Cryptozoology
About 150 miles southeast of Bali, Indonesia, (June, 2008) a Britten-
Norman Islander (airplane) nearly collided with what both the
pilot and
the co-pilot soon afterwards called a "
pterodactyl." At an altitude of
6500 feet, the plane was put into a dive to
avoid a collision.
The pilot saw the creature for about 5-6 seconds; the co-pilot, for
only about 2-3 seconds. The co-pilot
later reported that a common
explanation--pelican--has problems: What the two ex-navy pilots
had seen was too big and the wrong color
(darker than the pelicans
he knows live there). Aside from the strange altitude of 6500 feet,
the large flying creature was nowhere
near any land: also strange.
The two men later considered the possibility that it was a soaring
bird of some kind; but what they
saw flapped its wings in a "lazy
'long winged' kind of way." Finding no reasonable bird-explanation,
the pilot and co-pilot searched
on Google for "pterodactyl." They
then found out about the ropen, and the pilot emailed Jonathan
Whitcomb, reporting to him their strange sighting.
Besides the names of "ahool" and "ropen,"
this part of the world (Southwest Pacific)
has other names for large flying
creatures:
"duwas," "
indava," "seklo-bali," & "kundua."
Contrary to older information on some web
pages, various names come from
various
languages, not various species.
Some investigators wonder if the ahool
reported by some natives in Indonesia
may be related to the ropen of Papua New
Guinea. Both are large featherless flying
creatures and larger than bats. At any
rate, both still live in the dark mysterious
Ropen Over Indonesia
Small Plane Almost Collides
With Large Flying Creature