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27. Don't Blame Con-Edison Robert Walsh, deputy city aviation commissioner of Syracuse, New York was flying a private plane over the city when the lights went out. It was 5:22 P.M. on November 9, 1965 - a day which shall long be remembered by residents of the Eastern Seaboard as the Big Blackout. Walsh managed to effect a safe landing, and once on the ground, worked to bring other aircraft down safely. While he was sitting on the ground with several other men, "a strange thing happened ... we saw a sudden ball of fire south of us - toward Thompson Road and Carrier traffic circle. "It appeared to be about 100 feet in the air and 50 feet in diameter. All | could think of was a mushroom effect." Ten minutes later, the group of men saw another ball of fire, similar to the first. "| have yet to see an explanation," Walsh told a reporter for the Syracuse Herald-Journal. Was the Big Blackout, which put 80,000 square miles and several of America's largest cities "in the dark," caused by UFO originated electro-magnetic interference? Many people seem to think so and back up their allegation with eye-witness sightings of glowing saucers in the area only minutes before the lights went out, plunging 30,000,000 persons into total darkness in seven U.S. states and parts of Canada. Weldon Ross of Syracuse was preparing to land his private airplane at Hancock field when he saw a UFO "about 100 feet in diameter" near the New York Power Company. As he watched, the object next passed over the New York Central Railroad tracks between Lake Oneida and Hancock Field. Did the electro-magnetic field of the UFO trigger the progressive overloads as it passed over the New York Power Company plant near Hancock Airport? Ross, a flight instructor who was with a student, James Brooking, said that "a ball of orange-reddish fire which flared up bigger than a house fire" hovered over the high line, which runs from Clay to Niagara Falls, for about 10 seconds.