From: XianneKei@aol.com [Rebecca Keith]
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 1997 01:14:47 -0500 (EST)
Fwd Date: Thu, 04 Dec 1997 10:12:40 -0500
Subject: Fireball fires up the UFO Crowd

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/ufo03i.htm

"Fireball' fires up the UFO crowd

December 3, 1997

BY ART GOLAB SUBURBAN REPORTER
Scully and Mulder, look out.

The sighting of a mysterious fireball in the sky near New Lenox over the
weekend has drawn the attention of UFO specialists from all over the
country.

It also has become fodder for a nationally syndicated radio show dealing
with the paranormal. But authorities are not ready to open an X-File yet
and call in agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder from the TV show.

A search by Will County sheriff's police found no evidence of debris,
and the FAA reported no planes missing or sightings on radar. ``We
looked into it, and there is no aviation connection that we can
determine,'' FAA spokesman Don Zochert said.

But Tinley Park businessman and pilot Tim Janecyk, one of three people
who reported the phenomenon to police, knows he saw something.

He was driving west on Interstate 80 near Parker Road about 6:30 p.m.
Sunday with his girlfriend when, off to the left, he saw ``a brilliant
fireball descend from the clouds straight down.''

The object, the size of a full moon, lit up the clouds, trailing a
column of smoke, Janecyk said. It appeared to be descending about 125 to
150 m.p.h., he said. ``It was too slow for a meteor,'' said Janecyk, a
private pilot for eight years. Within 20 seconds, it disappeared behind
some trees, he said.

Janecyk called New Lenox police, who notified Will County sheriff's
police. Officers investigated but found nothing, said Lt. Mike Moran.

Janecyk also called the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle, whose
director, Peter Davenport, discussed it Monday for half an hour on ``Art
Bell Coast to Coast,'' an overnight radio program heard locally on
WLS-AM (890). Davenport described similar sightings near Kansas City,
Mo.

Janecyk also was contacted by John Timmerman of Lima, Ohio, a case
investigator for the Mutual UFO Network. ``We're not suggesting it could
be of extra-terrestrial origin,'' Timmerman said. ``It could be some
space device that man put up there that decided to come back home. We're
just trying to identify it and explain it.''