The article below was published in the daily newspaper The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pennsylvania, USA, July 21, 1965.
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By JERRY BUCK
Associated Press Staff Writer
NEW YORK, July 20. -- Some people around the world say they are seeing more in summer skies than buzzing insects and birds on the wing.
From Antarctica to England come reports of mysterious flying objects zipping through space and, in some reported cases, interfering with electromagnetic equipment.
At least five sightings outside the United States in the past two weeks remain unexplained.
But a glowing object that caused a commotion from Ohio to Maryland turned out to be a runaway Navy balloon launched in Canada.
What are these objects?
The Air Force, which has looked into 9,127 reported sightings to date since 1947, says they’re usually balloons, birds, searchlights, jet exhausts-or the red and white kite sent up by your neighbor's child.
To date, the Air Force said only 667 remained unidentified. And most of these, it said, could be explained away if more information was available to its investigative agency, Project Bluebook at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio.
The Air Force said its years of investigations have turned up absolutely no evidence to indicate the objects came from space.
Disagreeing with the Air Force is Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe, a retired Marine pilot who is director of the National Investigations Committee for Aerial Phenomena in Washington, D.C.
"The conclusion of the majority of our board of governors and scientific consultants is that these things must be from some advanced civilization," said Keyhoe.
Keyhoe contends the Air Force reached the same conclusion years ago, but has a "high level policy of explaining the sightings away one way or another so as not to scare people."
The saucer season got off to a flying start in Europe on July 7.
"It was very frightening," said Mrs. Dora Horlock, who, with her husband, Harold, spotted a fiery object in the southern sky near Warminster, England.
That same night in Valensole, France, Maurice Masse said he saw taking off from his farm an object that resembled a large football with four metal legs. "We don’t think it was a gag," said an official.
The next day the Chilean Air Force and Argentine Navy reported that Chilean, Argentine, and British personnel in Antarctica saw a lens-shaped object-"yellowish red, changing to green, yellow and orange"-that affected instruments used to measure magnetic fields.
Over Portugal and the Azores July 10, more flying things were seen. The Villa Do Porto weather station in the Azores said a glowing object appeared over the island and that the bureau's electromagnetic clock stopped.
Around the globe on July 15, air traffic officers and other expert aircraft observers said they spotted a flying object glinting in the sun near the airport at Canberra, Australia. It was visible for 40 minutes, then disappeared when an Air Force plane was sent after it.
Another sighting was reported last night at Weymouth, Mass.
Mrs. Lawrence Frazier said her sons, Ronald, 20, and Robert, 27, saw "pulsating flights... spread out over the sky." She said it "sounded like a flying science fiction movie."
