filed Aug.09.06
(Original headline: UFO mystery )
A second gdn reader has come forward claiming to have seen a UFO over Bahrain on Monday evening, but one of the country's top astronomers has dismissed suggestions that it was a flying saucer. Indian Joy Michael, aged 35, claimed he saw a "strange sight" over the Bahrain Financial Harbour (BFH) at around 6.10pm while he was driving home from work.
Mr Michael, who works as an administration and finance officer at Techind, said he told his friends about it, but they also dismissed the sighting. "I was driving home from work with a colleague of mine at 6.10pm when I saw this apparently revolving dish-like thing for a few seconds," said Mr Michael told the GDN yesterday. "But the report in the GDN proved something was there, for a while."
The GDN carried a picture on its front page yesterday taken by a Sri Lankan couple, which they claimed showed a UFO that flew over them as they were driving along the Sitra Causeway. Engineer Omerdeen Hamad Idrees, aged 35, said he his wife, Shiyara, took the picture when they were on their way to Sitra Mall with their four-year-old son Imran at around 9pm. Mr Idrees, who works for Products for Projects, said the object moved very slowly in the sky and made circular movements over Tubli Bay before passing over his car.
However, Bahrain University applied physics professor Dr Waheeb Alnaser claimed there was probably a rational explanation.
He admitted that Mr Idrees and his wife could have seen a strange phenomenon, but doubted that it was a flying saucer.
"What they saw, and I am only guessing, is some reflection on the horizon - possibly from satellite panels," the Bahrain Astronomical Society vice-chairman told the GDN.
"This is not a very rare happening, but at the same time is not seen very often."
He said sometimes one, two or even three "lighted dots" appear on the horizon as a result of these reflections - giving a "flying saucer like" impression to an ordinary person.
Dr Alnaser also dismissed as "preposterous" a suggestion by another GDN reader that the picture in the GDN was of the planet Mars.
"On the contrary, Mars is getting further and further away from the Earth these days and cannot be visible to the naked eye," he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Idrees was still adamant yesterday that what he saw was a UFO. "We definitely saw it," he insisted. "It was something we have never seen before. "I am sure it was 'something', never mind what anyone says. It was really touching - it was so near."
Civil Aviation Affairs refused to comment on the subject yesterday.
MANAMA: A Sri Lankan couple snapped this picture of what they claim to be a UFO that flew over their car as they were driving along the Sitra Causeway on Monday night.
