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Witness Demographics From Dr. J. Allen Hynek's The UFO Experience: A Scientific Enquiry

Dr. J. Allen Hynek's book The UFO Experience: A Scientific Enquiry, is a classic in the field. Along with providing documentation of important and detailed UFO reports and the basics of an important classification system for UFO reports (made famous through its use in the name of Speilberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind), it also provides some rudimentary demographic statistics concerning the witnesses of each category of reports. Those statistics have been summarized in this paper.

Unfortunately, Hynek does not indicate which witnesses are involved in which cases, so some professions, such as the maritime profession, have been skewed by large numbers of observers in a single case or a small number of cases.

Note that:

In addition to the raw information in the table shown below, we have developed an interpretation of the statistics.

Category Profession NL DD RV CE-I CE-II Total
Aviation Air Force Major 1 1
Air Force 1st Lt 1 1
RCAF telecom officer 1 1
Air Force crew 2 2
ATC operators 8 8
Airport control operators 7 7
Civilian pilot 1 4 3 3 3 14
Air Force base personnel 2 2
Military pilot 1 6 7
Military airmen 8 8
Commercial pilot 1 5 6
Former AF pilot 1 1
Radar operators 15 15
Chief of technical services - Air France 1 1
Total 14 9 44 3 4 74
Category Profession NL DD RV CE-I CE-II Total
Military Army Artillery trainees 12 12
US Navy security 1 1
Army veteran / university student 1 1
Commanding officer (ship) 1 1
Director of operations (bombing wing) 1 1
Naval trainee 1 1
Former Naval officer 1 1
Total 1 13 2 2 0 18
Category Profession NL DD RV CE-I CE-II Total
Scientists MIT graduate student 1 1
Associate Dir MIT Physics Lab 1 1
Research Engineers 2 2
Scientific balloon observers 2 2
Astronomer 1 1
Total 2 5 0 0 0 7
Category Profession NL DD RV CE-I CE-II Total
Technical / professional Technicians 3 3
Meteorological engineer 1 1
Instrument maker 1 1
Engineer 4 4
Senior highway designer 1 1
Medical doctor 1 1
Ex-nurse 1 1
Artist 1 1
Total 1 4 0 2 6 13
Category Profession NL DD RV CE-I CE-II Total
Educator Teacher 2 1 3
Principal 1 1
Total 0 0 0 3 1 4
Category Profession NL DD RV CE-I CE-II Total
Security Police officers 2 7 2 11
Security police 1 1 2
Total 2 1 0 8 2 13
Category Profession NL DD RV CE-I CE-II Total
Maritime Ship master 1 1
Ship bridge personnel 3 3
Ship crew members 8 8
Total 0 0 12 0 0 12
Category Profession NL DD RV CE-I CE-II Total
Businesspeople Owner of baseball team 1 1
President of small airline 1 1
Businessman 1 5 6
Antique dealers 2 2
Supervisor 1 1
Collection manager 1 1
Total 2 1 0 2 7 12
Category Profession NL DD RV CE-I CE-II Total
Misc College student 2 2
Secretary / Clerk 1 1 2
Cabinetmaker 1 1
Beekeeper 1 1
Service station attendants 2 2
Resort employees and family members 6 6
Butcher 1 1
Shop man 1 1
Farmer/farmhand 4 1 4 9
Prospectors 2 2
Laborer 1 1
Roofer 1 1
Painter 1 1
Truck driver 2 2
Waitress 1 1
Hairdresser 1 1
Total 5 7 0 6 16 34
Category Profession NL DD RV CE-I CE-II Total
Housewives 3 4 8 18 33
Category Profession NL DD RV CE-I CE-II Total
Young Teenagers 4 6 8 27 45
Youths 3 3
Children 4 5 9
Total 8 11 0 8 30 57
Category Profession NL DD RV CE-I CE-II Total
Unknown 3 3 2 2 8 18
Category Profession NL DD RV CE-I CE-II Total
Total 41 58 60 44 92 295

Copyright © 2001 by Mark Cashman (unless otherwise indicated), All Rights Reserved