3.11.2020

April 12, 1959: Montreal, Canada

April 12, 1959--Montreal, Canada. St. Hubert Air Base Control Tower Operators, others saw red light which hovered over base, then darted away. [X]1

Section X is not very informative:

April 12, 1959: Control tower operators at St. Hubert Air Base, Montreal, and many others about 8 p.m. watched a reddish UFO which hovered over the base for several minutes, then darted away to the north. An RCAF spokesman stated: “It was a genuine UFO as far as we are concerned.” [5] About the same time residents of north Montreal saw a red UFO, alternately described as round and cigar-shaped, which hovered low over a field, then climbed rapidly emitting “fiery sparks” from the underside..2

The source of this information came from a UPI story. 

The Blue Book file

Blue Book has a case file for this event. The summary reads:

Red light, seemed to hang in the sky for a few mins, then darted North at a very high speed. Description of object varied w/witnesses.3

The case file has the UPI teletype story and a message stating that the RCAF investigated the sighting.4 That message states it did not appear on radar and they felt it was a spot light from an ice breaker that was in the St. Lawrence River channel. There is nothing more than this.

A later news report had the following statement:

The spokesman at St. Hubert said no unidentified object showed up on base radar and the object was not seen by the control tower operator.5

Analysis

There really isn’t anything additional that could be found about the story. The media reports seem to conflict in regard to the matter about the control tower operator(s). We don’t know if they did or did not see anything.

As far as the suggested explanation, there is evidence that there was an urgent need for ice breakers. On April 13, 1959, the Quebec Chronicle telegraph reported on page 1 that the opening of the seaway system had postponed by ice that was 20 to 25 feet deep.6 The first ships passed through the seaway less than two weeks later on April 25. This probably meant that ice breakers were working at night, which would probably have involved the use of searchlights. The direction the UFO departed was from above the air base towards the north, which was towards the river. This information about the sighting is consistent with a spotlight being operated by an ice breaker. 

The Ice Breaker CGS D’iberville. It was the first ship to pass through the St. Lawrence Seaway on April 25, 1959.

Conclusion

The investigation by the RCAF indicated they felt the ice breaker spotlight explanation was satisfactory to them. The description does suggest that this might be a plausible source but we can’t be a 100% sure without more information. That being said, based on the information we do have, it is my opinion that this can be evaluated as “possible spotlight operations”. The lack of additional information about the sighting and the possibility that there is an explanation means this case should be removed from the “Best Evidence” list. 

Quelle: SUNlite 2/2020