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Numbers in () are tape counter readings. The accuracy for some is not exact because the account is not completely linear, and when new parts were recalled for those altready stated, it sometimes breaks up those which go together. Use these only as a general guide.
I interviewed the two businessmen, mostly focusing on the primary observer, referred to as F. The following was the sequence of events reported by F (the time of the observation was "3 or 3:30" (44)). The witness believed the sun was to the north of the buildings because "by 4:30 its dark here", which may refer to the phenomenon discussed in the Sun Analysis, where it is clear that the sun must have been to their right as they faced west, being in the south west.
(0) The observers except for the son (S), were inside when the son came in from playing outside and said "Dad, dad, something's falling from the sky." F ignored him, and the boy went back out, then came in again and said "Dad, you've got to come and see." Finally, the father went with his son.
(6) A contrail was visible, similar to that of an aircraft, "dropping very slow[ly]". The position where the contrail seemed to start was halfway between the thick wire from a nearby building to a light pole, and the top of a street light observable from that position. See Site Photos Observation Point 1. The direction of the contrail was straight down. The width of the contrail seemed wider than that of a typical jet contrail (36). Note that there is some contradiction between this and the estimate that the contrail was as wide as the light, which was small; and that the contrail did not widen as it extended. The contrail dissolved normally (56), but initially appeared, lengthened to a specific length, and then maintained that length, dissolving at the tail as fast as it was created at the front (100). The witness was not familiar with the term "contrail". See the sketches for details.
(23) Right above the light, there was a burst from the contrail, estimated to be about half again as wide as the contrail on each side for a total width twice that of the contrail. The witness, thinking the contrail was from an aircraft, thought something had just "happened" (implying a malfunction or problem). After the burst, the contrail resumed its initial appearance. It continued to a disappearance behind the hill. There was a flash at the time of the disappearance.
(50) F went inside, but felt uneasy, because he thought he might have seen a plane crash. S returned and said that there was another one in the sky. F asked Y, the other businessman, to come look. He is not sure if he asked Y to come outside for the first one. There was a second contrail. The first trail was not visible any longer. The new trail was smaller (length or width? width suggested by comments to follow), headed in the same direction, and to the left of the first one, about halfway between the light pole that was on the same side of the street as the witness and a pole with a transformer on the other side of the street, visible in Site Photos Observation Point 1. There was a burst as with the first trail, but not as wide. To the witness the trail seemed further away (implying it was not as wide?).
(66) They saw a white dot suddenly appear in the blue sky (comparable to a star). It got a little bigger, and then it started showing a contrail. F saw a total of 5 contrails. F became concerned, and ushered S back inside. The witness could not say whether it was a sunlight glint (as from a metallic surface) or was simply a white object. Everyone went back in.
(100) About two or three minutes later S came back in (having apparently gone out in the interim) and said "you have to come outside". F went out and looked to the SSE. The elevation was about halfway down the first wider space between the wires as seen in Site Photos Observation Point 2. An object with "a ball next to it" was seen. The object was approximately bullet shaped, and had two fins (which were not visible at the initial observation, but were noticeable later), blended into the surface very smoothly (194). The color was a soft medium blue grey, with a reflectivity similar to a grey candle. Neither object showed any notable shading, highlights, or protrusions (though Y believed there was a line (a longitudinal seam "slightly raised"?) about halfway down the side of the bullet object (seen as he was walking across the parking lot during the object departure), which was disputed by F, who had not observed it (307); (315) This was not seen during the first part of the observation of these objects by Y, but later).There were no openings like windows (197). The witness was amazed by the lack of engines or exhaust openings (207). The tail was the same grey as the object. The sphere was not attached to the bullet (203). (142) It was clear the sphere was not attached to the bullet, but was floating just to the left and "more than three-quarters up to the front" of the bullet. (261) The bullet and the sphere were approximately the same diameter. See the sketches and shape analysis for details. (100) The azimuth of the objects was the same as a prominent conifer visible in that photo. (200) The bullet was similar in angular size to the roofline of the brownstone building visible to the right side of that photo, which translates into about 3 inches at 2 feet (measured). (147) The bullet had a flat trailing edge. The objects were moving left relative to the observer (generally North), passed the barren tree seen in that photo, and seemed to be heading directly toward the canoe shop whose roof is visible in Site Photos Observation Point 3. Initial elevation is 25 degrees (side 2). Final elevation is 12 to 15 degrees.
(118) F walked out to the middle of the entrance to the parking lot to the East of the original observation point (this suggests he needed to do so to keep it in sight, which implies a fairly rapid speed, and a pause on the part of the witness to take it all in). The witness noticed no sound, and called to Y to come see. S is with F.
(123) A flock of birds took off from the area of the mountains. It was a large flock and the type was not identified by the witnesses, who indicated they were common in the area. They may have been starlings.
(120) They step more to the North.
(126) The objects were moving fairly fast, but because they made no notable noise "it didn't seem fast." The object passed the canoe building roof and its course terminated over the garage in the photo (225) at an elevation of about 30 degrees. The time required was less than a minute. The witness estimated the object passed over the canoe shop, in terms of its distance from him.
(142) It was clear the sphere was not attached to the bullet, but was floating just to the left and "more than three-quarters up to the front" of the bullet. F was surprised to see no tail on the bullet, just a flat end. The fins were "nothing like a regular airplane", and were partly blocked from view by the sphere. F was fascinated by the color (a strange color "silver", no reflections, not like metal). (close to end of second side of tape 1) As the object passed nearly overhead, a droning hum was heard. The sound was similar in pitch to a sound between 125 Hz and 500 Hz, probably closer to between 250 and 500 Hz (derived by the investigator comparing the pitch of several tones from a Casio CZ101 through a graphic equalizer with the witness attempt to pitch the sound). The witness thought that the sound was felt more than heard, and indicated it seemed to feel like it was affecting the top of his head rather than his ears.
(165) The sphere gradually shifted away from the bullet. (we go inside because of the cold) (203) (215) The two separate to about four times (leading question resistance) the initial separation and then instantaneously vanished in full view (219); there was no acceleration "as if it were never there before".
(170) Was surprised he felt no fear and did not pull his son away.
It was confirmed that the image of the object as drawn was how it appeared to the witness, not an interpolation (276). F resisted attempts to construe these as not showing the actual appearance, despite the fact that this violated the way the object, if level, should have appeared from the ground (327). This is important to the analysis. The initial observation suggests the object pointing downward slightly, the final, pointing up slightly. Y agreed with the sketch. F insisted that the object had a level flight path, and this seemed to contribute to his belief that the object was not tipped down or up.
Y suggested the object might be a weather balloon, but it looked more like a dirigible (302). Y saw no slats or stiffeners. Y did observe a longitudinal line or seam on the bullet during the later part of the observation (315).
There was a notable silence during the observations (374), though it is not clear if this was due to the focus on the observation. It needs to be determined if the birds called or were silent while flocking.
S, the son of F, was the initial observer of all of the events. He was interviewed at home. At the time of the interview he was recovering from an illness. In addition, F indicated that S suffered from ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), and that it was possible that his ability to explain the sequence of events might be impaired. Despite this, S provided a largely corroborative account of events, with, possibly, some additional information not known to F prior to the interview. There was no evidence of confabulation, and S resisted leading questions. His drawing of the objects corresponded well to those provided by the other witnesses.
(0) - S came home from school where he was picked up by F and taken to the store.
(7) - S got out of the car and saw two objects - "two silver things put together". Went into to the store and said "Dad, there's something flying outside". F came out to look. (103) "We were in front of our store... in the parking lot to the right of the store", looking to the ESE, elevation about, 60-80 degrees. Angular size about four inches at two feet. (21) - The two objects "spread apart" "like a magnet when you pull it away, something like that.". They were a "grey silver" color, dimmer than brushed aluminum. (25) - "Then I saw it disappear." (125) "Only one of them disappeared" (in response to a question about where "they" disappeared). Estimated duration around a second (inconsistent with other accounts). (133) The sphere disappeared (noted by F to S, not seen by S, who only saw it was gone when F told him (apparently he was not looking at the time)).
(10) - Then S said "Dad, there's something falling out of the sky". "They looked like meteorites, falling from the sky". One of them exploded when it was falling. Someone else came and saw the same thing (W?) (31) "It looked like something from an airplane... it had some smoke at the end. It made some little trails in the clouds... it went right through the clouds... there was just a teeny bit [of clouds at the time]." F said he saw 3, but S later remembered seeing 5 or 6 (50). S remembered Y seeing the "explosion". "Then after that it started raining.... right, Dad?" (158) "It started getting a little dark after that" (62) It took more than seconds to fall. They looked like "spacecraft".
(160) - Birds came from the hills toward which the objects were falling.
(16) - "Then we saw lots of aircraft."
(139) - Later in the evening, after seeing the airplanes, S saw the sphere in the sky "turning... turning around".
The witness felt "tired" "exhausted" and "excited" after the event.
Though the witness had some trouble with the event sequence, he seemed to have no special difficulty with the sequence within each event. This witness is the only one who noted the possibility of rain, required by the weather conditions on the date in question.
Assuming the event sequence is actually the same as that reported by the adult witnesses, the sighting as described by S would be as follows:
Picked up by father at home and taken to store.
Observes contrails- 5 of them total - and at least one of them "exploded". Got F to come outside, later Y came outside.. Objects made trails in the sparse clouds to the west. Note that this is the same number originally reported by F (second side of tape 1 at position 3), and yet by this interview date, F had forgotten that. The assertive corroboration of the originally reported total number by his son is interesting in this context and supports the reliability of the son.
Birds fly from the hills toward which the objects are falling (?).
It starts getting dark.
S observes the two objects and got F to come outside. The sphere disappears. The cylinder does not (?)
There are several aircraft seen.
Later (at some point?) it rains.
Later, S sees the sphere in the sky "turning".
Still later, on the way home, S and F see a plane with a trailing blue light.
This is consistent with the other accounts except for the indication that the cylinder did not disappear. In addition, S is the only witness to two of the contrails and to the later sighting of the sphere.
During this interview, F identified at least one of the aircraft as a Short Skyvan. This type of aircraft is occasionally flown out of Bradley International Airport. After leaving the interview, I noticed that the town was at a location where aircraft approaching Bradley turn from a W course to a NW course. Altitude of the aircraft was probably in the single digit thousands of feet - likely around three thousand.
Y, age 49, was one of at least four witnesses to an event that occurred on Monday, December 13, '99' at between 1500 and 1600 hours (EST). The witness was positive of the date since it was St. Lucia day, the beginning of his Christmas, but unsure of the particular day of the week (which was later determined from the calendar). He was certain of the time also, since one of his co-workers, F, drives his son, S from school to the antique shop (where they both work) at the same time each day. Both the co-worker and the son were witnesses, as well as an 81-year-old woman (also an employee of the antique store) named W.
The event actually takes place in two parts. Initially, F came in through the front door of the shop and alerted Y to the event. Upon exiting the front door onto the sidewalk, Y's attention was directed toward the west whereupon he observed what he described as a "light shower". Trails of light/light flashes were "coming down in slow motion through the sky " from approximately 60 degrees above the horizon. One of the "lights" split into "two balls of light" and continued to fall below the horizon. These light balls were numerous, occurred one at a time with one disappearing below the horizon before the next one began to fall, were bright, and left no "trail". Each one took approximately 60 seconds from appearance in the sky until it fell below the horizon, and they continued to materialize and fall for 20 minutes. During this event the witness was in and out of the store assisting customers. All falling objects originated and fell between 250 degrees and 260 degrees (magnetic). The witness believes that at least one falling object hit something because there was a bright flash just after it fell below the horizon.
The weather was clear; similar to the day that this interview took place, and we were facing almost directly into the setting sun which was still above the horizon at 1530 hours on the day of the interview. Y reports that on the day of the event the sun had already set behind the steep and tall ridgeline that comprises the western horizon. This interviewer believes that this must have been the case due to the reported time, and the fact that it was nearly impossible to look to the west during the interview because of the brightness of the setting sun. The witness reports that the light conditions were "dusky" during the event, which would have pegged the time at 1600 hours or later. Sunset was at 1612 hours on December 13.
It should be noted that the mountain range or ridgeline to the west is quite close to the position of the observers (less than 3 kilometers), making the top of the hill, which is the actual western horizon, approximately 20 degrees up from level. In addition, just over the hilltop lies Nepaug Reservoir.
The second portion of the event began when F, again says; "you're not going to believe this one, come out and see this". Y exits through the front door and sees a large object slowly and silently travelling from west to east at about twice the height of the buildings. He describes it as a "zeppelin" looking thing, silver-gray in color (unlike any color he had ever seen) with a dark gray line horizontally around the middle. The object had a round sphere below it. At first it seemed that the sphere was actually attached to the larger object but after a few minutes it dropped away and moved off in another direction. He reports that there was absolutely no sound and noticed birds flying in the opposite direction of the objects' travel. It took between 5 and 10 minutes for this object to travel from its initial position at approximately 270 degrees (magnetic), directly overhead at between 1.5 and 2 stories in altitude, and on to 40 degrees (magnetic) where it dissapeared from view over the northeastern horizon. The initial heading seemed to be 90 degrees (magnetic) but changed to 40 degrees (magnetic) after it passed over the buildings. Y used the "escalating hypothesis" technique i.e. "at first I thought it was a weather balloon", and described the object as "bullet shaped" and "never seen anything like it before". The object was approximately 5 inches at arms length and was too large to be covered by his open hand at arms length. The entire distance that the object traveled, given it's low altitude, from the initial observation until it passed the northeastern horizon is approximately 3 miles. The entire event, including both portions, lasted approximately 30 minutes. Exact distances in the above discussion can only be determined with the use of topographic maps that were unavailable to this investigator at the time of this report.
The excited and bewildered demeanor of this witness, and his concurrent observations, i.e. "noticed birds flying the opposite direction" and "saw a bright flash after the object fell behind the horizon", lend credibility to this witness and his account of what was actually observed that day.
This site is an archive of the content of the MUFON CT website from the late 1990s. The current MUFON CT organization should be contacted through the MUFON web site.