The incident happened just after 07:00pm on the night of November 24, according to John Ford, chairman of the Long Island U.F.O. Network, who said that it has taken his group six months to do a thorough investigation. It was just recently, though, that his group was able to acquire the video and the photos. "We knew that something crashed into the park that night and we have, bit by bit," said Ford, "been able to finally put the picture together."
Several motorists who were traveling along Sunrise Highway that night, according to Ford, contacted his organization and described what they thought was a plane that was going down into the park. And many local residents whose homes border Southaven report that they heard loud rumbling sounds and saw strange lights.
"Eyewitness accounts have confirmed that a fire was reported immediately after," noted Ford. "In addition, the roads around the park were blocked off to travel by county and park police. The next day, and for a few days after, the park was closed to the public."
One local resident who lives near the park said that for a five to six day period after the incident, his house experienced numerous power surges and the phone would ring strangely without anyone on the other end. "I ride horses in the park so I'm pretty familiar with the activities there," said the 45- year-old man who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of his job ("they would fire me if they thought I believed in flying saucers"). "For the next few days there were a lot of military helicopters going over the park --- and I couldn't get in."
Records show that Southaven Park was closed between November 25 and 28. According to park officials, the park was closed to the general public that week because it was reserved for duck hunting.
Although some of the area fire departments were initially called, they were turned back and the fire was handled by the federally controlled Brookhaven National Laboratory Fire Department, said Ford.
Ford's group finally gained admittance into the park a week later. "We found an area that was burned out and some trees were bent over," Ford recalled. "A section looked like it had been plowed over by machinery." But two things were of particular interest to Ford. "We were getting a higher than normal radiation reading in the area, higher than regular background radiation, and the fence line in that area," said Ford, "had no magnetic reading." Ford explained that metal fences maintain a magnetic charge from the Earth.
"Something had stripped away the magnetic charge of the fence."
Ford later received what he had been waiting and hoping for: a video film of the crash. "I can't say where I got it from because these people who supplied the tape are afraid that the government will go after them." Because of the poor quality of the tape, Ford has been working with video specialists to try and enhance the quality of the picture and to produce stills.
The video, a copy of which was given to South Shore Press, shows people examining a bright reddish, metallic-type object about four-square feet that appears to be emitting a white, cloudy gas, and a hissing sound can be heard --- a sight and sound that resembles dry ice that has been exposed to warmer temperatures. The next shot shows what appears to be a person trying to lift up a body near a tree, but the poor quality of the film makes positive identification impossible. In a final scene, three uniformed men (wearing dark jackets and rounded caps similar to federal swat teams) are seen placing a large shiny spread (similar to mylar) over something on the ground. Ford makes no apologies for the poor quality of the video: "Things are happening fast and the guy who took the shots doesn't want to be too obvious." And he confesses that it is hard to get people to come forward and admit what they've seen. "One of the major problems in researching UFOs is that people are afraid of sounding like lunatics when describing strange, unexplained events." But an even greater fear, notes Ford, is the government. "You get involved with things that the government doesn't want people to know and they can make life pretty tough for you."
What are Ford's conclusions about the Southaven incident? "We are still very actively investigating this event. We believe that an extraterrestrial craft, with aliens, crashed that night in the park, and we are out to prove it."
