Live Pterosaur Media Center Live Pterosaur For News Media Cottingham sees flying light Flying Light of Umboi Expeditions in the 1990’s   When the American Biblical creationist Carl Baugh visited Umboi Island,  Papua New Guinea, in the 1990’s, he found many eyewitnesses of the  strange flying light that the natives call “ropen.” Few of the natives,  however, had seen the ropen close enough to see any form or features. The  idea that the ropen is a living pterosaur comes from the descriptions given  by those eyewitnesses who have seen it from a close distance.  Attempted Grave Robbery in 1993   From the second edition of the book Searching for Ropens:   “Eunice, a school teacher’s wife, described to Carl Baugh an  attempted grave robbery. One night, in April of 1993, near the  northwest coast of Umboi Island, after a large funeral procession  arrived at the burial location, a creature with a glowing red tail came  from the sea. (The tail was described like the glow from burning  embers.) About two hundred mourners were awake when the  creature flew overhead. The villagers banged pots and yelled,  whereupon the intruder flew into a nearby swamp and the light  disappeared.” Twenty-First Century Expeditions   Paul Nation and his son Nathanael, from Texas, were unable to see the  ropen light on their 2002 expedition on Umboi Island. They interviewed a  native man well acquainted with the local legends. Darius told them that  the ropen is “like the spirits of ancient times” that sometimes comes down  from the mountain to hunt game animals, but it always returns to the  mountain. It is said to be like a spirit but is also like a man.  Grave Robbery in Gomlongon Village in 1949    The American cryptozoologist Jonathan Whitcomb, during his stay on  Umboi Island, in 2004, interviewed an old villager in Opai. Michael told  Whitcomb that a light came down to the “mat-mat” (grave) and when the  people looked in the grave the next morning, it was empty. Michael was  sure that the ropen took the body up to Mount Bel to eat it. No shape was  seen for the ropen, only the light.                                                        ### Other Online Resources Mount Tolo, near Lake Pung The indava light may come from a flying creature similar to the ropen of Umboi Near this peak, close to the crater lake that the  natives call “Pung,” the American explorer  David Woetzel observed, late in 2004, a light  flying behind a ridge, coming from around the  area of Mount Barik. After the two Umboi Island expeditions of  2004, Woetzel reported to Whitcomb: “My sighting was so quick that it was  impossible to get a video–maybe two seconds.  The light was very different from what Garth  and Pastor Jacob saw. I suspect theirs was a  meteor. I also saw some meteors while on  night watch. They were whitish in color and  had a tail. But this thing was different. It went  about as fast as a meteor, but it was very  different in coloration . . . almost golden and  shimmering around the edges. It looked like  an old-fashioned street light in the fog. There  was no tail and it was flying horizontally from  Mt. Barik toward Mt. Tolo.” Whitcomb concluded that Woetzel had indeed  observed the ropen light on October 28, 2004.  Ropen Sighting by Cottingham Pterosaur Bioluminescence The ropen is sometimes seen to fly to or from Mount Swal on Umboi Island 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.   The ropen flies at night, often from a mountain to a reef and back More Images for Media Abram, of Opai Village, saw the light flying down to reef of Umboi Island This south coast of Umboi Island may be near the reef where David Mokay was fishing when a bright light appeared