State’s UFO story is still incomplete
Print
Share
Email to a friend
Add This
Article RatingRoswell, N.M. and the notorious “Area 51” in Nevada have gotten all of the ink when it comes to talk of Earth being visited by beings from another planet.
But Pennsylvania has its own UFO legend, centered around a mysterious incident in the village of Kecksburg, Westmoreland County. Use Google to search “Kecksburg PA” and you’ll get pages and pages of references to the story that celebrated its 40th anniversary yesterday.
According to news accounts, witnesses described a “fireball” in the sky and a “metallic, acorn-shaped object about 12 to 15 feet high and 8 to 12 feet in diameter that landed gently in the woods.”
People at the scene on that December night in 1965 didn’t need much prompting to be curious. A detachment from the U.S. military didn’t often show up at a woods fire in rural Kecksburg, or rural anywhere for that matter.
Soldiers cordoned off the site and not only refused to answer questions but, according to witnesses, threatened those who were persistent in seeking an answer. Sometime later, the military declared the object to be a meteor.
Today, spokesmen for NASA describe the fallen object as a failed Russian satellite that fell back into the atmosphere and began burning up before it landed.
But neither of these explanations satisfy those who claim the object made a soft landing, much like the Apollo capsules that landed on the moon. Many researchers have tried to document the various mysteries, follow the shifting stories of witnesses and authorities alike, and draw conclusions as to what happened that night 40 years ago.
One of those authors and investigators is Leslie Kean, who has been working on the case for the Sci-Fi Channel, one of the cable networks owned by NBC Universal. He and several others from the station sued NASA two years ago under the Freedom of Information Act, seeking any information the government still has on the incident.
That lawsuit continues, but no revelations have so far been pried from the hands of NASA. Kean’s attorney filed a new motion yesterday seeking to jump-start the case.
A NASA spokesman told the Associated Press that the agency was asked at the time to examine metal fragments taken from the site. That examination led to the theory that the fallen object was a Russian satellite. Unfortunately, NASA now claims that all documents relating to its investigation have been misplaced.
Needless to say, that dog-ate-my-homework explanation only fuels the imagination of skeptics who believe that something more significant than a rock from space or an errant satellite landed in Kecksburg. The town fire hall even has a mock-up on display depicting the object as described in contemporary news accounts.
Short of anyone actually finding a crate holding the mock-up’s inspiration stashed in some out-of-the-way military parts depot, this is likely all we’ll ever be able to determine about the incident in Kecksburg. There will always be just enough information to support skeptical film reports and books, but never enough to know with certainty what actually happened that night.
Not a great result for science, but the American storytelling tradition is a little richer for the mystery.
