NUFORC Sighting 04121

Occurred: 1977-09-01 18:30 Local - Approximate
Reported: 1998-09-16 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 5 mins
No of observers: 2

Location: Middletown, PA, USA

Shape: Disk
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Left a trail, Aircraft nearby

Adamski type craft visible for 5 mins 500' above Swatara Creek. Portholes, red light, ion-blue glow on bottom. Craft accellerated into beam of rainbow colored light after interceptor jets from Olmstead Airbase gave chase.

On our way home from work, we passed under PA turnpike on Middletown Rd heading south. I saw a red light on an object in sky on left (east) side approx 15 degrees elevation. I am a private pilot, so I knew the object was not a plane or helicopter. To get a better view, thinking it might be a saucer, I pulled the car over and shut off the engine and lights. I rolled down the window and observed a saucer shaped craft. Once I knew what it was, I got out of the car to get better view of object. The saucer hovered motionless above the trees and over the Swatara Creek. The saucer had cupola on top. There were portholes emitting a bright yellowish glow that bathed the top of the saucer. The bottom of saucer had an ion-blue glow. I observed solid red light (no other lights) on top - very bright, casting a red glow over top of cupola. I looked for silhouettes in windows but observed none. Craft was as big as thumb held at arms length, maybe 1/2 mile distant. Est size of the saucer was 30' in dia. Sky was overcast. Clg was 1500' or more. Visibility was two miles or better. Temperature was approximately 55 degrees. I remember it was damp. The sun had set and the sky was almost dark. The saucer was positioned 1/4 mile from my residence. I was a little scared but elated, too, because I knew that this was a really rare event. I wondered what would happen if I waved. Would it move? So, I mustered my courage and waved at the saucer and sent a mental message out, "Peace be with you!" but there was no response. My wife said she was too cold and told me to shut car door. I asked her if she would get out and look at the saucer. She didn't believe me and said it was just a helicopter. While we argued about that, I heard a roar of jet engines/afterburners from Olmstead AFB across the Susquehana River. When I heard the sound, I saw the saucer dart from my 10 o'clock to 11 o'clock instantly. There was a yellow flicker in the sky from the west as the jets got closer. After two seconds, the saucer darted back to the same position it was in before, only 250' higher. I thought, is it trying to triangulate the position of the jets or get out of their radar beam? Then, the flickering in the clouds and the afterburner noise got very loud. The west side of my sky started to turn yellow, they were so close above the town of Middletown. The saucer had had enough. It shot up at a 70 deg. angle instantly, leaving a rainbow colored trail behind as it went up through the sky. The jet's never descended below the clouds, but turned upwards to chase futily after the saucer. In a minute, the light and sound had faded. I stood for a few minutes, waiting to see if they would return, but they didn't. I got back in the car with my wife and drove home. I decided not to report this incident because I knew that the military was involved in a cover-up and feared reprisal and did not want my life interfered with at that time by the government. Years later, I saw the pictures that George Adamski took of his saucer. That was the same saucer I saw. How could what he saw be a fake if what I saw was as real as the car I was driving home in? The chasing of the craft by the AF jets validated my experience for me. There were no reports in the local papers anytime thereafter. It would be interesting to try to use FOI Act to obtain information from any records kept by the AF from Olmstead AFB during that time period to see if there were any evening chases of an 'unknown.' I do not, unfortunately, remember the exact date of the event, except that it was a week-day because we were coming home from work. The location of the sighting was a few miles from Three Mile Island. The famous TMI reactor meltdown occurred there the following year. Was this a coincidence? I think not. In the last 22 years, I have not seen another UFO. Feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions.

Posted 1999-01-28