A Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) airborne search squadron from CFB Comox was likely responsible for the bright lights that appeared over Squamish last week.
One witness described the phenomena that lit up the night sky last Thursday (Dec. 29) as looking like a giant dripping triangle, while another described one of the lights as a flaming fireball in the sky.
Lieut. Trevor Reid, public affairs officer with the 19th Wing Division based at CFB Comox, on Tuesday (Jan. 3) said an RCAF search team that included a Buffalo fixed-wing aircraft and a Cormorant helicopter was dispatched to the Caspar Creek area northeast of Pemberton, where a search for a skier who had been caught in an avalanche was underway last Thursday evening.
While he couldn't say why the flares would have been released over Squamish, witnesses' descriptions of the lights in the sky are consistent with what he called para-flares that are usually dropped from the twin-engine Buffalo aircraft to light the way for the Cormorant during a search.
We did have one Buffalo aircraft in that general area and it was dropping flares. It certainly sounds like this could have been responsible for that phenomenon, Reid said.
While descriptions lights varied, all who saw them said the light or lights appeared to be moving in an east-to-west direction, toward the Tantalus Range.
Mike Quensel, owner of Stuntwood Enterprises, said he first spotted the light as he was driving from Brackendale to downtown Squamish on Thursday (Dec. 29) at around 8:20 p.m.
I noticed the sky was super bright orange above Squamish and this thing was hovering from the east, heading west, above the industrial area like, above Tim Hortons, going east to west toward the mountains on the other side of the river. It was just hovering
It was kind of triangular in shape like a giant dripping triangle. It wasn't going at a speed that was super fast, but it was hovering.
Eventually, the object stopped moving toward the Tantalus Range and suddenly faded to black, Quesnel said.
Raphael Nenquin and Shannon King were traveling southbound in a vehicle along Government Road when they first saw the bright light in the sky. Nenquin said they stopped their vehicle near No Name Road and tried to capture the image on video.
King said the two spotted the same light, or a similar one, a few moments later, then saw it again when they arrived in the Save-On Foods parking lot, where they stood and watched it.
We saw three very distinct lights in three very distinct areas, she said. One was almost in front of the Chief it was really bright and then went black. We had pulled over to the side, and then we continued driving and then we saw another bright light the first one had gone away and this time it was over by the Tantalus Range.
I have no explanation for it, King added. I'm not saying it was a UFO; I don't know. It was pretty bright, then it got really bright, then almost instantly, it was dark.
My friend Amanda said she saw it and said, 'Thank God I'm seeing this with somebody because it just convinces me that I'm not losing my mind.'
Jennifer Adams wrote in an email to The Chief on Monday (Jan. 2) that she and her son saw what she described as unusual lights in the sky on Thursday at around 10 p.m.
There [were] five separate lights which we saw, which were moving very slowly, Adams wrote. They were pulsing and were bright enough to light the whole sky and give it a[n] orange glow. After about 10 minutes, one light would go out and another would start up. As well, there was a drone which sounded like an airplane, but did not recede or get closer.
My son has a video of one of the lights and it definitely qualified as a UFO in my mind.
Heidi Van Lith said she saw a flaming fireball in the sky. It was dropping other flaming fireballs. She added, though, that she believes the object she saw was probably a flare of unknown origin.
Parachute flares, or para-flares, contain phosphorus. When set ablaze, phosphorus burns extremely hot and very bright to provide consistent illumination for the SAR crews, Reid said.
John Wilcox of Squamish Search and Rescue (SSAR) on Tuesday said SSAR officials were alerted to the presence of the RCAF search squadron on the night in question.
On the Thursday evening, at 7 or 8 p.m., Squamish SAR got a page from the RCMP, he said. We were told several residents of Squamish reported seeing flares RCMP said they were just getting a report that it may have been the military. I called our Provincial Emergency Program co-ordinator in Victoria and they said, 'I have the military joint rescue co-ordination centre here, I'll patch you through.'
They confirmed that the Buffalo and Cormorant aircraft had been dispatched to the rescue near Pemberton.
Wilcox said that because of inclement weather, the aircraft weren't able to make it to Pemberton via the Sea to Sky Corridor and were asked to try the Harrison Lake-Lillooet Lake corridor instead. After a while, searchers on the ground reached those involved in the avalanche and the RCAF squadron was asked to stand down before reaching the search scene, Wilcox said.
Tragically, Duncan MacKenzie, a Whistler Blackcomb ski patroller, died as a result of the injuries he sustained in the Caspar Creek avalanche.
Wilcox couldn't say why the aircraft personnel would have dropped flares near Squamish, but speculated that the Buffalo might have been asked to do so to light the way for the Cormorant.
Because they went into bad weather, it sounds like the purpose of the flare was to communicate a location, he said.
