Unsolved Mysteries Recap for Something in the Sky
This episode opens with a recording from the National Weather Service talking about a call they got and wanting to know if it was a hoax. There were lights going all over the sky at a high rate of speed. Scientists think that it was something that acted intelligent, it did not act human.
Jack Bushong talks about how he was made fun of as a kid for being the center of different coincidences. He remembers being fascinated by science, weather and astronomy as a kid and how It lead to him wanting to be a meteorologist. This dream came true, and in his late twenties he had a life changing experience.
On March 8th, 1994, he was working at the Muskegon National Weather Service during his usual 4-midnight shift. As usual, he was working alone and nothing seemed amiss at the time. He expected things to be normal….but then things took an unusual turn for him and several others.
Cindy Pravda, another resident in the area of Michigan where Jim was working. She was on the phone with a friend at around 9pm, pacing and talking when she notices some very bright lights. At first she thought it was a very large full moon, but it ended up being four lines of light. She remembers them moving and telling her friend that she thought there was a UFO in her yard. One light disappeared and she kept watching them for at least thirty minutes. There was no sound and her horse had no idea what was happening.
Holly Graves also remembers the UFOs being silent. She and her husband had gone to bed that night, but her kids were awake. Her son started screaming when he saw the UFOs and they called 911 to report what they had seen. Nobody heard anything at that point, so the family decided to go outside and investigate. Holly recalls the lights moving very slowly and in a way she had never seen before.
Officer Velthouse responded to the call at Holly’s house. He was fairly skeptical about the entire thing and thought it could have been a fire or someone playing with lights. However, he saw lights moving as well, going from white to green, with one moving southwest and away from one of the other lights.
After Officer Velthouse left, Holly’s husband Daryl saw the lights break up into five. At that point, there were even more calls coming in to report the lights. Word got back to Jack, who decided to take a look for himself. What he saw was similar to everyone else and he began to work further to try and identify it. He was able to determine it was not an aircraft and that the lights kept popping up all over the place, making several triangular formations…..making him come to the conclusion that this was not normal.
After getting off the phone with a dispatcher, Jack called his wife, who refused to go see the lights alone. His coworker also was not thrilled or excited about these lights. However, Jack could not be more excited about this turn of events and the possibility that there was more out there than he knew.
Journalist Michael Walsh remembers getting calls about the UFOs the next day and quickly began doing his own research. He listened to several of the calls that came in the previous night and was completely blown away. This led to him writing the story of a lifetime….which led to many more stories and theories coming from this night. Before long, MUFON picked up the story and began doing their own research on the UFOs that were seen that night. William Konkolesky was one of the main people looking into it since Michigan had been notorious for UFO sightings. Virginia Tilly was also on the case and interviewed several people who claimed to have seen the UFOs that night. The stories remained consistent, but Jack caught a lot of flack from his coworkers for believing and talking about the story.
The Weather Service even put out other stories to come up with more reasonable explanations and told Jack not to talk about UFOs to anyone.It even got to the point where Jack was told how to look for another job, eventually moving to Atlanta. He tried to put everything behind him, but was unable to do so. He ended up retiring in 2016.
However, there had been tons of UFO sightings throughout the years. Jack went back to Michigan in 2021 to help get closure on the case. He talks to Virginia about her research and several of the interviews she had done with witnesses, as well as other witnesses, who stand firm on what they had seen.
Jack is determined to come up with an explanation for what he had seen and will not rest until he gets answers.
