UFO News Article: “Valley contributed to ’73 UFO reports”

5 April 2008

(The Express-Times, Easton, Pennsylvania)

Sources: UFO Newsclipping Service, Bainbridge Island,

Washington and AFU.se

The whole article (Page 7):

“SIGHTINGS AROUND WORLD. Bushkill Twp. police officer reported three lighted objects in the sky.

The year 1973 was a remarkable year for sightings of unidentified flying objects. There were sightings in Europe, South America, Southeast Asia and in the United States. Sightings were especially concentrated in Midwestern states such as Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

In March and April there was a flurry of UFO reports in Pennsylvania, including some in our region. On March 1 residents of the Saylors Lake area of Monroe County reported 42 objects with flashing lights in the sky. The objects were seen by many witnesses over a three-hour period. A dozen witnesses, including a Pennsylvania state trooper, saw the UFOs passing over Saylors Lake. Before the evening was over one witness counted 39. A state trooper said he personally observed four objects pass over the lake from west to east. The trooper described the UFO as ‘like a Christmas tree flying in the air.’ He estimated the objects were about 1,500 feet in the air. Most had white lights but others had lights that appeared to be blue and red.

Another witness, Mrs. Howard Pfeiffer, reported she and 11 others observed about 40 UFOs, some in groups, pass over the lake at intervals between 7:05 and 10:45 p.m. She described the UFOs as being circular and about the size of a child’s wading pool.

‘The first one came so close I felt I could reach up and touch it,’ Pfeiffer said. ‘There was no noise, no sparks, or anything. I know it wasn’t any plane or balloon or helicopter.’

Later in March 1973 a number of sightings were observed over Bushkill Township. Most appeared to be oval or round lighted objects. A Bushkill Township police officer reported seeing three objects. Numerous sightings were reported in the area of Hoffman’s Grove, a popular picnic site in the northern part of the township.

Another rash of sightings occurred on March 15 at Milton, Pa., where police were swamped with telephone calls about a giant ball which moved across the sky from east to west. The UFO, which moved rapidly, resembled a lighted helicopter dome, according to one witness. At one point the witness said he saw the ball make a 90 degree turn to avoid a passing airplane. Throughout the evening other residents reported seeing the strange object. Later a spokesman at a nearby Air Force base, when asked about the sightings, responded that none of the reports were recorded and that Air Force personnel were not on alert for such incidences.

The bizarre sightings also occurred in the month of April. On the evening of April 24 three adults at Spring Mills, Pa., observed an oval-shaped fluorescent white object traveling from the north. At one point the UFO stopped and hovered over a house. It then sped off to the north and disappeared. The UFO gave off an intense white light which also turned to green and blue. A local police officer who interviewed the witnesses reported all three were sober adults not under the influence of either drugs or alcohol.

On April 29, more than a dozen residents of the Ferndale section of Shamokin, Pa., observed a UFO with flashing lights actually land on nearby Burnside Mountain. One witness, a 13-year-old boy, observed the UFO through binoculars. The boy said he could see a large bubble shape on top of the object and a silver colored substance along with the lights. Several witnesses said the UFO appeared to hover over the mountain for several minutes before it landed. About 11 p.m. the UFO rose up into the sky and beaded in a westerly direction.

Experts were at a loss to explain the rash of sightings of 1973. Some postulated unusual weather phenomena that year, sun spots, and even covert operations of our military as possible explanations.

Project Blue Book, the Air Force’s official inquiry into UFOs, commenced in 1952. In 1969, Blue Book was terminated after the conclusion that there was nothing extraordinary about UFOs and the vast majority of the sightings, though not all, could be explained by natural phenomena.”

Saylors Lake is located close to Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.

http://files.afu.se/Downloads/Magazines/United%20States/UFO%20Newsclipping%20Service/UFO%20Newsclipping%20Service%20-%202008%2005%20-%20no%20466.pdf

Related posts:

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=March+1973

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=April+1973

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=1973

Satellite photo of Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania (tageo.com)

(tageo.com photo)

This disk shaped UFO (with a dome on top) was photographed over a farm in South Carolina on 7 March 1973

(HowStuffWorks.com photo)