Status: Unverified — the Air Force offered conflicting explanations (stars and planets, a training exercise); the witnesses rejected them.
Credit: U.S. Air Force, Project Blue Book (1965) · Licence: Public domain (U.S. government work) · Source
At about 2 a.m. on September 3, 1965, 18-year-old Norman Muscarello was hitchhiking home along Route 150 near Exeter, New Hampshire, when he saw five bright red lights hovering above the trees near a farm. He estimated the object at 80 to 90 feet across, and said it moved silently toward him until he dove into a ditch.
He flagged down a car, which took him to the Exeter police station. Patrolman Eugene Bertrand drove him back to the spot, and then he and another officer, David Hunt, also saw the lights. Bertrand had earlier talked to a frightened woman who said a large object had followed her car.
The Air Force sent officers from Pease Air Force Base to investigate. Their field report said they could not find a probable cause and that the three witnesses seemed stable and reliable. Before that report reached Project Blue Book, the Pentagon told reporters the men had seen only stars and planets twinkling because of a temperature inversion. Blue Book later cited a SAC and NORAD training exercise that night. Each explanation was disputed, and the case became one of the best known of the 1960s. A 1966 book, Incident at Exeter, brought it to a wide audience.
Sources: Wikipedia: Exeter incident
📍 See this case on the map. Were you nearby, or can you explain it? Add a verification note below — notes are read by a person before they appear.
Leave a Reply