UFO, Missile or Hobbyist? Open Thread.

Earlier this week mysterious ‘bulletlike objects’ were seen in the sky off the coast of Newfoundland. Theories of its origins range from a UFO, French Missile to a toy rocket.

Resident Darlene Stewart was planning to to take a picture of the sun going down around 5 p.m. But to her shock she saw the objects in the sky above Fortune Bay and called her neighbour, Emmy Pardy. Stewart took pictures of the mysterious objects.

“It was grey and silver in colour. It looked like an oversized bullet with a trail of fire behind it,” Pardy told the Star.

There was no sound of an airplane’s engine, she said, and three of the objects were visible for about 15 minutes.

An RCMP officer initially confirmed to Pardy in two telephone conversations that it was indeed a missile, she said.

“He said the military was made aware of this,” Pardy explained, adding he told her a missile or missiles were launched from nearby St-Pierre-Miquelon, which is French territory.

But the RCMP later referred inquiries on the matter to the federal government, which said there was no missile and no evidence of anyone firing a rocket near the area.

Liberal Senator George Baker told the Star there’s no way the objects were models fired by locals.

They were too large – one witness Baker spoke to said they were at least the size of an 18-wheeler – and at -14C it was too cold for a hobbyist to be out.

The Newfoundland senator suggested they were missiles launched from France, or nearby St-Pierre-Miquelon, pointing to a dispatch from Hervé Morin, France’s defence minister, that praises the launch of an M51 missile Wednesday from the Bay of Audierne in France.

Ottawa didn’t mince words about the incident. “There is no indication that there was ever a rocket launch,” said PMO spokesman Dimitri Soudas.

It should be noted that St-Pierre-Miquelon is a group of small French islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, the main islands being Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and is south of the Canadian province of Newfoundland & Labrador. The islands are as close as 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from Green Island, part of Newfoundland.