ParaNet BBS/kecksbrg3
| File Name: | kecksbrg3.txt |
|---|---|
| Author: | Unknown |
| Date: | Unknown |
| Posting BBS: | Unknown |
| BBS Main Page: | ParaNet Main Page |
| Key Words: | ParaNet, UFO, Ufology |
| Case File: | [[Kecksburg UFO Incident Case File]] |
(13962) Mon 8 Jul 91 11:58a
By: Ncar!psuvm.psu.edu!ccb104@scicom.al
To: All
Re: Kecksburg Ufo Crash
St: Sent
@UFGATE newsin 1.27
From: ncar!PSUVM.PSU.EDU!CCB104@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM
Date: 8 Jul 91 03:34:29 GMT
Message-ID: <13168@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM>
Newsgroups: info.paranet
From: CCB104@PSUVM.PSU.EDU
The following is from T. Scott Crain, Jr., State Section Director for MUFON in Pennsylvania; and Stan Gordon, State Director of MUFON in Pennsylvania and Director of the Pennsylvania Association for the Study of the Unexplained (PASU). I am transmitting it on their behalf (and at their request).
+>>>>BEGINS HERE>>>>>
In Paranet Newsletter Vol. 1 #386 I (Scott Crain) presented a dissenting view from an article by Robert Young outlining his negative posture toward the UFO that allegedly crashed near Kecksburg, PA, in December 1965. Jim Speiser responded to my report in Paranet Newsletter Vol. 1 #387, raising some questions about the witnesses and data presented. In order to clarify some of the circumstances surrounding this case, I asked Stan Gordon to prepare a response detailing the facts of how the incident unfolded and how the witnesses described what had happened.
Below is a transcription of Stan Gordon's reply (dated June 12, 1991):
The two firemen who were interviewed for the Unsolved Mysteries sequence were indeed the actual people involved. They were Jim Mayes (at the time Assistant Fire Chief for Kecksburg) and Jim Romansky (a fireman from an outside company who came to the area to search for what was thought to have been wreckage from an aircraft believed to have exploded over the area). Also taped for the show but not used (due to the length of the sequence and time constraints, much information apparently had to be edited out) was an interview with Robert Bitner, who has been established to be a former Kecksburg Fire Chief. Bitner went on record also as stating that he arrived later that evening at the site and was forbidden to go into the woods by military personnel. Bitner was not the Fire Chief at the time of the incident. Bitner was interviewed for the nationally syndicated Evening Magazine sequence on Kecksburg, which also aired nationally.
Many of the local firemen who were involved have since passed away (due, of course, to natural causes). Some of the others are now up in age and refuse to get involved publicly; others have talked to us and verified that they were at the scene but won't get involved because of the controversy and because of the ridicule by some people. This situation is making it very difficult as a researcher to bring out information on the case without identifying the witnesses involved. But it has been my policy for many years to let witnesses come to me confidentially with information, with the promise that I will not reveal their identities if this is their request. To try to give outside verification to the fact that our information and witnesses exist, we permitted two news media representatives (Sharon Santus of the Greensburg, PA Tribune-Review and David Templeton of the Pittsburgh Press) to examine our affidavits, listen to taped interviews, and talk directly with some key informants who wished not to be identified. This was done since both reporters were willing to conduct a detailed investigation of their own into the Kecksburg affair. But they have supported the policy of confidentiality as well.
Now many witnesses to various phases have now gone on public record (see Press story). Reporter John Murphy, the first media person on the scene (he was the news director for WHJB Radio in Greensburg and is now deceased), kept very detailed notes on the event, assisted by various staff members who were flooded with phone calls at the station as the project passed through. Many of these notes were later used when he put together a radio special on the event a week later called 'Object in the Woods.' Based on loggings that were done at the time with eyewitnesses, the time of sighting in the general area of impact was about 4:47 p.m. Utilizing other times that seem accurate from previous reporting areas along the object's path, we can give an estimate of its speed. But the most interesting movements of the object were within a few miles of the impact location. We will in future reports attempt to visually show the interesting movements of the object around the local ridges. The object appears to have had a control system, since it was guiding itself along the ridge sides, apparently trying to avoid hitting them.
When the object passed through the Pittsburgh area heading towards Greensburg, the police and media were jammed with calls from observers, who, for the most part, thought that what was seen was an aircraft on fire. It would have been normal procedure to dispatch police and fire personnel to try to locate the crash site. There would have been no reason for military involvement, when it is a daily civilian emergency management operation if such an event occurs.
We are very familiar with bolide and meteor sighting reports. We deal with then every year, and we are well aware of the characteristics of fireball-type meteors. We realize that these natural eye-catchers can appear very close, seem to be landing over the next hill when indeed they are quite a distance away. Independent observers, most unknown to one another and not seeing the detailed data in our possession, describe more than just a fireball coming down into the woods. Some witnesses only caught the object in a brief glimpse, but others, depending on their vantage point, saw the object move over a good distance. What they saw was a very slowly moving, structured device, with flames coming from the rear section. Some describe flames around the object, also vapor appearance as well. Most importantly, had the object been going in a straight path from some of the vantage points verified, it would have passed near Mount Pleasant and have been reported in other areas as well. But the object turned and headed back towards Kecksburg. The object was seen from Mount Pleasant, going down in the Kecksburg area. The object was not airborne past the Kecksburg area.
The only witness at the time that the media interviewed who saw the object was young Nevin Kalp. He only caught the fiery object out of the corner of his eye as he and his sister played not far away. Moments later, a column of blue smoke rose from the woods.
But other independent witnesses, mostly local residents, have now given us information that they also saw the slowly moving object come down into the wooded area. Another witness verified seeing the blue smoke and dust rising.
The Air Force officer who was stationed at Lockborn AFB in 1965 holds a public position and wishes not to be identified. He had given me the information of seeing the tarp-covered object arriving at the base, long before the Unsolved Mysteries show was aired. Len Stringfield is working with the two witnesses in Ohio, who were involved at Wright-Patterson AFB. The second witness just recently has agreed to talk, and he has now clarified many points. Don't base your opinion on this aspect of the case by what you have read in the papers. They have not given the complete scenario as to what actually occurred, and some details are inaccurate. Len is planning an updated status report to be released later this year, and more information relative to the Kecksburg case will appear.
The few witnesses who decided to go public on the Unsolved Mysteries show deserve a lot of credit. Many of these people were subject to much ridicule. For some of these people (Jim Romansky in particular), it was a major decision in his life whether or not to appear since he did not want to expose his family to the problems that might follow (and did). Generally, most of those appearing did the show for only one reason: that hopefully it would cause other informants to come forward.
Future reports will reveal new witnesses and new information relative to the Kecksburg mystery.
Jim Romansky was the fireman interviewed on Unsolved Mysteries who came across the half-buried object in the woods. Bill Bulebosh, a local resident, was known to us as a second witness to the impacted object. We tracked down Mr. Bulebosh after a tip in 1988, the year after we had met Romansky. Mr. Bulebosh wanted no publicity, but during the week of filming for the Unsolved Mysteries sequence, he came out to the area and met Romansky for the first time. He then gave permission to be interviewed by the local media, and this was done in support to verify the statements that Romansky had made.
Both men unknown to each other up till this point had given us detailed information about what they had seen in 1965, including the fact that they separately took us into the large wooded area and led us to the same spot where the object had rested. The other two witnesses refused any publicity at this time. One witness is still local, and he is fearful that his business and reputation as a community leader could be damaged. The fourth witness was a local resident at the time of the occurrence but currently lives out-of-state. More information pertaining to their experiences will also be disclosed in future reports.
- Stan Gordon
<<<<<ENDS HERE<<<<<
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