Flying Triangles, Explained

Those of you who scan the aircraft magazines in newsagents, might have been surprised by the cover of the March issue of Aircraft Illustrated – namely with revelations of a delta-planform aircraft seen flown out of Groom Lake (Area 51) by aviation enthusiasts. It has to be said that this is not the obvious magazine that would feature such revelations about black projects, since it usually concerns itself with commercial aspects of aviation.

The article was mainly composed of a curious account of three ‘watchers’ based on Tikaboo Peak, who made little effort to conceal their presence from the security ‘camo-dudes’, by lighting a campfire at night to cook food! It would have been very evident to the authorities that either UFO or aviation enthusiasts were watching, yet apparently, they chose to fly out a hitherto unknown aircraft in broad daylight. The description was of a fairly large (30m length) dense black delta-planform aircraft, with no visible cockpit, nor visible engine intakes. When a rear view was afforded to the observers, the engines were not in the wings like the SR-71, but were in the central fuselage – and were two large rectangular exhaust nozzles, which suggested thrust-vectoring capability. These exhausts were glowing white, as if on reheat, but the observer’s didn’t report the loud engine roar, as might have been expected for an aircraft of this size.

The accompanying artists impression was perhaps more of a hybrid of the observed vehicle, and the reputed A-17 ‘Switchblade’ – effectively a swing wing variant off the stealth aircraft programme, although many observers question where such an aircraft would fit into the USAF’S inventory. Interestingly, retired aerospace engineer Roy Dutton was not overly impressed by the artists impression, as part of his work had been to analyze reports and photos of ‘secret’ aircraft to evaluate their potential flight performance. As Roy points out – none of these reported secret aircraft, or artists impressions, are remotely similar to the ‘real FT UFOs’ seen for the past 20-odd years around the world, and do not demonstrate the flight characteristics or envelope of ‘FTs’. For instance, the various claims for ‘Aurora’, and indeed Groom Lake suggests the need for a 5km runway and take-off run – this doesn’t in itself indicate a high performance aircraft for its size, and certainly doesn’t fit with reports of FT’s in vertical flight!

The April issue of Aircraft Illustrated has further coverage of the black projects of Groom Lake, and other bases, and is well worth a read for background into the speculation of black project types, based on sporadic sightings by various witnesses. It will also be worthwhile to re-visit some UFO reports where ‘non-silent’ deltas have been reported.

There is much speculation in the aviation world that a ‘black project’ is about to be made known to the media and public, much as the F-117 and B-2 were a few years ago. However, it should not be forgotten that both of these types had been operational for many years before they were ‘made public’, and by then the next-generation of black projects was well under way – resulting in types such as the claimed A17, TR-3A, F121 – also known as the Black Manta, Switchblade, Aurora etc etc. If any of these are to be made public, then you can bet that 3rd , 4th and 5th generation black projects are in development! At a conservative estimate, it will take black projects between 10 and 15 years to be revealed into the ‘white world’.

After viewing the ‘evidence’ presented in Aircraft Illustrated, I would agree with Roy Dutton that it doesn’t come close to explaining the reports of delta-aircraft that defy our ‘laws’ of aerospace and physics – such as silent hovering, instantaneous supersonic flight, right-angle turns and shape-changing to name but a few!

Case not closed…

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Triangle UFOs are Everywhere

23-Feb-2005-Mysterious black triangles have been reported in Canada and Maryland, and now Dr. Mark Olson of Sonora, California has taken spectacular video of two of them. A sighting of a huge black triangle was reported to Unknowncountry.com over West Hollywood, California on February 5, but no images were obtained. Black triangles have been a feature of UFO sightings at least since the seventies, and are responsible for some of the most spectacular sightings ever recorded, among them the passage of an enormous triangle across Arizona during the Phoenix Lights event in March of 1977.

A black triangle was spotted in the sky over Maryland on February 9. As is usual with these sightings, there were no lights on the UFO and it was totally silent—the witness simply saw a black triangle shape that blotted out the stars in the night sky.

Mysterious black triangles have been part of UFO folklore for years. Sightings of low-flying and silent aircraft are scattered across websites dedicated to the study of other-worldly activity.

The National Institute for Discovery Science, a group devoted to the study of unexplained phenomena, has gathered hundreds of reports from across U.S. and Canada of similar aircraft, often flying in high-population areas near major interstates.

One theory holds that the black triangles are experimental military blimps or balloons, perhaps equipped with electrokinetic propulsion systems, which would make them silent. The military has never confirmed the existence of such balloons, but according to many UFO websites, Lockheed Martin did begin work on a triangular stealth blimp in 1982. NIDS issued a report in August 2004 suggesting that the black triangles may be some kind of military aircraft, though the truth about them is not known.

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Do Flying Triangles Have Underwater Bases Around Our Coast?

The arrival of a Flying Triangle UFO craft in Missouri and Kansas in 1980, caused concern and wonderment, as hundreds of witnesses, including policemen, watched a huge craft displaying a triangular pattern of lights, move slowly over the countryside for a period of four hours. It was seen over 22 towns and at one stage the enormous craft appeared to be dropping what a local truck driver described as satellites, which appeared to be round and emitted a bluish glow. The whole event was tracked on radar during the four hour period and must rate as one of the most awesome sightings to date. One witness described the Flying Triangle as being "as big as a football field." This event was the first indication of their presence, but within a decade, Flying Triangular craft were to be reported world wide.

During January 1981, a huge boomerang shaped craft was seen over Arizona, with one witness proclaiming the object "was bigger than several football fields!" The Vshaped craft was later reported over New York State and Connecticut in March 1983. Once again the craft was described as being "as big as two football fields" and this time, the craft flashed its lights on and off as though trying to attract attention. The next major event was the Belgian Flap, when huge triangular craft visited this small country during the period 1989/90. The SOBEPS Group (Societe Belge d Etudes des Phenomenes Spatiaux), were inundated with hundreds of reports during this period. Such was the efficiency of their organization that the Belgian Air Force asked for their co-operation and assistance! With SOBEPS members being widespread throughout the country, they were able to identify Flying Triangles in their locality and report their position to the Belgian Air Force.

In this manner, the SOBEPS members acted as trained observers for the Belgian Air Force. At one stage, two F16 interceptor fighters were placed at their disposal, to be directed to various parts of the country where the FTs were reported! This co-operation resulted in the F16s intercepting a number of the Flying Triangles, although the aircraft were completely unable to match the speed and manoeuvrability of the FTs, as subsequent cockpit radar film footage showed.

There had meanwhile been a number of isolated reports over the UK, but on the 26th September 1993, a huge Flying Triangle craft arrived over Bakewell in Derbyshire. Many residents of this small town were to share in the experience of watching a huge black craft, slowly and silently flying over their town. With a bright white light on each corner of its triangular shape and numerous smaller lights running along the edges of the craft, the FT flew low and at an estimated speed of only 30 mph. (A witness driving his vehicle at 40 mph overtook it!) The triangular craft the performed several slow manoeuvres over the town before returning to its original course and flying slowly out of sight. It was just a few months later, on January 6th 1995, that a British Airways Boeing 737 aircraft was buzzed by a glowing triangular craft as it approached Manchester Airport! This was the forerunner of a Flying Triangle invasion, as the FTs then began to arrive in force.

There were 52 FT incidents recorded in and around the city of Derby from December 1994 to May 1995. These included hovering illuminated craft and in one instance, a huge triangular craft was observed hovering over one of the main traffic islands (Spider Bridge) on the A5111 circular road. Numerous witnesses were able to sketch and describe the FT craft in detail. The reports include FT craft hovering and shining down white beams of light onto the countryside at night. Lights have been reported on numerous occasions, but it seems highly unlikely that they are searchlights as such. Our new Doppler Radar technology enables present day satellites to look down through any weather onto the ground below and we presume that the FTs are the product of a far more advanced technology. The purpose of the FT searchlight beam could be something else, but what? Witnesses have described the FTs white beam of light as sometimes "ending in mid air, like a fluorescent tube." As the number of FT reports have increased, a pattern of behaviour has begun to emerge. The FT craft appear to be coming in over the East coast of England and flying slowly across the countryside to various destinations including a number of Nuclear Power Stations, before returning back out to sea a few hours later.

Statistics from the Project FT database, under the discerning direction of Victor J. Kean have shown the following:

1995 - TOTAL FT REPORTS - 1797 of which 476 were observed over Nuclear Power Stations.

1996 - TOTAL FT REPORTS 1437 of which 988 were observed over Nuclear Power Stations.

1997 - TOTAL FT REPORTS - 1339 of which 1242 were observed over Nuclear Power Stations.

(NB - Figures for 1996 and 1997 are still being compiled and do not include associate spheres.)

The latest information from the Essex UFO Research Group under the able leadership of Ron West, (sadly no longer with us) (one of thirty groups operating under Project FT), states that since 1995, there have been reports of FT craft being seen entering and leaving the sea off the East coast near Lowestoft. There have also been 25 reports of lights seen moving under the surface of the sea in the same area. Could FTs have an undersea base somewhere along this coastline? Certainly, similar underwater activity has been reported from various parts of the world.

One startling coincidence has recently come to light and that is the number of references made to the subject of underwater bases by Larry Warren in his book Left At East Gate. The book deals primarily with the UFO incident in Rendlesham Forest, which took place in late December 1980, but then Larry Warren then goes on to reveal a further event. It appears that after the Rendlesham Forest incident, he got himself into trouble with the authorities by telephoning his mother about the UFO landing. He was subsequently ordered to go to a certain parking lot on the base where he would be met by a dark blue sedan car. When Larry arrived at the parking lot, he saw the car. As he entered into the vehicle, he remembered a greenish glow and then by all account, lost consciousness. He later recovered to find himself in an underground complex under the Woodbridge base, where he learnt from a black uniformed guard that it was part of a tunnel complex that led to the North Sea (p61). Larry Warren was then taken into a strange darkened glass room, where he was contacted by a telepathic alien figure, partly hidden by a glowing screen.

Larry then learnt that he was in an underground complex that had been built in the 1940s. The complex contained many aliens, with their support personnel; Larry went on to state, "The crafts they travelled and entered and exited via an extensive tunnel system. One exit was a mile off Lowestoft, Suffolk another, near Orford Key." If Larry's encounter with the alien is true and not a hallucination, could it mean that the aliens are controlling the Flying Triangle craft that have been reported disappearing into the sea off Lowestoft? If there is an underground facility at the Woodbridge air force base, does it have tunnels leading to the North Sea? Larry Warren claims that it does *. His co-writer Peter Robbins states, "It is quite an amazing aspect of Left At East Gate and one I am convinced is real though what REAL means has yet to be established".

The latest information received indicates that there is intense UFO activity along the East Coast, particularly near Lowestoft and strange things are still happening in the vicinity of Rendlesham Forest! Just what is going on? * Two independent sources have recently confirmed, that not only does a tunnel system exist below Woodbridge, but it is joined to the nearby Bentwaters base and is part of an extensive tunnel system throughout England. We believe that a tunnel complex was built along this coast in the 1940s and we can only speculate that it was probably extended in total secrecy during the recent Cold War period. (O.F. March 1998)

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Mystery of the Black Triangles

If there is a UFO reality, then why has no one blown the whistle? Informants in the U.K. have been talking about UFO's and Flying Triangles because they see them every day. I have been a faithful subscriber to UFO rags from the U.K. for a long time. These magazines try to use a more down to earth approach as to which UFO's are extra terrestrial and which aren't. In the British UFO Magazines there is no question as to whether or not UFO's exist. In order to understand what I am trying to tell you, you need to understand why Ufology in the UK is commonplace, you need to realize Britain's UFO history. Britain has always been the center of "paranormal" anomalies. From strange structures, to ghosts, to intricate crop circles. With all of these strange things happening you'd think that there would be unlimited investigations. There are your amateurs and then there are some that are appointed. One man in particular is Nick Pope, who joined the British Ministry in 1985 and was involved in policy making during the Gulf War, and the Bosnian-Serb conflict. Pope was then moved in the summer of 1991. He was appointed to a new post at Whitehall Secretariat Air Staff, Department 2A. I guess you could call it the equivalent of the "X-files." As with any classic "I don't belong here" story Pope did not believe in the UFO hysteria, and was very skeptical about the Paranormal. After dealing with the reports from the "UFO" desk Pope was slowly changing his mind on the issue. After 3 years at the "UFO" desk Pope declared that UFO's were a reality. He concluded that there was plenty of evidence to prove their existence.

Pope was officially supposed to investigate whether or not these strange aircraft posed a threat to the UK's defense. Unofficially He was expected to dismiss their existence. Pope decided it was up to him to tell the truth about UFO's. Pope claims that his peers and the department labeled him a loose cannon and found him to be very suspicious. They lost trust in him. But Pope stood by his story, analyzing all the data, and claiming that it all added it up to a case for the existence of UFOs. A lot of the M.O.D. workers began humming the Twilight Zone theme when ever he would walk into the room, and after the X-files made it to the UK they called him "Spooky." After all of the ridicule, and after claiming that he felt UFOs posed a major threat to our defense systems, Pope was moved in 1994 from the M.O.D. to the financial department. The thing that is most frustrating is despite Pope's entire candor, he is still bound by Britain's official secrecy act. So is what Pope saying fact or fiction? Apparently it's fact. UFO's are being seen in Britain Some say it can be explained, but Pope says that a technological threat of non-human origin exists. Some say it is Science fiction, Pope continues to investigate such claims. Even though it really isn't his job any more.

Since 1990 there have been over 4000 sightings of what is known as the "Flying Triangle" or "Silent Vulcan" Over Britain. In the early 90's there were a similar number over Belgium, France, Holland and Germany, with fighters being sent up to intercept this unknown craft. With people seeing aircraft "as big as a football field and hovering silently" to "hovering craft that shoot off silently." Another claim was the sighting of "a huge black triangle rising out of the water" it is one of Europe's most enduring waves of sightings. Nick Pope wrote a book about many of these sightings including one over several Army bases in one night. One of the more controversial cases is the Bentwaters -Woodbridge UFO case. The Bentwaters-Woodbridge bases are leased to the United States Airforce under NATO terms. The case is one of the creepiest ones I have ever heard. There were at least 30 witnesses who came forward to tell the story of what happened to USAF personelle and British Military in the Rendlesham forest between the two bases, in December of 1980.

The incident began when two USAF security personelle spotted unusual lights hovering over Rendlesham forest. The security staff was worried that a small plane was crashing in the heavily wooded area. According to Sergeant Larry Warren, who was stationed at Bentwaters, It looked like the plane hit and a fire was smouldering in the forest. A group of men set out to find the strange red glowing area. What the men came a upon was a triangular UFO. Airmen Steve Roberts and James Archer said that the UFO had a red light on top of it and blue and white lights at the middle and bottom. Archer then claimed he saw occupants inside the strange craft. He claimed that they did not appear human. There were also reports of Jeeps and several High-powered "Light all's" abruptly died. Sgts. Larry Warren and Adrian Bustinza said that the energy just drained out. Animals were going crazy, and the men mentioned a yellow mist in the air. There was another strange anomaly in the area away from the clearing . It was transparent, elliptical like a see through aspirin tablet. It then filled with a bright pulsating mist and it emitted a rainbow of coloured lights. There was film shot of the incident. And audio tapes made. However it was later confiscated and flown to Ramstein Airforce base in West Germany. Pentagon officials later claimed that some of the photos but not all were fogged.

Then there were stories of strange shadows that were cast on the craft moving out of synch with the soldiers. They knew it was their shadows, and blue lights would flash above their heads like some strange video game. For some of the soldiers it was the last thing they remember before waking up. Larry Warren says that he awoke with mud caked up to his knees. Warren says he was tested for radiation and was forced to sign a secrecy oath. He and others were then shown High-quality gun camera film of UFO events. One included the downing of a soviet MIG fighter by a flying saucer. Thirty men went through what some likened to a drug-induced nightmare. Remembering sequences that were lost or forgotten. One memory was that of Commander Gordon Williams communicating with silver suited greys.

Official reaction to this case was that it wasn't a threat to National Security. Which prompted British Investigators Jenny Randles and Ralph Noyes to call the reaction utter nonsense. If the collective testimony of thirty men were accurate then it would confirm UFO reality. It would also be nonsense if the testimony were false. It would mean that Nato security would have been entrusted to men who hallucinate. Either alternative would have been a severe threat to security.

Then a British science writer had a theory that what the men saw was the light from a Lighthouse on Orford Ness five miles away. This saved the day. Then residents reported that they had electrical interference and their animals were distressed, hardly any proof, Finally, documents were released in response to a 1983 freedom of information request. There were memos verifying the stories except for the Colonel Williams Alien encounter.

It was then suggested that it could have been the retrieval of Russian Space junk. But the compelling audiotape was released. The men were observing strange craft. The 18-minute tape is said to be edited, and spans through several hours. What happened between the edits is anyone's guess. The case was taken to J. James Exon, of the U.S. Senate armed services committee. After an investigation Exon concluded that there was no cover-up. Maybe he saw something that frightened him.

The Black Triangles still fly over the U.K., and more stories are being generated. Nick Redfern released a book called "A Covert Agenda." This book once again covers the subject of the British government's knowledge of the UFO Phenomena.. Jon Dyton a UK Representative of the S4 database interviewed Nick. Redfern believes that whereas the vast majority of UFO reports are not of extraterrestrial craft, a small minority are. He also believes that while there is no collusion between alien species and our governments. "It is safe to say that the Governments are well aware of their (alien) existence. They know that something strange is going on, however it could be quite possible that a lot of Governments do not know exactly what it is. Only a few may know." He also can state as fact that there is enough evidence to show that there have been two or three occasions in the UK where Roswell type events have taken place. Many times the RAF has attempted interceptions of UFOs. UFO reports of the black triangle type date back to 1964. Video has been taken, photos also, but we are no nearer the who what and why. One of the strangest things about it is the fact that if it is a secret stealth project, It should be labelled "hidden in plain sight". The Triangle seems obsessed with hovering over Motorways, Nuclear Power Stations and graveyards. They often flash a brilliant light on the gravestones (or on empty fields) as if looking for something. Sightings quietened down last year but are now picking up and new video has been taken in daylight.

So the Black triangles are mysterious aircraft flying over Britain. Some may see them as a threat, even an extra terrestrial threat. However the new Ufology tells us that sometimes we should not always jump to the extraterrestrial conclusion with regards to UFOs. From the time of Kenneth Arnold until now Ufology has grown up. Colleges are beginning to accept UFO existence, but they will not go out on a limb and state that extra terrestrials are piloting these craft. There is still that small percentage that might lend itself to the outrageous. But we should not let that get in the way of a true investigation.

The Media will find ways to twist a UFO story. They will come to the conclusion themselves that when a person uses the word UFO that they are meaning, a craft with little grey or green men inside. New ufologists know that this is not the case. It is the old misconceptions that hurt a serious investigation. It is the holding on to old myths that jeopardise true science and analysis. Some will find a hidden meaning in the simplest explanations. To toy with a Freud quote "Sometimes a cigar shaped craft from another world is not necessarily a cigar shaped craft from another world." Tim Mathews is the "Angry young man" of british ufology. He has upset the cosy state that the British scene had got into the post Bufora/Alien Autopsy film and has earned a fast reputation for straight talking and cutting through much of the malaise the scene found itself in the last year. He believes that many sightings can be explained by secret aircraft and suppressed military tests. Mr Mathews exposes a world of political manoeuvring by the authorities to protect financial and political interests. He has exposed the existence of secret planes from year's back, which would be considered "cutting edge" today. Mathews believes that giving the label of an extraterrestrial craft to a UFO is premature, and has spent a lot of his time showing that Military Technology is the most likely answer behind the enigmatic UFO. His research has shown that a lot of flying disc and triangle technology comes from Nazi Germany. It has always been the objective of designers of aircraft to find a craft that can ascend and decend vertically. The craft would have to be circular without wings. Over time we have seen these craft and attributed their remarkable capabilities to some extra-terrestrial intelligence.

To me the very thought of an alternative to the extraterrestrial explanation is just as intriguing. We must be careful not to eagerly romanticise UFO events. Tim Mathews is correct in stating that it is premature to label an unknown craft an extra-terrestrial vehicle. Back in August of 1998 Ground Zero had a struggle in trying to get out a story of what appeared to be a UFO that may had crashed or was shot down over Tracy California. The overwhelming evidence suggested that this strange anomaly was quite possibly an aircraft of some kind. This aircraft threatened Los Angeles and San Francisco. The craft travelled at speeds topping Mach 60. If the mainstream media had done their homework they would have found alternative ideas as to what this "unknown" was. Since it was a UFO it was already prematurely labelled. This started the downplaying outright. A "meteor" was the verdict given. The words "probably" and "definitely" were used to describe the meteor. I have been somewhat unfair to the media for downplaying the event. What other choice did they have? The UFO was reported and soon people were awaiting the arrival of the space elders. Everyone wanted to downplay it without the facts, because a vast majority of people think that everyone in Ufology considers a UFO to be an extra-terrestrial spacecraft.

What if it was a missile heading towards Los Angeles. Or an as of yet unknown secret plane? What people forget is that missiles can be fired at populated areas and wipe them out. So while everyone is staring at the strange meteor coming out of the sky, they fail to realise that the "meteor" could have a warhead attached to it and that it would also deliver a mushroom cloud. I am not saying that the Tracy case was a missile, but look at the times we live in. Terrorists, secret governments, organised subversives, can get their hands on money and technology and create things that can only be dreamed of in the movies. Tim Mathews is correct. Use good judgement. The UK Triangles are very real. There is evidence and eyewitnesses to validate their existence. These are the times where the truth will be revealed. We cannot risk losing the ability to inform when a group we rely on for information still hangs on to speculation, without looking over all of the evidence. Remember, while the media can't dictate how we are to think, they certainly can set the agenda on what we think about. For the majority of the media UFO's will remain an issue to be avoided. The reason? No one wants to look stupid. Reporters consider themselves conventional thinkers. Ego machines that want to convince the world that their idea is the one true fact. I should know, I do it all the time. I feel however that I am justified in saying this. The facts are there, the witnesses will not keep quiet, and there is no mystery to a person with an open mind who uses wisdom.

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US Aircraft Carrier Stopped by a UFO! in Bermuda Triangle, 1971

This encounter occurred in 1971, while aboard the aircraft carrier, USS John F. Kennedy CVA-67 (now CV-67) in the Bermuda Triangle. I was assigned to the communications department of the Kennedy and had been in this section about a year. The ship was returning to Norfolk, VA after completing a two week operational readiness exercise (ORE) in the Caribbean. We were to stand down for 30 days, after arriving in Norfolk, Virginia, to allow the crew to take leave and visit family before deploying to the Mediterranean for six months.

I was on duty in the communications center. My task was to monitor eight teletypes printing the "Fleet Broadcasts". On the top row were four teletypes each printing messages from four different channels. On the bottom row were four more doing the exact same thing except the signal was carried on different frequencies. If one of the primary receivers started taking "hits" I would be able to retrieve the message from the bottom one. I also notified Facilities Control of any hits so they could tune the receivers. On the other side of the compartment(room) was the NAVCOMMOPNET (Naval Communications Operations Network). This was the Ship to Shore circuit with the top teletype being the receive and the bottom as the send (known as a duplex circuit). Next to this was the Task Group Circuit for ship to ship communications (task group operations or TGO).

It was in the evening, about 20:30 (8:30 PM) and the ship had just completed an eighteen hour "Flight Ops". I had just taken a message off one of the broadcasts and turned around to file it on a clip board. When I turned back to the teletypes the primaries were typing garbage. I looked down to the alternates which were doing the same. I walked a few feet to the intercom between us and the Facilities Control. I called them and informed them of the broadcasts being out. A voice replied that all communications were out. I then turned and looked in the direction of the NAVCOMMOPNET and saw that the operator was having a problem. I then heard the Task Group operator tell the watch officer that his circuit was out also. In the far corner of the compartment was the pneumatic tubes going to the Signal bridge (where the flashing light and signal flag messages are sent/receive). There is an intercom there to communicate with the Signal Bridge and over this intercom we heard someone yelling "There is something hovering over the ship!" A moment later we heard another voice yelling. "IT IS GOD! IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!".

We all looked at each other, there were six of us in the Comm Center, and someone said, "Lets go have a look!". The Comm Center is amidships, just under the flight deck, almost in the center of the ship. We went out the door, through Facilities Control and out that door, down the passageway (corridor) about 55 feet to the hatch that goes out to the catwalk on the edge of the flight deck (oppisite from the "Island" or that part of the ship where the bridge is). If you have ever been to sea, there is a time called the time of no horizon. This happens in the morning and evening just as the sun comes up or goes down over the horizon.

During this time you cannot tell where the sea and sky meet. This is the time of evening it was. As we looked up, we saw a large, glowing sphere. Well it seemed large, however, there was no point of reference. That is to say, if the sphere were low; say 100 feet above the ship, then it would have been about two to three hundred feet in diameter. If it were say 500 feet about the ship then it would have been larger. It made no sound that I could hear. The light coming from it wasn't too bright, about half of what the sun would be. It sort of pulsated a little and was yellow to orange.

We didn't get to looked at it for more than about 20 seconds because General Quarters (Battle stations) was sounding and the Communication Officer was in the passageway telling us to get back into the Comm Center. We returned and stayed there (that was out battle station). We didn't have much to do because all the communication was still out. After about 20 minutes, the teletypes started printing correctly again. We stayed at General Quarters for about another hour, then secured. I didn't see or hear of any messages going out about the incident.

Over the next few hours, I talked to a good friend that was in CIC (combat information center) who was a radar operator. He told me that all the radar screens were just glowing during the time of the incident. I also talked to a guy I knew that worked on the Navigational Bridge. He told me that none of the compasses were working and that the medics had to sedate a boatswains mate that was a lookout on the signal bridge. I figured this was the one yelling it was God. It was ironic that of the 5,000 men on a carrier, that only a handful actually saw this phnomenon. This was due to the fact that flight Ops had just be completed a short time before this all started and all the flight deck personnel were below resting. It should be noted that there are very few places where you can go to be out in the open air aboard a carrier. From what I could learn, virtually all electronic components stopped functioning during the 20 minutes or so that what ever it was hovered over the ship. The two Ready CAPs (Combat Air Patrol), which were two F-4 Phantoms that are always ready to be launched, would not start.

I heard from the scuttlebut (slang - rumor mill) that three or four "men in trenchcoats" had landed, and were interviewing the personnel that had seen this phenomena. I was never interviewed, maybe because no one knew that I had seen it.

A few days latter, as we were approaching Norfolk, the Commanding and Executive Officers came on the closed circuit TV system that we had. They did this regularly to address the crew and pass on information. During this particular session the Captain told us how well we did on the ORE and about our upcoming deployment to the Mediterranean. At the very end of his spiel, he said "I would like to remind the crew, that certain events that take place aboard a Naval Combatant Ship, are classified and are not to be discussed with anyone without a need to know". This was all the official word I ever received or heard of the incident.

Being young and excited about my visit home and going to the Med, I completely forgot about it until years later when my wife and I went to see "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" at the movies when it first came out. In fact the friend that had been the radar operator was with his wife and went with us. As we walked across the parking lot to my car, I ask him if he remembered what We had experienced years earlier on the ship. He looked at me and said he never wanted to talk about it again. As he said it he turned a little pale. I never talked about the incident again. When I discovered "Aliens and Strange Phenomenon" on MSN and started reading the posts I started thinking about it again. Now I seem obsessed in finding out all I can about this phenomena.

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UFOs & Water Case, British, Columbia, Canada, 1965

On the sunny July morning in 1965 that John Hembling, geologist and exploration manager for a mining company, and a companion geologist stepped from a helicopter atop a mountain ridge in north-central British Columbia they expected it would be another routine day of reconnaissance and survey.

For several weeks they had been studying this mineral-rich terrain about 70 miles north of-Hazelton. Working above the timberline they had a sweeping view of the country's rocky peaks, some of which already bore the mark of mining development. Soon they would submit their report on the feasibility of further development.

But on this particular day they were to have the unexpected opportunity of making a study of a much different sort. "It was about 10 o'clock and we had just set up our equipment after the helicopter left," Hembllng told us, "when we saw a silvery object, shining in the sun, appear over a small ridge below us. It had a flattened-out look and our first reaction was that it was some kind of delta-wing aircraft. We soon realized it was not."

Facing west away from the sun, with the object below them about half a mile away, they had a clear view of what was happening.

"The object was about 50 ft. in diameter," he said. "On top of its dome there was a little knob, and around the base of the dome there were circular markings. They might have been some kind of riveting, or even windows. They were a bit too small to tell.

"Below these, on the face of the disc itself, there were larger rectangular markings which could have been glass or metallic. Our impression was that they were windows. As far as we could see, there were three of them."

As the two men watched in astonishment, the object moved slowly across the ridge until it was above a small glacial lake, barely more than a pond. Hovering there an instant, it then descended to less than 50ft. above the water. Again it hovered and, to the men's further amazement, lowered a pipe-like instrument from its underside into the water. "At first we thought it was something like a rope-ladder," Hembling said, "but it didn't just drop down. It came out smoothly and steadily as if under mechanical control."

During this procedure the observers were conscious of a humming sound from the object "like a quiet electric motor." With its appendage in the lake, the disc then rotated slowly like a water-borne top until its "windows" faced the two men. “We had a distinct feeling It knew we were there," Hembling said.

After remaining in that position for about eight minutes---as the men judged it--the object withdrew its "pipe" as carefully as it had lowered it.

"It climbed slowly, then all of a sudden it was off," Hembling said. "It shot over the ridge, made a sharp turn without skidding and was out of sight in about 20 seconds. We figured it had gone 20 or 25 miles by the time it disappeared." That would give it a speed of at least 3,600 m.p.h.

So extraordinary was their experience that the two men discussed it for the rest of the day, comparing observations and impressions. They also wondered how the pictures would turn out, for a meaningful part of the whole incident was that Hembiing's companion carried a camera and took numerous shots of the sighting. But, for Hembling at least, that part of the incident was to lead to disappointment.

"I never heard from him again," he said of his companion. "He returned to the States before he had a chance to get the pictures developed, and that was the end of it. I wrote him twice asking about the pictures but he didn't reply. I don't know what happened."

Somewhere, as a result, there is a UFO witness who may have some of the most remarkable camera shots of this phenomenon ever recorded. Perhaps, as had happened before, he submitted them for official scrutiny and, after being bound to silence, failed to have them returned.

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June, 1947, Near Malta, "Little people on type of submarine."

A USO report from MUFOR on the internet as follows:

Witnesses: Pawlu Zammit and others

Location: 20 miles S of Malta

Object: Black submarine, or other type of craft?

Sound: None

Notes: Fishermen on a boat 20 miles south of Malta were raising their nets with a catch of fish when they saw an object floating on the water's surface that looked like a black submarine. The fishermen were frightened because they thought it looked more like a monster than a submarine, so they quickly pulled in their nets and started the boat's engine. At that moment a bright light from the "submarine" lit up the whole area and "little men" began running over the deck of the object. The fishermen couldn't make out much detail from their boat but whenever the light illuminated the "little men", they could see some sort of apparatus around their waist.

When the witness was asked how tall these men were, he replied, "About the size of a 10 year old boy". After a few minutes, the "little men" entered the "submarine" which began to glow so brightly that the fishermen couldn't see the object. It then submerged.

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1974 Aug 25 - Coyame, Chihuahua, Mexico-Disk Crashes

On 25 Aug 74, at 2207 hrs, US Air Defense radar detected an unknown object approaching US airspace from the Gulf of Mexico. Originally the object was tracked at 2,200 (2,530 mph) knots on a bearing of 325 degrees and at an altitude of 75,000 feet, a course that would intercept US territory about forty miles southwest of Corpus Christi, Texas. After approximately sixty seconds of observation, at a position 155 miles southeast of Corpus Christi, the object decelerated to approximately 1700 (1,955 mph) knots, turned to a heading of 290 degrees, and began a slow descent. It entered Mexican airspace approximately forty miles south of Brownsville, Texas. Radar tracked it approximately 500 miles to a point near the town of Coyame, in the state of Chihuahua, not far from the US border. There the object suddenly disappeared from the radar screens.

During the flight over Mexican airspace, the object leveled off at 45,000 feet, then descended to 20,000 feet. The descent was in level steps, not a smooth curve or straight line, and each level was maintained for approximately five minutes.

The object was tracked by two different military radar installations. It would have been within range of Brownsville civilian radar, but it is assumed that no civilian radar detected the object due to a lack of any such reports. The point of disappearance from the radar screens was over a barren and sparsely populated area of Northern Mexico. At first it was assumed that the object had descended below the radar's horizon and a watch was kept for any re-emergence of the object. None occurred.

At first it was assumed that the object might be a meteor because of the high speed and descending flight path. But meteors normally travel at higher speeds, and descend in a smooth arc, not in "steps." And meteors do not normally make a thirty-five degree change in course. Shortly after detection an air defense alert was called. However, before any form of interception could be scrambled, the object turned to a course that would not immediately take it over US territory. The alert was called off within twenty minutes after the object's disappearance from the radar screen.

Fifty-two minutes after the disappearance, civilian radio traffic indicated that a civilian aircraft had gone down in that area. But it was clear that the missing aircraft had departed El Paso International with a destination of Mexico City, and could not, therefore, have been the object tracked over the Gulf of Mexico.

It was noted, however, that they both disappeared in the same area and at the same time.

With daylight the next day, Mexican authorities began a search for the missing plane. At Approximately 10:35 hours, there came a radio report that wreckage from the missing plane had been spotted from the air. Almost immediately came a report of a second plane on the ground a few miles from the first. A few minutes later an additional report stated that the second "plane" was circular shaped and apparently in one piece although damaged. A few minutes after that the Mexican military clamped a radio silence on all search efforts.

The radio interceptions were reported through channels to the CIA. Possibly as many as two additional government agencies also received reports, but such has not been confirmed as of this date. The CIA immediately began forming a recovery team. The speed with which this team and its equipment was assembled suggests that this was either a well-rehearsed exercise or one that had been performed prior to this event.

In the meantime, requests were initiated at the highest levels between the United States and Mexican governments that the US recovery team be allowed onto Mexican territory to "assist." These requests were met with professed ignorance and a flat refusal of any cooperation.

By 21:00 hrs, 26 Aug 1974, the recovery team had assembled and been staged at Fort Bliss. Several helicopters were flown in from some unknown source and assembled in a secured area. These helicopters were painted a neutral sand color and bore no markings. Eye witness indicates that there were three smaller craft, very probably UHl Hueys from the description. There was also a larger helicopter, possibly a Sea Stallion. Personnel from this team remained with their craft and had no contact with other Ft. Bliss personnel.

Satellite and aircraft overflight that day indicated that both the crashed disk and the civilian aircraft had been removed from the crash sites and loaded on flat bed trucks. Later flights confirmed that the convoy had departed the area heading south.

At that point the CIA had to make a choice; either to allow this unknown aircraft to stay in the hands of the Mexican government, or to launch the recovery team, supplemented by any required military support, to take the craft. There occurred, however, an event that took the choice out of their hands. High altitude overflights indicated that the convoy had stopped before reaching any inhabited areas or major roads. Recon showed no activity, and radio contact between the Mexican recovery team and its headquarters had ceased. A low altitude, high speed overflight was ordered.

The photos returned by that aircraft showed all trucks and jeeps stopped, some with open doors, and two human bodies laying on the ground beside two vehicles. The decision was immediately made to launch the recovery team, but the actual launching was held up for the arrival of additional equipment and two additional personnel. It was not until 14:38 hrs that the helicopters departed Ft. Bliss.

The four helicopters followed the border down towards Presidio then turned and entered Mexican airspace north of Candelaria. They were over the convoy site at 16:53 hrs. All convoy personnel were dead, most within the trucks. Some recovery team members, dressed in bioprotection suits, reconfigured the straps holding the object on the flatbed truck, then attached them to a cargo cable from the Sea Stallion. By 17:14 hrs the recovered object was on its way to US territory. Before leaving the convoy site, members of the recovery team gathered together the Mexican vehicles and bodies, then destroyed all with high explosives. This included the pieces of the civilian light plane which had been involved in the mid-air collision. At 17:46 hrs the Hueys departed.

The Hueys caught up with the Sea Stallion as it reentered US airspace. The recovery team then proceeded to a point in the Davis Mountains, approximately twenty-five miles northeast of Valentine. There they landed and waited until 02:25 hrs the next morning. At that time they resumed the flight and rendezvoused with a small convoy on a road between Van Horn and Kent. The recovered disk was transferred to a truck large enough to handle it and capable of being sealed totally. Some of the personnel from the Huey's transferred to the convoy.

All helicopters then returned to their original bases for decontamination procedures. The convoy continued non-stop, using back roads and smaller highways, and staying away from cities. The destination of the convoy reportedly was Altanta, Georgia.

Here the hard evidence thins out. One unconfirmed report says the disk was eventually transferred to Wright-Patterson AF Base. Another says that the disk was either transferred after that to another unnamed base, or was taken directly to this unknown base directly from Atlanta.

The best description of the disk was that it was sixteen feet, five inches in diameter, convex on both upper and lower surfaces to the same degree, possessing no visible doors or windows. The thickness was slightly less than five feet. The color was silver, much like polished steel. There were no visible lights nor any propulsion means. There were no markings. There were two areas of the rim that showed damage, one showing an irregular hole approximately twelve inches in diameter with indented material around it. The other damage was described as a "dent" about two feet wide. The weight of the object was estimated as approximately one thousand, five hundred pounds, based on the effect of the weight on the carrying helicopter and those who transferred it to the truck.

There was no indication in the documentation available as to whether anything was visible in the "hole."

It seems likely that the damage with the hole was caused by the collision with the civilian aircraft. That collision occurred while the object was traveling approximately 1700 knots (1,955 mph). Even ignoring the speed of the civilian aircraft, the impact would have been considerable at that speed. This is in agreement with the description of the civilian aircraft as being "almost totally destroyed." What was being taken from the crash site was pieces of the civilian aircraft.

The second damage may have resulted when the object impacted with the ground. The speed in that case should have been considerably less than that of the first impact.

No mention is made of the occupants of the civilian aircraft. It is not known if any body or bodies were recovered. Considering the destruction of the civilian light aircraft in mid-air, bodies may well not have come down near the larger pieces.

Unfortunately what caused the deaths of the Mexican recovery team is not known. Speculation ranges from a chemical released from the disk as a result of the damage, to a microbiological agent. There are no indications of death or illness by any of the recovery team. It would not have been illogical for the recovery team to have taken one of the bodies back with them for analysis. But there is no indication of that having happened. Perhaps they did not have adequate means of transporting what might have been a biologically contaminated body.

Inquires to the FAA reveal no documents concerning the civilian aircraft crash, probably because it did not involve a US aircraft.

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1996-UFO Crash over Israel

If the evidence of this particular UFO crash case holds as legitimate, it is truly an important and unique report. One Spasso Maximovitch saw an object in the sky that he could not put a tag on. This sighting took place in Rosh Haayin in Israel on September 28, 1995. Spasso used his video camera to capture a silver, glowing object. The object morphed into several objects as he watched, covering a large area of the skies.

After this incident, Maximovitch would become an avid sky watcher. His patience would bring him one more classic experience on June 24, 1996. He saw an object very similar to his sighting the year before. He began to film the unknown object. Soon, another object appeared west of the first unknown, heading straight at it. Within a matter of seconds, it smashed into the first object, which caused an explosion.

Maximovitch turned his film over to journalist David Ronen, who wrote a column in a weekly UFO magazine. Eventually a copy of the recording went to Barry Chamish, who is largely responsible for the facts of this case being known. Ronen's work for the Maariv newspaper has caused copyright problems, and kept him from obtaining many of his films and files. Two of Maximovitch's tapes were sent to Union Skyline Pictures in London for examination. The films were to be, hopefully, included in UFO documentaries. Chamish has concluded that the mid-air collision film would be an invaluable aid in proving the existence of UFOs to the general public. Unfortunately, the last known whereabouts of Maximovitch are a mystery, and he could not be located to get permission to use his film before the productions.

Well respected photo and video analyst Jeff Sainio obtained a copy of the explosion film, and his complete technical conclusion are found there to all who are interested. In a word, he sees the film as legitimate. I will include the heart of his report here.

"When the 2 objects apparently collide and explode, the apparent size of the light expands by a factor of roughly 2.5; this does not appear to be due to overexposure, but is the real size of the object. The last 2 frames of the video are NOT overexposed, but diffuse; since overexposure is not involved, this indicates he actual size of the explosion is shown. The real increase in size of the bright area is certainly much larger than 2.5. In the video the explosion moves downward; this is probably due to camera motion of the startled videographer; the reference tower is too smeared to verify this conclusion.The explosion is not due to any conventional method I am familiar with; conventional, large explosions require much more than 1/4 second to disappear, and usually generate flaming debris that falls from the explosion. Neither characteristic is seen here. The acceleration, light size, and explosion are not explainable in any convention way that I know of, and this case remains unidentified."

With the testimony of Maximovitch alone, we have a case file with one witness, but the video acts as a second witness, creating an indelible account of what happened in the Israeli skies in 1996. The expert conclusions of analyst Jeff Sainio make this an extremely important and believable case of a UFO crash.

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1989-The Battle of the Flying Saucers

Well known Russian UFO investigator Nikolay Subbotin relates an amazing story of a battle of flying saucers. This incident allegedly took place in the skies of Zaostrovka, in Russia in 1989. On September 16, six circular, silver, flying saucers ganged up and fought a seventh, golden saucer, in full view of the residents of the town and surrounding areas. Hundreds of witnesses watched the gang of six chase the golden saucer out of a cloud bank.

All of the saucers made unbelievable maneuvers during this dog fight, and at times, the UFOs flew as low as 5,000 feet. The weapon of choice was a strong beam of light or energy fired at and from the escaping golden UFO.

According to the RUFORS Internet newsletter, an account of this event was published in the local newspaper, "Semipalatinsk." According to this report, written by a Russian helicopter commander in the Afghan war, the energy emitted during this battle shut down the local power grid in Zaostrovka, plunging the city into total darkness for a time. The author, named Sichenko, interviewed witnesses of the event, publishing many of their fantastic accounts of the events that day.

The witnesses claimed that the outnumbered golden UFO finally was defeated, losing altitude due to the continued hits by the energy beams. The failing saucer at first seemed to be attempting to make a controlled landing, but eventually it lost control, disappearing from view behind a house as it plunged to the ground. The six assaulting saucers soon disappeared from view, heading into the clouds.

Subbotin discovered that the lost saucer had crashed into a bog on a military test range. This area was "off limits" to the general public. It would be about a year before he and accompanying researchers could reach the site of the crash, but by that time, the area was clean, free of any trace of a crashed vehicle. Subbotin would learn that a military team had descended on the boggy area, and conducted a full search and rescue operation. There were reported injuries during this operation. Russian Ufologist Emil Bachurin was able to see medical files which confirmed details of injuries to military personnel involved in the mission.

It would be reported that several members of the search and rescue team had leaked information about the operation, but their breach of confidence was discovered, and security was made even tighter. Also, an airplane attempting to fly over the area and gather details about the crash had to abort its mission because of instrument malfunction.

Eventually, all activities at the military range were shut down, and the base put under heavy guard. This case is very similar to another Russian case, the Shaitan Mazar Crash, which also involved Subbotin and Bachurin.

If the event of 1989 is true, there is a downed flying saucer in the possession of the Russian military, or possibly being guarded by the military in its own icy grave in the city of Zaostrovka.

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Alleged UFO Crash in Russia 1989

At approximately 11:00 AM on August 10, 1989 near the city of Prohladnyi, Russia, Soviet military radar units detected an unidentified flying object. After attempts to communicate went unanswered, the object was noted as "hostile."

Defense systems were put on alert, with utilization of surface to air missiles, and the deployment of Mig-25s. Blasting out of Rostov and Krymsk, the Migs were ordered to intercept and identify the unknown object.

The UFO was on a north heading, like foreign missiles or planes would be, and the order was given to arm and use weapons. A ground to air missile hit the UFO, causing it to ditch over the Caucasian Mountains.

A retrieval team on board an M1-8 helicopter was sent, and the disc-shaped object was located outside of Nizhnizy Chegem, and the area around the crash site was soon cordoned off. The object was 6.9 meters long and 3.0 meters high, shaped like a cockleshell, according to witnesses.

A long rut in the earth could be seen leading to the craft, which had smashed into an area of rocks. The damage from the missile was obvious, causing the object to lose its original shape. A team with special protective equipment moved into the scene. Dosimeters detected radiation, and precautionary measures were immediately taken, but not before some team members had been exposed.

The object was delivered by helicopter to Mozdok Air Base, where nuclear weapons and long range bombers were housed. A special investigative team was assembled, and sent to the base to begin an investigation into the mysteries of the unknown flying object. This team consisted of military and civilian personnel. The KGB began a cover-up operation.

The craft research team gained entry into the craft via a partially opened door. The team was in full protective gear as they began their investigation of the inside of the craft. As one would expect, control panels and equipment was visible, but more importantly three alien creatures, two dead were found. The two dead aliens had apparently been killed by falling equipment, but the third managed to save itself, but was suffering from several wounds.

A medical team attempted to keep the alien alive, but their efforts failed. He and his two companions were about 1.0-1.2 meters tall, with whitish gray skin that appeared to be outer cover. The real skin beneath this cover was a blue-green color with a reptilian texture. The other worldly beings also had hairless heads, large black eyes, almost round, which were covered by a protective lid. Three web fingers were at the end of their long, slender arms.

The three dead aliens were preserved in glass containers in a top-secret underground facility. This secret location is allegedly hidden among the multitude of trees near the research center east of Solnechnogorsk. The damaged disc was taken to the Kapustin Yar range and placed under ground west of Ahryomkin. All of the information included here originated from three Russian investigators; Anton Anfalov, Lenura Azizova and Alexander Mosolov. They claim that the disc is still housed near Kapustin Yar.

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The Kecksburg Crash

What exactly soared through the late afternoon skies of Canada, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania on December 5, 1965? Eye witnesses described the unknown object as a "fireball," but it seemed to be under some type of intelligent control, as it veered somewhat in Ohio toward the Quaker State. One of the first official reports of that day came from Frances Kalp, who phoned in her experience to radio station WHJB in Greensburg at 6:30 P.M. She related seeing a fiery object crash into a wooded area near her home in Westmoreland County. Kalp and her children had approached the site within a half-mile, and there they saw an odd object resembling a "four-pointed star." Radio station employee John Murphy immediately phoned in the report to the Pennsylvania State Police Department. The Police phoned Kalp and arranged to meet her in Kecksburg.

Murphy also raced to the site of the alleged crash. He interviewed Kalp and her children for his report, while the State Police searched the woods for the crashed object. Murphy eagerly awaited the return of the searchers. When they finally completed their search, Murphy was unable to get any clear information from either Carl Metz or Paul Shipco, who headed the search. They only stated that they were calling in the Military to handle the case. Undaunted, Murphy made phone contact with Captain Dussia at State Police Headquarters in Greensburg. Murphy was instructed to visit the office to receive an official statement on the search party results. Upon arriving at headquarters, Murphy noticed that the Military had already arrived in force. Murphy was startled when he received the "official" statement;

"The Pennsylvania State Police have made a thorough search of the woods. We are convinced that there is nothing whatsoever in the woods."

By this time, Murphy was convinced that there was a cover-up of some kind. If there was nothing in the woods, why would the Military be in force at Pennsylvania's Police headquarters? After turning in his report to the radio station, Murphy overheard one of the policemen involved in the search describing a "pulsating blue light" in the forest. Murphy was told that Officer Metz and the Military were going back to the woods, and to his surprise he was given permission to join the second search. Murphy's excitement soon turned to disappointment when after accompanying the party to the outskirts of the woods, he was kept from going any farther. Murphy was an eye witness to the Military sealing off the area, and banning all civilians from the scene and its immediate surroundings. The story of the crash soon made newspapers and television, and the area was quickly overflowing with people wanting to get first hand information on what could possibly be a historic event. What had actually crashed into the woods? Was it just a fragment of a comet? Or space debris reentering the Earth's atmosphere? If the explanation was so simple, however, why had the Military cordoned off the area? Could it have been a secret Military craft? Or something far more mysterious?

It soon became common knowledge that some eager, interested civilians had made a trip into the woods before the Military gained control of the area. These few individuals were interviewed by Stan Gordon, and told an amazing story. They stated that they saw a copper-bronze colored, saucer-shaped object crashed in the woods. This craft was anywhere from 9-12 feet in length, and bore a gold band around its bottom. Some of the witnesses described writing on the craft which resembled Egyptian hieroglyphics. These few witnesses were quickly whisked away when discovered by Military personnel. Later that night, witnesses claimed that they observed a flatbed truck toting a large object, covered by a tarpaulin. Shortly after the departure of the flatbed, many of the Military personnel vacated the search area. Could this have been a craft from another world being taken down our highways?

An extremely intense day of activity was followed by a quiet morning, and it seemed that what had occurred was just a dream. The Air Force concluded their investigation with the "official" statement that a meteorite was responsible for the report of a glowing craft, and subsequent crash in the woods. The media as a whole accepted this explanation, and the matter seemed for all intent and purposes, closed. Had it not been for a 1990 television program, the Kecksburg crash would have been just another fancied report by a few overly excited witnesses.

The area of Kecksburg would again become a beehive of controversy after a dramatization of the events on "Unsolved Mysteries" in 1990. The citizens of the area seemed to be equally divided on the value of airing the segment, with some accepting the "official" explanation, and others claiming "cover-up." Even before the segment aired, some protesters promoted a petition to stop the network from airing the Kecksburg story.

The actual witnesses of the event prevailed, stating that the petitioner's list did not include any eye witnesses to the original event. Opposite sides were also taken by those officially investigating the facts of Kecksburg.

After the television show ran, two new witnesses came forward. One was a USAF officer at Lockbourne AFB (near Columbus, Ohio). In the early hours of December 10, a truck arrived by the little used back gate of the base and he was ordered to patrol it. It was a flat-bed with a large tarpaulin on the surface covering a conical object. He was told to shoot anyone who tried to get too close. He was advised the truck was bound for Wright Patterson AFB, which is the reputed home of other crashed saucers.

The other witness was a building contractor who was asked two days later to take a load of 6,500 special bricks to a hangar inside Wright Patterson. When he sneaked a look inside the hangar he saw a bell-shaped device, some 12 feet high sitting there. Several men wearing white anti-radiation style suits were inspecting the object. After he had been escorted out he was told that he had just seen an object that would become common knowledge in 20 years time.

Investigator Robert Young, for one, became an advocate of the Military's official explanation. Stan Gordon, on the other hand, believed the eye witness accounts, and the cover-up theory. Gordon took his findings to the next level, producing a 92 minute documentary video of his findings, titled "Kecksburg: The Untold Story."

As to be expected, alternative theories were put forward by skeptics and debunkers, such as the reentering of the Russian VENUS probe, but this scenario was rejected by the American and Russian governments. One interesting footnote to this haunting tale came from the widow of John Murphy, who shortly after his death, publicly stated that her husband had been one of the first on the scene, and had actually photographed the strange craft. Supposedly, these valuable snapshots were confiscated by Military officers, and Murphy was instructed not to discuss what he knew, unless he wanted to suffer severe consequences.

In January 1980 UFO investigator Clark McClelland interviewed the assistant fire chief of Kecksburg, James Mayes, and Melvin Reese, another fireman. They reported that their team had come within sixty meters of the object. They had seen an object on the ground that had smashed its way through the trees. Mayes explained how the military had cordoned off the woods and had established a temporary base, complete with telecom link. Fire chief Robert Bitner would later confirm this story. He also said he had seen an object that was about 6 feet high, 6 feet wide, and some 15 feet long, clearly not an aircraft. It was resting at an angle on the ground as if it had impacted nearly horizontally. Another fire officer, 'Pete', stated he had seen a ring of bumpers around it into which were described some pictorial symbols.

Stan Gordon

In 1990, researcher Stan Gordon from the Pennsylvania Association for the Study of the Unexplained, traced an apparent first-hand witness, James Romansky. He recalled seeing the object on the ground some 25 years previously, when he was an 18 year old fire fighter. He had been called to duty that night following concerns that an airplane had crashed. He described the object as bronze coloured and shaped like an acorn-some 12 feet long and 25 feet in diameter; it had slightly raised "blunt" end and strange markings.

"It had writing on it, not like your average writing, but more like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. It had sort of a bumper on it, like a ribbon about six to 10 inches wide, and it stood out. It was elliptical the whole way around and the writing was on this bumper.It's nothing like I've ever seen, and I'm an avid reader. I read a lot of books on Egypt, the Incas, Peruvians, Russians and I've never to this day come across anything that looked like that."

On 08-29-05, the UFO Casebook received this information from a person who was an eyewitness to the object that soared over Kecksburg.

B J, I was on some site about the Kecksburgh sighting. It told the story and asked if anyone had an opinion about it. Well I lived in Pittsburgh at the time that this occurred. Brian Vike wrote about his experience, and when I read it I was floored. I had forgotten about this ever happening until I watched the Brian Gumbel special. Brian Vike also said he recalled the incident. His sighting and mine are so simular.

I was at a drivein movie that night with my boyfriend. He wanted to get there early to get a good spot. I can't remember how long after we arrived there when it happened. All of a sudden the sky lit up. "What the heck is that I ask?"

The sphere or the ball like object was very low in the sky and was burning and had a long firey tail. The color to me had a greenish color to it. I would say it was in my view for at least 4 seconds, maybe 5 seconds. But of course in those days we thought it was only a meteor. And the next day it was confirmed on the radio it was. After all these years that have passed it's truly amazing to me how much of it I can still remember. Thank you BJ, and getting this computer is wonderful. And know I can relate what I"ve seen, and hope what I will see in the future I can relate them to you, and everyone else out there that is interested in the UFO phenomenon.

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The Las Vegas UFO Crash, April 18, 1962

Very few of the crash/retrieval stories take place on a military reservation. The majority of the reports are from civilians who have happened onto the scene of an extraordinary event. The reported destruction of a craft near Nellis Air Force Base, outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1962 is the exception that proves the rule. The vast Nellis complex is the one location where it seems a flying saucer crashed right into government and air force hands. And there are, literally, dozens of firsthand witnesses to the fact.

Like many of the reports of UFO crashes, the Las Vegas case was overlooked by most of the UFO research community. Frank Edwards, who mentioned the Roswell case in a single paragraph in his 1966 book Flying Saucers-Serious Business, wrote more about the crash near Las Vegas in his 1964 book Strange World. Although he often wrote from memory and didn't always check his facts as closely as possible, he did get the basics of the case reported before anyone else bothered with it.

According too him, an object sighted over Oneida, New York, was headed to the west. There were reports from Kansas and Colorado, and indications of something near the ground outside of Eureka, Utah. Something bright enough to later light up the streets of Reno, Nevada, like the noonday sun, and then turn toward Las Vegas, far to the south and hack to the east. It flared brightly and disappeared from the Nellis Air Force Base radar scopes at ten thousand feet.

This was an object seen by thousands as it crossed the country on the evening of April 18, 1962. The air force and debunkers quickly wrote it off as a bolide, a meteor so bright that it could light the darkened ground like the afternoon sun. That is, the reported explanation is of a natural phenomenon that is rare, interplanetary, but certainly not under intelligent control.

Edwards claimed that only one newspaper carried anything about the exploding object. The Las Vegas Sun had printed the story, and Edwards, without interviewing a single witness himself, had used that as the basis for his report.

The April 19 edition of the Sun reported BRILLIANT RED EXPLOSION FLARES IN LAS VEGAS SKY. Their story left no doubt about what had happened and the many witnesses to it. In the lead paragraph, Jim Stalmaker, a reporter for the Las Vegas Sun, told of a flaming sword that started a ground search for a weird unidentified flying object that had the air force on alert in several states.

A spokesman for the North American Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs. Colorado, Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Rolph, told reporters that the first observers, in the Oneida, New York, area, had seen a glowing red ball heading to the west. It was at great altitude, made no sound, and disappeared in seconds.

Radar picked up the object, and operators watched it as it streaked into the Midwest. The Air Defense Command alerted a number of bases, including Nellis in Las Vegas. Reports indicate that fighters were scrambled from Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix.

In Nephi, Utah, according to the Las Vegas Sun, witnesses reported the glowing red object flew overhead. When it was gone, there was a rumbling like that of jet engines.

Edwards thought it might have been from the engines of the interceptors as they chased the UFO. Then, according to the reports, the UFO came down near Eureka, Utah, interrupting electrical service from a power plant close to the landing site. It took off a few minutes later, continuing to the west. It was seen over Reno, Nevada, apparently made a sweeping turn to the south, and then disappeared from the radar screens east of Las Vegas.

The Clark County, Nevada, sheriff's office was swamped with phone calls about the explosion. Witnesses said the object was traveling almost horizontally northeast of Las Vegas until the final explosion from the direction of Mesquite, Nevada.

Sheriff's deputy Walter Bun, who led the search and rescue unit, moved the unit into the Spring Mountain area in jeeps to search for wreckage. In a phone interview conducted in November 1988 Butt told me they searched through the night, and when the sun came up they continued, using aircraft. They didn't find anything of importance, except some ashes that could easily have been the remains of a campfire started by a hunter weeks earlier. When no one reported a downed or missing aircraft, Bun and the other deputies called off the search.

Also mentioned in the Las Vegas Sun story was Frank Maggio, a staff photographer Using the Las Vegas telephone directory, I looked up Frank Maggio. There was no listing for him, but there was a Maggio Photo Lab. Thinking it had to be the same person, I called. It was.

He couldn't add anything to the story that had appeared in the paper. He described the UFO as a "tremendous flaming sword." There was a series of bright explosions that broke up the trail across the sky. It vanished east of Las Vegas.

The next step seemed obvious. In 1969 the air force had announced the closing of Project Blue Book, the official UFO investigation. Six or seven years later, the Blue Book files were declassified, and anyone who could get to Maxwell Air Force Base near Montgomery, Alabama, could do research in them. Not long after that, they were transferred to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and put on microfilm. Anyone with the resources could buy copies of them. Ninety- six rolls of microfilm at $22 a roll. All I had to do was check in the Blue Book files and see what they had to say about the case.

0n April 18, according to the Blue Book files, there was a radar sighting at Nellis Air Force Base that was at first labeled as "Unidentified" but later changed to "Insufficient Data for a Scientific Analysis." On the Project Record Card (ATIC FORM 329) the case was summarized as a : "Radar sighting. Speed of object varied. (Important to note that] Initial observation at 060, no elevation. Disappearance at 105 [degrees] az [at] 10,000 feet altitude. Heading tentatively NE, however disappeared instantly to S. Observed by search and height radars. 'No visual."

That last statement was ridiculous. No visual sighting, except for all those people in Las Vegas who called the sheriff's office. No visual, except for Frank Maggio, who reported the fiery end to the object. No visual, except Walter Butt who led a search party into the desert to look for wreckage.

I continued to search the file, looking for a reference to the sighting from the Eureka, Utah, area: information that was available to the Las Vegas Sun, but not in the official air force file about the sighting near Nellis.

The master index showed no sighting in Utah on April 18, but did list a meteor on April 19. (Later notes in the file itself confirm the April 18 date.) The Project Record Card claimed: "Object came in over Cuba and apparently landed in rough terrain West of Eureka, Utah. Bright enough to trip photo electric cell which controlled city street lights." They also note, "Multiple rpts. Attempted recovery by Col. Friend and Dr. Hynek." They finish by noting the explanation is "Astro, probably meteor."

There was a file folder available, but it was not filed where it should have been but stuck at the end of the April 1962 section. Included in it were a number of reports by military officers made shortly after the incident.

According to Captain Herman Gordon Shields, who was interrogated at Hill Air Force Base by Douglas M. Crouch, the chief of the criminal investigation sections:

I was flying a C-119 aircraft from the left seat [captain's seat]. We were approximately two miles west of La Van, Utah flying at 8500 feet MSL. Our true airspeed was a little less than 170 knots. We were making a right turn from a heading of about 068 degrees to 165 degrees. We were approximately 25 degrees of bank on the aircraft and we had turned for about 30 degrees to a heading of about 098 or 100 degrees, somewhere in there, when it began to get very bright in the, cock- pit. The illumination was from above. It built up slowly. My first impression while the intensity was low was that it was the landing lights of another aircraft. Of course, when the intensity increased this was ruled out automatically. The cockpit was illuminated from above. In the C-119 aircraft there is an instrument panel in the middle of the cockpit up above on the ceiling of the cockpit. The light source was coming from this area that was blanked out, in other words, straight behind this instrument panel because neither Lieutenant Larson, who was in the fight seat nor I saw the source of the illumination. We continued the turn. The light intensity increased until we could see objects [on the ground] as bright as day for a radius of five to ten miles from the aircraft. This would probably be a diameter of twenty miles or so. Objects on the ground, on the hills around us, were clearly distinguishable. Colors were distinguishable. It was as bright as daylight. The intensity of the light diminished faster than it had increased. After the light had decreased in intensity we were still looking for the light source, and I noticed an object to my left between the wing and the lower part of the fuselage of the aircraft against the hills. By this time the light had decreased so that the hills were dark. It was night again. And this object which I saw was illuminated. It had a long slender appearance comparable to a cigarette in size, that is, the diameter with respect to the length of the object. The fore part, or the lower part of the object was very bright, intense white such as a magnesium fire. The second half, the aft section, was a clearly distinguishable yellowish color. I would say the object was just about divided in half, the fore part being intensely white, the aft section having a more yellow color to it.

Later in the same report, Captain Shields said, "I saw only a slender object. I don't know what the shape was. It was only a slender object ... There was no exhaust, no trail following after it. It was clearly defined. I saw it for a period of maybe one to two seconds."

Also available in the Eureka file was an unclassified intelligence report that ran to seven single-spaced pages on legal- sized sheets. Many of the witnesses reported only a ball of fire passing overhead. They reported a series of explosions after the object was gone (sonic booms?) and a trail of gray smoke.

A man in Silver City, Utah (name blanked out by air force officers in 1976) claimed that the object was a glowing ball of light about the size of a soccer ball. He said it was white with a yellowish tint and a bright yellow jagged flame coming from the rear (confirming the description of Captain Shields). The unidentified witness claimed:

As the object passed over Robinson [Utah), it slowed down in [the] air, and after, [a] gasping sound was heard, the object spurted ahead again. After this procedure was repeated three or four times, the object arched over and began descending to earth after which the object turned bluish color and then burned out or went dark. After the object began to slow down it began to wobble or "flshtail" in its path.

At the end of the report, Crouch wrote:

The preparing officer is Chief Criminal Investigator, OS-9, Security and Law Enforcement Division, Hill Air Force Base, Utah. Preliminary analysis indicates that each of the observers interviewed were logical, mature persons, and that each person was convinced that he had observed some tangible object, not identifiable as a balloon or conventional type aircraft. The theory that the object was a manned aircraft was abandoned due to the described shape and color and flaming tail of the object, plus the fact there are no reports of missing aircraft in this area. No unusual meteorological or astronomical conditions were present which would furnish an explanation for the sighting. No missile test firings are conducted in the immediate area other than static tests. The hypotheses that the object was a falling meteor is questioned due to the statements of three observers describing the flat trajectory, plus the description of sounds emanating from the object. Due to the inaccessibility of the valley, ten miles wide by 15 miles long in which the object apparently came to earth, no further search for the object is contemplated. With the completion of this initial report, no explanation has been developed for the brilliant illumination of the area, the object itself, or the explosion in the wake of the object.

The final report was signed by Douglas M. Crouch and by Major Charles W. Brion, chief, Sec. and Law Enforcement Division, both at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

Air force investigation of the sighting had also showed that the object came down near Eureka, Utah. An orange, glowing object that was bright enough to shut off the photoelectric cells had been reported in that area.

But even with the conclusions drawn by the first investigators of the sightings, the air force sent J. Allen Hynek and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Friend to Utah on May 8, 1962. Crouch accompanied them on their investigation. They spent "one full day" tracking down the witnesses in central Utah. (25) At the end of the day they decided that the residents had seen a very rare phenomenon known as a bolide. (26) That would be the end of the case.

Later Friend, writing to "Hq USAF, SAFOI-3b [Major Hart]" reported:

The number of reports generated by the 18 April 1962 sighting, and the fact that the Air Force investigation came to a negative conclusion regarding the UFO, they indicated it couldn't have been a meteor (Attachment #1), prompted further investigation by FTD [Foreign Technology Division]...This investigation was completed in one full day and it was concluded that the object was a bolide. An attempt was made to locate the object but this effort failed due to the general nature of the data. Further study of this sighting indicates that the meteor probably struck in the area of the Wasatch National Forest; however, the Air Force has made no further at tempts to recover it.

Friend's statement, the fact that he and Hynek went to the area, and the absence of conflicting data suggest that the most likely explanation is the one they offered. In fact, Dr. Robert Kadesch, an associate professor of physics at the University of Utah, confirmed that view with me. Also quoted in several area newspapers, Kadesch said, simply, it "probably was a bolide."

But the official air force file, Friend's letter, and Kadesch's statements are not the whole story of the Utah end of this case. Interviews I conducted with the principals in the case create more questions than they answer. And the newspaper reports create an interesting enigma. According to the Nevada State Journal, the object flew over Reno, passing west to east. Yet the witnesses in Utah universally claim the object was traveling from the southeast to the northwest. At some point the UFO seems to have reversed its course, and a meteor wouldn't do that.

Among the first to sight the object was Sheriff Raymond Jackson of Nephi. According to him, he was on Main Street and "heard kind of a roar." He glanced up and saw a yellow-white flame going west, heard a series of loud booms, and saw the lights in Nephi go out. Jackson noticed specifically the lights in the doctor's office, but said, "All the lights went out temporarily." That would become an important clue when the rest of the case was put together.

Also in the Nephi area were Maurice Memmott and Dan Johnson. According to a story published in the Nephi Times News, both men were south of town, working on their farms, when the object shot overhead. Memmott claims that he no longer remembers much about the incident, just a bright light in the sky that lit the ground like the sun. He told me that he now believes that it was a meteor.

Dan Johnson, on the other hand, remembers the event quite well. He. said, "The two of us were out in the fields ... there were no lights so we were in total darkness." It came over the southeastern horizon and passed directly over them. "It was a very bright light."

Johnson didn't remember hearing any sound, but did claim that the object landed somewhere in the northwest. He didn't think it was more than five or six miles away.

Johnson also said that several men -- he thought they might have been military though none were in uniform -- came out to interview both Memmott and him. The men drove them back out into the country and made them point to the location where the object landed.

The Times-News confirmed Johnson's story of the investigation and added an interesting note. The speculation was that the investigators were not from the air force, but soldiers from the army's Dugway Proving Grounds not that far from the area.

Tracking the dates supplied by Friend's report and the information available from the Times-News, it seems that the conclusion is correct. Two separate teams of investigators made the rounds in Nephi after the events. And a few people remembered talking to Colonel Friend and Dr. Hynek. Friend, it seems, was in uniform during the one day he was there. There is no way that the two teams could have been confused.

Sergeant E. C. Sherwood of the Utah Highway Patrol was also in Nephi that evening. He looked up in time to see the ball of fire and thought that it was something from New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range. It was a bright light that was mostly blue and it seemed to explode right over him, throwing off a cloud of white sparks.

Sherwood's wife heard the explosion and ran outside. She saw the bright light but nothing beyond that. She mentioned to me that the neighbors were also outside, looking up into the night sky.

A number of other residents in Nephi reported the explosions or the roar. Some of them explained that it was a series of explosions, twenty or thirty of them strung together Their descriptions ran from a rocket's engine to an artillery shell flying over.

From Nephi, the object traveled to the northwest, toward Eureka, Which is about thirty miles away. It flew over Bob Robinson and Floyd Evans. According to Robinson, they were traveling south of Eureka when they stopped for a moment and climbed out of their pickup truck. Robinson saw the light in the southeast and pointed it out. Evans thought that it was a jet aircraft.

The object approached them rapidly and passed directly overhead. Robinson said that he thought it was no higher than five hundred feet. It was a flaming object, and he thought he could see a series of square windows on the craft almost hidden in the glow of it.

Robinson said that both men were frightened by the experience. They dived under the truck for protection. The engine of the truck began to sputter and run roughly as the object approached, and the headlights dimmed, but the engine didn't stall and the lights didn't go out completely.

As it reached them, the object seemed to slow, as if taking a look at the truck. Robinson thought the object or the light from it was visible for about two minutes. As it disappeared in the west, the lights of the truck brightened and the engine smoothed out, running normally.

When Robinson returned home, his wife, Betty, said that he looked as if he had seen a ghost. His face was white, and he was so excited that it was hard for her to understand what he was trying to say.

She was able to tell him about her sighting. While sitting in the house, she had heard the roar of the object as it passed over, and had seen the light. The interior of the house had been brightly illuminated with a strobing effect. She wasn't alone in her sighting. Joseph Benini, the police chief, said that he was at a city council meeting when they all heard the roar. Bernini said that it sounded like an artillery shell going over He saw the bright light but didn't see any object. He had been inside the whole time. As the object flew over Eureka, the street lights all went out. Bernini, interviewed by reporters, said that the street lights were on photoelectric cells and the bright light caused them to go out. According to him, no one else reported any power failures.

Bernini's wife and son saw the light, but the son, David, also saw an object. Those who did see the object confirmed the direction. It was moving from southeast to northwest. Many of those who saw it said that it was within a thousand feet of the ground. There was an object visible behind the glow, and Shields, the pilot, had said that he not only saw the glow but also the object. The important fact was that Shields was looking down when he saw it. Kadesch, when asked, said that he believed the object was a bolide and that it had exploded sixty to seventy miles in the air. The flash was so bright that residents of Gridley, Kansas, reported seeing it. Others, such as witnesses in Reno, also claimed to have seen the flash.

Kadesch took it further, explaining that the people on the ground, looking up into the night sky, had no points of reference. It was difficult for them to judge size and distance, especially if they didn't know exactly what they were seeing. Kadesch, who hadn't seen the object himself, but whose family had, still said it was a bolide. There was no doubt in his mind. when asked about the flight crews who reported the object below their aircraft, he said, "That information is too fragmentary. It could be the curvature of the earth that made them believe that."

But in Reno there was an added complication. A witness there, Homer Raycraft, said that he saw a "big fireball traveling due east." He claimed that the object disappeared behind a mountain range and then there was a big flash. Others in Reno, such as Dwight Dyer, Reno bureau chief of the Associated Press, the controllers in the Reno airport control tower, along with the controllers in Elko and Las Vegas, also reported they saw the flash. It was described as a brilliant white with a long tail, changing to green, orange, and red.

Another aircrew also saw the object. According to officers at Stead Air Force Base, a Bonanza Air Lines pilot said that the light passed beneath his aircraft, which was flying at eleven thousand feet. That made two flight crews in two different aircraft who had reported the object below their planes. Coupled with the testimony of three witnesses in Utah who said the object was about five hundred feet above them, it tended to rule out the bolide theory because the meteor would have been too low for too long.

Another problem developed when all the material from the Reno newspaper was reviewed. The newspaper contained a drawing showing the path of the object as it passed over Nevada. The problem is that the drawing showed it traveling from the north, over a corner of Nevada, to crash to the ground near Eureka, Utah. It was traveling, according to the Nevada witnesses, in a direction opposite that claimed by the Utah witnesses. Had the object been a fireball, everyone would have given it the same direction of flight. Those in Nevada would have been looking to the east when they saw it, but they would have talked about it moving in the same general direction as those who had sighted the UFO in Utah.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the object was seen over Reno and traveling to the east. It also reported that the light was seen in Las Vegas. The question becomes, how is that possible for a meteorite?

An air force spokesman at Nellis Air Force Base said that meteors are not normally tracked by radar. The ionized trail left by them is sometimes detected, but that is a streak on the scope and not a single moving point as described by the military operators in Las Vegas. How do we know that the object seen in Las Vegas is the same one that was reported in Utah and over Reno? It looked as if we had two sightings: one over Las Vegas on April 18, and one over Utah on April 19. With two sightings, there isn't all that much unusual to explain. A meteor fell near Eureka, Utah, and something else tracked on radar near Las Vegas.

But I knew that wasn't quite right. I had talked to a man, who wishes to remain anonymous, who was in Eureka, Utah, on the night the "meteor" fell. He was driving through town and watched the glowing orange ball. He saw it close to the ground, but then saw it take off again. It knocked out the lights all over Eureka, before climbing out again. Something that a meteor could not do.

He was close enough to the object to see an oval shape and to hear a quiet whirring noise. It took off toward the west, heading into Nevada. He watched it until it faded from sight over Nevada. The point here is that there was a witness who had seen the object come down near Eureka as had others. But unlike them, he had seen it lift off again, streaking toward the west. It suggested that the object hadn't ended its flight in Utah. Linked to the reports in Nevada, it suggested that a single object was responsible for all the sightings.

The air force, which had received all the findings, initially did the same thing, linking the reports. Officers at Stead Air Force Base, Nellis Air Force Base, and NORAD all drew that conclusion. The reports from Utah and Reno claim the sighting was made about fifteen minutes after the hour (Utah, on Mountain Standard Time, reported the incident at 8:15. Reno, on Pacific Standard Time, reported it at 7:15). The Nellis radar case, according to the official air force file, listed the time of the sighting as sixteen minutes after the events in Utah, but the official spokesman at Nellis said the Air Defense Command was alerted by the fire trail that was seen at approximately 7:20 P.M., Pacific Standard Time, or within minutes of the reports from Utah.

More importantly, fighters were scrambled from Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix after the radar sightings. Other documents included in the Project Blue Book files suggested that fighters had also been scrambled from Nellis. Another point must be made. The reports, as filed in Project Blue Book, were deceptively dated. The Utah case had the time logged in "Zulu," or Greenwich Mean Time, which means it was advanced at that time of the year by six hours. Add six hours to the 8:15 time, and you advance it to early morning the next day. A quick glance at the file shows the Utah case dated April 19, and the Las Vegas case logged in local time as April 18. On paper it looks as if they take place on separate days when, in reality, they happened within minutes of each other on the same day.

There are other interesting notes in the official files. A spokesman for the 28th Air Division at Stead Air Force Base admitted the power in Eureka was knocked out and that fighters had been scrambled from Nellis as a result of the radar sightings there. Then, on September 21, 1962, Major C. R. Hart of the air force public information office, responding to a letter sent by a New York resident, claimed:

The official records of the Air Force list the 18 April 1962 Nevada sighting to which you refer as "unidentified, insufficient data." There is an additional note to the effect that "the reported track is characteristic of that registered by a U-2 or a high balloon but there is insufficient data reported to fully support such an evaluation." The phenomena reported was not intercepted or fired upon.

Not intercepted? With reports in the files that clearly showed fighters were scrambled from Nellis and other reports of jets taking off from Luke? What about the explanation that the reported track was characteristic of a balloon or a U-2? Which was it? A balloon track would be made at the whim of the wind, "flying" in the direction the wind was blowing, changing direction as it passed from one level to another. A U-2, under intelligent control of a pilot, wouldn't be flying an erratic pattern. Surely the radar operator would have been able to tell if he was tracking a balloon or a jet.

The response to the man's letter was a lie, pure and simple. The evidence in the file showed that. But more important is the fact that the air force was claiming that the object might have been a U-2 or a high-altitude balloon. The reason they couldn't pin it down was that there were no records of such a flight or balloon launch. They were grasping at straws. Might have been a balloon. Could have been a high-flying U-2 spy plane. But it wasn't either. Remember, there was a follow-up that claimed the object was so bright that it affected the photoelectric cells on the Eureka street lights. That is a good, logical explanation for the reported power outage, but doesn't account for all the facts. The lights in Nephi, according to Raymond Jackson, were knocked out. Photoelectric cells fooled by the brightness of the object do not account for that.

And near Eureka, Bob Robinson reported that his truck engine and headlights were affected by the overflight of the object." It seems that the UFO was displaying the same kind of electromagnetic effect that had been reported in dozens of other UFO cases.

So what do we have here?

We have the story of an object that was seen to begin its journey over Oneida, New York. It was seen by thousands. In Utah it neared the ground, landed, and took off not on April 19 as claimed by the air force, but on April 18. It was close enough to the ground that people in the center of Utah got a good look at it. It maneuvered while close to the ground, slowing down and speeding up. The witnesses in several Utah communities centered around the Eureka and Nephi areas thought that it landed. One witness reported it on the ground and then taking off. It continued its journey until it was close to Reno, then turned to the southeast, flew over Las Vegas, where it was tracked on radar, and then blew up. Documentation for the sighting is available through a variety of newspapers, including the Las Vegas Sun, Los Angeles Tribune, Desert News and Telegram, Salt Lake Tribune, Eureka Reporter and Nephi News-Leader. Further documentation came from the Project Blue Book files and Frank Edwards. It is a case that demonstrates the air force's policy of explaining UFO sightings, even if they have to change dates to make the explanations wok. It shows that the air force would lie to the public about the UFO situation. And it shows that air force investigators, when handed a solution, wouldn't ask the basic questions. They accepted the solution quickly.

That means that the officer handing out the U-2 or balloon explanations would know that all flights above fourteen thousand feet were tracked carefully. And he would know that U-2s aren't like a privately owned Piper Cub or Cessna that operates below the critical altitude of fourteen thousand feet Flights are planned and logged, and those records still exist if there had been a U-2 flight in that area, the air force could have proved it.

And the same thing can be said for the high-altitude balloons. By 1962 they were tracked religiously. With so many commercial aircraft using the skies, the military couldn't af ford to have a passenger plane fly into a research balloon. They knew where the balloons were and what tracks they took. The radar sighting might suggest a high-altitude balloon or U-2, but that isn't the solution. Finally, the air force files connect the two events, though they eventually separated the reports in Las Vegas from those in Utah. On a page in the file that appears prior to the intelligence report prepared by Douglas Crouch, an unknown officer wrote:

On April 18, 1962, the Air Force Defense Command was puzzled by an aerial object that exploded and seemed to be a meteor, but had the unique distinction of being tracked by radar 70 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada in a blinding flash. An Air Force Defense Command alert reported the object was tracked and traced over New York, Kansas, Utah, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Wyoming, Arizona and California, so that its light covered almost as much area as that created by the big hydrogen space bomb test held later in the Pacific hundreds of miles high. That notation is not in the Las Vegas file, but in the Utah file. And it suggests that radars in other parts of the country from New York to California tracked the object. The flight time, according to the Las Vegas sighting report, was thirty- two minutes, much too long for a meteor. A meteor would cross the United States much faster. And it means that the object, whatever it was, was not a meteor.

With the cases separated, the air force was able to deal with them piecemeal. The Utah case could become a bolide. Robert Kadesch, a scientist not involved with the UFO project at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base or the Foreign Technology Division, made a plausible witness. His statement, reported throughout the country, sounded good, when the testimony of the other witnesses is overlooked.

ft is easy to accept the Air Force explanations of the case if they are taken as separate events. It is easy to believe that the Utah sightings were the result of a meteor, although the original investigators, Crouch and Brion, said that they had no explanation for the sightings.

This also reveals that the air force was not interested in investigation or solving riddles. They were interested in clearing cases, slapping a label on them and letting it go at that. We know it because they interviewed the Utah witnesses such as Bob Robinson and Floyd Evans. They interviewed a dozen witnesses, some of whom described the object and who said it was close to the ground. (62) They knew that power had been knocked out in Nephi but reported only that the light was so bright it affected the photoelectric cells in Eureka. They ignored the information that didn't fit with the bolide theory.

Something extremely extraordinary happened on the night of April 18, 1962. The air force offered a series of explanations ignoring the facts. But the witnesses who were there know the truth. They saw something from outer space, and it was not a meteor. It was a craft from another world.

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