When little things go missin

Local man explores the

unknown with theories
on aliens and why some

things just disappear

EVER WONDER what happens to those little
‘things that go missing? The socks that lose
their mates somewhere? The al! important set
-of keys that vanish from their normal spot from
time to time?

Larry Sommerfield says he's experienced a
‘bizarre rash of missing items that suddenly re-
appear, sometimes altered. The difference
though, is that he’s not just accepting it, he
-wants to know why, and he thinks he might be
on to something.

-- Sommerfield, 77, lives in Thornhill where
used to operate a repair business. Currently, he
passes time by fixing up old electronic equip-
ment and helping out with local senior citi-
_zen’s organizations.

The strange series of events that would lead
Sommerfield to become a UFO theorist began
a few years ago.

Sommerfield keeps a large collection of old

eight-track cartridges, which he keeps in cases
ina padlocked shed with barred windows on
his properly.
‘: -From time to time, he makes cassette co-
pies of them for the seniors at Terraceview
“Lodge; and occasionally for Northern Native
- “Broadcasting.

“In the summer of 1998, while searching
through his album collection and repairing old
eight-tracks, Sommerfield noticed that an
eight-track copy of My Way by Frank Sinatra
was mysteriously missing from its usual spot in
the case, where he had seen it just minutes
before.

“I began to think my mind was acting up,”
said Sommerfield, who vividly recalled pla-
- cing the cight-track tape on a pile for inspec-

tion later.

- -Four days later, as he finished fixing the
last batch of tapes, My Way re-appeared, but
was now inaudible, with tape jammed up in-
side of it.

“There was just no way I could’ve missed
it,” Sommerfield said.

He said he would never have done any such

‘thing’ to the tape himself during repairs, and
figured that only someone or something else
“could’ve mangled up the tape so badly.

“This was something that couldn’t possibly
happen from wear and tear,” he said.

But this: wasn’t an isolated incident, rather
the beginning of a series of events that would
turn Sommerfield into a full-blown UFO theor-
ist.

On his Thornhill property, Sommerfield has
several sheds where he keeps all manner of
tools for almost any kind of repair you could
think of from video cameras to old cars.

THIS iS WHERE Larry Sommerfield does a
iot of electronic repair work. lIl's also where
he says he’s had items simply disappear on
him, anly to return to the same spot at a
later time.

WHERE DID IT GO: Larry Sammerfield examines his 8-track cartridges. Several of the
cartridges have gone mysteriously missing in the past few years, and then re-appeared
in the same spot. Sommerfield isn’t just ignoring it though, he’s developed his own the-
ories as to why, and they’re far reaching.

Several years ago, Sommerfield ordered a
drill bit set from Princess Auto — a set which,
it turned out, was missing a small size 56 bit,
he got a backup set with the right bit and
shelved it in a cupboard until he needed to use
it.

When a pair of plastic framed glasses of
Sommerfields needed repair, he knew the size
36 drill bit would be ideal.

When he went to the new set he’d bought,
the bit was missing. Sommerfield acknow-
ledges that a skeptic would say that he prob-
ably lost or misplaced the bit. Sommertfield
disagrees.

“To a person with my makeup, breaking a
tool is like breaking an arm,” he said. “I re-
member every one.”

Sommerfield has shared his experiences
with friends and found that he was by no
means alone with this disappearances.

One friend had found an old hunting knife at
the Thornhill landfill, found that it was a valu-
able antique and cleaned it up.

He put it on display on a shelf where visit-
ors could see it, but one day, when he returned
from work, it was gone.

His trailer was locked and there had been
no sign of a break-in, but the knife simply
wasn’t there.

Four days later, the knife re-appeared,
again without a sign of any sort of break-in.

Sommerfield is convinced that the disap-
pearances. are caused by aliens, and that. the
objects are being researched by-them in a sort
of archeaological way.

“The aliens aren’t interested in taking
over,” Sommertfield said. “They’re interested
in human development and evolution.”

Sommerfield has filed his stories, gathered
up the stories of others and has approached
UFO groups in B.C. and south of the border.

In a 27 page handwritten report, Sommer-
field outlines his theories from Roswell to crop
circles to space travel.

“Many people enjoy the scary space mo-
vies, knowing that they’re fiction and probably
won’t happen in real life,” he said.

Sommerfield says he’s increasingly frustra-
ted by newspapers which dismiss his reports,
and the police who file them away and ignore
them.

“They have no directive of what to do with
UFO reports,” he said.

“They only file them for awhile and then
loss them into the waste basket.”

The federal government, Sommerfield says,
has no agency or department to deal with re-
ports either. He said that they advised him to
contact volunteer UFO groups.

In the report, Sommerfield goes over a few

cases others have mentioned to him that are
more on the dramatic side.

One of the incidents involved a friend of
Sommerfield, Tom, who, while driving to
Prince Rupert for a wedding late in the day
spolted an unusual string of lights in the mid-
dle of the Skeena River.

Hovering directly above the river, half a
mile from the highway was an eggshaped
UFO.

The craft was between 50 and 60 feet wide,
with a thickness between 12 and 20 feet.
Bright lights shone from the inside, visible
through a row of windows.

When Tom arrived at the wedding recep-
tion, an off-duly policeman was there who had
also heard several accounts of the unusual
lights.

Others Sommerfield has spoken to recount
seeing “fast moving stars” in the night sky that
would stop and start suddenly,

Piecing together sightings reports from the
Yukon to Seattle, Sommerfield believes that
the region is a hotbed for aliens.

Sommerfield feels that high-powered tele-
scopes designed to track extra-terrestrial intel-
ligence are essentially tuned to the wrong wa-
velength. He makes a few interesting analo-
gies to prave his point.

“This may be like trying to determine if In-
dians exist by being on the Lookout for their
smoke signals, when they’re all using cellular
phones,” he said. “For a more advanced civil-
ization’ than ours, electromagnetic or radio
waves may be as out of date as the American
Pony Express today is to us.”

Another point Sommerfield makes is that
atomic bombs; which were first exploded in
the 1940s, led to an increase in UFO sightings
reports.

The fact that humans were capable of such
explosions, sparked interest by alien civiliza-
tions, he says.

“Hf any advanced civilization was watching
us, it would have taken over four years for the
light from these atomic bombs to reach them,”
he said.

He added that the aliens must be capable of
faster than light speed to get to the earth with-
in five years of the atomic blast, when lots of
reports started circulating.

But what is Sommerfield doing with this in-
formation, and what does he hope comes of it
all?

He just wants people to open their minds to
the possibility that alien civilizations could
exist, and to take them seriously.

“[ never paid too much attention to it
before,” he said. “I accepted the possibility
that life could exist elsewhere.”

Gathering the goods on UFOs

50 YOU'VE seen a UFO?
Who are gonna call? Well

many strange sighting in-
cidents from around the

ever-increasing number of
satellite’s orbiting the

around the world and
somewhere you'll find a

there’s no alienbusters, not
yet anyway, but there's
one man in the Northwest
who’s spending a lot of
time gathering storics and
creating a database of
sightings and encounters.
**-He’s Brian Vike, who in
‘the past few years has
been running Houston Brit-
ish Columbia Canada
(HBCC) UFO research out
of his home.
. And his research
doesn’t just consist of ald
filing cabinets stuffed with
vold newspaper clippings
and ‘frantically scrawled
out reports either. He's
gone to the world wide
web and created North-
western B.C.’s first home-
made UFO web site.
- Vike, 50, says that the
“whole moon walk and
space program that
spawned during his gener-
ation’s upbringing gener-
ated his interest in the
UFO question.

“You could say 1 was
hooked [after the moon
“walk],” he said. “I'd like
to think we're not alune in
the vastness of space.”

“When one hears of so

world, then you start to
wonder, are we alone?”

He got his first low-
powered telescope when
he was a teenager in 1969,
and the star gazing hasn’t
stopped to this day.

“My day researching
UFO phenomena starts as
soon as I wake up,” he
said, “I head for the com-
puter where there’s usually
numerous letters addressed
to me, accounts of sight-
ings and reports from ail
over the warld.”

Vike says he receives
reports through e-mail,
personal mail, newspapers
and TV reports. Vike isn’t
the only person in the
house that does it either.

“My wife helps me out
a lot with entering infor-
mation into my database
and offers ideas on how to
present the information on
the web site,” he said.

Vike admits he’s never
actually seen a truly uni-
dentified flying object.

“The strange things I’ve
seen in the sky could easi-
ly be explained,” he said,
alluding to things like

weather: balloons and the

earth.

The rest of the family,
almost inevitably, has also
taken an interest in UFOs.

“[My kids] have grown
up sorrounded by my be-
liefs and interests and I’m
sure some of it has been
absorbed by them through
the years.”

Vike says his goal is to
travel the province and ga-
ther stories, cventually
putting together a book on
the Canadian aspect of the
phenomenon.

One report Vike shared
dates back more than 30
years and involves a Lil-
looet woman and her
friend, who's names he
protected.

The pair was relaxing in
the living room of te
woman’s suite overlooking
the Fraser Canyon. While
preparing to watch the
Dean Martin Show, the
lady’s friend saw a huge
flaming fire-ball through
the window hurdling to-
wards them.

The object then procec-

ded to hover above a .

mountainside spinning,
flaring, ard jerking cratic-

Brian Vike

ally before receding back
into the sky and vanishing.

Being a weekend noth-
ing was open and no one
else was around who might
have scen the same thing.
Also, being 1966, the la-
dies felt rather awkward
about reporting the inci-
dent to others in the tiny
town.

How times have
changed. Vike says UFO
sightings are more wide-
spread than ever and the
media now plays a crucial
role in getting the message
oul.

“1 browse the hundreds

of online. newspapers and —

television stations from

reporter doing @ story on a
UFO sighting, or a report
on what governments may
know and are hiding,” he
said.

There must be limits
though to how far Vike
will go in believing what
people report to him. He
says he keeps “an open
mind” and has “never
brushed off anyone’s sug-
gestion of a UFO.”

Vike says that those
close alt hand support him
regardless of their own
leaning on the issue.

“I get a lot of support
from family and friends,”
he said. “Some believe,
some don’t believe, but
it’s been interesting hear-
ing of some of the strange
occurences in their lives

that are often unex-~
plained.”
Have a sighting to

share? Brian Vike can be
reached at HBCC UFO
Research, PO Box 1091,
Houston, B.C. VOJ-120.
He has e-mail at
yogi@glacierweb-bc.com,
and. a website | at
http:/Avww.homestead.com
/ofo/ufo.html.

eT

oe ae

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, October 18, 2000 - A5
| Ses

CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD

The Mail Bag

What is “safe”?

Dear Sir:

I can only agree with a recent editorial that the
gyrating federal policy on airport emergency re-
sponse services (ERS) is very frustrating. Our asso-
ciation believes the federal government should sta-
hilize its policy and pay up to 100 per cent of the
cost for financially strapped medium and small air-
ports,

As with most low probability-high consequence
risks, the issue of emergency response at-airports is
both complex and problematic. To sort out these
problems, we held an air passenger safety sym-
posium in Ottawa last August..To ensure fairness,
we invited speakers from all points of view to
speak candidly and directly to. the audience.

At the end of the day, we polled the passengers
and learned that they wanted more rather than less
emergency response at airports, they wanted to be
consulted on the changes and they wanted a single
standard of safety, albeit graduated for the size of
aitpart. We think that this informed perspective re-
presents a common-sense approach.

Of course, one must always be very careful with
statistics -- responsible when using them, skeplical
when viewing them. That caveat aside, the Boeing
Corporation research shows that over a J0-year
period, just over three-quarters of all worldwide
commercial jets crashed at or near airports, most
during take-off.and landing.

In this country, Canadian Transportation Safety
Board records for crashes involving fixed wing air-
craft over a similar periad show a virtually identi-
cal number — 77 per cent — occurred at or near air-
ports. This is also where one is more likely to sur-
vive the impact, as the aircraft is nearly always
moving at a slower speed, both horizontally and
vertically.

Studies show that those who survive airport
crashes are most at risk from fire and toxic smoke.
This is why our group believes airports being
served by aircraft with more than 10 passenger
seats should have a timely and aggressive emer-
gency response capability.

On a more personal note, it always saddens me
10 see those whose job it is to save the lives of
others being treated with public scorn and con-
tempt. I would be most interested in secing the
evidence to support the claim that “the average
fire-fighter would have to work for 60 career life-
limes to see an incident where they could have
made a difference.”

By comparison, many tens of thousands military
pilots, soldiers and sailors have been trained over
the last 40 years at great expense to the Canadian
taxpayers. Almost withoul exception, they have
served their country wonderfully, and retired, the
overwhelming majority without ever having to fire
their weapons in anger. Da we to show our veterans
the same disdain as we do firefighters? .

Given that the proposed Canadian ERS stan- .
dards for medium and small! airports are 10 to 20
times lower than internationally accepled stan-
dards and recommended practices, (which them-
selves are not particularly demanding), I have
some difficully agreeing with the statement that
“This is not a safety issue,”

I do agree, however, that the public interest and
public safety is a political issue. Who gets to de-
cide what is “safe” or “unsafe” for the trusting
public, what qualifications and authority they have
to make that assessment and the basis on which
they do so is inherently political. In a healthy de-
Mmocracy, it requires an informed public dialogue
and the consideration of all facts and points of
view.

Although real catastrophes are mercifully infre-
quent, they still occur — in B.C. and even in Ter-
race. We just don't know when and where the next
one will happen. With wrongful death settlements
from recent US air crashes now averaging about
(US) $6 million $9 million Canadian) we think, it
is only prudent that aircraft with 10 or more pas-
senger seats be given the same level of service
that is expected of 185 countries around the world,
the vast majority of them with a standard of living
far below ours.

Since 1994, the standards for ERS have de-
clined in Canada to the point where they no longer
comply with these international standards and re-
commended practices. We believe Canadians and
travellers in Canada, including those living in Ter-
race, deserve better.

Michael Murphy, Chairman,
The Air Passenger Safety Group, Ottawa

More safety needed

Dear Sir:

I find it appalling that city and airport officials
agree on reducing safety standards al the Terrace-
Kitimat airport. It seems (hat the airport society
Must have some financial agenda to come up with
less, and not more safety measures in place for the
flying public,

The idea of a small truck with 135kg of dry che-
mical as the “primary response” vehicle doesn't
sound too darned well thought out. Planes can also
crash on takeoff, full of fuel, and « 20 minute re-
sponse time from the Terrace fire department
seems woefully inadequate.

I was burned by a fucl explosion when I was a
teen and trust me, after 20 minutes, the fuel would
be burnt off. just the flammable plane bits would
still be on fire. So, instead, the ambulance service
would be required to respond (and mayhe the cora-
ner's office), Can the airport society or the mayor's
office expect me to believe that a smaller truck
would be able to drive through deep snow to apply
the dry chemical if the plane were off the runway?

1 agree thal most plane crashes occur in incle-
ment weather, and not at the airport, but I for one
prefer increasing my odds and not reducing gill

And il seems that we might all face moPepfane
trips out of here if the doctors are not adequately
funded, to the point that they are forced to ship us
out for extended health care.

Chris Spangl, Terrace, B.C.

‘