Cas 6 : Observation d'un ovni au-dessus d'une école ‑ Rapport Condon

Résumé

3 femmes adultes partirent sur le terrain d'athétisme du lycée pour examiner l'origine d'une lumière brillante qui avait effrayé d'une fille de 11 ans chez elle à côté, et ont rapporté que 1 des 3 lumières qu'elles avaient vu manœuvrer dans le ciel au-dessus de l'école avait volé sans bruit vers elles, arrivant directement au-dessus d'elles, entre 20 et 30 pieds au-dessus d'elles. Elle fut décrite comme un objet coulant, solide, à l'apparence de disque, de la taille d'une automobile. 2 policiers qui répondirent à un message téléphonique selon lequel un ovni était en observation vérifièrent qu'un objet extraordinaire volant au-dessus du lycée. L'objet n'a pas été identifié. La plupart de l'observation étendue, cependant, était apparemment une observation de la planète Jupiter.

Contexte

Le récit d'un incident qui intervint quelque 16 mois plus tôt était suffisamment impressionnant pour une équipe sur terrain enquêtant sur les observations courantes dans la région générale du Nord Est pour amener l'équipe à interroger certains des individus impliqués dans le premier signalement.

D'après le récit, une fille de 11 ans entendit un bump à l'extérieur de la fenêtre de sa chambre à coucher vers 21 h 00 et regarda à travers la fenêtre pour voir un objet en forme de ballon de rugby [football américain] avec des lumières rouges clignotantes se déplaçant en l'air. Effrayée, elle courut descendre les escaliers. Son père regardait la T.V. et dit que sa and réception montrant des effets d'interférence. 2 femmes voisines arrivèrent à ce moment, virent la lumière rouge près du lycée et appelèrent la mère de la fille. Les 3 femmes se mirent d'accord pour sortir dehors vers les terrains de l'école pour montrer à la fille, qui restait dans la maison, que ce qu'elle avait vu n'était rien d'autre qu'un avion. Cependant, lorsqu'elles arrivèrent sur le terrain, à environ 300 yards du bâtiment de l'école, elles virent 3 lumières séparées, généralement rouges, mais vertes ou blanches par moments, qui ne ressemblaient pas à des feux d'avions. La lumière du centre dardait à peu près au-dessus du bâtiment de l'école, et les autres were sort of playing tag with it. Pensant toujours qu'il pouvait s'agir d'avions ou d'hélicoptères, 1 des femmes désigna la lumière la plus proche avec un mouvement du bras, moment auquel elle vint directement vers elle. Elle dit qu'alors qu'elle s'approchait pratiquement au-dessus, elle pouvait voir qu'il s'agissait d'un disque métallique, à peu près de la taille d'une grande automobile, avec des lumières croissantes autour de son sommet. Elle décrivit l'objet comme de base plate et solide, avec une silhouette ronde et une surface à l'apparence d'aluminum mat. Les 2 autres femmes coururent. Regardant derrière, elles virent leur amie directement sous l'objet, qui était à seulement 20 ou 30 pieds au-dessus de sa tête. She had her hands clamped over her head in a self-protective manner, and later reported that she thought the object was going to crush her. The object tilted on edge, and returned to a position about 50 ft. over the high school as the women ran home to call more neighbors. A man and his wife, came out and saw the lights that were pointed out to them. One of the lights appeared to be only 15-30 ft. above the roof of the school building. To this couple, the lights appeared oval-shaped, flashing, mostly red, but changing colors. The lights were star-like in appearance, but looked a little larger than stars. The man ran back and telephoned the police. As the group, now consisting of the three women, the girl, the girl's older brother and handicapped father, and the neighbor couple, awaited the arrival of police, the central object receded in the sky and looked like a star. Its two companions had left the scene unnoticed apparently while the observers' attention was focussed on the receding object. As two policemen arrived, the observers were concerned that the police would think the UFO was only a star. However, the star-like light did brighten and resume its motion over the high school. The officers reportedly jumped back into their police cruiser and drive down to the school parking lot, where they saw the object at close range before it sped off, with the police in pursuit. The object had been observed for a total of about 30-45 mm. It had made no noise, and the observers felt no heat or wind from the object when it was overhead.

Enquête

One of the police officers was interviewed. He confirmed the claim by the other observers that he and another officer had responded to the call and, after having the object pointed out to them by the group of observers near the school grounds, drove down to the school parking lot to get a closer look at the object. He said it was neither an airplane nor helicopter, but he did not know what it was. The object seemed to the officer to be shaped like a half dollar, with three lights of different colors in indentations at the tail end, something like back-up lights. It seemed to have a more or less circular motion but was always over the school. After the officers arrived at the parking lot, the object flew around the school two or three more times and departed apparently toward the airport. As it got farther away, it looked like just one light. It took off at a normal speed, staying the same height in the sky. It dimmed and then disappeared quickly.

Les 3 femmes, 2 enfants, et le père de la fille autorisèrent une interview du groupe aux enquêteurs du projet. Leur histoire fut généralement assez cohérente avec celle enregistrée 1 an plus tôt par les interviewers du NICAP. Le fait was brought out that the school parking lot had been filled with cars during the early part of the UFO sighting, since there was a Friday evening basketball game at the school. None of their occupants, having driven away while the UFO over the school building was under observation, reported seeing an UFO. Some youngsters leaving the school grounds were told about the UFOs by the observers. The observers said the youngsters watched for a while, then left--apparently unimpressed.

Review of all reports indicated that all observers other than the young girl and the group of three women had seen something that looked like a star. Written reports by both policemen stated the object appeared like a bright star, and the reports of the four said the objects when standing still, looked like stars. The changing of colors could be due to ordinary scintillation of starlight, and some apparent motion of the object could be accounted for as autokinesis, even if a star were being observed (voir Section 6, Chapitre 1 et 2).

Descent of the object over the women's heads could not be attributed to autokinesis, or apparent motion of a motionless light. Could all other reported movements be accounted for if one assumed the observers actually were looking at a star or planet? The policeman had been asked how close he was to the object at its closest position when he was in the school parking lot, and he indicated a distance of about 200 yd. As shown in the accompanying sketch, (Fig. 2) which was prepared by Raymond E. Fowler, chairman of the NICAP Mass. Subcommittee, the police were about 200 yd. from the high school when the object over the school was first pointed out to them (position marked FENCE on the sketch). They must, therefore, not have reduced the apparent distance to the object when they drove down to the parking lot next to the school building. Le rapport d'origine de M. Fowler, written a few days after the incident, said of the police, As they came into the school yard, the object moved off slowly into the SW toward [a factory] and disappeared from view. An observer approaching the school building on the driveway from the road (see sketch), as the police officers did, and looking at a star over the building, would see the same apparent motion of the star as a near object moving to the SW would have.

Le mouvement attributé à l'objet (à l'exception de la descente au-dessus) était typiquement circulaire, ou haut, bas, et autour. L'objet was thus not seen to move far from its original position. In response to the question How did the object disappear from view? the woman who had reported being directly beneath the object wrote, Just vanished in a circular direction in plain view. One of the police officers wrote, The object seemed to stay at the same height and just move away very smoothly.

As shown in the sketch, in all views except the reported close encounter, the principal object was seen in the same WNW direction. This fact, plus the fact that it stayed in this general direction and disappeared as if going straight away from the observer, in addition to its having the appearance of a very bright star, leads to the conclusion that the observed light was a planet. The nautical almanac shows the planet Jupiter, with a magnitude of -1.6 (eleven times as bright as a first magnitude star), to have been 20°-30° above the horizon, 23° N of W, during the time of this UFO observation. This position exactly matches the location the principal object was reported to have been seen.

Conclusions

Aucune explication n'est tentée pour rendre compte de la rencontre rapprochée d'ovni signalée par 3 femmes et une jeune fille. Tous les autres aspets de ce signalement à témoins multiples indique que les observateurs regardaient la planète Jupiter, avec des effets de scintillation ordinaires (la nuit fut décrite comme ayant été claire comme du crystal) expliquant le changement de couleur observé, et le mouvement d'objet apparent relaté par autokinésie et mouvement de l'observateur.