4.07.2024

July 9, 1957 - Hamilton, Ontario Canada

July 9, 1957--Hamilton, Ont., Canada. Attorney saw speeding, white elliptical UFO. [X]1

There is no amplifying information for this comment. In section XII is a table with the following description:

July 9, 1957: An attorney in Hamilton, Ontario, with another witness watched a glowing white elliptical object speed overhead from SW to NE, about 9:05 p.m. [3]2

The footnote indicates it is from the NICAP files. There is no additional information.

Sources

Blue Book had no case for this date. It is not even in the “for info” section. I did find a news article in Loren Gross’ UFO history.

Round, white, zooming object.

A Canadian barrister, Milan Drennan, was playing golf with a friend, John Posset, an accountant for the Firestone Company. Mr. Drennan states:

“The sun was setting and the relevant time was about 9:05 p.m. There was a strong wind blowing in gusts from the west, northwest and on occasions we would delay teeing off until the wind subsided. I glanced up into the sky and the thought formed in my mind: ’John the stars are starting to come out already.’ Before I could express the thought I realized that what I took to be an evening star was moving and said to my friend: ’John what’s that a plane?’ ‘Where?,’ he replied. ‘Up there,’ I said. ‘I can’t see a thing--- yes now I see it.’

We watched a round white object traveling at a very rapid speed. I never saw anything move so fast and still be distinguishable. The object was quite high and again I am unable to give an intelligent estimation of the height. I have seen jet planes high in the sky leaving a vapor trail. These jets were probably traveling at 500 m.p.h. more or less but they would appear to be laboring through the air compared to the speed and apparent ease that this object was traveling.

“If straight over my head was 12 o’clock, then I saw the object at 11 o’clock coming from the south-west and going in a northeasterly direction. We lost sight of the object at about two o’clock in the northeastern sky still high over the city of Hamilton. If it were a balloon it was a mighty fast balloon. It made no noise. It was round, white and did nothing unusual except travel high and very fast.” (80.)

While there is a footnote, Gross failed to provide a list of footnotes in this volume. I suspect this is from a local newspaper.

Analysis

This is all the information we have on this case. It is not a lot for analysis. We are missing key points of data. How long was the object visible? The description indicates something on the order of 1-5 minutes. The course was SW to NE. It is interesting that the witness stated their were strong wind gusts from the west or northwest. I don’t have wind data for Hamilton, Ontario but is not far from Niagara Falls. The data for 0000 and 0600 UTC/Z on the 10th were:

This confirms the direction of the wind and speeds were high as described by the witness.

The prime candidate for this sighting is a balloon. The shape was correct. The wind direction is a small problem but the witness’ description of the path can be open to interpretation. He states that if he were looking overhead, he would be looking at 12 O’clock.

He then states his initial observation was at 11 O’clock. One assumes the witness meant a SW direction with about a 60 degree elevation angle. He then states the object ended at 2 O’clock in the NE. I interpret this to mean the direction was roughly 30 degrees elevation.

At a height of 1km, the speed was about 30 knots or roughly 900 meters/min. That is about 40 degrees of arc in 1 minute. If one assumes that the angular arc of travel was about 90 degrees, then the duration of the sighting was about 2-3 minutes. If the balloon was at a lower altitude, the angular rate would have been higher (500 m = 20 knots or 600 m/min= 50 degree/min).

While the wind direction being off 30-80 degrees in azimuth is problematic to a small extent, I don’t consider it that a reason to reject this potential explanation. First of all, a radiosonde is a snapshot of one moment in time. The direction is a general direction of the wind direction. It is possible for the wind to shift a few degrees between each minute. Second, the witness direction of travel is his estimate. It is possible he was off in direction. Finally, the radiosonde date is from a location 40 miles away. It is possible that the wind direction their might have been a bit different than the wind direction at the witness’ location.

Conclusion

Like much of what is in the UFO evidence, the information about the sighting is based solely on a news clipping and no detailed investigation. While the wind data is incomplete, there is enough information to indicate that the object seen was possibly a balloon. The direction was straight and there were no changes in direction indicating exotic behavior. It should be classified as possible balloon and removed from the “UFO evidence” category.

Quelle: SUNlite 4/2024