The report of strange lights in the sky over Parksville last weekend could well have been a helicopter, says UFO researcher Brian Vike, except for one important detail.
The object, seen by two witnesses between 9:30 and 10:10 p.m. on Saturday, March 24 night, made no sound.
“When I originally posted this, a fellow in the area wrote and suggested it might possibly be a helicopter,” Vike said in an interview Tuesday. “He said there is a clearing near there where they take off and land — and the lights sound like normal navigation lights on some sort of aircraft — but what bothers me is them being right beneath it and not hearing anything at all. Helicopters have a very distinctive sound. You can’t miss it. It’s loud.”
The sighting was witnessed by three others in Qualicum Beach, who read about it in The News and subsequently contacted Vike.
“I was surprised to hear that others saw a similar object that my son, husband and I witnessed from our back patio,” said one witness. “It was really large, triangular-shaped, with bright coloured flashing lights and very high up to the right.”
The woman said the object appeared to be just over a mile away and there was no sound of a helicopter audible.
“It was definitely not a helicopter, since the flashing lights were far brighter than the market lights of any helicopter I have ever seen,” she said.
Another witness from Qualicum Beach said the object first appeared at around 7 p.m. over Mount Arrowsmith.
“We too saw strange lights on Saturday night,” the witness said. “We were looking at Mount Arrowsmith and saw lights moving up and down the mountain. They were at different altitudes, separated by what looked like, several hundred feet. We saw white and red lights moving and thought it was very strange.”
Vike said he has no explanation for the Parksville sighting, but he’s hopeful that either other witnesses or someone who knows the origin of the lights will contact him at sighting@telus.net.
“Everything is possible,” he said, “because I just don’t know.”
