On December 9 1965, hundreds of witnesses in southern Canada, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania observed a UFO crash from the sky. In March 1966, scientist and UFO investigator Ivan Sanderson compiled an account from various eye witness stories.

The object took six minutes to pass the observed trajectory, from which Sanderson calculated a speed of 1,600 km/h, which, if accurate, would rule out a meteor. Several pilots spoke of being buffeted by shock waves as the thing passed them. There were also stories of a sonic boom and vibrations felt on the ground. The smoke trail was so intense that it remained visible for up to twenty minutes. During the final few miles of its flight the object seemed to change course.

After the impact the police set off the forest. They were subsequently chased away by the military. A few hours later the military team told them they had found nothing.

In January 1980 UFO investigator Clark McClelland interviewed the assistant fire chief of Kecksburg, James Mayes, and Melvin Reese, another fireman. They reported that their team had come within sixty meters of the object. They had seen an object on the ground that had smashed its way through the trees. Mayes explained how the military had cordoned off the woods and had established a temporary base, complete with telecom link. Fire chief Robert Bitner later confirmed this story. He also said had seen an object that was 1.8m high, 2m wide and some 5m long, clearly not an aircraft. It was resting at an angle on the ground as if it had impacted nearly horizontally. Another fire officer, 'Pete', stated he had seen a ring of bumpers around it into which were described some pictorial symbols. Being of Polish decent he could read Russian and stated that they were not Russian.

Researcher Ray Boeche file a Freedom of Information request for more data on the incident. In 1985 30 pages of data were procured. It was insignificant information, except for a memo that said a three man team had been dispatched to the site to pick up an object. The final conclusion of the file was that the UFO was a meteor.

A theory has been proposed that the object was a crashed Russian satellite (Cosmos 96). However, NASA has released data that say that Cosmos 96 reentered Earth's orbit on December 9, 3.15 a.m. The crash took place 13 hours later.

After the US TV series Unsolved Mysteries had reported the case two new witnesses came forward. One was a USAF officer at Lockbourne AFB (near Columbus, Ohio). In the early hours of December 10, a truck arrived by the little used back gate of the base and he was ordered to patrol it. It was a flat-bed with a large tarpaulin on the surface covering a conical object. He was told to shoot anyone who tried to get too close. He was advised the truck was bound for Wright Patterson AFB, which is the reputed home of other crashed saucers.

The other witness was a building contractor who was asked two days later to take a load of 6,500 special bricks to a hangar inside Wright Patterson. When he sneaked a look inside the hangar he saw a bell-shaped device, some 4m. high sitting there. Several men wearing white anti-radiation style suits were inspecting the object. After he had been escorted out he was told that he had just seen an object that would become common knowledge in 20 years time.