Indian Point Close Encounter #1
June 14, 1984,
A thirty-five-year-old New York
State Power Authority police officer that worked as a security guard at
the Indian Point nuclear reactor complex located on the Hudson River at
Buchahan, New York just south of Peekskill, Tells his incredible story.
From the book Night Siege by Dr J. Allen Hynek and Philip J. Imbrogno
Chapter 11 Page 140
The first interview
took place at a restaurant in Peekskill late on the night of September
12, 1984 after the guards got off work. Six of the Indian Point security
guards showed up, but, because of the lateness of the hour, we were able
to talk in depth to only three at that time.
Carl talked to us for
forty-five minutes that night and again for a similar length of time on
October 5. The first interview was taped, but not the second. He said
thee was certain information pertaining to security equipment that he
did not want recorded.
Carl had worked, as a
security officer for the Power Authority for three years and, before
that, had been a New York State Police officer. It turned out he’d had
two sightings at the reactor complex, the first on June 14 and the other
July 24.
“I was on outside
patrol at Indian Point Number Three,” he told us, describing the June 14
sighting. “It was approximately 10:15 at night, and I saw out in the
distance a series of lights. We have a clear view for several miles in
all directions.
“I saw these lights
coming at me. They were white with a yellow hue. I watched them foe
about ten minutes, and, at that time I estimated they were about a
quarter of a mile form me. They were approaching form the northeast,
going southwest, coming directly toward me.
“At that point, I
looked over at the Con-Ed people (at the adjoining Consolidated-Edison
nuclear power complex), and there were about ten of them looking at the
same object. I got on the radio and called some of the other units to
come out to my location to observe the object with me. I knew that it
was something strange, and since it was getting so close, I wanted
someone to come and assist me if I needed help. I didn’t want to take
any chances.”
Two other guards responded to his call.
“We all looked at
this thing for approximately twenty minutes, and during that time I
would say it hovered in one area for about fifteen minutes without
moving,” Carl said.
The object consisted
of ten or more lights arranged in a boomerang pattern. It appeared to be
hovering about a quarter of a mile from one of the gates to the complex,
and at that distance, they could not make out any shape.
“The lights were
incredibly bright and they were steady,” Carl said. “It was hovering
over the parking lot on the reactor grounds and over some buildings that
have lights on twenty-four hours a day. These are bright security
lights, and the lights on this object were at least ten times as
bright.
“The building it was over is quite large eighty feet high-and this
object dwarfed it.”
He estimated the object was at least 300 feet from one end to the
other.
“Behind the lights
was a dark mass,” he said. “I know this because a plane flew by in the
distance and you could see the plane’s lights quite clearly. When it
passed close to the object, the object blocked out the lights of the
plane, and a few seconds later the plane emerged from behind the other
side of the object. So there was some type of huge dark mass behind the
lights.”
Fifteen to twenty
minutes later, the object moved off toward Peekskill. “When it started
to move, it moved no more than ten miles an hour.”
Carl had no doubt
that it was a solid object and not a formation of aircraft, partly
because winds were gusting up to twenty-five knots an hour that night.
“No small plane could
stay in formation with the wind that night.” He said, “The wind didn’t
faze these lights at all. When it hovered, it just stood there, I was in
the service and I flew helicopters, and I know how hard it is to keep a
formation with small planes. No way was this a formation of planes. I
saw no hint of any standard lights that a plane would have, also, the
lights wee much too intense for a small aircraft.
“When the object
turned, it rotated as if it was lying on a wheel. It made a very slow,
sharp, ninety-degree turn. The object always moved in the direction of
the apex.”
July 24, 1984,
Carl then went on to tell about the night of July 24.
It all started with
another security guard calling and saying, “Hey, here comes that UFO
again!’ With that being heard all over the air, everyone came running to
see it. At that time, there were five of us, including two supervisors
who also came out to see it.
“It approached form
basically the same direction as before, and this time the lights were
changing, First, they would all be yellow, then white, and then all
turned blue. The lights were in a semicircle, and in the rear, pretty
far back, was this red, blinking light,”
Stars were blocked from sight as the object moved between them and the
guards.
“As the object
approached the plant, I got about as close as 500 feet from it,” Carl
said. “It looked like and ice cream cone. You could see it was a solid
body about the size of three football fields. At this time, it was
directly over our heads, and we were looking up at it. It was still
moving, but very slowly. I could walk and keep up with it, so it mist
have been going slower than five to ten miles an hour.”
Carl said he and the
other guards watched the object for about twenty minutes. All the time
you could see the structure behind it.”
Only one of the three
reactors was in operation, Carl said. “Ours was the only one working.
This object picked the right one to fly over, and that’s what got our
supervisor worried. This thing got within thirty feet of the reactor.”
As on the night of June 14, there were winds gusting up to thirty knots
an hour.
“We were all standing
there with our mouths open,” Carl said. “We were in awe of it! If the
thing stayed over us, the order was already given to get ready to shoot
it down. We had shotguns and were waiting for the final word to fire on
it.”
Another officer, who
we’ll call Milton, was on duty inside, watching TV monitors at a
security console that allows him to aim cameras placed at strategic
points around and outside the buildings.
“I received a call
form Officer ---- and Officer ----, saying there was something in the
sky, and I asked them what it was,” Milton told us. “They told me to
swing my camera over in the direction where they saw this object.”
One ot the cameras under his control was at the top of a
ninety-five-foot-tall pole.
“I turned my camera
in that direction, and I saw eight bright lights in a V shape, very
wide, almost like half circle. They were at least as bright as the
landing lights on a large jet. My supervisor and I panned the camera up
and sown, and the object was very large, bigger than a football field.”
He said the object
was so huge that he had to pan the camera nearly 180 degrees to scan it
the entire object from front to back.
“It was one solid
structure and very large. We had it on camera for about fifteen minutes.
I was trying to think of some logical explanation for what it was, but I
didn’t know. Whatever it was, it was larger than a C-%A, which is the
largest aircraft in the world and has a wingspan of 212 feet. This was
much larger. It seemed very brazen. It acted like it didn’t care who saw
it.”
Still another
officer, who was reluctant to be identified for fear of jeopardizing his
job, said, “There was this series of lights in the shape of a boomerang,
and behind it was this dark structure, and there were these two things
on the bottom that looked like hollow spheres of some sort. They looked
like portals that could open up and rockets or something could fly out
of there. They were very dark. It was very low. It was so close I
actually got scared looking at it.”
1.
As the object approached the east gate of Reactor Number Three,
the neclear plant’s security system shut down. Sensors that detect
movement shut down, and the entire alarm system failed.
2.
Inside the security console, the computer that controls all
security and communications systems shut down.
3.
At that time, the commander contacted Camp Smith, a New York
National Guard base less than ten miles away, requesting identification
of the object. No answer was given. A request was then made for an armed
helicopter to shoot the object down. Before the command was given to
launch the helicopter, the UFO moved away.
4.
The next day, the commander of the security guards informed then
that “nothing happened” and the event was to be forgotten.
5.
The incident was witnessed by several plant workers as well as
the security guards.
6.
A number of area residents saw the object at the same time the
plant guards did, and the Peekskill police received numerous calls about
the UFO the same night.
7.
A videotape of the object may exist, since all the security
cameras automatically record everything they see and the tapes are kept
for a certain period of time before being reused. However, authorities
say no such tape exists.
8.
All radio communications that night were also routinely recorded,
but the tapes reportedly no longer exist.
9.
In the days following the incident, officials of the U. S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission visited the plant, and the entire security
setup underwent a shakeup.
Gerry Culliton, a reporter for radio station WVIP in Mt. Kisco, New
York, did get and acknowledgment form Carl Patrick, of the plant’s
information office, that the sightings had occurred.
“He told me there definitely were sightings, “Culliton told us, “and he
said the New York State Police did and investigation and arrested four
Cessna pilots.”
However, Police records confirmed that no pilots were arrested. Culliton
said he asked for a copy of the UFO incident report, but was told that
“all security procedures and measures that are taken here are completely
confidential to protect our own security.”…
TITLE: Night Siege: The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings (Second Edition)
AUTHOR: J. Allen Hynek, Philip J. Imbrogno, and Bob Pratt
New Year's eve 1982
marked the beginning of one of the most puzzling UFO cases in recent
times. The Hudson Valley "siege," as it has been named, resulted in over
7,000 sightings of a boomerang shaped craft moving silently through the
sky over New York and Connecticut between 1982 and 1995. Night Siege is
the collaborative effort of Hynek, Imbrogno, and Pratt to report the
data gathered from witnesses of this mystifying object, while reserving
their speculation of what the object might be. If you missed the first
edition of Night Siege, this is your chance to delve into the Hudson
Valley mystery. If you have read the first edition, you may be
interested in the additional data covering sightings from1986 to 1995, a
graphical analysis of the UFO's appearance, and a chronology of the
sightings.
Reviewer: A reader from New York USA October 22, 1999
This is without a
doubt the best book on UFOs ever written. I read it cover to cover in
one night. It reads like an adventure story and it is proof of something
strange in the skies. The best book on the subject I have come across in
thirty years!!
Exciting I could not
put it down
Reviewer: A reader from New York, New York May 6, 1999
This book documents a
UFO event that made history.. I must thank the authors for writing such
a riviting book that proves we are being Visted by ETs... A work of
reading Art...
Great Factual Book and Good Research
Reviewer: A reader from Sheldo, CT May 5, 1999
This book has to be
one of the best well researched book I have ever read. It takes
thousands of sightings and puts them into a frame of no nonsense. It is
books like this that will make the public accept the truth that UFOs are
real!
The original investigators of the New York UFO
Highly readable no-nonsense UFO investigations
Reviewer: A reader from USA August 2, 1998
I originally
discovered this book a number of years ago and found myself devouring
its contents in a matter of a day or so. I was impressed by the
straightforward and sceptical(though cencerned) attitude of the
researchers/authors toward a subject that is fraught with silly cultural
hyperbole and media saturation. They do not presume to know what is
going on at any time during their accounts of the events nor do they
presume to tell readers what to think about same. Thier apparent honesty
in reporting the facts and my living in such close proximity to the
research area made reading the many detailed encounters that much more
chilling. I read most of the updated section recently while waiting for
friends at a local bookstore. This section, if my memory serves me well,
seemed out of sych with rest of the book with regard to the types of
sightings; there seemed to be more of the close-up and invasive kind in
the years since the first research in the area. All in all I have! read
few other books on this subject that I found myself reading cover to
cover. Enjoy!
Publisher's Synopsis From UFOinfo.com
In 1983, just a few
miles north of New York City, hundreds of suburbanites were startled to
see something hovering in the sky. They described it as a series of
flashing lights that formed a "V," as big as a football field, moving
slowly and silently.
It has been seen many
times since then, yet the media has remained silent about it, as has the
military, the FAA, and the nationUs scientists. Now, in Night Siege,
expert UFO investigators reveal the amazing evidence that cannot be
denied and the more than 7,000 sightings that cannot be dismissed.
A classic in the
field, Night Siege has been called one of the best researched and
factual UFO books to date. This second edition is revised and expanded
with sightings up to 1995.
From the Book Cover
CAN 7,000 EYEWITNESSES BE WRONG?
They were there to
witness the huge, hovering object in the sky, the flashing lights, the
eerie silence. They are ordinary people from all walks of life:
stay-at-home moms, kids, business people, and engineers. They tell their
stories here, and that all agree on one thing: they saw the same massive
object cruising over their backyards. And it was nothing they'd seen
before....
To this day, the
military, the media and scientists have remained silent about the Hudson
Valley phenomenon. Yet eyewitness reports still continue 15 years after
the first sighting. What's going on?
In Night Siege,
expert UFO investigators uncover the real story. Night Siege is widely
known as a classic in the UFO field for its in-depth reporting of the
strange sightings in New York's Hudson Valley in the 1980s. Now Night
Siege has been updated to also cover the latest sightings and close
encounters -- 7,000 reported between 1982 and 1995.
Are spaceships flying over New York? Seven thousand eyewitnesses
couldn't be wrong.
The late Dr. J. Allen
Hynek was a professional astronomer and author of The UFO Experience.
For 20 years he was the scientific consultant to the U.S. Air Force in
its investigation of UFO phenomena. Science educator Philip J. Imbrogno
is the author of Contact of the Fifth Kind and Crosswalks across the
Universe. Journalist Bob Pratt is a former editor of the MUFON UFO
Journal and author of UFO Danger Zone.
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