Did We Trip a Flying Saucer?

OTTAWA, Aug 9 (CP) -- Is Canada the first country in the world to record a flying saucer with instruments?

That question is being debated today after the Transport Department's flying saucer sighting station reported that it had detected an unexplainable object in the atmosphere over Ottawa Sunday.

Wilbert B. Smith, engineer in charge of the broadcast and measurement section of the Transport Department, said the saucer station's gravimeter was tripped at 3:01 p.m.

Mr. Smith said he is convinced that the deflection on the gravimeter was not caused by an aircraft. It was either something scientists did not know about or an instrument failure.

"We now are attempting to find out if there was a failure somewhere in the instrument." he said.

If it turns out that there was no failure then I don't know what it was that passed overhead."

Mr. Smith said it is not possible for anyone to state that the gravimeter recorded the presence of a flying saucer.

However, he added "it also is not possible to say it wasn't a flying saucer."
Mr. Smith, who built and operated the sighting station, said the deflection on the gravimeter was the first that could not be explained since the instrument was installed last October.

The gravimeter is designed to detect and record gamma rays, magnetic fluctuations, radio noises and gravity and mass changes in the atmosphere.

Mr. Smith was on duty at the station when a set of alarm bells tripped by the deflection of the gravimeter -- rang.

"I dashed over to look at the instrument," he said. "The deflection in the line (drawn by an electronically operated pen) was greater and more pronounced than we have seen seven when a large aircraft has passed overhead.

"I ran outside to see what might be in the sky. The overcast was down to 1,000 feet, so whatever was up there, whatever it was that generated the sharp variation, was concealed behind clouds.

We must now ask ourselves what it could have been."