Case Directory Category 1, Distant Encounters Preliminary Rating: 5 |
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A Hynek
Classification of Distant Encounter is usually
an incident involving an object more than 500
feet from the witness. At night it is
classified as a "nocturnal light" (NL) and
during the day as a "daylight disc" (DD). The
size of the object or the viewing conditions
may render the object in greater detail but
yet not qualify the sighting as a Close
Encounter which is an object within
500'. |
Brad Sparks: April 1947; Richmond, Virginia ((BBU) 11 a.m. (EST). Meteorologist Minczewski saw a silvery disc through a theodolite while tracking a pibal weather balloon, traveling E to W at less than 15,000 ft, appeared larger than the balloon. (McDonald 1968; FOIA; FUFOR Index) Fran Ridge: There is a document which reads: "... Mr. Walter Minezewski has observed this strange metallic disc on three occasions through the theodolite while making his pibal observation during the last six months (November, 1946 - April, 1947)" **. In the other document: "There is no astronomical explanation for this Incident, which, however, deserves considerable attention, because of the experience of the observers ana the fact that the observation was made through a theodolite and that conparison could be made with a pibal balloon. The observers had, therefore, a good estimate of altitude, of relative size, and of speed much more reliable than those given in most reports.This investigator would like to recommend that these and other pibal observers be quizzed as to other possible un-reported sightings." * James McDonald:
Here was a pre-Arnold sighting never reported officially. It was quite clearly not an observation of "new American military vehicles," nor can one readily square this with any phenomenon of atmospheric physics or astronomy. It is a UFO observation, and a rather interesting one. Bloecher's search has led to several other pre-Arnold 1947 sightings. Just a matter of days before this writing, I spoke on the telephone with Walter A. Minczewski, the U. S. Weather Bureau observer whose April, 1947, theodolite-tracking case is cited in the text. Minczewski emphasized that he had never reported it to other than his Weather Bureau superiors and hence was surprised to be called about it twenty years later. Yet his recollection of the details of the whitish disc-like object he had tracked one clear morning in Richmond, Virginia, was still distinct in his mind. Detailed reports and documents
reports/4704XXrichmond_report.htm (Dan Wilson) * reports/4704XXrichmond_report3.htm (Loren Gross & Fran Ridge) ** |