1968 -- and written by the head of the Air Desk. It requested their department investigate the "UFO report" and recommended an underwater search of the area as soon as possible.
CANMARCOM then sent another Priority Telex on October 5 to CANCOMDIVELANT (Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic). It gave instructions for the unit to task out of HMCS Shelburne on the auxiliary diving vessel HMCS Granby (J264), proceed to Clark's Harbour, and provide a diving officer and 3 divers for a search for the crashed object reported by the RCMP in the Gulf of Maine off Shag Harbour. The latitude and longitude and the approximate distance from the shore were given. The unit was to work with the RCMP officer in charge and be advised by him of the object's likely location. Written in the top right hand corner was the name of the head of the Royal Canadian Air Force Air Desk in Ottawa, then the clearinghouse for all civilian and military UFO reports in Canada. The word "UFO" was printed in capital letters and underlined three times.
There is also a less detailed summary of the event from Canada's Department of National Defence files located in the Canadian National Archives.
Several other RCMP UFO reports from the night of October 4 also turned up. Another RCMP report was filed from a family of a very similar object to the Shag Harbour crash object seen leaving the area exactly one week later. The report alludes to the October 4 event and recommends further government interviews with witnesses. This sighting was also reported in the Halifax newspaper.
Canada's Department of National Defence has officially stated that this sighting remains unsolved. To some, use of the term "UFO" in the government documents implies "extraterrestrial or extra-dimensional." To others, it merely means official sources don't know or for some reason will not say what the people of Shag Harbour witnessed. However, two of the government documents do state that conventional explanations had all been ruled before undertaking a search for the object. One from October 6, 1967, by the commander in charge of the search (again labeled "UFO Report"), stated that the Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax had investigated and "discounted the possibilities that the sighting was produced by an aircraft, flares, floats, or any other known objects". This would suggest that authorities truly did not know what was responsible for the incident and were taking it very seriously.
Read more about this topic: Shag Harbour UFO Incident
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