Case Directory
  Category 1, Distant Encounters 
 
  Preliminary Rating: 5  

                                   
     

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'. 

Disc Circles, Maneuvers, Climbs Into The NE
January 4, 1949
Hickam field, Hawaii

Fran Ridge:
Jan. 4, 1949. Hickam Field, Hawaii (BBU 275)
2 p.m. USAF pilot Capt. Paul R. Stoney, on the ground at Pacific Command HQ, saw a flat white, elliptical object about the size of a T-6 aircraft, circle at about 3,000 ft while oscillating to the right and left.  It was apparently several miles off the base and slowly circling. It was a disk, bright white on the underside and darker on top and possessed no other structures. It proceeded for fifteen minutes to make “rhythmical undulation” maneuvers in a cyclical manner. The “object seemed to maneuver under control at all times­ completing 360° turns and 90° turns.” The object then “departed climbing (into the NE) at accelerated speed out of sight.” The observer received rave compliments for his level-headedness and integrity from the base’s investigating officer. Project Grudge asked that the captain fill out a form, asked no more questions, and filed it. Even Allen Hynek, in the thick of his orientation towards trying to debunk every sighting possible, felt that this was a rare case wherein the witness had really seen a flying disk. Trying to find something negative to say about this, months later in the Grudge report, the Grudge analyst at that time groused that the witness should have observed “a greater amount of detail.”  (UFOs & Government, Sparks; Jan Aldrich; Saunders/FUFOR Index)


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