Shag Harbour UFO incident
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🛸 Case
Contents 5
| Type | Case |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Shag Harbour |
The Shag Harbour UFO incident took place on the night of 4 October 1967, when residents of Shag Harbour, a fishing village in Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, saw a lit object descend and strike the waters of the Gulf of Maine. A search by police, fishermen, the Canadian Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy divers found no wreckage, and Canadian officials recorded the event as a UFO report. It is one of the few UFO cases officially documented as such by a government.[1][2]
The sighting
Earlier that evening, the crew of an Air Canada flight, a fishing boat captain and callers around Halifax reported unusual lights. At about 11:20 p.m., at least eleven people in Shag Harbour, including Laurie Wickens and four friends driving on Highway 3, saw a low-flying object with lights descend toward the water, accompanied by a whistling sound, a "whoosh" and a loud bang. Witnesses said the object floated on the surface, showing a light, before slowly sinking from view.[1][3]
Search
Two officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police reached the shore within about 15 minutes, believing an aircraft had crashed, and contacted the Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax. Local fishing boats put out within half an hour and a Coast Guard cutter arrived about an hour later, finding only a patch of yellowish foam. By the next morning no aircraft was reported missing. Two days later, divers from the navy's Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic searched the seabed for three days and found nothing.[1][2]
Official record
The Rescue Coordination Centre sent a telex to the Royal Canadian Air Force in Ottawa, and with conventional explanations ruled out, the event was classified as a "UFO report". Documents on the case are held at Library and Archives Canada, and the U.S. Condon Committee also took note of it. Newspapers including Halifax's Chronicle-Herald covered the story in October 1967.[1][4]
Legacy
The area has a themed lookout park, and the Shag Harbour UFO Centre museum commemorates the event. In later years some researchers claimed the object moved underwater to a nearby location monitored by the military, claims that are not supported by official records.[1][5]
References
- Shag Harbour UFO incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Shag Harbour UFO Incident", Municipality of the District of Barrington · barringtonmunicipality.com · archived copy
- "The man who phoned in Canada's most famous UFO sighting became the face of the mystery", CBC News · cbc.ca · archived copy
- Library and Archives Canada, UFO files · collectionscanada.gc.ca · archived copy
- Shag Harbour UFO Centre — Tourism Nova Scotia · novascotia.com · archived copy
This page was last edited on 31 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
No discussion yet.