HILL RADAR-UFO CONNECTION WEAK
By Richard Hall

(2/2/05 Note:  This article was in MUFON UFO Journal No. 140, October 1979.)


In the July MUFON UFO Journal (No. 137) some comments about a radar sighting apparently coinciding with the famous 1961 Hill abduction case in New Hampshire were excerpted from a longer article by Patricia McMahon. Ms. McMahon reported that the Project Blue Book files contained a reference to the radar sighting, but not the full report.

David Webb has since informed the Journal that in 1970 Betty Hill obtained copies of the Air Force intelligence reports on the radar incident and made copies available to the Massachusetts investigators. Dave forwarded copies of these, plus internal investigation reports by Walter Webb (May 29, 1972) and John Oswald (January 1976) indicating that the radar track and Hill incident, despite the coincidence in time, probably were unrelated. The Journal was unaware of these reports and regrets perpetuating the story that the UFO in the Hill case may have been tracked on radar, No evidence for this has been found.

The Air Force report, dated 20 September 1961, reads as follows:

0614 (Z?) OBSERVED UNIDENTIFIED A/C COME ON PAR (PRECISION APPROACH RADAR AT PEASE AFB-ED) 4 MILES OUT. A/C MADE APPROACH AND PULLED UP AT 1/2 MILE. SHORTLY AFTER OBSERVED WEAK TARGET ON DOWNWIND, THEN RADAR CTC (CONTACT-ED } LOST. TWR (TOWERED.) WAS ADVISED OF THE A/C WHEN IT WAS ON FINAL, THEN WHEN IT MADE LOW APPROACH. TWR UNABLE TO SEE ANY A/C AT ANY TIME.

Oswald's  report illustrates the runways and approach patterns at the Air Force base. The report indicates that some unidentified "aircraft" (possibly a UFO, but doing nothing extraordinary) was detected by radar in the Pease AFB landing pattern. However, this was at low level some 80 miles away from the "abduction" site and is not even a strong radar case, so that any link with the Hill incident is purely conjectural.

Assertions by Betty Hill that several radar sets tracked a UFO and that Air Force pilots chased it are based purely on her memory of verbal statements by acquaintances, and no documentation exists in support of them. The radar sighting at Pease AFB is not even clearly a UFO nor is it clearly connected with the Hill incident, and no other documentation is known at the present time.

(Note: Readers having important information bearing on cases discussed in the Journal are urged to submit it, either for publication or for backgound information. Please do not assume that we are omniscient.)