Post by aliensun on Feb 14, 2021 12:32:35 GMT
The following report is my personal record taken from the witness in November 1986. I was a field investigator for a small outfit, UFO Contact Center International.
Witnesses: Jerry E. and his 14-year-old son.
Witness address: (scrubbed)
Witness phone: (scrubbed)
Date of sighting: Late October Sunday (possibly 18th or 25th), 1986, about 9:30pm.
Location: Driving south on US Route 69 north of McAlester, OK.
Weather conditions: Light rain.
Objects: Three airborne objects.
Description: "Gigantic," witness said. Witness estimated approximate size of each object as that of a Boeing 747 fuselage, but somewhat resembling a "stingray" shape, but definitely not to the extent that the objects had "wings." The objects had blunt, flat noses with large, non-protruding cockpit windshields built into them. The front was the widest part of the craft. The lead craft had a huge "headlight" on either side of the windshield. The lights were approximately two-feet across and were extremely bright. The cockpit of the lead craft and approximately half of its length was also lit but not as brightly. The witness thought he could see inside, but he did not notice any details. The three objects were exactly the same for the difference in the lighting. Witness qualified all dimension and distance statements by saying that since the comparative size of the objects were unknown he could not be absolutely sure on his estimates. (In this interviewer's opinion the witness was more capable than the average person in making his judgments in this regard.)
All three objects had red and green lights on the underneath side and a red light on the tail. The objects were flying a modified "V" formation. The lead craft was followed by a craft slightly offset to the right. On the opposite side (left), the third craft was almost parallel to the lead craft, but slightly trailing. The witness thought the craft were all at the same altitude. The formation was tight. Only about a craft's length in between. The craft were dark colored and bore no visible markings.
Sighting Sequence: The lights were first noticed some distance away. When first noticed, the lead object's two bright "headlights" were off to the side of the road. Witness assumed them to be a truck coming down a hill ahead. He knew the road and instantly recognized there were no hills immediately ahead. (Overpasses?) His next assumption was that they were lights on a new water tower recently built in the vicinity. But he quickly noticed that the lights were moving. Intrigued, he pulled over and stopped. He woke his sleeping son by saying, "Look at this, UFOs!" He turned off the car, rolled down his window, then both got out and stood in front of car. They heard no sounds but a mild "wind-rushing noise."
The objects' path angled across the highway ahead of the witnesses’ car. Estimated height was 500 feet. Estimated distance ahead of car was 100 yards. Estimated speed of objects was 50mph. Objects were heading north-northeast. As the craft crossed the road in front of the witnesses the red light on the rear of each craft began blinking for a few seconds and stopped. Witness jokingly suggested that the blinking was a signal that he and his son were being acknowledged as witnesses.
Other cars passed during the duration of the sighting. Witness pointed at objects for them, but none stopped. Duration of the sighting was probably less than two minutes total.
Witness later called McAlester Municipal Airport to ask about radar contact. They informed him of none, but did respond that there were "maneuvers" in the area that night.
Witness was told nothing more.
Witness is a security guard at the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. He spent 15 years in the Army as a paratrooper and has flown in various kinds of rotary and fixed-wing aircraft. Despite being fairly knowledgeable about aircraft in general, he was at a loss to explain the objects. He said he couldn't remember when his adrenaline level was brought up to the level it was that evening.
Looking at the evidence and summing it up, it would be easy to dismiss this as a sighting of three military helicopters because of the similarities between the objects and helicopters and especially when coupled with the airport and telling the witness about maneuvers in the area.
My conclusions: The credibility of the witness seems very high. He talked well and convincingly and gave no indication of egoism or grandiosity. He seemed to be an excellent observer. His son was also a witness. We must keep in mind that the airport's reporting to him of maneuvers in the area that night detracts (if we were to accept that explanation) from allowing a conclusion by him or us that the craft were real UFOs.
It seems obvious that Edwards saw real objects, and by his descriptions we must certainly dub them "UFOs" per the original intent of the term. He was quite certain that the objects were not conventional helicopters--which is about the only kind of conventional craft they could be--because of the unusual lights, the very tight formation on a rainy evening, and the almost complete absence of noise from the objects only a few hundred feet away. (If Edward's size estimate of the craft were vastly over-sized the craft would have to be only a couple of hundred feet or less away from his position.)
The McAlester ammo plant is only a couple of miles from the airport. The plant's grounds cover several square miles. Could that area have been used by secret maneuvers that night by a new type of aircraft? A letter was sent to the airport tower asking questions about that night, but no reply was received from that quarter.
Finally, the craft: The interior lights of the lead craft, which were visible in the cockpit area and half of the length are reminiscent of the classic Chiles-Whitted case of 1948 and others of that era. The general shape of the craft in that case is similar to the Edwards's sighting. How is the brightly lighted cockpit to be explained? That feature was a main point in the Chiles-Whitted case. Human eyes need low cockpit illumination in order to see the outside darkness!
Some UFOs--even some of the 1986-97 "airship" UFOs displayed red and green "running" lights similar to conventional ships/aircraft. (It is unknown if the lights were in the standard positions of our water- and aircraft. The blinking of the red taillights as the objects crossed the road is a curious thing. Perhaps they blinked for the reason the witness suggested. (Witnesses of genuine UFOs sometime report such "understandings" about what they see. Perhaps the lights were compartmentized such that from a front angle they were constant but when viewed from angle from the rear a rear section of the same light housing contained another component, a flashing red light?
We normally expect a great deal of noise from our aircraft. Anything less is a startling omission sure to be noticed. At the distances Edwards cited, the noise from any three conventional aircraft would have been deafening. The objects moved too slow to be anything but helicopters. If we want a conventional explanation for the sighting, we have to allow that rotor blasts from three gigantic machines a few hundred feet away would have been noticeable to say the least to the two standing on the highway. But there is a complete lack of any mention of power source superstructures to keep these craft aloft under tight control. And that is exactly the main characteristic of many subsequent triangle reports over the decades since, near silence.
This report was compiled from a 50-minute telephone call to the witness. The basic information about the case came from Bob Gribble of the UFO Reporting Center via my contact at UFO Contact Center International.
At that time, I sent a copy of this sighting to Walt Andrus, the founder and then head of MUFON so they could follow up if they wished on what I thought was an exciting, breakthrough case. Months went by with no word from him. I queried Andrus about what his investigators had learned. He sent me a a ten-cent postcard with the notation that the case wasn’t important.