SIGHTING: FREDERICTON, NEW BRUNSWICK (CANADA)

Witness Testimony

"Was awakened @ approximately 3am while sleeping on tv room couch by our television and lights acting eratically. There was a strange hum coming from the plasma television...far louder than usual start-up hum you would associate with that kind of electronics. Got up and started upstairs to get a flashlight, because I believed we were having electrical issues and the power was about to go out. Upon reaching the top of the stairs I was greeted by a strange green-blue light that was flashing outside. It looked to be originating to the south of us (the windows I was looking out were on the north side) and in the general direction of Fredericton, but the flash covered the entire sky for about 4 seconds and only slowly oscillated in color and intensity. It was at this time that our house lights flickered and dimmed and then went out...while our neighbors lights across the street and to each side of us, stayed on. Strange. I'd place the time of this happening no later than 3:05 Atlantic.By this time, the wife was up, asking if I'd seen what she had from the bedroom and we both commented on the strange quality of the light and the strange effects (apparent electrical interference, etc). Our lights came back on after a couple of minutes and I walked outside to see if anything had happened to our power line coming off the local pole or at its contact point at the side of the house. No issues. There was a moderately high wind, but none of the lines were moving more than normal and no trees or branches are close to our lines.I'd place the time by now at 3:15-3:18. The power now went off along the entire block. Looking across the ridge from our location we could tell that the entire area was impacted. By 3:20-ish I noted the sound of a large 4 engined aircraft orbiting above the cloud cover and believe it was a C-130 Hercules dispatched out of CFB Gagetown, a relatively short distance away. Large aircraft are not known to transit over our area, much less linger. Puddle jumpers yes, large multi-engines are rare. Another 'out of the ordinary' for this early morning. Thinking that we may have had a tree across the lines, I got in the truck to find the location so we could report it to NB Power. No sooner had I gotten to the bottom of the hill (about 3:35 am) than I came face to face with an NB Power panel truck sitting by the side of the road. My first thought was 'wow, that's extreemly fast reaction to trouble calls'...my second thought was 'there was no way anyone could have reacted that fast to a recent call.' Regardless, he was johnny on the spot with his trucks yellow light flashing, parked at the intersection of McCleod Hill Rd and Hillview Dr. As it was still dark and there was someone on the scene, I went back home and waited for daybreak to see what was what. A trouble call put into NB Power was answered by the automated system and gave 3:18 as the most recent other call in the area...problem unknown. A later call @ 5:00 am gave the most recent report as 4:20 with the explaination 'trees down on lines' and an estimated time of repair, which I fail to recall. Just after 7:30 am there was enough light to begin poking around and so I did. The two breaks in the power lines closest to us were at the corner of McCleod Hill Rd and Hillview Dr. and about 1/4 of a mile to the NNW on McCleod Hill Rd. At both locations the only line impacted was the center line of three power lines, and the break of line occured dead center between power poles. The areas where the breaks occured were well cut back at one location, with no evidence of live or dead fall in the area of the break - and cut well below the level of the power lines in the other break area...again with no branches or trees down. As stated, only the center lines were impacted and were spliced/bridged in short order.More than that cannot be relayed, due to cloud cover. It should be mentioned that no local transformers were tripped during the incident and no lightning was reported that night. Furthermore, it was strange in that most of our neighbors were awakened by the light and that it was a strange enough occurence to merit discussion across the community about our 'little green visitors'. Evidently, few others thought it was lightning.Shortly after the incident occured, NB Power took down 3 complete grids, affecting more than 1100 homes in the area, on the pretext that there was only a single power control point to deactivate in order to facilitate repairs...and this long before any crews would have responded. And no trees across the lines (at least in our area). Curious and leaves me wishing it was a clear night!Photos were taken of the repair areas, showing the splices done by the crews and the ground under and around the breaks. They can be provided, but do not show the crews in action, or any great detail. The only thing they show is no material of any sort impacting the lines. Finally, being ex-military, I am well aware that there is powerful AEW equipment on modified Hercules and other large aircraft that can easily disrupt local power if 'lit-off' by accident. However, I'd be inclined to think that any kind of surge from that equipment would have messed with transformers as well... That's all I have to report. Come to your own conclusions, and if you're a 'local' you can now rest assured that 'yes...someone else saw what you saw.' "