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Indian Point Close Encounter
Excerpt from: Night Siege: The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings
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Summary: A thirty-five-year-old New York State Power Authority police officer that worked as a security guard at the Indian Point nuclear reactor complex located on the Hudson River at Buchahan, New York just south of Peekskill, tells his incredible story.
Indian Point Close Encounter #1
Excerpt From: Night Siege: The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings
By: J. Allen Hynek, Philip J. Imbrogno, and Bob Pratt
June 14, 1984,
A thirty-five-year-old New York State Power Authority police officer that worked as a security guard at the Indian Point nuclear reactor complex located on the Hudson River at Buchahan, New York just south of Peekskill, Tells his incredible story.
From the book Night Siege by Dr J. Allen Hynek and Philip J. Imbrogno Chapter 11 Page 140
The first interview took place at a restaurant in Peekskill late on the night of September 12, 1984 after the guards got off work. Six of the Indian Point security guards showed up, but, because of the lateness of the hour, we were able to talk in depth to only three at that time.
Carl talked to us for forty-five minutes that night and again for a similar length of time on October 5. The first interview was taped, but not the second. He said thee was certain information pertaining to security equipment that he did not want recorded.
Carl had worked, as a security officer for the Power Authority for three years and, before that, had been a New York State Police officer. It turned out he'd had two sightings at the reactor complex, the first on June 14 and the other July 24.
“I was on outside patrol at Indian Point Number Three,” he told us, describing the June 14 sighting. “It was approximately 10:15 at night, and I saw out in the distance a series of lights. We have a clear view for several miles in all directions.
“I saw these lights coming at me. They were white with a yellow hue. I watched them foe about ten minutes, and, at that time I estimated they were about a quarter of a mile form me. They were approaching form the northeast, going southwest, coming directly toward me.
“At that point, I looked over at the Con-Ed people (at the adjoining Consolidated-Edison nuclear power complex), and there were about ten of them looking at the same object. I got on the radio and called some of the other units to come out to my location to observe the object with me. I knew that it was something strange, and since it was getting so close, I wanted someone to come and assist me if I needed help. I didn't want to take any chances.”
Two other guards responded to his call.
“We all looked at this thing for approximately twenty minutes, and during that time I would say it hovered in one area for about fifteen minutes without moving,” Carl said.
The object consisted of ten or more lights arranged in a boomerang pattern. It appeared to be hovering about a quarter of a mile from one of the gates to the complex, and at that distance, they could not make out any shape.
“The lights were incredibly bright and they were steady,” Carl said. “It was hovering over the parking lot on the reactor grounds and over some buildings that have lights on twenty-four hours a day. These are bright security lights, and the lights on this object were at least ten times as bright.
“The building it was over is quite large eighty feet high-and this object dwarfed it.”
He estimated the object was at least 300 feet from one end to the other.
“Behind the lights was a dark mass,” he said. “I know this because a plane flew by in the distance and you could see the plane's lights quite clearly. When it passed close to the object, the object blocked out the lights of the plane, and a few seconds later the plane emerged from behind the other side of the object. So there was some type of huge dark mass behind the lights.”
Fifteen to twenty minutes later, the object moved off toward Peekskill. “When it started to move, it moved no more than ten miles an hour.”
Carl had no doubt that it was a solid object and not a formation of aircraft, partly because winds were gusting up to twenty-five knots an hour that night.
“No small plane could stay in formation with the wind that night.” He said, “The wind didn't faze these lights at all. When it hovered, it just stood there, I was in the service and I flew helicopters, and I know how hard it is to keep a formation with small planes. No way was this a formation of planes. I saw no hint of any standard lights that a plane would have, also, the lights wee much too intense for a small aircraft.
“When the object turned, it rotated as if it was lying on a wheel. It made a very slow, sharp, ninety-degree turn. The object always moved in the direction of the apex.”
July 24, 1984,
Carl then went on to tell about the night of July 24.
It all started with another security guard calling and saying, “Hey, here comes that UFO again!' With that being heard all over the air, everyone came running to see it. At that time, there were five of us, including two supervisors who also came out to see it.
“It approached form basically the same direction as before, and this time the lights were changing, First, they would all be yellow, then white, and then all turned blue. The lights were in a semicircle, and in the rear, pretty far back, was this red, blinking light,”
Stars were blocked from sight as the object moved between them and the guards.
“As the object approached the plant, I got about as close as 500 feet from it,” Carl said. “It looked like and ice cream cone. You could see it was a solid body about the size of three football fields. At this time, it was directly over our heads, and we were looking up at it. It was still moving, but very slowly. I could walk and keep up with it, so it mist have been going slower than five to ten miles an hour.”
Carl said he and the other guards watched the object for about twenty minutes. All the time you could see the structure behind it.”
Only one of the three reactors was in operation, Carl said. “Ours was the only one working. This object picked the right one to fly over, and that's what got our supervisor worried. This thing got within thirty feet of the reactor.”
As on the night of June 14, there were winds gusting up to thirty knots an hour.
“We were all standing there with our mouths open,” Carl said. “We were in awe of it! If the thing stayed over us, the order was already given to get ready to shoot it down. We had shotguns and were waiting for the final word to fire on it.”
Another officer, who we'll call Milton, was on duty inside, watching TV monitors at a security console that allows him to aim cameras placed at strategic points around and outside the buildings.
“I received a call form Officer ---- and Officer ----, saying there was something in the sky, and I asked them what it was,” Milton told us. “They told me to swing my camera over in the direction where they saw this object.”
One ot the cameras under his control was at the top of a ninety-five-foot-tall pole.
“I turned my camera in that direction, and I saw eight bright lights in a V shape, very wide, almost like half circle. They were at least as bright as the landing lights on a large jet. My supervisor and I panned the camera up and sown, and the object was very large, bigger than a football field.”
He said the object was so huge that he had to pan the camera nearly 180 degrees to scan it the entire object from front to back.
“It was one solid structure and very large. We had it on camera for about fifteen minutes. I was trying to think of some logical explanation for what it was, but I didn't know. Whatever it was, it was larger than a C-%A, which is the largest aircraft in the world and has a wingspan of 212 feet. This was much larger. It seemed very brazen. It acted like it didn't care who saw it.”
Still another officer, who was reluctant to be identified for fear of jeopardizing his job, said, “There was this series of lights in the shape of a boomerang, and behind it was this dark structure, and there were these two things on the bottom that looked like hollow spheres of some sort. They looked like portals that could open up and rockets or something could fly out of there. They were very dark. It was very low. It was so close I actually got scared looking at it.”
1. As the object approached the east gate of Reactor Number Three, the neclear plant's security system shut down. Sensors that detect movement shut down, and the entire alarm system failed.
2. Inside the security console, the computer that controls all security and communications systems shut down.
3. At that time, the commander contacted Camp Smith, a New York National Guard base less than ten miles away, requesting identification of the object. No answer was given. A request was then made for an armed helicopter to shoot the object down. Before the command was given to launch the helicopter, the UFO moved away.
4. The next day, the commander of the security guards informed then that “nothing happened” and the event was to be forgotten.
5. The incident was witnessed by several plant workers as well as the security guards.
6. A number of area residents saw the object at the same time the plant guards did, and the Peekskill police received numerous calls about the UFO the same night.
7. A videotape of the object may exist, since all the security cameras automatically record everything they see and the tapes are kept for a certain period of time before being reused. However, authorities say no such tape exists.
8. All radio communications that night were also routinely recorded, but the tapes reportedly no longer exist.
9. In the days following the incident, officials of the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission visited the plant, and the entire security setup underwent a shakeup.
Gerry Culliton, a reporter for radio station WVIP in Mt. Kisco, New York, did get and acknowledgment form Carl Patrick, of the plant's information office, that the sightings had occurred.
“He told me there definitely were sightings, “Culliton told us, “and he said the New York State Police did and investigation and arrested four Cessna pilots.”
However, Police records confirmed that no pilots were arrested. Culliton said he asked for a copy of the UFO incident report, but was told that “all security procedures and measures that are taken here are completely confidential to protect our own security.”…
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