Close Encounters

Story 1: The Second Kind

Alleged interactions with extraterrestrial craft and their occupants come in many forms, each providing varying degrees of evidence with which to validate their provenance.

A small proportion of these cases has resulted in significant illness or injury to those involved, with no definitive explanation as to how or why the witnesses came to develop such harmful symptoms.

This week, we examine two such instances of close encounters of the second kind.

In 1972, famed ufologist J.

Alan Hynek devised a system which would group incidents of alleged extraterrestrial contact into distinct categories.

In recent decades, this system has been expanded to include every possible type of scenario, but at the time of its inception, there were only three classifications.

The lowest level of Hynek's system, encounters of the first kind, were defined as distant visual sightings of supposed alien craft.

Conversely, the highest categories encounters of the third kind, were determined by human interactions with the occupants of these vessels.

But in between these two extremes lay a wide middle ground, in which the craft and entities involved left some form of physical evidence of their passing, without directly interacting with any human being.

These were classified as close encounters of the second kind.

Examples of the evidence left behind at such incidents have included lasting damage being caused to vegetation and buildings, documented interference with electronics and other telecommunication systems, and in the most extreme cases, death or serious injury being inflicted upon humans or animals.

Thankfully, such occurrences are exceedingly rare, and we have already looked at some of the more tragic accounts during previous episodes.

These incidents have also provoked a disturbing debate amongst commentators on the subject.

as to whether the harm caused to those involved is deliberate on the part of these visitors or merely an unfortunate byproduct of their

What is clear is that close proximity to alleged extraterrestrial craft and their occupants has proven time and time again to be extremely dangerous, with unseen and powerful forces exerted during these incidents.

Forces which can lead to long-term injuries and lasting health implications for those who are lucky enough, or perhaps unlucky enough, to have witnessed such an event.

At approximately 9 p.m.

on the evening of the 29th of December 1980, drivers travelling along the Texas State Road 1485 would likely have seen an Oldsmobile cutlass slowly labouring along the highway towards the city of Dayton.

The car's owner, Betty Cash, had been returning home from a dinner with her longtime friend Vicki Landrum, along with Vicky's seven-year-old grandson, Colby.

The two women were in good spirits and were happily chatting away as the car proceeded to enter a heavily wooded section of the road.

A short time after this, Landrum commented to her friend that she could see a brightly lit object crossing the woods ahead of them, high above the trees.

As Cash slowed the car down, she also caught sight of it, and after a brief conversation, The two women agreed that what they had seen was most likely an aircraft trying to locate Houston International Airport, which was nearby.

A little further along the highway, Cash suddenly became aware of an intense light up ahead, which was illuminating the carriageway.

Thinking this must be an approaching truck with its headlights still on full beam, she instinctively slowed her own vehicle down, only to realise that the light up ahead did not appear to be altering in intensity.

As the car coasted to a halt around a blind bend, Cash now saw that the roadway ahead was somewhat obstructed by a large craft, which was hovering several feet above the ground.

She would later go on to describe it as roughly the same size as the top of a water tower, being metallic in appearance and shaped like a diamond with the tips cut off at the top and bottom.

The central portion of this vessel was surrounded by a ring of blue lights, and every so often a series of intense flames would issue forth from the base of the object.

When they did so, the craft would immediately coast forwards a few feet towards the car and then come to a halt until the next burst would then propel it forwards again.

As she surveyed this mysterious floating object, Cash's first instinct was to turn the car around and drive back the way she came.

But at the same time, She was conscious that it had been raining heavily that day and the ground either side of the road was muddy, leading her to fret that she may become stuck.

It was at this point during the incident that Landrum commented about how hot she was feeling.

Cash suddenly realised that since the moment they had first encountered the object, the temperature appeared to have been steadily rising inside the car.

Landrum, a long-standing and devout Christian, told her friend that she believed what they were witnessing was some form of religious visitation and stated that she wanted to get out of the vehicle.

But as she went to do so, she stopped herself as Colby was becoming visibly agitated and upset in the rear seats behind them.

Cash however did exit the vehicle and then slowly started to walk towards the mysterious floating craft.

She was swiftly stopped in her tracks by the intense heat it was producing, forcing her to retreat to the car.

When she did so, she found that the door handle was now too hot to touch.

She would have to wrap her coat sleeve around her hand in order to open the car door.

When she got back into her vehicle, Cash then watched on in amazement as Landrum proceeded to place her outstretched palm on the vinyl of the dashboard.

By now, the material was so hot that her hand seemed to sink into it.

leaving a lasting impression behind when she removed it.

As they continued to observe in complete bewilderment, the object gave off another almighty burst of flame, and then slowly ascended into the air to a point above the treetops.

The two women then became aware of another sound as a series of large military helicopters swiftly hovered into view.

The strange vessel then made off, with the army helicopters pursuing it across the forest.

The two women watched on for a time as the lights receded into the distance, before carrying on with their journey, talking animatedly about what they had just witnessed.

Later that evening, after she had dropped Vicky and Colby back home, Betty Cash suddenly collapsed in her kitchen and began to vomit.

Over the course of that evening, she continued to be violently sick, as well as succumbing to severe nausea and diarrhea.

The following morning, she made a phone call to Landrum, who immediately admitted that she too was experiencing similar symptoms, as was Colby.

Over the next few days, the condition of the two women would continue to steadily deteriorate.

They both became weak and found themselves struggling to focus on anything.

Cash's skin went on to develop painful blistering akin to a severe bout of sunburn.

And when she finally got checked out at the nearest hospital, it was also discovered by the clinicians there that small portions of her hair were beginning to fall out.

A radiologist who examined the patients stated that their symptoms were similar in nature to people who had been exposed to high levels of ionising radiation.

But in the majority of such incidents, the patients involved had sadly passed away shortly afterwards.

Instead, both women would go on to recover, though not without sustaining long-term health issues.

For the next 18 years until her death, Betty Cash would be admitted to hospital on an annual basis, before she finally succumbed to her long battle with breast cancer, which had first been diagnosed in the immediate aftermath of the alleged UFO encounter.

For her part, Vicki Landrum developed severe cataracts in both eyes, a condition that would impair her vision until her eventual death in 2007.

Much like his grandmother, Colby was significantly less affected than Betty Cash, and he managed to escape the incident without developing any long-term health implications.

In the years which have passed since the Cash Landrum sighting, there has been great speculation as to what could have caused the illnesses sustained by both witnesses.

Some believe that in addition to low-level radiation, the women may have been exposed to something with an infrared property, and potentially, even an aerosol or gas.

The prevailing theory is that Cash was more heavily affected than her passengers, as she had temporarily abandoned what little protection, her vehicle, had afforded.

30 years prior to the incident involving Betty Cash and Vicky Landrum, an even more unnerving encounter would allegedly take place in a remote area of countryside situated not far from the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

The primary witness of this incident would be a Venezuelan physician by the name of Enrique Bota, who before qualifying as a doctor had originally mastered a degree in engineering.

It was his credentials in this field which had resulted in him being invited to Argentina during the summer of 1950 in order to work on a rural engineering project.

One morning, he was driving the rental car from his hotel along a remote highway towards the isolated rural area of Bayablanca where he had been working.

Due to the early hour, there was no other traffic on the road and so he had easily spotted what, on approach, appeared to be a car overturned in a field.

But the closer Botta came to the crashed vehicle, he realised that it had no obvious windows or doors, and instead resembled a featureless metal disc of some kind.

Pulling up a short distance away, he continued to observe for several minutes before deciding to exit his car and go in for a closer look.

After circling around the strange vehicle, he noticed an aperture in its side which he then used to gain entry.

Inside, it was difficult for him to see anything.

as there was only one blinking red light attached to the roof of the hull.

But slowly, as Botta's eyes adjusted to the dim interior, he realised that he was not alone.

Over to one side was a large control panel of some kind, filled with various gauges and meters, the likes of which the engineer had never seen before.

Situated around this strange console were three metallic seats, all of which had small figures belted into them.

The doctor described the craft's occupants as roughly 4 foot tall and wearing tight-fitting grey coveralls of some kind.

He called out to the figures, but having received no response, he then moved closer to see if he could rouse them.

Botter would later recall that as he shuffled around towards the chairs, he ran his hand along the interior of the disc and was amazed to find that it had the texture of rubber, despite being apparently metallic in appearance.

When he then shook the shoulder of one of the seated beings, the skin beneath his fingers felt solid and almost charred in texture.

At this stage, believing the craft's occupants had perished in the apparent crash, Botter ran from the object and drove directly back to the hotel where he told his two colleagues Horatio and Leo what he had seen.

The three men duly armed themselves with pistols and then drove back to the location, only to find a mysterious pile of dark ash where the machine had once stood.

When one of the men scooped up some of this particulate in his palm, the skin on his hand gradually transitioned into a livid shade of purple and stayed that way for the next three days.

As the men began to spread out and walk around the vicinity of the ash pile, They suddenly caught sight of a series of strange red lights approaching in the distant sky.

Losing their nerve, the men ran back to their car and made off as fast as they could, taking a couple of blurry photos of the flying lights as they did so.

Just as with the Cash Landrum sighting, in the days following the event, Enrique Bott's skin began to severely blister.

On his face, the imprint of where he had been wearing his sunglasses on the day of the incident remained seared into the skin.

and did not fade away for many weeks.

When he was subsequently bedridden with severe fever-like symptoms which had gone on to overwhelm him, Botter was finally rushed to hospital.

Doctors carried out a battery of tests on him, concerned that he had succumbed to a form of radiation poisoning, and yet no trace of this could be found at all during the testing.

For several years, neither of the three men allowed themselves to speak about the incident.

until Botter was finally persuaded to attend a UFO conference, where he opened up about about the experience there to fellow delegates.

This would lead him to commit his memories of what had happened to paper in a book he titled, Situation Red.

The similarities between these two incidents and the life-threatening symptoms which manifested in those involved are concerning.

particularly as they are also found in many of the stories from countless other witnesses who claim to have been visited by extraterrestrials.

It could be that this radiation-like poisoning is some sort of side effect from a scanning device being employed by the alien craft, or perhaps even a byproduct of the vessel's propulsion system or fuel source.

Another theory is that the atmosphere in which the entities usually reside is somehow toxic to humans.

and as a result of them having to replicate it within their craft and also their immediate surroundings, it then proves dangerous to the witnesses who they come into contact with.

Thankfully, the overwhelming majority of alleged UFO sightings remain close encounters of the first kind.

Although, with the amount of UFO stories currently appearing in various news sources, the prospect that these visitors may one day choose to make direct contact with humanity is ever present.

Perhaps such cases should be taken as cautionary tales.

Story 2: Enemies of the State

We have already examined a broad range of UFO encounters reported at locations all across the globe.

This week, however, we will be focusing on a series of sightings which allegedly took place within the Soviet Union.

Stories in which the Soviet government had been repeatedly forced to confront and evaluate the existence of potentially unearthly enemies of the state.

It should perhaps come as little surprise that the majority of high-profile UFO encounters have reportedly taken place within the borders of the United States.

A nation so vast in territory, possessing layers of both regional and national media outlets, there seems no end to the manner in which those who have experienced strange occurrences can share their stories with others, regardless of how often they are ridiculed.

Since the term flying saucer was first coined by Kenneth Arnold, following his encounter with a series of unidentified flying objects in 1947, North America has played host to a seemingly unending succession of purported UFO encounters.

These have ranged from the alleged crash of an alien spacecraft at Roswell in New Mexico, right up to the recent video recordings of unknown high-speed aerial vehicles by American Navy pilots, and everything in between.

Such cases have often prompted the media to ask open and unwanted questions of the US military, resulting in instances of bemused officials having been brought out in front of the cameras to offer some form of explanation.

And yet, the same level of reporting is not found in countries of a similar or even greater size.

This prompts the question:

What is it about the USA which extraterrestrials are so enamoured enamoured with?

For example, there seems to be precious few such stories to have emerged from the Eastern Hemisphere, either in modern times or the era of the Soviet Union.

A brief trawl through the internet finds no obvious reference to any member of the Soviet government taking a formal stance on the potential existence of visitors from another planet.

And yet, a growing number of stories are now coming to light, which suggest the country's leaders have in fact faced repeated encounters with unearthly intruders.

In February of 1985, two train drivers by the names of Orlov and Miranov were transporting 70 empty freight containers in order to collect iron ore from a refinery situated in the northwestern town of Kostomuksha.

The journey they had undertaken was a regular one.

It took them right across the barren and open expanse of the Karelian territories and was usually an uneventful jaunt.

The pair had been whiling away their time in the cabin of the vehicle when Orlov had suddenly caught sight of something resembling a large ball of light travelling parallel to the railway tracks just above a nearby tree line.

As they observed, The glowing sphere drastically increased its speed, before it suddenly swerved sideways and began to travel along the tracks directly ahead of the train.

Crying out in alarm, Orlov grabbed hold of the engine's brake, fearing that a collision would almost certainly take place if the strange object ahead of them in any way slowed down.

But despite his best efforts, including powering down the engine's propulsion system, the train continued on its path.

If anything, it now seemed to be gathering speed, as though the object travelling before them was somehow pulling them along in its wake.

Unable to slow the locomotive down, Miranov used the vehicle's radio to make a panic call to staff at the train station in Novopesky, which they were now rapidly approaching at high speed.

The female operator who took the call could make little sense of what the terrified driver was trying to tell her, but was suddenly startled by the sound of shouting coming from the platform directly outside her office.

Hurrying out of the room, she and a small gathering of staff and passengers observed a glowing object roughly 13 feet in diameter hurtling along the tracks towards them directly ahead of the approaching train.

But just prior to reaching the platforms, This strange craft veered sharply off to one side, disappearing from view and leaving the speeding locomotive to hurtle through the station with its brakes and engine still completely inoperative.

Moments later, as the train fully cleared the platforms, Miranov and Orlov felt it beginning to slow down, but their sense of elation was immediately crushed as the object suddenly veered into view ahead of them once again.

Gradually, despite the vehicle's brakes still being engaged and the engines being powered powered down, the train began to gather momentum, seemingly dragged along at high velocity behind the silent and speeding craft.

This strange encounter would continue for another hour, with the train travelling over 30 miles behind the glowing object before it again disappeared from view, this time for good.

When the train finally ground to a halt in Zastava, the two engineers were amazed to discover that they had somehow managed to save over 300 kilograms of fuel due to this mystifying incident.

In addition to this, the windscreen of the train cabin and the frontal bodywork were both visibly damaged as a result of impacts on various objects thrown up by the unknown craft as it had pulled them along behind it.

But of the mysterious object itself, there was no physical trace anywhere to be found.

Four years later, and on the other side of the vast and sprawling Soviet territories, one of the most high-profile UFO incidents to be reported in Russian history would allegedly occur in the industrial city of Voronish.

On the morning of September the 28th, 1989, a number of bizarre reports began to circulate through state media.

It gradually became clear that an incident had taken place during the previous night in in one of the city's central park areas, and had been witnessed by a large group of residents.

At approximately 6.30pm that evening, people out walking and playing in Levonirisinia Park suddenly became aware of a strange glowing shape, which was hovering low in the skies above them.

The various descriptions of this odd craft all seemed to concur that it was somewhere in the region of 45 feet in diameter and 18 feet feet in height, with a metallic surface which was somehow emitting a dull red colour.

Whilst more and more people began to assemble in the park, they looked on in wonder as the strange vessel began to descend slowly to the ground.

As it did so, four thin metallic legs unfolded from inside its lower section.

before it touched down on the ground near to where a group of teenage boys were playing football together after school.

With the watching crowd, swollen by the addition of another 40 bystanders who had been waiting at a nearby bus stop, there were now over 100 witnesses to what took place next.

As the boys stopped their game of football, a hatch on the underside of the object opened.

Moments later a stocky, 9-foot-tall entity emerged, wearing some kind of silvery jumpsuit, as well as a pair of bronze-coloured boots.

The creature's head was significantly smaller when compared to the rest of its body.

It had a large saucer-shaped eye mounted either side of its face, with a smaller third eye situated directly in the centre, which seemed to be swiveling back and forth as it scanned the surrounding area.

With whatever degree of assessment it was undertaking having apparently been completed, the ship's occupant was then joined by two more identical figures, all three wearing disc-like plates affixed to the front of their suits.

A much smaller box-shaped construction then materialised from inside the craft behind the trio.

It proceeded to move along the ground behind them, travelling as it did so with an awkward and almost robotic gait.

This mechanical creation would occasionally stop and reach down to the ground, apparently taking soil and grass samples at the direction of the three taller figures walking before it.

A sense of panic suddenly rippled through the ranks of the assembled witnesses, with several of the younger members crying out in terror.

It is from this point onwards that accounts of what took place begin to vary somewhat.

Several of the witnesses later claim that the craft and its occupants suddenly disappeared from sight, only to then rematerialize a few minutes later at the exact same point they had vanished from.

Others would describe how one of the entities produced a thick metallic tube, roughly a foot in length, which it then aimed directly at one of the crying teenagers.

The youth in question seemed to dematerialise under the power of whatever invisible beam was being produced by this device, before reappearing several minutes later, as the creatures and their craft then made their departure.

With several of the witnesses to this incident being soldiers and police officers, it was later reported in the local news that the city authorities had deemed that the matter justified a formal investigation.

It was alleged that several trees had apparently either been broken or bent backwards as they were situated in the path of the descending craft.

Investigators also reported detecting higher levels of background radiation than should have been present, as well as traces of a strange mineral deposit which had never been found anywhere else on Earth.

Further reports were made in the months which followed of both flying craft and creatures in the skies above Voronish, but would go on to be dismissed as the result of mass hysteria.

A significant number of residents in the city maintain to this day that their visitors on that fateful autumn evening were very real, and that judging by their unearthly appearance, could not not possibly have been from this world.

But as unsettling as the previous two encounters were for those who were involved, by far the most disturbing report to have ever emerged from this part of the world reportedly occurred in a remote region of Siberia during the winter of 1993, in the post-Soviet era.

This incident was apparently detailed in a 250-page intelligence document, which was later declassified by the CIA.

It described a nightmarish confrontation between Russian troops and an alien craft, which took place somewhere inside the vast expanse of the Siberian wilderness.

The encounter allegedly began when a detachment of infantrymen from one of the garrisons in the area had been deployed on a training exercise.

They had become aware of an unidentified object hovering over a tract of isolated and remote woodland.

Immediately assessing it to be hostile in nature, several of the men had promptly utilized a surface-to-air missile launcher to take down the craft, which then spun wildly out of control for several seconds before crashing into a nearby clearing.

As the army unit had spread out to surround and take control of the fallen object, Five beings had emerged from inside it to meet them, which were described as being stumpy in appearance but possessing large black eyes.

As a pair of the Russian troopers had approached the creatures with their weapons drawn and demanding their surrender, one of the entities had instead opened fire on them with a mysterious weapon.

Moments later, the two soldiers were instantly transformed into living statues, composed of some unknown form of rock or hard mineral.

The five entities then immediately began firing indiscriminately at the other troops who were surrounding them.

Only two of the Russian soldiers who were present managed to successfully flee from the slaughter.

The rest of their comrades were all killed in the same terrifying fashion.

When a much larger force from the garrison later returned to the scene with the survivors, equipped with both armoured vehicle and helicopter support, They found that the craft and its occupants were now missing.

But still littered around the the empty clearing were the frozen bodies of 23 of their comrades, somehow converted into grotesque, mineral representations of the brave fighting men they had once been.

The extensive briefing document goes on to allege that the KGB was soon involved.

The incident was quietly hushed up, and the remains of the dead soldiers were shipped off to a laboratory in Moscow for detailed study.

Intriguingly, the scientists involved in the analysis of the bodies were unable to identify the exact composition of the substance which had entombed the dead soldiers.

All that could be ascertained was that it was apparently extraterrestrial in nature and somewhat similar in chemical structure to terrestrial limestone.

Perhaps the most obvious difference which sets these reports from the Eastern Hemisphere well apart from the many which have emerged from the United States is is the large number of witnesses involved in each of the incidents.

Whereas the overwhelming majority of the sightings to have been documented in the USA feature groups of two or three witnesses in most cases, in all of the stories which have emerged from Russia, there was always a sizeable number present, somewhat making it impossible for the government to write off or cover up.

And if, by some chance, the sheer number of eyewitnesses has has in some way contributed to the advent of these stories breaking free from the veil of Soviet secrecy and being disseminated throughout the rest of the world, it raises potentially troubling questions.

If, like in the USA, there have been further, countless incidents where only a handful of witnesses have been involved, What did the Soviet government do with the testimonies of those concerned, and with the people themselves?

Are there still countless stories waiting to be told, which add even more weight to the notion of extraterrestrial visitors to our planet?

The full, undisclosed truth of the matter remains to be seen.

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