Page 23 of 161
The sky was slightly clouded but this flying object did not disappear behind the clouds. We estimated the flying height at approximately 7,500 to 10,000 feet. After about four minutes it suddenly stopped glowing and we thought that it disappeared behind a cloudbank first, but after observing exactly with binoculars we would see a dark-looking flying object and after about one minute we could see the glow again. After about 30 seconds, then, this small glow turned into a fairly big fireball - about five times as big as before. It glew (sic) for some seconds and suddenly fell apiece (sic) so that it looked as The explosion took place at approximately 20:04 (8:04 P.M.), and we estimated that the glowing parts have fall to Earth in the area of Toggenburg (western part, County St. Gall). This flying object did not appear in the sky on Thursday (the next day) and we wonder whether you have some knowledge of a low-flying satellite. In case that you can give us some information we would thank you in advance because there is already some silly talk about flying saucers in our newspapers." Naturally, the U.S. Air Force could not supply Mr. Schelling with information about "low-flying" satellites - for the simple reason that no satellite ever could fly at the altitudes he mentioned. Their velocity would have to be so great for them to stay in orbit at those low altitudes that atmospheric friction would almost immediately vaporize them. But neither a missile nor (especially) a satellite would appear in exactly the same place in the sky at exactly the same time on two nights in a row. The satellite's westward drift (due to the Earth's easterly rotational direction) would effectively prevent this from happening. And a single missile once fired is expended. For two missiles to be launched with such precision that they each appear in exactly the same place at the same time on two separate evenings is all but impossible. Furthermore, fireballs, which are exploding meteors, might well resemble the second sighting by Mr. Schelling and his friends - but they certainly wouldn't behave in the specific way described by the Swiss businessman. No fireball, once it has entered the atmosphere and streaked across the sky, can return for a second exhibition 24 hours later. Nor does a fireball extinguish itself to darkness and then Washington, D.C., was the scene of a weird UFO sighting at 5:05 EST in the afternoon of December 13, 1961. Three men, one of them an experienced ex-Navy pilot and flight instructor, sighted the UFO from two different locations in the nation's capital. Their descriptions of the object were identical, except that the Navy pilot went into more technical detail than the others. Obviously what they saw was the strangest aircraft ever to come from any engineering drawing board. Nothing like it was being experimented with by the U.S. Air Force, Navy or Army - otherwise the report would have been classified at least Secret. Instead, its classification is: "Unidentified." fireworks on festivals. glow brightly again just before it explodes. What was the object seen in Switzerland? Nobody knows. In the Project Blue Book files, it is listed tersely as "Unidentified."