Strange lights over Northern Manitoba cause stir online

A video of mysterious lights captured over northern Manitoba has got the attention of the wider UFO community. CityNews spoke to the man who shot the video and an expert as to what could be behind the strange lights in the sky.

“We were kind of scared at first. Well not scared, but amazed that we’ve seen something like that,” said Dwight Beardy.

The video was captured in-between Lynn Lake and the Fox Mine at around midnight Monday, the video shows several orbs in the night sky, caught on camera by Beardy, who was out celebrating his birthday, the experience leaving him perplexed.

“I don’t think they were planes. People are saying they’re like Chinese lanterns, but who is going to light up Chinese lanterns in the middle of nowhere,” explained Beardy.

The video was posted to website Reddit’s “UFOs” community, which boasts more than one million members, sparking a discussion hundreds of comments deep. For Beardy, he’s confident what he saw this week, was just out of this world.

“I knew they were UFOs for sure — they gotta’ be.”

Dwight Beardy says he’s seen strange things in the sky over Northern Manitoba in the past, and it’s thrilling to finally have been able to capture something on camera. (Photo Credit: Facebook/Dwight Beardy)

The video showing the alleged Unidentified Flying Objects — now called Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena or UAP — goes on for more than two minutes and shows several lights, two particularly bright, moving through the sky, Beardy saying it was a thrill to finally capture something like this on camera.

Chris Rutkowski is a science writer and one of Canada’s leading UfOlogists, maintaining a database of UFO sightings across the country.

“Many people are seeing things in the sky, and Mr. Beardy is one of the lucky ones,” explained Rutkowski.

He stresses the video captured over Lynn Lake does resemble paper or Chinese lanterns, but admits the location of the video — more than 1,000 km north of Winnipeg — is interesting.

“It does suggest that we should take a closer look at it — take it a little more seriously — because there wouldn’t be as many people up there. In areas where there is a lot of population, there’d be a lot of explanations why UFOs would be flying around, or things that could be misidentified. But there isn’t a lot that could be misidentified up there,” said Rutkowski.

Chris Rutkowski, a long-time UFO expert and science writer, says while a recent video capturing strange lights over northern Manitoba does resemble paper or Chinese Lanterns, he says the remote-area the video was shot is interesting. (Photo Credit: James Rinn, CityNews)

Rutkowski says he checked with the Lynn Lake airport and confirmed there were no aircraft in the area at the time the video was shot, with Transport Canada telling CityNews the government body would need more time before it responded.

While the long-time UFOlogist says this video is far from conclusive, it’s important it’s logged and categorized, especially as larger conversations about outer-world possibilities continue.

“It’s a matter of trying to get good data. And if people don’t report what they see, we won’t get the good data and videos, are certainly, more than just anecdotes. We have something concrete that we can look at and examine and study in some detail. Something we can look at rather than just a story people are saying.”

Rutkowski pointing out 1 in 10 Canadians believe they’ve seen a UFO, he stresses those who have seen something strange in the night sky, are not alone.