9/10/76 - Pecha Family, Arant Family, McGowan Family, Colusa, CA, 12:45 AM (00:45)

Interview conducted on October 9, 1976 at the Bill Pecha residence on the northwest outskirts of Colusa by Robert Neville, Mufon State Director for Nevada (Planetarium Director at Nevada State College in Reno); Investigator Lois Williams, and Paul Cerny, Western States Director for Mufon; Special Investigator for CUFOS.

Bill Pecha, 39 year old heavy machine mechanic, was watching a late movie on T.V. His wife and two small children, 8 and 10 [Footnote 1], were asleep in bed. At about 12:45 A.M., the T.V. suddenly went dead, as did the air conditioner. Thinking the circuit breaker had kicked out from a short somewhere, Pecha went outside in his shorts to reset the breaker.

As he approached the corner of his mobile home, he became increasingly aware of a static electricity effect on his body. The hair on his chest, arms, and head began to stand up as if being pulled upward. As he reached the corner of the house, his hair began to crackle and snap similar to running a nylon comb through dry hair very rapidly.

Something told him to look up and he saw a huge circular craft almost over his head about 50 feet in the air bathed in the light of a full moon and crystal clear night sky. The awesome sight of some strange and unknown craft silently hovering mostly over his barn and the corner of his mobile home startled him. All the sensation he felt was the electrostatic phenomena causing his hair to stand on end. We was aware that his heart was pounding very fast in response to the excitement. Standing there in apprehensive amazement and becoming increasingly frightened of the awesome spectacle almost over him, he was still inquisitive enough to take in the intricate detail of the craft. He told the Mufon investigators he must have stood there for four or five minutes.

Estimated diameter was 140 feet. There were no rivets no bolts or screws, no seams, he commented. In his profession, these are familiar things. The dome had vertical ribbed sections, the "ribbing" quite pronounced.

Between each ribbed section, the surface was quite concave (inward) and reminded Pecha of the old fashioned glass lemon juice squeezer in structure. The dome had a slight peak or point. The upper domed area and its immediate flared out base section had the appearance of mildly rough and porous "slag." This upper area was dark gray or dull silvery in color. The second rounded and flared out area leading toward the edge of the craft appeared to have a surface appearance of porcelain. The edges of the craft and the perimeter that was rotating clockwise looked more like stainless steel.

The rotation rate was difficult to determine, but Pecha indicated it was quite rapid. A smaller section in the bottom of the disc, surrounding a large diameter light source, was rotating counterclockwise and revolving much slower than the rim. No air disturbance could be detected from the rotating areas. Pecha stated that the unusual lighting and large center light which was giving off only a mild, dim, gray color illumination in the hovering state, could have possibly caused an optical illusion of the two spinning portions being in opposite directions. However, he got the distinct impression they were spinning contrary to one another.

The six dangling objects hanging down, apparently from the edge facing the observer, gave the appearance of loosely dangling heavy flexible conduit with frayed ends. They were hanging down about six to eight feet from the bottom of the craft. The three on the left were staggered in length to match the slanting roof of the barn they were over but not quite touching. The "conduit" appeared to be an estimated two to three inches in diameter.

When the craft retreated back over the field behind the Pecha home, these appendages were immediately retracted into the bottom. The two hook like arms on the bottom also retracted upward, but not completely into the hull. At the same time, as if they were part of the same arm or mechanism, a small door opened on each side just above the arms and a light seemingly mounted on a curved piece of tubing protruded out and slightly downward. The lens area seemed to consist of what looked like many glass cubes clustered together. These two side lights sent out a bluish white beam of light.

As the UFO backed away toward the Slim Davis home and crop dusting airfield a half mile behind the Pecha home, the large red light in front came on. The large center bottom light which was dull gray at hovering, now intensified to a bright white cone shaped beam downward which reached only half the way to the ground and stopped in mid air! Cut off beams of light from UFOs have been noted on occasion.

Pecha watched the large UFO maneuver over the Davis home and airfield hanger, lighting up everything like daylight including the trees and ground. At this moment, he noticed that two other similar UFOs about half the size of the large one were hovering directly over the 500 KVA (500,000 volt) power lines a couple hundred yards beyond the Davis airstrip. These two identical craft appeared to be almost resting on the lines, each one between two power poles but separated by one span section between poles. Each UFO was shining a powerful column of white light from its side edges down onto the tops of the power poles on either side of it. There was one span unoccupied in between. (See sketches) Inside each of these columns of light was an inner blue pulsing core. The power lines themselves were glowing red for some distance out on each side of the poles. Here is an actual visual example, in detail, of an apparent blackout in process being caused by two UFO craft over a high voltage power line, observed and witnessed by Bill Pecha and his wife.

At this point, Pecha ran into the house shouting for his wife to get up. He rushed to the window facing the back field where the UFO had backed off, pushing the curtains aside so he could see. At this time, the large craft was hovering over the Davis home. The large bottom light was now extended to the ground, maneuvering around the Davis home and airfield hanger, lighting everything up like daylight.

Lenda Pecha by now had joined her husband after arousing her from sleep by his shouting and stumbling through the blacked out house to both observe the strange phenomena now taking place over the Davis home and the nearby power lines. After spending about a minute over the Davis home and airfield, brilliantly illuminating the whole immediate area, the large UFO suddenly shot off at incredible speed toward the foothills as Bill and Lenda watched from the window. The foothills are approximately 18-20 miles distant to the west. Pecha commented the large UFO traveled this distance in a matter of 2-3 seconds and he observed it shinning its powerful bottom light down onto the tops of the hills for a second or two when it rushed back at the same velocity to once again hover over the Davis home, repeating the illumination patterns over the Davis property. Everywhere around the immediate countryside all the lights were off, ranch yard lights and the whole town was in darkness except for the moonlight and the UFOs.

Pecha stated that watching this light beaming procedure began to unnerve him if it should return to his place and begin doing the same thing, not knowing what effect was taking place at the Davis home, if possibly harmful.

Fearing for the safety of his family and himself, he was about to turn from the window when he saw both UFOs over the power lines suddenly break away at the same time, shooting up and out of sight.

Each left in opposite directions at about a 45 degree angle and climbed out of sight in a few seconds time.

Pecha decided it was time to flee the house in case the still present large intruder came back their way. In his frantic haste to get away, he pulled on a pair of old "jeans," grabbed the children, bed clothes and all, his wife, and headed for the door. Just then the T.V. and air conditioner came back on. Noticing this, he instinctively hit the off button shutting the T.V. off on his way out the door. Piling the family inside his new pickup truck, he raced backwards out the driveway with the lights deliberately turned off, but forgot about the truck's backup lights being on, which may have attracted the UFO. As he raced down the blacktop road toward town at speeds up to what he assumed may have been 90 miles per hour, he noticed the large craft following their truck.

Glancing back to watch the UFO while driving with no lights down the moonlit road at those speeds was probably a crazy thing to do he admits, but all he could think of at the time was to get away from this strange machine and get his family to the somewhat more safety of the town.

As they drove along at this high rate of speed in just the moonlight, they could see the UFO appear on one side, then cross over and appear on the other side of the truck within a few hundred feet. Reaching his close friend's house at the edge of town, Pecha skidded to a stop in their front yard, leaped out, still in his bare feet, and pounded on the door of Les Arant. By this time, the glowing craft had moved out over the edge of town again, somewhat higher in the sky. This is where Les and his wife, Gayle Arant, came to the door and observed the UFO. At about a mile away now, Gayle, who came to the door first, saw the glowing craft as a definite saucer shape with dome, of which she later drew a good sketch. As all four adults and two children watched, the UFO angled up into a gradual climb and rapidly disappeared into the night sky in the direction of Sacramento.

Power Blackout Info

Pacific Gas and Electric (P.G.E.) personnel stated there was a blackout of undetermined nature. They would not admit to any such explanation as a UFO causing it. The transmission lines, which were stated to be 500 KVA, were said to come from the Redding Shasta area. The sub station seven miles west of Colusa, near Williams, was said to have "blown" an overload transformer. The nine minute blackout, as checked by Lenda Pecha when she looked at her clocks, was confirmed by the Colusa Sheriff's Department. All of Colusa County and some adjoining areas were affected.

Law Enforcement Investigations

Officer Bill Wheeler, of the Colusa Police Department, investigated the Pecha sighting and filed a report with the Colusa Police Department, as did officers from the Sheriff's Department. Sheriff's Department employee, Elaine McGowen, and her 18 year old son, Fred, also observed the object at a mile or two distance.

Davis Crop Dusting Airfield

Davis home and airfield some leaves on top of the trees were turning brown, some just half brown as if heated or scorched, especially near the house samples were taken. Analysis will be attempted. One small pear tree and a nearby lilac bush are beginning to have a number of blooms appearing. This tree and bush have never bloomed this time of year (late October) before. Other areas of the town of Colusa were checked for similar possible off season blooming, but none could be found except on the Davis property. The pear tree was slightly scorched or damaged on one side.

At the time of the sighting and when the UFO was over the Davis residence, their dogs reacted, howling and barking in an unusual manner.

Primary Witness

Bill Pecha, 39 years old, heavy machine mechanic, outdoors type, goes hunting and fishing a lot. Drives racers in destruction derbys. A rather fearless, healthy, husky individual. A keen mind and photographic memory for remembering intricate detail, good observer, and good listener. Eyesight 20 20, no signs of colorblindness. No apparent after effects from the experience, though badly frightened and apprehensive at the time.

Report by: Paul Cerny

Multiple independent witnesses, physical effect, detailed observation - an excellent case.