To Miles O'Brian

Hello Miles,

I watched some of the UFO series you hosted on CNN.I was impressed by your non biased reporting on this phenomenon. Therefore I'd like to share my experience I had that I'll never forget for the rest of my life.

A note before you read this. I've always been interested in science and technology. I understand the dynamics of moving objects. I've seen countless meteors and other phenomenon. I've witnessed all kinds of advertising balloons, blimps and aircraft in my life. I've even watched the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station flying overhead at night. I'm interested in all kinds of high performance machines from racing cars (I raced formula cars for two years) to warplanes that I've seen at the air shows and so on. I gave up "selling" this experience to people decades ago as this would usually just fall on deaf ears. Even my friends and family probably doubt me and they are probably just being polite. I know this is really is hard to believe. I probably would find it difficult to swallow this if someone told me the same story. I guess "seeing really is believing"

First of all Miles, let it be known that I am not a UFO "believer" per say.

Although this occurred approximately 27 years ago, I thought it's time to report to various UFO investigation organizations including CNN.
Around the winter of 1980, January perhaps, I just got off work at 9:30 P.M. from the auto dealership. I was a car salesman at the time. I started driving towards the city of Toronto, Canada, on the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way) eastbound to meet some friends at a bar on the Esplanad (a street lined with nightclubs). I didn't have anything to drink and didn't smoke any pot on that day/evening.

As I was driving, I noticed a string of lights slowly rotating counter clockwise over the city of Toronto, at about the ten o'clock position from my point of view. This caught my eye because these formation of lights were very unusual. The lights were evidently in a circular pattern with about two thirds visible as the other third rotated out of view. Imagine a pie plate with about 25 lights around the circumference of it. As this "pie plate" would revolve, a third of these lights would be hidden from view as if they were obstructed by a solid body. It was at night so all I could see was these rotating string of lights but they were definitely on a "fixed" platform as the lights were revolving in unison.

Although I've heard of UFO's and was curious, at that time in my life, I didn't really give that much thought about them. I've always been interested in nature and especially about the universe. I've seen all kinds of aircraft and advertising blimps at night before. I drove taxi's off and on for fifteen years on the night shift and have seen countless meteors, lightening, satellites etc. On two occasions I've even seen extremely bright, slow falling, green fireball meteors lighting up the ground, for a couple of seconds, as if it was daylight . I've read, in later years, were other witnesses reported green fireballs as UFO's. I chuckled to myself thinking how easily "UFO believers" can be fooled by natural phenomenon.

Anyway, these circle of lights were slowly descending and approaching towards me (westbound), while I was driving about 115 kilometers per hour on the highway (eastbound). These lights were getting closer and closer as "we" approached each other. I recall thinking to myself that this must be some kind of advertising balloon and those lights were letters. As I kept driving, I was paying more and more attention to this object because the closer it was getting, the more unusual it looked. I kept glancing at it, while driving, waiting until it was close enough to read what these letters were saying, still thinking it was some kind of advertising blimp. The closer it got, the more I looked at it. Now at my nine o'clock position, the string of rotating lights appeared to started to bank left like an airplane would "turning right". Actually it wasn't banking at all. It was dipping forward pointing towards the ground. At this point, I realized that these lights were not letters at all. They were different shaped, yellowish white lights. The reason these lights were different in shape was because they were "inset" into some solid body. When the lights were seen head on, they were circular. But as they rotated out of "direct" view, they changed shape like the different crescents of the moon. That's why they appeared to be all different shapes.

During the time when this object started to bank left, or I thought from my point of view, I was struggling with myself trying to understand whether this was a plane, blimp, or a balloon. It was flying too slow for a plane, yet, too fast for a blimp. Also, it didn't appear to be flying or floating. The best way I can describe it's motion is that it looked like it was "sailing" in the sky.

What's interesting here is that the human brain tries to associate what the eyes are seeing, to something already seen or experienced before. That's why I was at war with myself trying to decide whether this object was a plane, blimp or a balloon. Every time I resigned myself to what I must be witnessing, I jumped to another conclusion. This jumping from one conclusion to another occurred during the whole experience. I was imagining all kinds of things. For example, if it was a plane, the only way these lights could have been positioned was in a circle because this plane must have had some kind of supporting structure in a circle from wing tip to wing tip. This didn't make any sense at all. I've seen advertising planes before. This was nothing like this. Not even close. Than I was trying to imagine a "Goodyear blimp" with these letters going across it's side. This was nothing like it either. So here I was, trying to drive and watch this object at the same time. As I was driving, I started to slow down because I kept looking at this circle of lights more than the road ahead of me. In retrospect, I don't even know how I kept my car on the road because I was so awed by this display in the sky.

Here is the killer.

As the object kept dipping forward more and more, it eventually ended up totally perpendicular to the ground! The first thing that came to mind was a big Ferris wheel rotating in the sky. At this point I slowed down to about 50 KPH (30 miles an hour in a 60 MPH highway for my American friends) and put my four way, flashing hazard lights on my car fearing that another car would crash into the back of me for going so slow on a 100 KPH highway.

Here is another shocker.

As I was mesmerized by this strange looking object, a surge of adrenaline hit me like a ton of bricks. I didn't realize how BIG this thing was. At first I thought it was the size of an airplane fairly close. IT WAS GIGANTIC! At least twice the size of a football field, bigger than an aircraft carrier!!! I don't know what gave away it's size. Maybe the reflections of light on the ground. The best way I can relate this sudden realization is like one of those illusions most of us have seen. You know, when you look at a pixel drawing with an image you can't see until you stare at it for a while? After a period of time, you make out the face of a women or something like that? That's kind of the transformation I experienced. At first I thought the object was the size of a large plane than suddenly I REALLY saw it. IT WAS HUGE!!! I yelled out loud to my self, "Holey F**k, IT'S HUGE!!!". I don't F***ing believe it, it's F***ing HUGE!!!. I thought it was fairly close at first, than bang!, it was much farther away and larger than my brain first comprehended it. Speaking about this surge of adrenaline. Have you ever had a really close call having a car accident? When your heart rate skyrockets to about 180 beats per minute? That's what I felt when I realized how GARGANTUAN this object was! I could actually feel my heart pounding like crazy. To be frank, it literally scared the hell out of me, when I realized how big it was. At this point, I rolled down my window and pointed to this giant "Ferris wheel" in the sky to the other motorists, but it appeared no one seemed to notice as they screamed by me at regular highway speeds. I remember how cold it was when I rolled down my window. It was something like minus 30 Celsius below zero.

After, I don't know how long, probably only a few seconds of rotating in this perpendicular position, this thing started to climb and right itself and "sail" back to the direction it originally came from. I rolled up my window, turned off my hazard lights, and started to speed up to chase it. Still it seemed other motorists didn't notice this object. It still irks me to this day. As I was approaching the city limits, this object was in it's flat position again climbing over the city. Then, all of a sudden, the rotating lights turned off except for a red "aircraft like" blinking light (which I never noticed before). After a few seconds, the rotating lights turned on again. It was like in the movie "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind". The lights just blasted on. Than after a few seconds they turned off again as it seemed to be right over the city. Strange behavior. Now I was exiting off of the highway on to Spadina Rd. I lost track of these lights because of the tall buildings. When I was on the street where I was going, I saw a cop parked on the other side of the road writing a parking ticked. I stopped in the middle of the road and ran over to him. He was quite taken aback by my seemingly aggressive approach. I asked him, "how long have you been here?" I forgot what he said, but I asked, "did you see that big circle of lights flying in the sky? He said "no". After parking my car, I met my friends at the bar, "Baily's", and told them what happened but they didn't take me seriously as they've already had a few and were more interested in the ladies.

After sitting at the bar by myself for a couple of hours I went home. I was living at my parent's house at the time, temporarily, so when I got home around 1 A.M., I called the police. I didn't know who else to phone at the time. They didn't take me seriously of course so after that, I phoned the Toronto International Airport and managed to get through to Air Traffic Control and asked them if they had anyone call in with a UFO report. Nothing. So I called the police again and convinced them to take me seriously as I wanted to make a report. They told me they can send a couple of officers to my house. As it was late and my parents were asleep, I told them I'd rather come to the station the next day to report. Next morning, when I contemplated going in I decided not to, fearing they would think I'm some kind of wacko.

As the days went by, scanning the newspapers looking for a "UFO sighting" to no avail, I started doubting myself. I was trying to convince myself that perhaps I was somehow mistaken. Maybe it was something not out of the ordinary at all. Maybe it was a balloon or airplane of some kind. Maybe like thousands of others, I witnessed something that I misinterpreted for something else.

And now the conclusion.

About a week or so later, on or about the tenth page of the Toronto Star, bottom right hand corner, there it was! A short article. "Dozens of Mississauga residents reported a UFO as big as a football field!!!" I don't recall the whole article. "Finally" I said to myself. "I knew it was real", "I knew I didn't imagine this". I'll never, ever, doubt myself again no matter how much ridicule I'll be subjected to. I have only one regret however. That is I wish I had others with me to experience this. After about 27 years, I just had to let this out.

Regards,
Tibor Blank