2000: UFO Encounter at Little Fox Lake, Yukon

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THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTINGS REPORT

Date: March 30, 2000

Sighting Time: 5 am

Day/Night: Early Morning

Location: Little Fox Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada

Urban or Rural: –

Hynek Classification:  CE-I (Close Encounter I) Observation of an object in close proximity to the witness (i.e. within 500’)

Duration:

No. of Object(s): 1

Height & Speed:

Size of Object(s): 30 to 40 ft diameter

Distance to Object(s): 300 ft (90 meters) away

Shape of Object(s): Disc

Color of Object(s): The dome had two curved windows or lights from which a blue light was shining.

Number of Witnesses:

Source: Martin Jasek Source

Summary: Witnesses saw a 30 to 40 ft diameter saucer, hovering about 200 ft off the ground! . It was a classic disc shape with a dome on top. The dome had two curved windows or lights from which a blue light was shining. The car headlights dimmed and their tape deck stopped playing. Their watches stopped functioning. 

Full Report

ABOVE: Drawing by the investigator, Martin Jasek, based on the witness’ account

There have been many close encounters with UFOs in the Yukon but it is not often that we get a report like this so soon after it occurs. The witnesses were interviewed about 15 hours after their experience. They were still in a state of shock, coherent, and sincere. For those who doubt accounts like this, I only wish they could hear the witnesses first hand. Their emotional state and what they had to say has left a deep impression on me. Many thanks to FOX4 for notifying us of this sighting, conducting the initial interview and for obtaining the witness drawing. Since this article has been published one of the witnesses has informed us that she does not mind having her identity disclosed. “I know what I saw” Leah Isaac states, “and I was a skeptic before!”

The Account:

Leah Isaac, a friend of hers, and a young boy (who was asleep) were travelling northbound along the Klondike Highway from Whitehorse to the Village of Pelly Crossing, Yukon. The sky was clear with a glow of predawn blue. They were nearing the end of Little Fox Lake and came around a sharp right-hand bend near the base of a mountain.

Upon coming out from the bend they could not believe their eyes! To the right and about 300 ft (90 meters) away was a 30 to 40 ft (9 to 12 meters) diameter saucer, hovering about 200 ft (60 meters) off the ground! They observed it to be stationary for 4 to 5 seconds as they were travelling along the highway and then it shot across horizontally in front of their vehicle at an “incredible speed” and stopped instantly on the left side of the road. “Nothing can move that fast”, “in the blink of an eye” the witnesses described.

It remained motionless for only another split second and shot off even faster in a different direction (basically performing a 90-degree turn and shooting off behind them). One witness thought it went right into the side of a mountain while the other thought it followed the mountainous skyline. “Come on, floor it, floor it!” shouted the friend to Leah. They continued northbound fleeing from the location and eventually pulled over about 20 minutes later.

They were both visibly shaking. “We were more scared than excited, I think if it wasn’t so close it would not have been so frightening”, “It’s like we caught it by surprise when we came around the corner”, “it was so advanced”, “I’ll never be the same” were some of the comments by the witnesses.

Drawing of the UFO by witness Leah Isaac, the driver.

The witnesses got a good look at the saucer. It was a classic disc shape with a dome on top. The dome had two curved windows or lights from which a beautiful ocean blue or aqua colored light was shining. The surface of the craft was difficult to describe. Some of the words the witnesses used were “mirror, silver, translucent, shiny, glassy, reflecting the color of the sky”. It was as though the UFO was trying to “camouflage against the background sky color”. “Had it been pitch black out I don’t think we would have seen the body of the craft, just the windows or lights” Leah remarked.

Drawing by the passenger of the vehicle
a) a sketch showing the basic shape of the UFO
b) the witness drew this second sketch to better describe the dividers between the windows or panel lights

As the UFO streaked in front of their vehicle, the car headlights dimmed and their tape deck stopped playing. They both wanted to check the time of their sighting. However, Leah’s battery-operated analog watch stopped (at 5:00am) and the man’s digital watch went blank, and then got stuck in “chrono mode” and wouldn’t reset. A few miles down the road Leah tapped the face of her watch and it started working again. The man fiddled around pushing buttons on his digital watch and it started working as well, the time indicated was 5:12 am. They checked the tape deck and by all indications, John Fogerty should have been playing away. The tape hadn’t run out, the volume was on, and the lights on the cassette window indicated that the power was on. Other than the initial power drain, no additional problems were noted with the truck. The man figured that they managed to get the tape deck and watches functioning properly after they traveled a “couple of miles” past the UFO sighting location. The woman figured that about 5 minutes had elapsed when they managed to get their watches functioning and about 10 minutes until the tape deck started to work. Although the witnesses were travelling in a vehicle, no noise was heard emanating from the UFO.

Updated Information:

Leah Isaac was interviewed in Whitehorse and was asked to use reference objects (buildings around her) to help provide estimates of the closest approach and size of the UFO. These distances were measured and the following results were determined: At their closest approach the UFO was about 27 meters (90 feet) away and about 10 meters (34 feet) in diameter. The geometry gives a viewing angle of about 22 degrees of an arc.

Further investigation into this case is described in the IUR Journal (International UFO Reporter) Summer 2000 issue Vol. 25. No. 2. by Mark Rodeghier* and Martin Jasek.

*Mark Rodeghier is the scientific director of the Center for UFO Studies in Chicago. He has dedicated his UFO studies to cases where there had been interference with the vehicle’s electronics, such as this one that occurred at Little Fox Lake. To date he has catalogued some 500 such cases. He has the following to add regarding this case:

“I am definitely interested in more information on this report, as much as possible, both because it is a recent case and because very few vehicle interference reports have been studied in depth before. This is because they have been so infrequent–only somewhat over 500 have occurred worldwide since 1947–so any one investigator may only see one or two reports in a lifetime of UFO investigations. I have personally investigated only one report, although I have spoken with the witnesses in about a dozen other cases.

I can tell you that this case fits a pattern I first discerned about 20 years ago. That is, in most vehicle interference reports, the UFO is disk-shaped, about 30 feet in size, and comes quite close to the witness. It often moves in front of the vehicle, as it did at Little Fox Lake. Most cases also occur in isolated locations. The color blue is quite common. It’s amazing to me to see this pattern repeating here in the year 2000.”

Mark Rodeghier and Martin Jasek continue to work on this case. Work includes obtaining the magnetic signature of the vehicle to assess if it had been magnetized.

Additional Information:

To help visualize the lighting conditions an astronomical simulation program was used to determine that the sun was 11 degrees below the horizon during the sighting. It is difficult to put this in perspective in terms of the amount of time before sunrise as the sunrise rate varies significantly with latitude and season. For the location and date in question, it was about 1 hour and 35 minutes before sunrise. For different latitudes similar lighting conditions can be found at the following times before sunrise or after sunset:

For March 30:
Equator (0 deg lat.): 42 minutes
Los Angeles (34 deg lat.): 55 minutes
Vancouver (49 deg lat.): 1 hour 05 minutes
Little Fox Lake (61.5 deg lat.): 1 hour and 35 minutes

For June 30:
Equator (0 deg lat.): 45 minutes
Los Angeles (34 deg lat.): 1 hour 05 minutes
Vancouver (49 deg lat.): 1 hour 40 minutes
Little Fox Lake (61.5 deg lat.): does not get dark enough

Original Article

Photo of witnesses from newspaper article about the sighting. Caption reads: “Pelly Crossing resident Leah Isaac is seen in Whitehorse with daughter, and partner Darrell Lucas. 

For Leah Isaac, a strange encounter with the third kind on March 30 made a believer out of the former skeptic.

The episode, meanwhile, is attracting the interest of the American media.

“I can’t even travel at night anymore,” the Pelly Crossing resident told the Star in Whitehorse this morning.

Shortly after 5 a.m. on the day in question, Isaac was travelling to Pelly from Whitehorse along the North Klondike Highway with a friend when they came around a corner at Little Fox Lake to a sight neither had seen before.

About 15 to 22 metres (50 to 75 feet) away was a disc-shaped aircraft hovering about 60 metres (200 ft.) off the ground.

“It was silver and transparent,” she noted. “It was like a mirror. It was almost like you could see right through the craft.

“It’s so hard to explain because you never see that kind of material. It’s almost like you can see right through it.”

Inside the craft appeared a blue, turquoise colour, but she did not see a pilot nor anyone in the craft which she noted was “so advanced.

“I was really scared, but I was really shocked when I’ve seen it,” Isaac said. “We were both shaking.”

Isaac’s analog watch stopped, while another friend’s digital watch went into chrono mode, the truck’s tape deck stopped and the lights on her vehicle dimmed.

“Everything went dead,” she said.

Isaac reported the craft seemed to be somewhat confused at their presence. After about five seconds, it shot in front of their vehicle and stopped instantly on the left side of the road.

Isaac reported that she had never seen anything move so fast, and it made no noise.

“I think if it wanted to hurt us, it probably would’ve,” she said.

As Isaac kept driving through the experience, her eyes were peeled on the site, while her friends told her to “floor it.”

They took off after the craft disappeared and didn’t look back for fear that it would follow them. It was about five minutes before the watches began working again and 10 minutes before the tape player resumed working.

“I was driving really fast, as fast as I ever drove, and then when we stopped somewhere, we were just shaking.”

When they got to Pelly, they began laughing about the event and their reactions to it.

“I didn’t even watch where I was driving,” she said. “It’s just funny now that you think about it.”

Although Isaac and her friend had initially agreed not to tell anyone, before they got into Pelly, they changed their minds.

When Isaac arrived at her mother’s house in Pelly, she immediately drew a picture of the craft, wrote about it and began telling her mother the story.

“She was really excited, too.”

Isaac also contacted other friends and family that day to tell them about her experience. While some say she “has made up a good story,” others believe her. There have been numerous sightings around Fox Lake over the years.

“It’s reality. I’m just telling people what I’d seen.”

In the three weeks since the experience, she has spoken with the media, including a Los Angeles radio station, in hopes that others will come out with their own stories.

Although she’s still scared to drive alone at night, it has tweaked her curiosity and changed the way she views things.

“I think people should be aware of what’s going on in the Yukon,” she said. “There’s more sightings now than ever.”

Before the experience, she was skeptical of other life in the universe, but now she is curious to know what’s out there and has considered going back to the site early in the morning to see if she can find out more. She’s curious as to why the ship was lingering near telephone poles.

“Our universe is so big, there must be something out there,” she said.know what’s out there and has considered going back to the site early in the morning to see if she can find out more. She’s curious as to why the ship was lingering near telephone poles.

“Our universe is so big, there must be something out there,” she said.

Source: Whitehorse Star 4/20/200