This article was on the front page of the Lincoln Journal, 1/28/94.

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UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT STOPS COPS IN THEIR TRACKS.

By Margaret Reist.

It was a weird night for Lincoln police officers Dave Munn and John
Clarke.

Strange things can happen late on a cold Saturday night, when police
officers working the night shift can be the only people out and about.
But last weekend at about 4 a.m. Sunday, things seemed even stranger,
Munn said.

First of all, he and Clarke had a conversation about UFOs, stemming
from a discussion of a television program. Different.

That conversation was interrupted when the officers were sent to check
a report of two men running around outside in their underwear at 18th
and J streets. Odd.

Then while Munn and Clarke were driving to the area, in seperate
cruisers, both saw an object high up in the sky with a tail of fire
and colored lights flickering at its base. As it passed in their line
of sight behind the state Capitol, it disintegrated in a spectrum of
colors, kind of like a fireworks display. Whoaaaa - VERY strange.

"It was so bizarre," Munn said. "We were sitting there thinking,
`What's going to happen next?'" Both got on the radio and said, "Did
you see that?"

The officers talked to a resident concerning the reported disturbance
- who also happened to see the strange flying object - but didn't find
any men running around in their underwear.

Munn was curious enough about what he saw to call the Lincoln
Municipal Airport to see if they'd picked up anything on radar. He was
told he'd have to call Omaha about that. He wasn't that curious.

But at the end of his shift, Munn returned to the department and
learned that four other officers had seen the object.

The incident was reported to Scott Colborn by the resident to whom
police talked at 18th and J streets.

Colborn, director of the Fortean Research Center which investigates,
studies and collects information on logic-defying occurances, called
Dr. John Kasher. A physics professor at the University of Nebraska at
Omaha, Kasher is the head of the state chapter of the Mutual UFO
Network. Kasher said he plans to investigate to see if there is a
plausible explanation for the sighting.

Munn is sure there is, though he believes in the concept of UFOs.

"But to describe it as a flying saucer or extraterrestrial, no," he
said. "But, who knows?"

At first, he said, he thought it was a plane crashing but it was too
high in the sky for that.

His best guess: space junk or possibly some kind of comet.

A caller to a local radio station suggested it was caused by the
recent earthquake in California. There was also a small earthquake
Monday evening in northeast Nebraska.

But Ray Burchett, professor and research geologist in the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln's conservation and survey division, ruled out that
possibility.

Although there have been reports of colored lights connected to
earthquakes, that normally happens during or immediately preceding an
earthquake and is usually seen by people close to the epicenter, he
said. An earthquake causes the atmosphere to become highly ionized,
like in a thunderstorm, which can result in lightening-like effects,
he said.

But an air traffic controller at Eppley Airfield in Omaha who saw the
object had another explanation: a satellite re-entering the
atmosphere.

The controller, who asked not to be identified, said a fellow worker
also saw the object Sunday morning. He concluded it was a
falling satellite because air traffic personnel had seen similar
things in the past that were satellites burning up as they re-entered
earth's atmosphere. The object was too high to be captured on radar,
the unidentified controller said.

So there's the explanation for the strange events last Sunday morning.

Maybe.

-=END ARTICLE=-


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