20.04.2024

April 12, 1996 - Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania

The source of this information comes from Larry Hatch’s database and Phenomena issue 32. Hatch’s database is just another list.

He mentions radar contact and gives the time as 23:50.2 His source as the National UFO reporting Center. I did find a copy of Phenomena on line but it had only the odd page numbers scanned. 3 The page mentioning this sighting was missing.

Source materials and information about the sighting

My first stop was the newspaper archive. I found nothing for the date in question. I then looked at the National UFO Reporting Center database. The sighting4 was there as well as a report from Air traffic control5 that reported strange radar returns and that multiple aircraft reporting a UFO. Both times were listed as 23:55 PM. Both state the duration was listed as 15 minutes. Missing were any mention of directions or elevations.

We don’t even know what the airline was or the flight number. I tried to see if I could locate a potential flight number by looking at airline timetables. I thought it might be a local service but narrowing down the airlines in the area proved more difficult than I thought. There are just too many possiblities to narrow the flight down this way. One cannot even be sure if those submitting the reports are even actual pilots and Air traffic Control personnel.

I checked other sources. The NICAP database did not have any mention of the sighting. The International UFO reporter made no mention either. It seems that the only mention of this sighting is in a French magazine and the NUFORC database. I suspect the French magazine probably was just a summary of the NUFORC reports.

Analysis

We don’t have a lot to examine. The report appears to indicate that a bright object paced the aircraft for 15 minutes and then disappeared rapidly (moving 10-20 miles in seconds). The description of “pacing” the aircraft indicated the object was that, as the aircraft moved, the object appeared to be in the same location relative to the aircraft. This could be because the object was pacing the aircraft on the same course as the plane. It could also be a distant object that was in a fixed location, but, because the aircraft did not change course, it appeared to follow the aircraft. This seems probable because the air traffic control report in the NUFORC database indicates multiple aircraft reported it. This usually indicates an object was probably far away and not close.

The mention of radar always gets UFO proponents excited but we have no idea what these radar contacts were. Were they just noise/anomalous propagation? This is not unheard of and random targets can appear on radar sets. There is no verification that these radar contacts were even the same as the visual one. As a result, the radar contacts can be considered, at best, interesting but insufficient proof that it was the same object.

The object was described as a fireball. I thought that might be a meteor but the time duration was listed as 15 minutes. No fireball is going to last that long. That indicates something that was either slow moving or stationary that rapidly disappeared.

I examined Molczan’s database on re-entries. There was a re-entry on 14 April and it was visible over the midwest. However, there was no re-entry on this date and time. The SEESAT archive made no mention of anything either. Based on this information it could not have been any satellite or rocket body.

I decided to check the astronomical situation and discovered that Venus was setting about the time of the sighting. For nearby Altoona, Pennsylvania, the planet Venus was in the northwest setting around 23:50 PM. For high altitude aircraft, the set time would be later. The usual rule of thumb is about 1 minute later for every 5000 feet of altitude. Assuming an altitude of 30000 feet, this means Venus would set around 23:56, which is around the time listed. If one includes the possibility of refraction, an error in reporting the time, and other possible variables, Venus becomes a prime candidate for this sighting. Unfortunately, there is no direction given, which makes the Venus explanation “possible” at best.

Conclusion

I would classify this as possibly Venus with the caveat as the data is insufficient for a definitive conclusion. The insufficient information classification alone makes this case unfit to be on the list. The fact that Venus might have been the source of the report gives me another reason to remove it from the list. This case is not evidence of something extraordinary was seen.

Quelle: SUNlite 2/2024