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Simulation of the sighting based on the witness account and photographs of the site
This is a multiple witness, multiple sighting case, with possible photographic evidence. It was reported to Investigator 2 by one of the witnesses, at the referral of the West Hartford Police. It was investigated by State Section Director Investigator 2 and Assistant State Director Investigator 1. Investigator 1 is the author of this report.
I accompanied Investigator 2 to the witness' home on 12/14/97. Investigator 2 interviewed the son. I interviewed the father, and informally, the mother. Another youth who was a witness and photographer to the first sighting was not present.
The father is a man in his late fifies or early sixties. He has some college, worked in the Air Force on weapon development during the 1960s, and developed software from that time though the late '80s, early '90s.
The mother is a woman of compatible age, who states that she has very poor eyesight. She seemed friendly but did not become involved in the formal interviews.
The son is a teenager, reputedly an honor student, who was interviewed by Investigator 2.
The home is modest in size but is nicely decorated, contains high quality furniture and is well kept. The basement has been finished except for the furnace room. One room contains expensive musical instruments and equipment. The family has a computer, which the son uses to access the Internet and play games. There are few books, and those which were seen are popular romance novels and non-fiction; there was no obvious sign of UFO books, videos, or science-fiction in the house. The backyard has an aboveground pool, currently winterized.
The neighborhood is a (probably) 1940s-1960s vintage dense suburban area. It is bordered on the west by the Conner High School athletic fields, and further west by the school itself. Interstate I-84 is about a quarter mile to the south (Exit 41 is used to reach the site), and there is a golf course / country club to the north. There is no outlet other than the way in - Ashford Rd.
To the northwest is the Avon Mountain ridge, and some tall radio antennae are visible from the adjoining Ashford Rd. Those antennas at night may carry blinking red lights. To the southwest along the ridge are the very tall Rattlesnake Mountain antennas with bright white flashing lights. Those antennas are not visible during the day from the sighting location.
No aircraft traffic was visible from the sighting location on the day of our visit (I spent ten minutes before and ten minutes after the interviews walking outside), though some VFR private pilots follow the Avon Mountain ridge on their way to and from Simsbury and Bradley airports, as well as points north and south of those.
My personal experience indicates that the Hood (Milk) blimp sometimes flies along I-84 not far from the sighting area.
The Westfarms Mall is to the WSW, and Brainard Airport is to the East.
During the ten minutes preceeding the visit, I observed a West Hartford Police van patrolling the neighborhood.
View from the front bedroom window, father's sighting of the object view
This image shows a recreation of the father's observation based on the photos and the witness sketches:
The father provided a written account of the sightings with a set of drawings and maps. A drawing by his son was included.
The primary sightings are actually three events:
August, 1997, son and friend observe and photograph "something strange" at the golf course. Father scoffs a bit, but otherwise ignores the event.
September 6, 1997, very close observation from the house by son, father, and mother. Duration - about 15-20 minutes. 12:04 AM (post-midnight)
November 6, 1997, more distant observation by father of what seemed to be the same object, in the direction of Hartford, seen from the CVS near corner of South Main and Sedgewick. Duration - about 10 minutes. 9:15 PM
In addition, The father reported several prior UFO events, two of which he had previously mentioned to Investigator 2, and one of which he mentioned just as I was leaving.
20 years ago, The father and his girlfriend were walking in the woods of Kent, CT, and had crossed over Kent falls. They came upon a small clapboard cabin, one side of which was damaged. A swath of trees with broken limbs extended to a clearing which was centered with a (burned?) circle. The witness claimed to have a photograph in his "ammo box" of his foot next to what may have been a "landing gear" imprint. (This is not on tape, since it was related to me in the post-interview phase as I was about to depart).
During the 1960s, when reporting to Kirtland, he was informed that there had been "green fireball" activity. At the time, he said, he didn't know what that meant, but later he took a photo (a print and slide of which he showed me) which showed an elongated white speck near the moon, which he referred to as a "cigar-shape".
Sometime during the same period, he saw a metallic sphere while watching the sunset. He said that he saw a blue beam at the time. He showed me a print and a slide which showed a dull orange circle and a purplish blue line. The line did not connect with or come from the area of the orange circle. He was excited by this photo and wanted to make an enlargement of it to try to see more detail (check tape to make sure it was this one). He also stated that he saw dark triangles in the distant sunset sky, but I was not clear on whether it was during this event, or whether this was another, unexplored event.
Any witness who reports multiple sightings naturally requires more scrutiny and skepticism. However, there seemed no tendency on the part of the witness to connect these events into any sort of "grand design" or to infer that the close sighting indicated any special relationship with the phenomenon. In fact, the witness made a point of indicating (more than once) that he had a neon-lit clock in his kitchen, which would be observable through the skylight, and which he thought might have attracted the attention of the object.
The father and the mother went to bed at their normal time, which was approximately 9:30-10PM.
At approximately midnight, The father was awakened by his son, who had been using the computer in one of the south side rooms. The son said he had seen an object flying slowly over the house. The object as seen by the son was described by The father as triangular, with a bright white light at each corner (each white light surrounded by 7 red lights - drawing by son shows 3 in line behind front, and four around the inside of each of the other corner lights), and with a "flap" in the back. "He was seeing it fromn the bottom and I was seeing it from the end."
The father went to the north facing bedroom window and looked out. He then opened the window to get a better view. He stated the weather was "quite warm" (He stated that there was little or no breeze, that it had been still all day, and that at the time it was partly overcast, but it was possible to see stars; he stated it was darker at this location than at the sighting 3 location, which is true, since the sighting 3 location was closer to Hartford). This took about 5-10 seconds during the reenactment. He leaned out the window to see. The window is narrow and could only admit one person at a time, unless all viewers stayed back from the opening.
At that time, the object base was at the angular level of the highest wire between the poles on the street (approx 25-30 degrees). The object was over the house on the north side of Kimberly Street. It spanned something between 70 and 90 degrees (estimated, better measurements needed later) and was 5 to 10 degrees high (based on width and drawing). The witness estimated the thickness of the object at about six feet, and the altitude at about 50 feet.
The right corner of the object was nearly above a streetlight. The witness noted an apparent reflection. He found it difficult to explain the appearance of the reflection, but it is likely that the reflection was either from the bottom of an edge seen in perspective across the base of the back of the objetc or from a bevel in that same position.
On each lower corner of the object, The father noted a single bright white light, similar in appearance and brightness to an automobile halogen lamp (It does not appear that these lights shed any illumination on nearby objects; it is unknown whether there was any yellow or blue cast to these lights) Above, and each nearly a third of the way in from the edge, were two red lights, comparable to small Christmas tree lights in brightness and color (i.e. a more "cherry" red). Between those two lights and lower were two "grids", which seemed to be round-edged rectangles. The grids were dull orange areas with black lines. The witness stressed that the grids were 7 cells across and 4 down, but the drawing shows 5 cells across and three down. The illumination from the grid area was very dim - less than half that of the sodium street light. It was even, and did not differ near the bars. Though the sketch shows the grids with rounded edges, The father stated that the shape of the grids was crisply rectangular.
There were some dimly lit clouds against the sky, and The father saw a dark body between the lights against those clouds.
No sound was heard. There was no odor.
The object moved very slowly, its bottom reaching the treeline after about 15-20 mins. This would be about 5 degrees (measurements needed) or perhaps a third of a degree per minute.
At that time, the grid area dimmed to black. The darkening progressed from the top to the bottom, as if a door was sliding down over the grid (time required unknown, needs to be measured).
After the grids were dark, the other lights disappeared and the object was gone.
His wife stated that she did not have her glasses at the time, and could add nothing to the report.
He stated that his son returned to his computer during the sighting.
The father came out of CVS at about 9:15PM and was about to get in his car. When he looked up over the roof of his car prior to getting in, he saw the object. The object seemed, despite much greater distance, to be similar to the first. He noticed the two white lights, the two red lights, and also mentions at least one blinking red light. His account states that the grids were not visible, but he shows them in his sketch. He also had started to draw them on the MUFON form, but blacked them out after being asked if that form was the CVS sighting.
The object did not move for 10-15 mins. It was clearly silhoetted against the brighter overcast above the city (sodium orange lights). The body of the object was dark. The object had a fairly large angular extent (2-5 degrees).
The object then disappeared. The father believed he was looking at it when it disappeared. There was no sound at any time.
I asked the mother if she could spend some time with me, but she was on her way out. She indicated that her eyesight was very bad, and that she thought she would offer little to the report. She said it was big, dark, and it had lights "yes, of course it had lights," she chided herself. It seemed very slow. I did not have an opportunity to ask if she looked out the window, or if she had any other involvement.
While filling out the report form, The father noted with some surprise that the surface which showed the grid must have been tilted away from him, or it would have reflected the streetlight. This seemed a genuine realization.
When I asked him what his neighbors had to say, he seemed surprised, and corrected me sharply that he hadn't discussed it with them.
The father claims in his written account that F-15s have buzzed his house at about 100' on two occasions, and that he had complained to the police.
The second sighting is weaker than the first, due to distance and the lack of secondary witnesses. It may have been influenced by the first sighting, as evidenced by the presence of the "grids" in the map sketch, and the father starting to draw the grids on the MUFON report form.
The father seems sincere and observant. He seemed glad to have someone to tell this to, and he was excited about his previous experiences finally being heard by someone. I asked him about his emotional reaction to the sighting, but he seemed to not have experienced any fear. This may be due to the sheltered nature of the observation location. The window is deep and small, and it would be reasonable for the witness to feel safe at home and in his own neighborhood.
As his trust increased, he seemed willing to tell me about his earlier experiences.
On the negative side, he had watched the recent TLC specials (within the last two weeks) on UFOs, and this, of course, offers some possibility of contamination.
Ultimately, in my view, Sighting 2 is the core of the events described. A major focus in the close encounter, due to the reduced likelihood of misperception, is the credibility of the witness. One might be concerned about the inconsistency between his job status and education. For this reason, I recommend we check some basic facts that are available...
Another element for followup is consistency between 2 and 3. Angular measurements from 2 can be extrapolated to 3 to estimate distance and direction.
The sites should be visited at similar dates and times to look for air traffic and other possible sources of misperception. A canvas of the neighborhood should be undertaken for other witnesses. The extrapolation from 2-3 should be used to find a second area for canvassing.
On Saturday, September 6, 1997, at 5 a.m., two men driving on Interstate Highway 15 in Clearfield, Utah (population 17,982), about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Salt Lake City, sighted "a triangular craft with white lights at each point and a red light on top." The UFO was flying over Hill Air Force Base, a salt desert area just west of the Wasatch mountain range. (Many thanks to Ed Adcox, Utah state director of Skywatch International for this report.)[footnote 1] Possible aircraft.
I revisited the site to determine possible sources of misperception. I was able to observe the following:
The site is near an airway to Bradley Airport. The airway is to the west of the site. On the evening of my visit, the traffic was travelling from SSW to NNE. Two aircraft passed at about 9:45 PM. Their apparent angular speed was 7 seconds per degree. Their elevation was 75-85 degrees from a position parked in Ashford Rd. However, once the aircraft has passed toward the north horizon, they appeared to shift course toward the east, enough that I estimate they would have been potentially visible at a 0 degree relative azimuth from the second floor north facing window of the main sighting. At that location and at the apparent distance of the course change, the angular span between the wingtip lights of a conventional jet airliner would be about half a degree.
While the antennas mentioned are visible from Ashford St, they are not visible from ground level at Kimberly. They might be visible from the upper window, but the top lights of the antennas strobe, and the azimuth of the antennae from the sighting location is 15-20 degrees, which may have been within the span of the observed object. However, the elevation would be low, and it would be impossible to account for the right side red light in this manner.
The street light mentioned in the November account is on the witness side of the street and was working during my visit. A check of the illumination of the house across the street was complicated by the presence of Christmas lighting, however faint shadows were cast by the streetlight. Checks of local street lights indicate a possible upward light cast of between 7 and 15 degrees. This, combined with the falloff of illumination should assist in determining the distance and altitude at which an object of a specific reflectivity could seem to be illuminated, and may provide a second reference for distance and size.
I visited the CVS and determined that the normal store hours were from 8AM to 9PM. This may be a problem for the witness estimate of the sighting at CVS being 9:15 PM, and either indicates that the store was open late, he was the last customer, and / or his time estimate is potentially incorrect by 15 minutes or more. There was no air traffic during the time I was parked at the witness' position.
I made several other evening site visits and saw nothing unusual. The flight paths followed by incoming aircraft to Bradley observed on the first night site visit was repeated.
If all of the witness measurements are accurate, and the appearance and behavior of the object is as stated, mundane explanations are difficult. However, explanations which attempt to vary one or more of these parameters may be useful.
| Sighting | Explanation under consideration | Portions of account ignored | Reason ignored |
| Nov 6 (CVS) | Was aircraft in distance | Description indicating red lights above and between white lights; lack
of strobes Time estimate (would only be visible for four or five minutes) |
Possible that witness was looking for object seen on Sept 6. At distance, shape of aircraft or helicopter might seem similar. |
| Sept 6 (Home) | Was aircraft or helicopter en-route to Bradley | Description indicating red lights above and between white lights (non
standard lighting for airliner or helicopter seen from rear) Lack of sound (given described angular extent, sound would have been obvious) Lack of strobes (non standard lighting for airliner or helicopter seen from rear) Angular size (observed aircraft do not have notable angular extent) Orange grids and grid behavior Time estimate (aircraft would be out of sight in 1- 2 minutes). Reflection of streetlight. Shape silhouette |
|
| Was formation of 2 aircraft or helicopters en-route from Bradley on south course; tandem formation with landing lights pointing toward witness to form bright outer lights; tail or wing red light observed on inside | Right side aircraft (relative to witness) would have shown a green light
on the right, unless tail light; if tail (i.e. T-tail) light, why no outside
light? Witness testimony on elevation change and direction of motion Son account would have to be a separate, coincidental aircraft flying in the opposite direction at a higher altitude (need angular size comparisons). Lack of sound (might be explainable due to approach). Orange grids and grid behavior Lights out behavior Reflection of streetlight on object Shape silhouette |
||
| Was Hood blimp returning to Brainard | Shape silhouette Lighting seems wrong for blimp Direction of travel (blimp would be going E-W toward Brainerd) Son account would have to be a separate, coincidental aircraft flying in the opposite direction at a higher altitude (need angular size comparisons). Reflection of streetlight on object indicating extreme closeness. Blimp would have to be very close and very low to attain indicated angular size. |
Repeatedly appears on Saturday (might be returning to Brainerd from event
such as football game) Slow speed, silence Perhaps orange grids could be explained as "lettering lighting" |
On June 24th, "the beginning of Roswell week" (as described by 15 year old son) three teenagers (the son and his friends) go out onto the nearby golf course at night to look for UFO's. The reason for this was all the media attention to the Roswell incident. After some time, at around 2200 or 2230 they spot three lights ("one on the bottom and two on the top") moving from south east to north west. Very soon after the initial sighting (total duration of 45 seconds to one minute) the lights were low enough on the horizon that they started disappearing behind trees and houses making it necessary for the observers to quickly move to continue viewing them. During this observation several pictures were taken with a small (perhaps disposable) camera. The light pattern was "about the size of a nickel held at arms length" and "there was no sound until after the lights had disappeared" beyond the horizon of trees and houses. At that time the witnesses heard a "deep noise, low frequency tone, vibrating." This event, when viewed by itself, can be termed nothing more than nocturnal lights and certainly deserves no more attention.
On September 6, the son was working on his computer in a room located in the upstairs rear of the house. The window in that room looks south. It was a school night and his father, and maybe his mother too, had already retired for the evening. The time was approximately 2145. The son observed three lights (similar to those of the June evening, moving from the south east toward the north west over the house. The son observed them through the window (rear of the house for 5 to 6 seconds until they disappeared above the house. He ran down stairs and looked out the living room window facing north, just in time to see the lights appear over the front side of the house roof. He yelled for his father who quickly came down stairs to view the object. At some time his mother, too, shows up at the window and sees"something light" but can't distinguish any detail due to extremely poor eyesight. The total duration of the son's observation at the front window (before and after his father arrives) is 70 seconds.
A contact with the police indicates that the report to the police was made on 12/9. The primary witness indicates on the interview recording that he remembered this ocurring within a week of the last sighting on November 6th. This is obviously in conflict. The primary witness tenatively identified his contact at the police department as Sgt. Degallis; it was determined that this was Officer Daglis. A message was left for Officer Daglis to contact MUFON for confirmation of the report and his opinion of the witness; no response has been received.
In another attempt to determine the witness veracity, it was determined that Kirtland AFB did have special weapons research projects during the time the primary witness claimed to have been assigned there (early 1960's).
It would appear that Sighting 2 might, under normal circumstances be considered an unknown, since all possible "knowns" examined violate at least - and usually more - than one of the portions of the witness description. At the same time, the witness description is consistent, but not suspiciously so (i.e. as if rehearsed) which tends to support witness credibility.
However, there are significant discrepancies between the testimony of the son and the father in regard to the incident of 9/6. The son indicates that his father came downstairs to observe the object; the father claims the object was observed by him from his upstairs window. The total time indicated by the father for the observation is 10-15 mins; the son indicates no more than two minutes. The father claims the sighting occurred at near midnight, while the son indicates the time as 9:45; this would have been after the father had been in bed for no more that 15 minutes rather than almost two hours.
Investigator 2 raises the following excellent points (based on his complete knowledge of the son's testimony and partial knowledge of the father's):
While waiting for the son to finish lunch so I could interview him I spoke to his mother. She is a business owner (pre-school), a former teacher, and world traveller. She said that the son was very intellegent and questions everything. She said that everything must be proven to him. He is "very level headed" and an "honor student, and a musician in a band". In discussing her husband, she said that he "loves unexplained phenomena" and "gets very excited about UFO's". She indicated that her husband has a propensity to believe that many things he sees are UFO's.
The teenagers, as a result of the media attention, were predisposed for, and actually looking for an event that night on the golf course. Even so, the event can only be classified as noctournal lights.
The photos taken that night on the golf course did not, I am told by two of the witnesses present, come out when sent for processing. I left a self-addressed, stamped envelope with The son and extracted promises from him and the friend, to mail the negatives to me that very afternoon. I indicated that perhaps our experts could develop them to show something. They readily agreed and I promised the negatives would be returned. Needless to say, three months later and still no negatives.
The brief look at the father's elaborate and detailed drawing of the UFO that he saw on the night of September 6th, and the three pages of written detail, were totally different from the simple drawing of three lights in a triangular pattern that the son provided. Given that the son's total time at the living room window was 70 seconds, and that he had to call out to his father who was in bed, that his father had to move from bed upstairs to the living room downstairs (all of which would have taken at least 10 seconds and more probably 20 seconds), The father's total time at the picture window would have been no more than 60 seconds and probably much less. Could anyone describe an event in so much and such minute detail as a result of such a short observation, and so differently than another observer who actually viewed it much longer?
Why did the father wait until December 9th to report such an outstanding and detailed UFO sighting that occurred on September 6th, a full three months prior? His reasoning, I am sure, would be that he had a second sighting in late November/early December at a local convenience store that inspired him to report the events.
If I observed somthing as detailed and startling out my living room picture window, and observed it for more than a few seconds, I would have moved two steps to my left and opened the front door for a better view (better than looking through the window...and if I remember correctly, the window wasn't a picture window after all, but a large picture sized window made up of numerous individual panes of glass divided by wooden mouldings...all the more reason to get a better look out the open door, or even out in the street for that matter.
The measurements which I made at the sighting location indicate that the duration of the sighting would have had to have been much longer than 70 seconds if the observation were of aircraft at the normal flight altitude in the area. At an angular rate of approx 7 secs per degree, an aircraft would only have crossed about ten degrees of sky in that time period. The angle from the upper edge of the back window to the top edge of the living room window would have been about 45 degrees (estimated), requiring approximately 3-7 minutes duration to the sighting.
The normal flight path followed by inbound aircraft to Bradley is to the west of the house; the observation by the son was to the east.
If the observation was in fact stimulated by an aircraft, then the observations related by the father of "grids" and the configuration and angular extent of the lights would be (at best) confabulation or (at worst) outright fabrication.
UFO REPORT: January 29, 1997
UFO investigator Jim Donohoe, publisher of the Equinox Newsletter, received a call at 7:45 AM from a female resident of Bellville, Ohio who reported a 'V' shaped object which had a bright light at the front and center of it. The rear of the object could not be seen clearly due to the brightness of the main light. The witness also described a 'reddish glow' across a portion of the rear the would have been near the rear edge. The object hovered at a high altitude for 25 minutes.
The sighting was reportedly made at 7:07 a.m. in an area east of Zanesville, Ohio (Muskingum County).
The witness then called a nearby resident, who had also been watching the object for a 'period of time,' using binoculars. Through the binoculars, she described many objects 'manuevering' to the larger object, seemingly to merge with it.
A third witness, sister of the first reportee, was also contacted and also observed the object. Its size was said to be at least one mile across the rear edge of the 'craft,' and said to be an estimated 6 or 7 thousand feet. This judgement was made from the estimated distance and altitude, by the 3 witnesses.
The soundless object disappeared from sight as clouds moved into the area, hiding it from view.
The witness with binoculars was the only one who reported 'other objects' attempting to merge with the 'craft'.
Researcher Jim Donohoe will conduct additional witness interviews and an on-site investigation of the report.
Addition:
The Zanesville Police Department (614-455-0700) was contacted, and had no knowledge of any UFO activity or phone calls during the morning.
The Muskingham County Sheriff's Department (614-452-3637) was also contacted, and the dispatchers there also had received no reports.
Each dispatcher from the two offices further advised that they had been 'on-duty' at the 7:00 a.m. time-frame, and would have been present when any such calls were received.
The Zanesville Times-Recorder was contacted (1-740-452-4561) was contacted, and Lori Wince, the person who answered the phone, (presumably a reporter), said that the newsroom had 'not heard anything' of any UFO sightings.
She was, however, interested in the details and asked to be kept advised of any findings.
Report filed: JANUARY 29, 1999 Kenny Young
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