(WWJ) UFO enthusiasts have begun descending on the federal military installation known as Area 51 for an internet event known as "storm Area 51" to see what's going on inside the place long-rumored to house government secrets about alien life.
Meanwhile, as WWJ's Sandra McNeill reports...a local man says he doesn't need any proof of UFO's because he's seen them himself.
Bill Konkolesky heads the Michigan chapter of the Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON, and he says in 1989 he and his buddies were sitting in a Chevette when something changed his life. A blue light hovered over the vehicle, he says.
"It was kind of oval and it passed over the car and then a white ball of light came and zig zagged over the expanse of sky," Konkolesky said. "Then when that disappeared a red ball of light appeared in the center of the sky, like it grew then it shrank. And the three of us all saw it in exactly the same way."
The UFO Network that he joined receives about 200 reports of UFO sightings a year, Konkolesky said, adding most can be explained away as a drone.
But 10% have no explanation. And that's where alien theories come in.
In 1966, 100 witnesses saw discs of flying colors over the University of Michigan, Konkolesky says, as proof there's something else out there.
To discuss this and other phenomenons, the UFO Network is hosting an weekend at the Lakeside Resort and Conference Center in Houghton Lake for all believers in alien life. Tickets are available at the door for the event headlined by John E.L. Tenney, a noted lecturer who describes himself as "everyone's weird uncle."
Interested? The description says, "Join us in Northern Michigan for an out of this world event, the second annual Michigan UFO Con-tact! Spend the weekend listening and learning from our special guest speakers who will be lecturing about UFOs, sightings, experiences, the contact phenomena, and more".
As far as the Storm Area 51 event, locals are reportedly bracing for the worst after the Facebook post urging people to storm the gates of the hallowed facility went viral. Storming Area 51 because half a joke and half a marketing phenomenon, and people who live in the area are still concerned about the potential for thousands of conspiracy theorists -- or even millions -- to show up demanding action. Roughly 2.1 million people RSVP'd to the Facebook event.
"The event could become a disaster as people struggle with the difficult conditions in Nevada without proper preparation, they have warned," the Independent reports today, adding:
"Those arriving to the tiny towns of Rachel and Hiko, near Area 51, are doing so because of a Facebook event that was one of the site’s most popular ever, before it was shut down. The page, which encouraged people to “see them aliens” and suggested that enough people raid the base then they couldn’t be stopped, is bringing an unknown number of people to Nevada to take part in the event."
Local officials signed emergency declarations and warned people not to come. But there are still plenty of people promising to live tweet the storming of Area 51.