261 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
261 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: KECKSBERG UFO REVISITED FILE: UFO1429
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Reprinted for the Spring 1991 Skeptical Inquirer
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By Robert R. Young
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On September 19, 1990, the NBC television network's
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season opener of "Unsolved Mysteries" featured a half hour
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segment on the heretofore little-known "Kecksburg UFO Crash." It
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was alleged that this involved the crash and recovery by the U.
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S. military of an unidentified flying object with strange alien
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markings in the small western Pennsylvania town of Kecksburg, near
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Pittsburgh, on December 9, 1965.
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The program was the tenth most watched in America in a week
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that saw the introduction of the season's "new" shows. It was
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viewed in an estimated 17.7 percent of households with television
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and on 30 percent of all television sets turned on (Broadcasting
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1990). Recent surveys for the National Science Foundation report
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that 2 in 5 adult Americans believe that alien spaceships account
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for some UFO reports (Science News 1986). It therefore seems
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likely that several million viewers may have been predisposed to
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accept the premise of the program.
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This "saucer crash" has not been widely known to UFOlogists
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or UFO skeptics because it appears never to have happened.
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According to a review of all original published accounts, the sole
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witnesses to the saucer crash apparently were two eight-year-old
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children who were among thousands in nine states and Canada to
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view a bolide (brilliant) meteor (Gatty 1965).
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Add to this a gullible local flying saucer buff who has
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finally found "his own" thrilling flying saucer crash to
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investigate; the U.S. Air Force "Project Blue Book" UFO
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investigating office; "unnamed Pentagon sources"; a secret
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military satellite launch; the Pennsylvania State Police; the
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Kecksburg volunteer fire company; local news reporters who were at
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first kept away; the 24-year-old recollections of local
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citizens; and the recent materialization of "new" witnesses.
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According to a front-page story in the nearby Greensburg,
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Pennsylvania, Tribune-Review the day after the TV show, some
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Kecksburg residents, including many observers of the 1965 event
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and even some portrayed in the program, say it is all a hoax.
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Some residents blame two local men whose story of a copper-colored
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12' by 7' "acorn-shaped" object with "hieroglyphic" markings had
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surfaced only a couple of months earlier-almost a quarter-century
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after the original publicity.
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Tribune-Review staff writer David Darby (1990) reported
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that more than 50 Kecksburg residents sent a petition to the
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program's producers in an attempt to stop its airing. The paper
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reported that these nonbelievers included Ed Myers, the Kecksburg
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fire chief in 1965, who was portrayed by an actor on the program;
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Jerome and Valerie Miller, whose home was portrayed as the site of
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a "military command post" during UFO recovery operations; the
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owners of the land where the saucer was supposed to have landed;
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and Kecksburg firemen.
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Myers expressed concern. "It's killing me to know this is
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going nationwide, because there's absolutely no truth to it," he
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told Darby. "Something's gonna be put in the history books for
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my grandchildren to read, and it is just not true."
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The Millers, the paper reported, deny that their home was a
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center of military activity. Darby said "whoops of laughter"
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filled the Miller living room when a group of residents who
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consider the whole thing a hoax gathered to watch the melodramatic
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program.
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Several elements combined in 1965 to create local hysteria.
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For several days the world had been fascinated by front-page
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coverage of the missions of Gemini 6 and 7, two U.S. spacecraft
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set for a manned joining. The day of the incident (December 9)
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the Pitts- burgh Press, widely read in the Kecksburg area,
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reported that Frank Edwards, a nationally known flying saucer
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lecturer and broadcaster had arrived in the city to speak. The
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headline, "Lift UFO Secrecy, Saucer Believer Says," had a "kicker"
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above it, "U. S. Hush-Up Charged."
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However, the Erie Daily Times (December 10) reported
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another event that day that went largely unnoticed: a secret
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satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Califor-
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nia, a launchsite for military polar-orbiting reconnaissance
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missions. The stage was set.
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Shortly after 4:40 p.m. (EST) a brilliant bolide, or
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"fireball," was seen by thousands in Idaho, Illinois, Indi- and
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Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia,
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and Ontario, Canada, according to reports on December 10 in the
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Erie Daily Times; the Pittsburgh Press, the New York Times, and
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the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The fireball was even said to have
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been seen in California (Pittsburgh Press, Dec. 10, 1965).
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Astronomers from Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, who had
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received many reports, concluded the object had been a bright
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meteor (Erie Daily Times, Pittsburgh Press, New York Times,
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec. 10). This was also the conclusion
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of the Federal Aviation Administration, according to a spokesman
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at Erie, Pennsylvania (Erie Daily Times; Pittsburgh
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Post-Gazette); Air Force spokesmen in Washington; and unnamed
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"Pentagon sources" (Pittsburgh Press, New York Times).
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Reports of bolides are typically inaccurate. Astronomer
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Frank Drake (1971), after efforts to recover meteorites from
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fireball reports, has estimated the fraction of eyewitnesses who
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are wrong about something to be I out of 2 after one day, 3 out of
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4 after two days, and 9 out of 10 after four days. Witnesses
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often grossly underestimate the distance of fireballs, which may
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be dozens of miles high. When the meteors disappear over the
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horizon it is sometimes taken as a "nearby" event (Klass 1974:42-
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49).
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The 1965 fireball was no exception. It was reported to
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have "crashed" or "landed" in six widely separated locations. A
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pilot in the air reported watching as it "plummeted" into Lake
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Erie (Pittsburgh Press, Dec. 10). At Midland, Pennsylvania, west
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of Pitts- burgh, falling debris was reported but police found
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nothing (Erie Daily Times, Pittsburgh Press, Dec. 10). At
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Elyria, Ohio, west of Cleveland, a woman reported that a
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fireball the size of a "volley ball" fell into a wooded lot.
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Firemen reported 10 small grass fires but no flying saucer
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(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec. 10).
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At Lapeer, Michigan, 40 miles north of Detroit, sheriff's
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officers investigating the report of "a ball of fire crashing"
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found only pieces of tinfoil (Pittsburgh Press, Dec. 10). The
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most spectacular report came from Detroit and Windsor, Ontario,
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where pilots, weather observers, and U. S. Coast Guard personnel
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reported that a flying object "exploded" over Detroit. Coast
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Guard boats sent into Lake St. Clair found nothing (Tribune-
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Review, County Edition, Dec. 10). The Air Force UFO
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investigating office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, may
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have been interested in the recovery of space-launch debris and
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sent three-man investigating teams from the 662 Radar Squadron,
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based near Pittsburgh, to Kecksburg and Erie (Erie Daily Times,
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Pittsburgh Post- Gazette).
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In Kecksburg the scene had turned into a circus. Little
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Kevin Kalp had run and told his mother, Mrs. Arnold Kalp of RD 1,
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Acme, Pennsylvania, that he had seen something "like a star on
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fire." Going outside she saw "blue smoke" that seemed to come from
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a nearby woods (Gatty 1965; Pittsburgh Press, Dec. 10). Other
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reports had described a bright trail left in the air by the meteor
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(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec 10). A "thump" whose vibration felt
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by one witness was attributed to dynamiting at a local quarry or
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to a shock wave heard by many western Pennsylvanians who witnessed
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the fireball. Mrs. Kalp called a local radio station that had
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been reporting a plane crash. Soon, according to the Tribune-
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Review, a "massive traffic jam" had engulfed the small town
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(Gatty, Tribune-Review, City Edition, Dec. 10, Dec. 11).
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A local volunteer fire policeman informed reporters that
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the Army and the state police had told them not to let anybody in
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(Gatty 1965). One result was that an early edition of the
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Greensburg paper carried a seven- column banner headline atop page
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one, "'Unidentified Flying Object Falls Near Kecksburg," and,
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"Army ropes off area" (Greensburg Tribune-Review, County Edition,
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Dec. 10).
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Captain Joseph Dussia, commander of the Pennsylvania State
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Police Troop A Headquarters at Greensburg, announced the next day
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that after an all-night search "absolutely nothing had been
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found." Reports of something being carried from the area
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referred only to equipment used in the search, Dussia said. He
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added, "Someone made a mountain out of a molehill" (Greensburg
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Tribune-Review, City Edition, Dec. 10). The Air Force also
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announced that nothing had been found (Pittsburgh Press, Dec.
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10). The next day a Greensburg Tribune-Review editorial
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summarized its staff's independent investigation: Nothing at
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all seems to have happened (Dec. 11). The official explanations
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are totally consistent with all published accounts and the
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present recollections of scores of witnesses.
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When does the "unsolved mystery" come in? Now enters Stan
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Gordon, founder of the Pennsylvania Association for the Study of
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the Unexplained (PASU), a Greensburg-based group that collects
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sightings of UFOs, Bigfoot, and other oddities, such as the
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"Eastern Cougar," an animal that has been extinct for a hundred
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years. PASU seems to do little research into these events but
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does issue press releases. Gordon, a 30-year veteran of saucer
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chases, is also Pennsylvania director of the Mutual UFO Network
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(MUFON), the nation's largest surviving flying-saucer group.
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Each year in early January PASU issues its annual press
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release to Pennsylvania newspapers listing exciting reports
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received during the previous year. Their 1989 release featured an
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alleged UFO encounter by a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, policeman
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(Latrobe Bulletin, Jan. 9, 1989). A PASU investigator later said
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the witness had suffered "severe burns" and a "severe eye injury."
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MUFON's state director soon turned it into a "returning UFO
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abductee" encounter, making claims publicly denied by the witness.
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Local amateur astronomers found the witness had been looking at
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the planet Venus. The witness refused to be examined by a
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physician; a PASU investigator "lost" film evidence of the
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witness' injuries, and a substance Gordon had tested at a
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laboratory and then described as "strange" and "unusual" turned
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out to be a common fertilizer (Young 1989).
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In 1990 PASU issued a call for anyone with knowledge of the
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Kecksburg UFO crash to come forward (Latrobe Bulletin). With an
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experienced nose for saucer news, they must have sensed that even
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after 24 years witnesses always seem to be willing to come forward
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if the case is exciting.
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Actually, the Kecksburg UFO tale has been making the rounds
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among Pennsylvania saucer buffs for some time. Flying-saucer
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evangelist Robert D. Barry hosts a Saturday midnight program, "ET
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Monitor," on WGCB-TV, Red Lion, Pennsylvania, a religious
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station, where he mixes NASA films, UFOria, viewer calls, and
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occasional Bible readings. Barry mentioned the Kecksburg
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recovery in a lecture at Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown,
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Pennsylvania, on March 22, 1989, and followed on his April 2,
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1989, program with the revelation that the incident involved the
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recovery of "bodies." Later, on his April 23, 1989, broadcast, he
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stated that no bodies were involved in the UFO accident.
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Barry says that years ago he was told by an unnamed NASA
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informant that the Kecksburg UFO had been tracked, a claim that is
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contradicted by statements made by a North American Air Defense
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Command spokesman at the time (Erie Daily Times; Pittsburgh Press;
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec. 10). Barry has also reported,
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citing Stan Gordon as his source, that a 1965 member of the
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Kecksburg Fire Company claims it had been contacted by NASA before
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the UFO crashed and asked to keep the public away from the area, a
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claim contradicted by the original published reports and
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eyewitness statements (Tribune-Review, City Edition, Dec. 10,
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1965).
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A curious claim, oddly similar to the Kecksburg story,
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occurred January 28, 1990, on Bob Barry's television program. At
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7:10 P.m. (EST) that evening a bright fireball had been seen over
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much of the East Coast (Harrisburg Sunday Patriot-News, Jan. 28,
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1990). That night on "ET Monitor" Barry reported that "a
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Greensburg source," a euphemism he sometimes uses for PASU's Stan
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Gordon, had called to say that "an object landed" nearby at about
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7:20 P.M., that the area had been cordoned off, and that the
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source was "trying to get as close as he could." A well-known
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baseball philosopher would have been prompted to say that it
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seemed like "deja vu all over again. "
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It is too bad the producers an researchers at "Unsolved
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Mysteries" didn't scratch around a little. At least 50 folks at
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Kecksburg could have saved them an embarrassment.
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References
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Broadcasting. 1990. (Cites Nielsen and its
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own research.) P. 40.
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Darby, David. 1990. Greensburg Tribune-
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Review (Greensburg, Pa.), December 10,
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P. 1.
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Drake, Frank. 1972. On the abilities and
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limitations of witnesses of UFO's and
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similar phenomena. In UFO's: A Scientific
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Debate, 247-257, eds. Carl Sagan and
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Thornton Page (New York: Cornell
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University Press and W. W. Norton).
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Gatty, Bob. 1965. Unidentified flying object
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report touches off probe near Kecksburg.
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Greensburg Tribune-Review, December
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10, p. 1.
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Klass, Philip J. 1974. UFOs Explained (New
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York: Random House/Vintage), pp. 42-49.
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Science News. 1986. 129:118.
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Young, Robert R. 1989. "Harrisburg 'UFO
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Incident' Stimulated by Venus." Unpub-
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lished manuscript by the author.
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.
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Robert R. Young is education chairman
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of the Astronomical Society of Harrisburg,
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Pennsylvania. Address: 319 S. Front
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Street, Harrisburg, PA 17104.
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