By Susan Canfora of the Times Staff
ANNAPOLIS - There's something strange happening in the skies above Annapolis and some people believe that's becuase UFOs are visiting the area.
"People are seeing rather strange objects that have a variety of lights," Bob Oechsler of Edgewater, Md., a member of the Mutual UFO Network based in Sequin, Texas, said today.
In mid-March, about 24 unusual sightings were reported, Oechsler said.
Generally, they have been described as looking like a distsnt light, quite large, with rather unusual flight characteristics," he said. "They would go up and down, left and right, faster and slower, faster and slower. They had rather uncharacteristic flight patterns, uncharacteristic of common-known flying crafts, such as helicopters or airplanes," he said.
Oechsler, who said he spotted a cluster of five UFOs within the past few weeks in the Annapolis area, described them as appearing to be lights, which had the ability to turn from red to green to a shade of blue and pulsate at times. "When they left, all five of them just blinked out suddenly. They were all right there then, boom they were gone," he said.
Most of the sightings that have been reported to him have been reported on the Annapolis side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge area. None was reported close to Salisbury, although he said he has on his desk unopened mail with return addresses from Salisbury, which could contain reports of UFO sightings.
He is asking anyone who spots unusual lights or crafts to write to him at P.O. Box 2000, Edgewater, Md. 21037.
"I don't know of anything within the technical realm of our society that is capable of performing in the manner in which I've seen these craft," Oechsler said. "It's probably not from this planet. As far as where they're from, I wouldn't know," he said.
NO one who reported seeing UFOs said they noticed any life form in the craft, he said.
It appears that if the craft are UFOs that they are attracted to the Annapolis area becuase of the naval experiments being conducted in the area, he said.