RESIDENT TELLS OF MYSTERIOUS INCIDENT
An eight-year-old boy, his mother, the Pennsylvania State Police and the military all added up to mystery Thursday night and early Friday morning in a wooded area near Kecksburg in Westmoreland County.
It all started when an unidentified flying object (UFO) was reported sighted by the son of Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Kalp of Acme RD 1.
"Nevin saw it first," Mrs. Kalp told me as we stood along a dirt road near the woods where State Police and Army officials apparently were searching for an "object".
Like Flaming Star
"He said it looked like a flaming star. It left a trail of flames behind it and fell in the woods," she added, pointing to the spot where her son said the UFO had fallen.
"Then I came out to look and I saw some smoke. Then it turned sort of cloudy, and went away almost like it buried itself in the ground."
Mrs. Kalp's story was told to me and other reporters more than five hours after the first report of the UFO was received.
After she saw the smoke, about 4:45 p.m., she heard a radio report that said an airplane has possibly crashed into the woods. So, Mrs. Kalp explained, she phoned the radio station to report that no plane had fallen, just the fireball.
Mrs. Kalp told reporters that she had been told by a Navy officer not to "tell anyone where it happened" until the area was sealed and an investigation begun.
"I never received so many phone calls in my whole life," she said. "Finally I just let it ring, then lifted up the receiver and put it back down. The state police had to clear the line to talk to me."
When I arrived near the scene of the sighting with Photographer Jim Downs, we were denied entrance to the road leading to the area where the UFO had reportedly fallen.
"We've been ordered by the state police and the army not to let anybody in," explained Dale Howard, a Kecksburg volunteer fire policeman.
Lights Seen
Then, while at Howard's home using the telephone, Jim Mayes of Mammoth walked in and said he and six other fellows had seen three blue flashing lights near the area of the earlier sighting.
We went into the field (Downs and I) with Mayes and Howard to look for the lights.
There were none.
Then the state police returned along with military officials. This time they went into the woods from the field where we had searched, apparently looking for the UFO.
Nothing There
A state trooper apparently assigned to handle the huge crowd that had formed then reported that "all search results are negative as far as we know, there's nothing there so far."
He said officers had left earlier "because we were satisfied that nothing was there. We returned because somebody reported seeing three huge flashing lights in the area."
Felt Impact
As for Howard, who lives about a mile from the scene, he said he did not see the UFO, but felt the impact. "It caused a vibration here at home," he told me. "It hit with a big thump."
The last search party, which included three military men and State Police Fire Marshal Carl Metz, could be seen from the road where we stood, searching the area with flashlights.