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Eyewitness of the Ropen Light
Video Analysis
In the fall of 2006, Paul Nation left his home in Texas to go on his third
expedition in Papua New Guinea. This time he and the ropen searcher
Jacob Kepas (an interpreter) chose a remote mountainous area deep in the
mainland, where villagers often see flying lights that may be related to the
ropen of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea. But in Tawa Village, the name
for the glowing flying creature is “indava.”
Natives in Tawa say that the indavas used to attack their village on
occasion, sometimes carrying away a child or pig. But the flying creatures
have left them alone since villagers learned to scare them away by making
noise. Now they see the indavas mostly as flying lights at night.
The following is taken from the second edition of the nonfiction book
Searching for Ropens, by Jonathan Whitcomb:
“In a clearing near the Tawa airstrip, Paul watched and videotaped
the two lights. . . . [Paul Nation said] ‘I was able to watch the two on
the mountain range, right here at this little saddle. . . . the lower one
. . . appeared first. About a minute or so later, the higher one (the
second one) appeared, and the first one disappeared.’
“Thrilled at the success of Paul’s expedition, I flew to Texas on
November 20th and drove to his home for an interview. . . . He
allowed me to make digital copies of his videos . . . Back in
California, Guessman found a physicist, Cliff Paiva, who agreed to
analyze the video footage of the two lights. His preliminary findings
included the surety that the video images were not made by meteors
or campfires or an airplane.”
Early in 2007, after extensive analysis, the missile defense physicist
Clifford Paiva, of BSM Associates in California, with the assistance of
Harold S Slusher (professor, physics department, University of Texas at El
Paso), wrote a detailed report of his findings: “Results of Investigations
Concerning Pterosaur Sightings in Papua New Guinea.”
Although the video recorded by Paul Nation showed little more than the
two lights, Paiva found that they were uncommon. They were not from any
camera artifacts, paste-on hoax, meteors, camp fires, flash lights, airplane
lights, or automobile headlights. Nothing was found to discredit the idea
that they were from some kind of bioluminescence.
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Other Online Resources
Mount Bel, Umboi Island
Government official sees
flying ropen light on Umboi
Luke Paina (left), Whitcomb’s interpreter,
saw the flying ropen light on Umboi Island
Mount Bel, near Gomlongon Village, just
hours after two men saw the glowing ropen
with that mountain as a background.
Whitcomb’s interpreter, Luke Paina, and a
local leader, Mark Kau, saw the ropen for
for only a few seconds, with no features or
shape observed: only the flying light.
Bioluminescent Ropen
Pterosaur Interpretation
of Cheesman Lights
One of many images from Clifford Paiva’s analysis of the two lights that
Paul Nation recorded on his 2006 expedition in Papua New Guinea
The opinions expressed are those of Jonathan
David Whitcomb. Media professionals may
use these paragraphs in whole or in part for
news distribution. All of the images on this
page may also be used by the news media.
Flying Lights Videotaped in Papua New Guinea
More Images for Media
Eyewitness of ropen light flying
down to reef, “catching fish”
Flying Fox and Pterosaurs
On Paul Nation’s late-2006 expedition, his
interpreter, Jacob Kepas, observed a large
winged creature sleeping on a cliff one day.
This supported the hypothesis that large
nocturnal flying creatures cause the sightings
of flying lights that natives call “indava.”