UFO sightings spring from PA 'hot bed' era

Witness ilustration based on two UFO sightings in 1973 near Media, PA.

A 20-year-old man spotted an unusual anomaly low in the sky near Media, PA, in October 1973 - only to see the same object two weeks later.

The first sighting occured at 10:15 p.m. on Oct. 19 as he was a passenger in a vehicle rolling down Concord Road. The second incident happened as he was driving his car along Route 252 and turning onto Rose Tree Road on Nov. 2. at 7:30 p.m.

He created the illustration pictured here soon after the event and then drew detailed maps of each of the sighting locations.

The man recalls that about a month after his sighting, he read a newspaper account where a state police trooper from the Middletown Barracks also reported a craft near Gradyville, PA, and was apparently ridiiculed.

"This town is," he said, "as the crow flies, a couple of miles difference from where I and a friend saw this thing. I even tried to call the airport at that time and realized rather quickly that as a 20 year old, on leave from the Army at the time, I was being dismissed, and was told 'I have no idea what to tell you son, but I sure can't help ya'...click. Well, that was pretty much the end of that for me I figured, but, I still decided that I would write down everthing from that time for later."

What the witness may not have known at the time, is that Pennsylvania, at that time - beginning in 1973, and continuing into 1974, was a hot bed for both UFO and Bigfoot sightings. Hundreds of reports poured in and police agencies then were at a loss as to  how to investigate them. Most of the activity, though, was in the southwestern piece of the state, although witness reports did come from throughout the state.

Ufoloigst Stan Gordon, from Greensburg, PA, positioned himself at the time with the police as someone who could offer assistance. Police forwarded many of these cases to Gordon, and they also provided incident details on those cases that they followed up on. Gordon's upcoming book on the subject - Silent Invasion: Pennsylvania's UFO-Bigfoot Casebook - with Roger Marsh - will be available later this year.

This era in PA UFO history is unusual both for the number of accounts being reported, and the unusual circumstances where two types of anomalies were being reported in the same concentrated area.

You can read more about accounts from Pennsylvania, including the famous 1965 UFO crash at Kecksburg, at Gordon's web site at StanGordonUFO.com.

The following is a  case statement made by the witness at that time - reproduced in a slightly edited version here from his original notebook from 1973.

Please remember that many UFO cases can be resolved as something natural or manmade. This particular case was not investigated at the time.

First sighting: October 19, 1973

A friend Andrew and I were traveling on Concord Road around 10:15 that evening and sighted was is sketched on the previous page. Dimensions of course are approximate.

Illustration provided by the witness from his original 1973 notebook. This is a map of the first sighting.

We first saw this where I placed the (8). There was a row of pretty large trees along the left side of the road about two trees to the distance between telephone poles.

As we traveled toward Route 1, I kept looking back and trying to convince my buddy to stop and look, but he was in a hurry to get to the beer and the girls and was otherwise just generally unwilling to slow to a stop to allow me a better view.

The craft continued very slowly maybe 50 feet off the ground. So slowly in fact I couldn’t understand how it was staying aloft. I even rolled down (reached over behind the driver) the rear window and could hear (I thought) a strange sound like a whirring sound or like a vacuum cleaner running a ways off.

We traveled about two more miles and turned south on Route 1 at Delaware County Community College and from there could still see the “craft” flying slowly down the side of the large field on the other side of those trees.

There were some buildings and obstructions to my view between (2) and (3) on my drawn map and we could still see it moving toward what I describe as the Exxon station behind which was also a somewhat wooded area. We saw this UFO for approximately 8 to 10 minutes that night.

Second sighting: November 2, 1973

About 14 days later, I was driving in my car and saw what I thought was the same craft at around 7:30 p.m. that evening.

Illustration provided by the witness from his original 1973 notebook. This is a map of the second sighting.

Again, it was maybe 250-300 feet off the road, but moving slowly at just about tree top level, lower than it was the first time I saw it.

The map says yards (250), but I think I meant to write feet, because I don’t think I would have seen it as clear as I remember if it was that far in yards.

As I made a left on Rose Tree Road, I still could see it, but it was now about one-quarter mile away and traveled behind a stand of trees and suddenly I saw no more small lights.

I did not see it fly away, but turned around and drove back that way and did not see it again. The # signs next to 352, 3,261 mean local PA Route numbers.
 

Aerial map of the first sighting area. Mapuest.

Media, PA, is just west of Philadelphia. Mapqeust.