Shag Harbour UFO Incident - Press Coverage

Press Coverage

The Shag Harbour crash received extensive front page coverage in the normally conservative provincial newspaper The Chronicle-Herald. The paper ran a headline story on October 7 titled, "Could Be Something Concrete in Shag Harbor UFO — RCAF." (picture above; large image) The article, by Ray MacLeod, included witness descriptions of the object and crash, the Royal Canadian Air Force's (RCAF) search and rescue effort, and the Royal Canadian Navy's (RCN) underwater search that was underway, including that three additional divers from Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic had been tasked.

The head of the RCAF's "Air Desk" in Ottawa, Squadron Leader Bain, who recommended the RCN undertake an underwater search (see "Documents" above), was also quoted, saying the RCAF was “very interested” in the matter. “We get hundreds of reports every week, but the Shag Harbor incident is one of the few where we may get something concrete on it.”

The article also mentioned UFO reports that immediately preceded the crash, including one from a woman in Halifax around 10:00 p.m.

Another of these witnesses was Chris Styles, age 12, who says he came within 100 feet of the object in Halifax. The sighting left a deep impression on Styles, who 26 years later was to resurrect the Shag Harbour case and become its principal investigator. Don Ledger, another Nova Scotia resident and an aviation expert, would later join Styles. Their investigation was recounted in their 2001 book Dark Object: The World's Only Government-Documented UFO Crash.

The Chronicle-Herald ran another story on October 9 titled "UFO Search Called Off," stating that the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) had ended "an intensive undersea search for the mysterious unidentified flying object that disappeared into the ocean here Wednesday night." As to what was found, the RCN stated, "Not a trace... not a clue... not a bit of anything." The story of the search being called off for the "mysterious" "dark object" was also carried by the Canadian Press in some other Canadian newspapers.

On October 12, The Chronicle-Herald ran a story of another sighting of a seemingly identical UFO departing the area the night of October 11, exactly one week after the initial crash. The report came from Lockland Cameron, Woods Harbour, only about one half mile north of the first sighting (see map above). Cameron said that he, his family, and relatives had all witnessed the object. Their attention was initially drawn by interference on the TV screen around 10 p.m. Cameron went outside to investigate and noticed six bright red lights, about 55 to 60 feet length, at an altitude of between 500 to 600 feet, and about three quarters of a mile off shore. It sat in a stationary position for 7 or 8 minutes and then disappeared. When it reappeared, only four orange lights were showing and seemed to be at a 35 degree angle. An hour later, a string of yellow lights appeared rapidly departing to the northeast. The RCMP investigated and found Cameron to be "sober and sincere."

On October 14, The Chronicle-Herald ran a final editorial on the incident. It stated that "numbers of people have described similar objects on at least two occasions. They are agreed upon such essentials as lights, length of the object or objects, and its speed. In the second, there was some physical evidence – that orangeish foam discovered by searchers – which gives yet more credibility to the sightings. Imagination and or natural phenomena seem to be the weakest, not strongest, of explanations. It has been a tough week for skeptics."

Also, the 7th episode of the second season of the TV show Mystery Hunters featured a section on the Shag Harbour incident.