SUBJECT: 1966 UFOs CALLED GAS FILE: UFO3314
Article #: 7
From: UFO INFO SERVICE
Date Sent: 06-17-1986
Subject: 1966 UFOS CALLED GAS
SOURCE: NYT (DETROIT)
DATE: 26 MARCH 1966
FLYING OBJECTS ARE CALLED GAS
Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a Northwestern University Astrophysicist who is also USAF's
civilian investigator of unidentified flying objects, after studying the widely
witnessed Dexter and Hilsdale UFO sightings in southern Michigan, has called
the report by 87 coeds, a college dean, and a civil defense director from
Hillsdale "a very puzzling sighting. There has been a flood of other reports
from this area and I could not possibly have the time to investigate all of
these." The other reports were of little scientific value, he added, because
there were no substantial groups of witnesses agreeing on what they had seen.
The other of the "two principal events" happened at Dexter the previous night
when some 50 people reported seeing a similar football-shaped object hovering
over a swamp.
Dr. Hynek said "This could have been due to the release of variable quantities
of marsh gas. A dismal swamp is a most unlikely place for a visit from outer
space. It is not a place where a helicopter would hover for several hours, or
where a soundless secret device would likely be tested." Rotting vegetation
produces the gas "which can be trapped by ice and winter conditions. When a
spring thaw occurs, the gas may be released in some quantity." This may cause
lights "sometimes right on the ground, sometimes merely floating above it. The
flames go out in one place and suddenly appear in another place, giving the
illusion of motion. No heat is felt and the lights do not burn or char the
ground. They can appear for hours at a time and sometimes for a whole night.
Generally there is no smell, and usually no sound - except the popping sound of
little explosions." The astrophysicist emphasized that his explanation did not
"cover the entire UFO phenomenon over the past 20 years" and that very few
sightings could be attributed to marsh gas.
Dr. Hynek also said that the Milan photographs taken March 17 were "without any
question" only time exposures of a rising moon and the planet Venus. The
consultant agreed with a questioner that the flying saucer phenomenon could be
an interesting field of study for other specialists such as psychologists and
sociologists. Though his investigation here, he said, is over.
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