ARMY ROPES OFF AREA
An "unidentified flying object" — possibly the same one reported seen streaking across seven northeastern states and Canada late Thursday afternoon — apparently fell to the earth in a secluded wooded area near Kecksburg in Westmoreland County.
The area where the object landed was immediately sealed off on the order of U.S. Army and State Police officials, reportedly in anticipation of a "close inspection" of whatever may have fallen.
A spokesman for a team of radar experts from the Army's 662 radar squadron in Pittsburg said, "We dont' known what we have yet."
Tribune-Review Staff Writer Robert Gatty reported from the scene that "no one is being allowed near the object." State Police officials there, he said, ordered the area roped off to await the expected arrival of both U.S. Army engineers and, possibly, civilian scientists.
The Army engineers, he said, were scheduled to arrive late Thursday night or early Friday morning. Scientists were expected to be brought in some time today.
Unable to talk to anyone who had actually seen the object Gatty reported that the consistent explanation of the security measures is that the object — whatever it is — may be contaminated with radioactivity.
Shape Mystery
The "unidentified flying object" (UFO) was sighted falling to the earth by Mrs. Arnold Kalp of Acme RD 1 and her two children. Mrs. Kalp, Gatty reported, was not available to talk Thursday night, apparently because of the throng of newsmen and spectators, who began arriving in the Kecksburg area shortly after word of the sighting was reported.
Although no one has indicated the size or shape of the object, Gatty said he talked to one farmer in the area — Dale Howard, who lives about a mile from the scene of the reported landing. Howard reported "feeling a vibration" and "a thump" about the time the object reportedly fell.
The near-exact location of the object, Gatty determined, is 500 feet off Legislative Route 64214 in Mt. Pleasant Township, about one-half mile east of Kecksburg.
Excitement caused by the apparent landing, the Tribune-Review reporter said, produced a massive traffic jam on the small roads winding around the small community of Kecksburg. Many of the just-curious spectators, he said, left the scene when informed by police that they could not get near the object.
Newsmen Wait
Newsmen, however, were holding tight, for the most part, to await some official word from either the U.S. Army or the State Police officials in charge.
The obvious excitment aroused by the apparent landing stems, in part, from dozens of "sightings" all over parts of the northeastern part of the United States and Canada.
Pentagon sources in Washington, D.C., according to a United Press International dispatch, indicated the flash could have been a meteor.
Earlier reports, the UPI dispatch said, indicated the flash could have been a high altitude test rocket fired over Lake Erie. But National Guard and Air Force officials told UPI reporters that no rockets had been fired.
The UPI dispatch went on:
"Eric Johnson, a reporter for the Erie, Pa., television station, said. "Il flashed across the lake, north northwest of the Erie airport leaving a kind of cloud of smoke behind it."
"Raymond Wallings, a private airplane pilot from Panesville, Ohio, said he was flying over the lake when he saw the "fireball" and kept his eye on it until it plummeted into the lake.
"U.S. Coast Guard officials reported a flying object exploded over the Detroit Windtof area. Four vessels were dispatched onto Lake St. Clair but were unable to find any trace of the object.