Clarenville lights over the water

Clarenville sits on the Northwest Arm of Random Sound, in Newfoundland and Labrador. Across the water lies Random Island. The town already had a place in UFO history. In October 1978, RCMP Constable James Blackwood and about a dozen residents watched a strange craft hover over this same stretch of water for about two hours. In 2020 the Royal Canadian Mint put that night on a coin.

Chad Haines was not a believer. "Chad Haines says he's the last person who might believe in aliens, extraterrestrials or UFOs," The Packet wrote. He had seen other UFO videos and reports. He thought anything could have produced those effects.

The night of February 23, 2016. Haines was in Clarenville, looking from the street across the water toward Random Island. The moon was up. Near it, over the water, hung a bright object. "There were no stars in the sky that night," he said.

The object stayed. "It was out there for two or three hours," Haines told TC Media. In the account later paraphrased by Inquisitr, "the UFO stayed in the same location for quite some time, then after maneuvering up and down for a while, disappeared very quickly." A long hover. A spell of bobbing. Then it was gone.

Haines photographed it. The Packet, in a story by Jonathan Parsons headlined "Clarenville man spots UFO over Random Island," ran what it called "The original, unaltered version of the photo." The story travelled across TC Media and SaltWire sites, and Inquisitr picked it up under a headline suggesting the unbeliever was surprised to find the object on his camera. Whether he first saw it by eye or only in the picture is not clear from the surviving record. After seeing his own photo, Haines was no longer so sure what to think.

No official body looked into the 2016 sighting. There was no radar, no trace, no report. No one has suggested the photo was faked.

The sky that night offers one possibility. The moon had been full the day before. On the evening of February 23, a nearly full moon rose in the east beside Jupiter, which was close to its brightest of the year. From Clarenville, Random Island lies roughly east. A brilliant point near the moon, on a night when no stars showed, would fit Jupiter seen through thin cloud. Shimmering air could make it seem to bob. A passing cloud could make it vanish. Aircraft or lights on the water have not been ruled out either. None of this has been tested against the photograph.

What makes the case linger is the echo. In 1978, witnesses described the Clarenville object making "quick up-and-down movements" before it "shot off at speed, disappearing in a split second." Back then, the National Research Council suggested Jupiter. Blackwood rejected it.

Thirty-eight years later, over the same water, a self-described skeptic reported the same pattern. Hover. Up and down. Gone. Wikipedia's list of UFO sightings in Canada records it as a separate sighting from the famous 1978 event.