I briefly mentioned this in another thread and someone asked me to elaborate. It would have been off topic in that thread, so I'm posting it here.
It was a beautiful July evening in central Connecticut circa 1974 give or take a year. The time was about 9:30 PM. I was on my way to meet some friends at a local club.
Anyone who lives in central CT is used to fairly heavy air traffic because there's a good sized international airport in the area (Bradley International). The closer you are to the airport, the heavier the air traffic. I was about 25 miles away which is pretty close by air traffic standards.
I was driving through an upper middle class neighborhood located on a wide boulevard that was peppered with large trees including massive oaks and pines. Most of the trees were around 100 ft. tall.
There were a few of the big trees scattered on the grassy median in the center of the boulevard. There was a thick mini forest of them beyond the back lawns of the houses on both sides of the boulevard.
Because of the trees, my distance vision was limited. From my position, I could see the sky from about 10 o'clock to about 2 o'clock.
I was doing around 25 mph on the boulevard when I saw a large, very bright flickering light coming from beyond the mini forest behind the houses to my left. It was about an eighth of a mile ahead. It was radiating above the trees and steadily becoming bigger and brighter. It was obvious that a light source was approaching from that direction.
I thought "holy #!&*%, there's a plane coming down" and I didn't want to be anywhere near the crash site. Since I couldn't see the light source, I couldn't tell how low it was flying, how fast it was going, or in what direction it was heading.
I pulled over and stopped. I figured that once I saw where the plane was going, I could make a run for it in the opposite direction. The road was wide and there was no traffic, so I could easily make a U- turn if necessary.
A minute or so after I stopped, the light source cleared the mini forest. It was a classic saucer shaped craft slowly drifting over the trees toward the road.
It was about three hundred feet off the ground and about 200 feet in diameter. There were very bright chase lights moving around the rim. The lights were so bright, they lit up the area like high noon - literally.
The chase lights made made the craft look like something that escaped from a carnival. I could even make out the individual lights. Those moving lights are what caused the flicker when the craft was still hidden behind the trees. There were two rows of them.
The saucer wasn't in a horizontal position. It was tipped at about 45 degrees to the left and slanted a little bit away from me so I could see more of the flat bottom and less of the dome on top.
There was a dim red light on top of the dome. I think it looked dim because it was drowned out by the brightness of the rim lights. Since it was dark and the lights on the rim were so bright, I couldn't see much detail.
The craft was completely silent and seemed to be in no hurry at all.
I had read some books about the UFO phenomenon, so I immediately knew what I was looking at. Being a cocky 20 something who didn't know enough to be scared, I was tickled pink to see a real UFO so close.
In order to get a better look, I shifted the car into park, turned off the ignition and got out. I stood behind the open driver's door and watched the saucer slowly drift toward the road.
There were no other cars around. The lights were on in most of the houses but when I looked around for a witness, there wasn't a soul in sight. Normally, people would be sitting on their front porch or walking the dog and enjoying the beautiful evening. Not that night. I was completely alone. Since the area was lit up like a sunny afternoon, you'd think someone would have noticed. That seemed really odd.
For a split second, I was tempted to run to the nearest house and bang on the door. I didn't do it because I was afraid the saucer would be gone before I got someone's attention.
When the UFO reached the center of the boulevard, it slowly turned back in the direction it came from. As it turned, it began to climb. It started to accelerate and pick up speed. By the time it got to a thousand feet or so, it was moving fast and still climbing and accelerating. I watched it until it disappeared into the distance.
From the time it started to accelerate until I couldn't see it anymore, about 20 seconds elapsed. It took off in a hurry.
The whole episode lasted about five minutes. There was no missing time or ETs. I knew about the Betty and Barney Hill case as well as the one about the Brazilian farmer. I checked for missing time just to be sure. I continued on to the club and had a good time.
Because of the way things were back in the day, it was many years before I'd talk about the sighting. Nowadays, I tell the story to anyone I think might enjoy it. I've finally reached an age where I genuinely don't care what anyone else thinks. It's a nice place to be.
It was a beautiful July evening in central Connecticut circa 1974 give or take a year. The time was about 9:30 PM. I was on my way to meet some friends at a local club.
Anyone who lives in central CT is used to fairly heavy air traffic because there's a good sized international airport in the area (Bradley International). The closer you are to the airport, the heavier the air traffic. I was about 25 miles away which is pretty close by air traffic standards.
I was driving through an upper middle class neighborhood located on a wide boulevard that was peppered with large trees including massive oaks and pines. Most of the trees were around 100 ft. tall.
There were a few of the big trees scattered on the grassy median in the center of the boulevard. There was a thick mini forest of them beyond the back lawns of the houses on both sides of the boulevard.
Because of the trees, my distance vision was limited. From my position, I could see the sky from about 10 o'clock to about 2 o'clock.
I was doing around 25 mph on the boulevard when I saw a large, very bright flickering light coming from beyond the mini forest behind the houses to my left. It was about an eighth of a mile ahead. It was radiating above the trees and steadily becoming bigger and brighter. It was obvious that a light source was approaching from that direction.
I thought "holy #!&*%, there's a plane coming down" and I didn't want to be anywhere near the crash site. Since I couldn't see the light source, I couldn't tell how low it was flying, how fast it was going, or in what direction it was heading.
I pulled over and stopped. I figured that once I saw where the plane was going, I could make a run for it in the opposite direction. The road was wide and there was no traffic, so I could easily make a U- turn if necessary.
A minute or so after I stopped, the light source cleared the mini forest. It was a classic saucer shaped craft slowly drifting over the trees toward the road.
It was about three hundred feet off the ground and about 200 feet in diameter. There were very bright chase lights moving around the rim. The lights were so bright, they lit up the area like high noon - literally.
The chase lights made made the craft look like something that escaped from a carnival. I could even make out the individual lights. Those moving lights are what caused the flicker when the craft was still hidden behind the trees. There were two rows of them.
The saucer wasn't in a horizontal position. It was tipped at about 45 degrees to the left and slanted a little bit away from me so I could see more of the flat bottom and less of the dome on top.
There was a dim red light on top of the dome. I think it looked dim because it was drowned out by the brightness of the rim lights. Since it was dark and the lights on the rim were so bright, I couldn't see much detail.
The craft was completely silent and seemed to be in no hurry at all.
I had read some books about the UFO phenomenon, so I immediately knew what I was looking at. Being a cocky 20 something who didn't know enough to be scared, I was tickled pink to see a real UFO so close.
In order to get a better look, I shifted the car into park, turned off the ignition and got out. I stood behind the open driver's door and watched the saucer slowly drift toward the road.
There were no other cars around. The lights were on in most of the houses but when I looked around for a witness, there wasn't a soul in sight. Normally, people would be sitting on their front porch or walking the dog and enjoying the beautiful evening. Not that night. I was completely alone. Since the area was lit up like a sunny afternoon, you'd think someone would have noticed. That seemed really odd.
For a split second, I was tempted to run to the nearest house and bang on the door. I didn't do it because I was afraid the saucer would be gone before I got someone's attention.
When the UFO reached the center of the boulevard, it slowly turned back in the direction it came from. As it turned, it began to climb. It started to accelerate and pick up speed. By the time it got to a thousand feet or so, it was moving fast and still climbing and accelerating. I watched it until it disappeared into the distance.
From the time it started to accelerate until I couldn't see it anymore, about 20 seconds elapsed. It took off in a hurry.
The whole episode lasted about five minutes. There was no missing time or ETs. I knew about the Betty and Barney Hill case as well as the one about the Brazilian farmer. I checked for missing time just to be sure. I continued on to the club and had a good time.
Because of the way things were back in the day, it was many years before I'd talk about the sighting. Nowadays, I tell the story to anyone I think might enjoy it. I've finally reached an age where I genuinely don't care what anyone else thinks. It's a nice place to be.
.