The truth is out there and there are people in the Cochrane and Bow Valley area who might know the answers to an age-old mystery. Does life exist beyond Earth and if it does have aliens visited our planet? Each year since 1989, the Manitoba-based Ufology Research releases its Canadian UFO Survey tracking the number of UFO sightings reported across the country. The report, which has recorded tens of thousands of sightings over nearly three decades, has documented 43 sightings between Cochrane and Banff along the corridor between Highway 1 and Highway 1A. The most recent sighting of an unidentified phenomenon in Cochrane, though not reported to Ufology Research, happened just this week. Lana Agius said she saw something Tuesday night in the eastern sky around midnight that might have been from out of this world. “It was a giant, I mean giant, ball of light falling in our atmosphere. It fell for about three seconds then disappeared,” she said. Describing the object as perfectly round, she guesses it was a meteor, but isn’t sure. “It didn’t land anywhere or we would have heard something about it,” she added. From triangular objects to giant orange fireballs to bright orbs and flying disks in the sky, the cases in the Canadian UFO Survey vary and Cochrane seems to be the hub of activity in the region with 17 of the sightings, Canmore comes second with nine. Liam Billard, who lives in Cochrane, is one person who has witnessed strange happenings in the sky, once just outside of town and another time in Texas where he lived for a while. 'I'm Canadian but migrated down south to Texas with my parents for 12 years and returned to Canada in 2008. Down there, I'd always lay in the pool late at night watching the stars and that's where the first view happened," he recalled. "A star looking like the northern one brighter than all others slowly slid across the horizon. “At first I presumed it was a satellite, until it stopped and went back the same direction." The second sighting happened while Billard was driving back to Cochrane from an oil and gas job up north. It was between Rocky Mountain House and home that something weird happened. "I'm very mechanical and ensure all my vehicles are efficient and reliable. I was cruising down the highway and my truck started flickering, RPMs, electrical. What was even weirder was the stretch of highway lights ahead of me started going out one by one," he said. His truck stalled and he rolled to a stop and when he exited his vehicle to check under the hood, he knew something was off. "It was like sound was absent for these moments. Even my voice sounded so quiet, a little spooked I hopped back in my truck and got my booster out to jump it. As I walked up, the lights on the road started illuminating and turning back on, and low and behold my truck's power returned without assistance, I was very spooked at this point ... still to this day I don't know what happened," Billard said. Billard is also proof that the number of sightings might be skewed. He didn't report his encounters due to the stigma surrounding UFO sightings. However, he did graciously agree to this interview. While no one knows for sure if UFOs are truly from out of this world, or have a more mundane explanation, Billard is among the millions who believe intelligent life exists among the stars. A survey in 2015 conducted in the US, Britain and Germany revealed between 52 per cent and 56 per cent of people in those countries believed in alien life. Conversely, In Germany, which was the most skeptical country, only one-third of respondents stated they definitely did not believe intelligent life exists beyond Earth. For a more visual look at a possible UFO sighting, the YouTube account CFUSG from a group calling itself Canadian UFO Study Group has a video of a sighting over what is stated as Cochrane, Alberta. To view the video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuw1lcxKkFE The Canadian UFO Study can be found at http://survey.canadianuforeport.com/
