I saw u.F.O.s —U.S. astronaut

Press, 29 November 1978, Page 8

I saw u.F.O.s —U.S. astronaut

NZPA-Reuter New Yorl A former American astronaut, Gordon Cooper, be Jieves flying saucers are visiting the Earth from othei planets and in 1951 saw many of them flying in formation over Europe, a United Nations committee has oeen told. The Minister of Education of the tiny Caribbean nation of Grenada (Mr Wellington Friday) read a letter from Mr Cooper when the General Assembly’s Special Political Committee discussed the question of unidentified flying objects. Grenada for several years has been urging the United Nations to study flying saucers and similar phenomena. Mr Friday quoted from a letter which he said Mr Cooper sent to his delegation saying: “I believe that these extra-terrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets, .vhich are obviously a little more advanced than we are on t.arth.” Mr Cooper, who flew lengthy Earth-orbiting space n'ssions in 1963 and 1965, *aid he was not an experienced professional re-; searcher into unidentified flying objects. But he felt, "somewhat qualified to dis- i CUSS them" since he had!

: been into the fringes of the vast areas in which they . travelled. ’’Also, I did have occasion in 1951 to have two days of observation of many flights of them, of different sizes, flying in fighter formation, generally from East to West Europe,” his letter stated. The committee deferred 1 action until a later meeting on a draft resolution, sub-i mitted by Grenada, recommending that the United 1 ’ Nations “initiate, conduct,' and co-ordinate research on | the nature and origin of un-i identified flying objects and related phenomena.” The Prime Minister of Grenada (Mr Eric Gairy): speaking before the com- 1 mittee, said that a recent; U.F.O. incident in Australia seemed a compelling reason; i for the United Nations to| take a serious 'ook at the ! U.F.O. phenomenon. He was referring to the October 21 disappearance of a single-engine Cessna plane | after its pilot, Frederick Va- 1 lentich, aged 20, told Melbourne air controllers a large U.F.O. was playing games with him. Sir Eric told a news conference later his strong interest in the subject came| about largely because he is: a mystic. He said he had twice seen U.F.O.s, the first, three years ago and the sec-1, ond seven months ago. , i