Harbour Mille Missile-Like Objects (2010)

The evening of 25 January 2010

On the evening of Monday, 25 January 2010, residents of Harbour Mille, a small coastal community of roughly 100 people (2021 census) on the south coast of Newfoundland, saw objects moving across the sky. Witnesses described several bright, fiery shapes with a trail of smoke crossing the sky over a period of minutes. The Globe and Mail reported three objects; a later account by Product of Newfoundland describes "several missile-like projectiles" appearing to rise from the ocean. The community's local postmaster, Emmy Pardy, told reporters the objects looked like "a humongous bullet." Neighbour Darlene Stewart, who was photographing the sunset, took a photograph that was published in the press.

The event drew national attention in Canada mainly because of the missile explanations that were offered and then denied. A Wikipedia overview of UFO sightings in Canada lists the case with its later official statements.

The missile theory and official responses

Within days, rumour settled on a French test. The most-cited theory was that the objects were an M51 ballistic missile fired from the French nuclear submarine Le Terrible in the Atlantic. That suspicion pointed toward the French islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, which lie close to the Newfoundland coast.

The French embassy denied any military activity at the time and place of the incident. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, who was in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, said "There was never a rocket launched," as the Globe and Mail reported. According to the Wikipedia summary, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police first attributed the reports to a missile launch, then retracted that statement, and NORAD said that no rocket launch was known to have occurred at the time. The Product of Newfoundland article reports that government follow-up found missile testing in the North Atlantic did not appear to be the cause, at least on that day.

The Globe's expert, Billy Allan, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Royal Military College, said the object appeared subsonic and far smaller than an M51 or any large missile, and that missile tests rarely take place near populated coasts. He suggested a hoax was possible. The sources disagree on which official made which statement, so the attribution here follows each source as cited.

Political reaction and skeptical explanations

Postmaster Pardy rejected the official denials and said, "It seems like there's a cover-up of something." Liberal MP Gerry Byrne, whose riding includes the area, pressed the government for answers. He said "nobody's providing any real answers, so questions are mounting," and criticised the Conservative government for a lack of transparency.

Skeptical explanations have focused on conventional objects seen under unusual conditions. The Product of Newfoundland article cites a Finnish UFO researcher who suggested that sunlight striking a jet and its vapour trail could produce the effect. The witnesses did not accept that explanation, and the article does not establish that it fits the reports. No debris, impact site, or physical trace has been publicly reported, which means the case rests on photographs and eyewitness descriptions.

Current status

The RCMP's final public position, as summarised by Wikipedia, was that the event was an unexplained sighting, and the case has no accepted resolution. The sources differ on several details, including the number of objects, the population of the community, and the sequence of official statements, so the account here relies on the points where the accounts agree.

The case is best understood as a documented, well-reported but unexplained episode. The denials of a missile launch rule out one explanation that was explicitly raised, but they do not identify the objects. Whether the objects were a military test, a hoax, a natural object, or something else remains open.