James Blackwood

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable

At the time of the incident, Blackwood was a 25-year-old RCMP constable stationed in Clarenville, Newfoundland. During the early morning of October 26, 1978, the RCMP received reports from local residents about a strange object over the water near Random Island. Blackwood was dispatched to investigate.

This is an important distinction for his witness profile: he was not initially a UFO witness who independently decided to report an object. He was an on-duty police officer responding to other people's reports and subsequently became a firsthand witness himself.

According to the later official account published by the Royal Canadian Mint, Blackwood initially approached the incident skeptically. He was an aircraft enthusiast and reportedly first considered the possibility that the object might be a conventional aircraft. He then used binoculars and later a high-powered telescope obtained from the RCMP detachment to observe it more closely. He described a large oval object with a fin-like tail, a dull metallic appearance, illumination underneath, and red and blue lights.

Blackwood later recalled:

“What struck me the most was the size and brightness of the object, and the lack of noise – everything was so quiet.”

The object was reportedly visible for an extended period—accounts vary between approximately one hour and nearly two hours—before it rose and disappeared. Blackwood also consistently described what he interpreted as a response when he activated his police cruiser's emergency lights: the object's lights appeared to mimic or respond to them.cla