Within British Columbia UFOs
Was the Duncan Hospital UFO a Prank?
A celebrated close encounter at Duncan hospital was seriously weakened when local residents later described a homemade balloon prank.
On this page
- The nurses' original account
- Why the story became famous
- How the balloon claim changed the case
Page outline Jump by section
Introduction
The Duncan hospital encounter began at about 5 a.m. on 1 January 1970, when practical nurse Doreen Kendall opened curtains at Cowichan District Hospital and reported a brilliantly lit, saucer-shaped object hovering close to the building. She said she could see two human-like figures beneath a transparent dome. Other nurses saw a bright object or light moving away, though they did not confirm Kendall’s detailed view of occupants and controls. The story became one of British Columbia’s best-known close encounters and, more than half a century later, inspired a Royal Canadian Mint collector coin.[UFO BC]ufobc.caUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near HospitalUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near Hospital
The case is now substantially weaker than its classic retellings suggest. In 2023, several local people said that partygoers near the hospital had released a large homemade hot-air balloon that night. One man gave a detailed account of helping to build and launch it. This does not prove that every element of Kendall’s experience was invented, but it provides a plausible source for the luminous object and removes much of the case’s value as evidence of an extraordinary craft.
The nurses’ original account
Kendall was attending a restless patient on the hospital’s second floor when she parted the curtains. According to the account published by Canadian UFO researcher John Magor, she was struck by a brilliant light and saw a circular object about 60 feet away, hovering above the children’s ward. She described a silvery, bowl-shaped underside, a ring of lights and a transparent-looking dome. Inside were two tall, male-like figures wearing close-fitting dark clothing or head coverings.[UFO BC]ufobc.caUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near HospitalUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near Hospital
Her testimony became memorable because it contained far than the usual report of an unexplained light. Kendall said one figure turned towards her and touched the other on the back. The second appeared to operate a lever, after which the object began circling anticlockwise. She estimated that it spanned roughly five hospital windows, producing a later calculation of at least 50 feet, or about 15 metres, across.[UFO BC]ufobc.caUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near HospitalUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near Hospital
The supporting testimony was much less specific. A second nurse, identified in the early report as Mrs Wilson, saw an intensely bright, circular-looking object moving near the building, but did not see a dome, occupants, instrument panel or clearly defined upper and lower sections. Two further nurses arrived in time to see only a bright light receding in the distance; two others saw nothing.[UFO BC]ufobc.caUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near HospitalUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near Hospital
That difference is central to judging the case. Kendall was the sole witness to the features that made the report an apparent encounter with an occupied vehicle. The other observations support the presence of something conspicuously bright outside the hospital, but they do not independently establish its size, construction or occupants.
The early investigation also preserved a brief contemporary note made by Kendall in the hospital work schedule. She recorded seeing a low “flying saucer” with “two men or figures in the dome”. This is useful because it shows that the central claim was not added only after decades of retelling. Yet a prompt written record still demonstrates only that Kendall sincerely reported the experience; it does not determine what she actually saw.[UFO BC]ufobc.caUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near HospitalUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near Hospital
Why the story became famous
The Duncan account had nearly ideal ingredients for a lasting UFO story. It involved hospital staff rather than an anonymous roadside observer, several people saw at least a bright object, and the principal witness supplied a vivid description of apparent occupants and mechanical controls. The object was also said to have hovered extremely close to an identifiable building, making the incident sound more evidentially substantial than a distant light in the night sky.
The case was promoted quickly through civilian UFO reporting. Magor’s published account treated the authenticity of an unusual event as effectively beyond dispute and attempted to explain differences between witnesses by suggesting that the object became brighter after it started moving, obscuring its interior. That suggestion was conjectural rather than something demonstrated by measurements or independent evidence. The same account entertained ideas such as a calming influence or an “emanation” from the craft, showing that its interpretive framework was sympathetic to extraordinary explanations.[UFO BC]ufobc.caUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near HospitalUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near Hospital
Reports of other lights around Duncan and Mill Bay on New Year’s Day were also incorporated into the narrative. These were presented as possible corroboration, although they differed in time, location and description and were not shown to be the same object. Some accounts involved a large white or orange light moving slowly; another was described as disappearing rapidly. Such reports establish that several residents saw unusual lights, but grouping them into one coherent visitation depends on assumptions about distance, direction and continuity that the surviving evidence cannot securely test.[UFO BC]ufobc.caUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near HospitalUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near Hospital
The story’s cultural standing was reinforced in 2023 when the Royal Canadian Mint selected the Duncan incident for its Canada’s Unexplained Phenomena series. The glow-in-the-dark coin depicted the hospital-window encounter from Kendall’s perspective. The Mint described the design as being based on eyewitness accounts, but a commemorative coin is not an official finding that the reported object was extraterrestrial or technologically unexplained.[https://www.mint.ca/en-us]mint.caPure Silver Glow-in-the-Dark Coin (2023) | The Royal Canadian MintOur sixth UFO coin is based on eyewitness accounts of the 1970 Duncan I…
Ironically, the publicity surrounding the coin prompted local residents to revive an explanation that had circulated, in less developed forms, from the beginning.
How the balloon claim changed the case
The possibility of a prank was not invented in 2023. Magor’s original account acknowledged that callers had attributed the sighting to schoolchildren, drunken revellers or a plastic bag carrying candles. He rejected these stories because the versions conflicted, named different supposed culprits and did not explain how a large disturbance could occur on hospital grounds without attracting police attention. The second nurse also dismissed the idea that a small candle balloon could have produced such intense light.[UFO BC]ufobc.caUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near HospitalUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near Hospital
Those early rumours were weak because they lacked a clearly identified builder, a consistent description and physical details. The later claims were more consequential.
After the Mint publicised its coin, Cowichan Valley resident Dan Hughes told a local newspaper that people attending a New Year’s Eve party beside the hospital had released a makeshift UFO made from light wooden pieces, plastic and a heat source. The columnist subsequently reported hearing from a couple who said they had attended the party and confirmed Hughes’s broad version of events.[Lake Cowichan Gazette]lakecowichangazette.comLake Cowichan GazetteRobert Barron column: Was that UFO at the hospital really real? - Lake Cowichan Gazette…
A further account came from Jan White, who said he had personally helped build and launch the balloon. White described joining plastic sheets salvaged from lumberyards, while another man constructed a lightweight aluminium frame holding a pie plate. Gelled alcohol was burned in the plate, heating the air inside the envelope and creating a strong internal glow. White said the group had made several such balloons and brought one to a New Year’s party near Cowichan District Hospital.[Delta Optimist]delta-optimist.comDelta Optimist Victoria barber helped make the UFO in DuncanDelta OptimistVictoria barber helped make the UFO in Duncan - Delta Optimist…
His account included several details that fit important parts of the sighting:
- The balloon was unusually large rather than merely a single dry-cleaning bag.
- It was launched from or near the hospital grounds during the relevant night.
- The hospital reportedly sheltered the launch from the wind.
- Burning gel beneath the plastic created an incandescent glow and moving internal shadows.
- The device could quiver, tilt, drift and rotate as it filled and encountered uneven air currents.
- Leaking fuel could produce sparks, matching reports associated with similar lights in the area.[Delta Optimist]delta-optimist.comDelta Optimist Victoria barber helped make the UFO in DuncanDelta OptimistVictoria barber helped make the UFO in Duncan - Delta Optimist…
White said that the partygoers did not initially know hospital staff had seen the balloon. After newspaper coverage appeared, they kept quiet because they feared trouble, including concern about fire risk. He came forward publicly only after the Mint revived the story.[Delta Optimist]delta-optimist.comDelta Optimist Victoria barber helped make the UFO in DuncanDelta OptimistVictoria barber helped make the UFO in Duncan - Delta Optimist…
The prank evidence is still testimonial rather than forensic. No balloon, photograph, launch record or dated confession from 1970 survives. White’s public account was given 53 years after the event, and some descriptions of the construction differ: Hughes spoke of wood, a laundromat bag, candles and a hair dryer, whereas White described joined industrial plastic, an aluminium support and Sterno-type fuel. These differences may reflect separate levels of knowledge, imperfect memories or more than one balloon design, but they prevent the explanation from being treated as formally proven in every detail.[Delta Optimist]delta-optimist.comDelta Optimist Victoria barber helped make the UFO in DuncanDelta OptimistVictoria barber helped make the UFO in Duncan - Delta Optimist…
Nevertheless, the later evidence is much stronger than the vague prank rumours dismissed in 1970. It identifies a nearby party, named participants, a workable lifting method and a luminous device reportedly launched at the correct place and time. Multiple people connected with the gathering supported the essential claim that a homemade balloon was released.
What the balloon explains — and what it does not
A large fire-heated balloon provides a good explanation for the feature confirmed by more than one hospital observer: a brilliant object or light moving silently near the building. At night, an internally illuminated plastic envelope could appear solid, metallic or dome-like, particularly when viewed against a dark background without reliable depth cues. Its apparent size would be difficult to judge, even near a familiar structure, if glare obscured its edges.
Air currents could also account for slow circling, tilting and a later departure. An observer seeing shadows cast by a fuel tray, frame, folds and moving plastic might organise those patterns into meaningful forms. This possibility is especially relevant because only Kendall reported recognisable figures and instruments, while the other nurses saw progressively less detail as the object moved away.[UFO BC]ufobc.caUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near HospitalUFO BCUFO Occupants Seen Near Hospital
The balloon explanation does not demonstrate that Kendall lied. Witnesses can be sincere yet mistaken, particularly when confronted unexpectedly with an unfamiliar bright object at close apparent range. Her detailed account may have been a genuine interpretation formed during an intense, confusing observation. The existence of a likely prank object therefore challenges identification, not necessarily personal honesty.
One later witness continued to reject the prank explanation. Joan Hieta, who said she had been the patient in the room, told the Cowichan Valley columnist that the object approached within a few feet and that she saw instrument panels, lights and two dark figures. Her recollection broadly supports Kendall’s description, but it appeared publicly more than five decades after the event and is not prominent in the detailed early investigation, which presented Kendall and Wilson as the principal close witnesses. That late emergence reduces its weight compared with testimony documented in 1970.[Lake Cowichan Gazette]lakecowichangazette.comLake Cowichan GazetteRobert Barron column: Was that UFO at the hospital really real? - Lake Cowichan Gazette…
There is also no surviving objective record capable of deciding between perceived machinery and shadows inside an illuminated balloon. No photograph was taken, no physical trace was documented, and no radar, aviation or calibrated positional information has been produced. Claims that police were puzzled do not substitute for an accessible investigation file showing what officers checked or excluded.
Was the Duncan Hospital UFO a prank?
The most defensible assessment is that the Duncan case was probably triggered by a homemade hot-air balloon released as a New Year’s prank. The later accounts fit the date, location, brightness, silent movement and general appearance of the object far better than any extraordinary hypothesis, and they come from people claiming direct involvement or attendance at the nearby party.
The identification is not proven to a forensic standard. It depends on delayed memories, and the precise balloon design varies between accounts. Nor does it reproduce every detail Kendall reported, particularly the two occupants and control panel. But an explanation does not need to reproduce a witness’s interpretation literally when those details were uncorroborated and may have arisen from glare, shadows and uncertain visual scale.
Within British Columbia’s UFO history, the case remains important chiefly as a warning about how reputation can outlive evidence. For decades, retellings emphasised the nurse’s vivid description and the apparent presence of several witnesses. Closer examination shows a narrower evidential core: several people saw a bright aerial object, while one person supplied nearly all the extraordinary detail. The 2023 testimony then introduced a credible, locally grounded mechanism for producing that object.
The Duncan encounter is therefore best classified not as an enduring unexplained close encounter, but as a once-celebrated case seriously weakened — and probably explained — by the balloon-prank claim.
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Endnotes
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Source: mint.ca
Link:https://www.mint.ca/en-us/shopping/archives/2023/1-oz-pure-silver-glow-in-the-dark-coin-canada-s-unexplained-phenomena-the-duncan-incident-
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Pure Silver Glow-in-the-Dark Coin (2023) | The Royal Canadian MintOur sixth UFO coin is based on eyewitness accounts of the 1970 Duncan I...
2.
Source: delta-optimist.com
Title: Delta Optimist Victoria barber helped make the UFO in Duncan
Link:https://www.delta-optimist.com/highlights/i-dont-think-theyll-arrest-me-now-island-barber-helped-make-ufo-that-became-legendary-in-duncan-7821040
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Delta OptimistVictoria barber helped make the UFO in Duncan - Delta Optimist...
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Source: mint.ca
Title: Lighting the way with glowing hearts—and coins | The Royal Canadian Mint
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6.
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Title: Canada’s Unexplained Phenomena: The Langenburg Event
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Title: sci fi glow in the dark ufo coin
Link:https://www.mint.ca/en-us/shopping/archives/2019/sci-fi-glow-in-the-dark-ufo-coin
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Link:https://www.mint.ca/en-us/shopping/archives/2025/haunted-canada-lady-in-white-1-oz-fine-silver-coin-
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Title: Mystères en terre canadienne: L’incident de Duncan
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Title: 1 oz. Pure Silver Glow-in-the-Dark Coin
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Additional References
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