Strangers From The Skies - Brad Steiger-pages

Page 85 of 128

Page 85 of 128
Strangers From The Skies - Brad Steiger-pages

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confusion. From the witnesses' descriptions, the possibility that the object was a balloon could not be denied. But the most qualified observers of the thing, the airport officials, became extremely tight-lipped about the affair. If the object was a weather or observation balloon, why should an airport official refuse to identify it as such? Antonio Francisco Pimentel da Cunha, a 28-year-old cab driver, was waiting for customers at the airport. "| stepped out of my cab when | heard people calling loudly to one another," he says. "I saw that thing, too. And since then | have listened to dozens of conflicting opinions about it. | have the impression that those who really know something are tight-lipped for reasons which a taxicab driver like me is certainly not able to guess. It could have been a balloon, or it could have been a flying saucer. But the more | think about it, the more | believe it was something unusual." Another strange "coincidence" which occurred at the time was that the electro-magnetic clocks of the airport stopped functioning for ten minutes while the object was in the sky overhead. Though no official comments were made, some authorities suggested that there may have been a short in the clock circuit. The identity of the object that was in the skies over the Azores remains a mystery. The witnesses will not buy the answer that it was a weather balloon since it floated into a cloud that was moving in the opposite direction and disappeared. Together with the "Cardinal's Hat" that flew over Portugal, it forms but another bit of drama in the great UFO mystery. 22. Footprints and Footnotes in Florida James W. Flynn, a well-known dog trainer and a highly respected resident of Fort Myers, Florida, was running some of his hounds through the swampy Everglades after dark on a mild March night hi 1965. As he plunged through the heavy swamp grasses, being careful to avoid foot-ensnarling roots, he could hear his dogs up ahead, whining and milling around. He frowned his bewilderment. If they had treed a raccoon, they would be baying and barking their excitement, not making high-pitched noises of fear and