Laurie Wickens
Local resident — key eyewitness; President of the Shag Harbour Incident Society
Driving through Shag Harbour on Highway 3 with four friends, Wickens spotted a large object descending into the waters off the harbour. He called the RCMP from a phone booth and reported a plane crash. The RCMP initially didn't believe him, but called back at the phone booth number. Wickens and his friends watched the light drifting in the water until it went out. He later became president of the Shag Harbour Incident Society and organized the annual UFO festival. In 2017, at age 67, he said: "We always thought it was an airplane, but when you stop and think about it now... there's nothing conventional that could fly that slow... whatever it was, I ain't got no idea."
What they witnessed: Large illuminated object descending into the waters off Shag Harbour while driving on Highway 3 with four friends.
RCMP Constable Ron Pound
Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer — first RCMP witness
Pound had already witnessed the strange lights himself while driving down Highway 3 en route to Shag Harbour. He felt he was seeing four lights, all attached to one flying craft, and estimated it to be about 60 feet long. Upon reaching the shore, he clearly saw a yellow light slowly moving on the water, leaving a yellowish foam in its wake.
What they witnessed: Four lights attached to one craft about 60 feet long, then a yellow light moving on the water leaving yellowish foam.
RCMP Corporal Victor Werbieki
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Corporal — scene responder
Accompanied Constable Pound to the shore to observe the phenomenon. Saw the light on the water alongside Pound and other officers.
What they witnessed: Yellow light moving on the water, observed alongside fellow RCMP officers at the scene.
RCMP Constable Ron O'Brien
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable — scene responder
Accompanied Pound and Werbieki to the shore to observe the phenomenon. Together they witnessed the yellow light moving on the water.
What they witnessed: Yellow light moving on the water, observed alongside fellow RCMP officers at the scene.
Captain Leo Howard Mersey
Fishing vessel captain (MV Nickerson, Sambro, Nova Scotia)
While at the wheelhouse of his vessel, Mersey saw four blips on his Decca radar that were stationary, and visually saw four bright objects in a roughly rectangular formation about 28 km away. The entire crew of nearly twenty fishermen watched the objects in the northeastern sky. Mersey radioed the rescue coordination centre and harbour master in Halifax, and filed an RCMP report at Lunenburg. His RCMP report (file 67-400-23-X) survives in the National Archives of Canada.
What they witnessed: Four stationary radar blips and four bright objects in rectangular formation about 28 km away, watched by nearly twenty crew members.
Ralph Loewinger
Commercial airline co-pilot (cargo plane, New York to London)
Flying a cargo plane from New York to London on the night of the incident, Loewinger saw a formation of bluish-white lights slanted from upper left to lower right. He described it as looking like "a big airplane at the time, like a B-52 or a 707, with all of its lights on — there were about five lights." He called Boston to check radar, but the controller said there was nothing on radar at the 11 o'clock position. He said: "I have no idea what was manning it, or where it was from, but I can tell you that it was no kind of a spacecraft that the Canadian or US Navy or Air Force could have had at that time."
What they witnessed: Formation of bluish-white lights from 12,001 feet while co-piloting a cargo plane — nothing on Boston ATC radar.
Norman Smith
Teenager in Shag Harbour in 1967; went out in a fishing boat to search for survivors
Saw the lights in the sky, then followed them until they crashed into the water. He, his father, and his uncle hopped in a fishing boat on an immediate rescue mission. "We were looking for people and debris," he said. "We went up to the vicinity of where it was, and we didn't find anything, no piece of material or anything in the water, except for a long streak of foam — yellowish orange foam — which was four to six inches thick, on the water." He added: "I can't tell you what came down or what landed in the water — if it was a plane or if it was a UFO, I don't know — but there definitely was something that came down out of the sky and landed in the water. I can still see it."
What they witnessed: Lights crashing into the water; found no survivors or debris — only yellowish-orange foam, 4-6 inches thick.
Captain Ronnie Newell
Skipper of Coast Guard Cutter 101
Mobilized within 10 minutes of receiving a call from the Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax about a plane going down. "We searched that night on the ocean, pretty much the whole rest of the night but we didn't see anything. We were back the next morning — we brought divers down for two days at that time, and they didn't bring up anything that we saw. I'm not saying that it wasn't [a UFO] but it's just that we didn't see anything. Other than the foam that was on the water — but that's all we did see."
What they witnessed: Searched all night and returned with divers for two days — found nothing but the yellow foam on the water.
Peter Goreham
Shag Harbour resident — 13 years old at the time of the incident; fisherman; Shag Harbour Incident Society member
Lying awake in bed on the night of October 4, 1967, Goreham saw a stark white light cut through the treetops outside his window. "It kept getting brighter and brighter and brighter, like a full moon, but there was no moon." Then came a whistling and a tumbling, as if a massive object were flipping end over end through the air. Whatever it was roared past the house before the deafening silence returned. He came forward publicly in 2013, after more than four decades of silence: "If you've got a group of people you live with, and they don't believe in that stuff, and you come forward, they'll think you're crazy. That's why I held back."
What they witnessed: Stark white light through the treetops, whistling and tumbling sounds, a massive object roaring past his house — kept silent for 46 years.
Chris Styles
MUFON investigator — primary researcher; co-author of "Dark Object" and "Impact to Contact"
A Halifax-area man who began investigating the Shag Harbour case in 1993 after being intrigued by it as a youth (he claims to have witnessed a UFO in a separate event weeks after Shag Harbour). Styles uncovered a trove of government and police records through Access to Information requests. He interviewed surviving witnesses, former military insiders, and navy divers. He says: "I'm not here to make believers. Some people say I'm a believer, but that's a bit of an exaggeration. I want the real answers." He spent decades as what's been described as "a scruffy Nova Scotian Fox Mulder."
What they witnessed: Investigated the case for decades, uncovering government records, witness testimony, and military insider accounts.
Don Ledger
MUFON investigator — co-author; author of "Maritime UFO Files"
Assisted Chris Styles in the Shag Harbour investigation. Together they uncovered testimony from divers and military personnel about the object traveling underwater. Ledger authored "Maritime UFO Files" (1998) which includes a chapter on Shag Harbour.
What they witnessed: Co-investigated the case, uncovering testimony from divers and military personnel about the object traveling underwater.
Bill Boudreau
Worker at the secret US military base near Shelburne (disguised as an oceanographic institute) for 25 years
Spoke at the 50th anniversary festival in 2017, alleging: "They picked up the crash here in the harbour almost as soon as it happened." The base he worked at was a top-secret US military facility disguised as an oceanographic institute, which used underwater microphones and magnetic detection devices to track enemy submarines. Its true purpose wasn't revealed until the 1980s.
What they witnessed: Claimed the secret US military base near Shelburne detected the crash "almost as soon as it happened."
David Cvet
Diver who surveyed the ocean floor at the crash site
Has been surveying the ocean floor of the harbour for years and claimed to have discovered underwater anomalies or depressions in the area where the crash is said to have taken place. He described the depression as "a dinner plate, with the centre being about a foot deep. It was perfectly round. A perfect circle. And the covering of this depression was comprised of pebbles two to four centimeters in size. Where are the big rocks? Where are the plants? Where are the scallops, the lobsters, the silt? There was nothing, it was absolutely clear — like someone had swept it the day before."
What they witnessed: Perfectly circular depressions on the ocean floor at the crash site — about a foot deep, covered only with small pebbles, cleared of all marine life.
Darrel Dorey
Mahone Bay resident (pre-incident witness)
Sitting on his front porch in Mahone Bay with his sister and mother before the Shag Harbour incident, he noticed a large object manoeuvring above the southwestern horizon. He wrote a letter to RCAF Greenwood Base Commander asking what was flying over the water, as he had never seen anything like it.
What they witnessed: Large object manoeuvring above the southwestern horizon from his porch in Mahone Bay before the Shag Harbour crash.
Air Canada Captain Pierre Charbonneau and First Officer Robert Ralph
Air Canada Flight 305 crew (Halifax to Toronto)
At 7:15 PM, approximately four hours before the Shag Harbour incident, First Officer Robert Ralph pointed out to Captain Pierre Charbonneau a brilliantly lit, rectangular object tracking parallel to their aircraft at 12,001 feet. A string of smaller lights trailed behind it. At 7:19 PM, they witnessed a sizeable silent explosion near the object, and two minutes later, a second explosion that faded to a blue cloud.
What they witnessed: Brilliantly lit rectangular object with trailing lights at 12,001 feet, plus two silent explosions, four hours before the Shag Harbour crash.
