In 1965, thousands of people reported seeing a fireball streak across the sky and seemingly land in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, but no one is sure what it was.
Navy2004/Wikimedia CommonsA statue which depicts the UFO from the Kecksburg UFO Incident.
On Dec. 9, 1965, the town of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania became ground zero for the Kecksburg UFO incident, a curious event that was later dubbed the “Roswell of Pennsylvania.”
Early that evening, thousands of people in several different U.S. states — and Ontario, Canada — reported seeing a fireball streak across the sky. Some felt a “vibration” or heard a “thump” before the object seemingly crashed in the woods near the tiny town of Kecksburg.
In the years since, the Kecksburg UFO Incident has been the subject of intense speculation. What fell from the sky that night? Theories range from UFOs, to Soviet space probes, to meteorites, but no one is sure what fell in Kecksburg back in 1965.
The Strange Fireball Seen In The Sky Across North America
The story of the Kecksburg UFO Incident began on Dec. 9, 1965, when thousands of people from Michigan to New York state reported seeing a fireball in the sky. In Pennsylvania, witnesses reportedly saw the object fall into the woods near the town of Kecksburg, 30 miles south of Pittsburgh.
“An ‘unidentified flying object,’ possibly the same one seen streaking across seven northeastern states and Canada late Thursday afternoon — apparently fell to the earth in a secluded wooded area near Kecksburg in Westmoreland County,” the Greensburg Tribune-Review reported the next day.
The paper further reported that the area where the object had landed was cordoned off “on the order of U.S. Army and State Police officials.” No one was allowed near the area, which led some to speculate that whatever had landed could have radioactive properties. The paper reported that it could have been a meteorite, or perhaps a test rocket, though the “National Guard and Air Force officials told UPI reporters that no rockets had been fired.”
Public DomainAn artist’s depiction of what the Kecksburg UFO could have looked like.
But while most people could not get a close look at the object, some allegedly managed to sneak a peek.
According to the Pennsylvania Center For The Book, resident Bill Bulebush witnessed the object as it fell. He claimed that it moved “just like it was controlled” before it crashed in the woods. Bulebush went to investigate and purportedly found a 10-foot-long acorn-shaped object that glowed and sparked. It frightened Bulebush, who ran when he heard others approaching.
Meanwhile, a volunteer firefighter named James Romansky also claimed to have seen the object while investigating what he assumed was a plane crash. Romansky said he saw a metal object sticking out of the ground. It was allegedly covered in symbols that resembled hieroglyphics, and Romansky claimed it was taken away by the military on a flatbed truck.
So what really landed in Kecksburg that night? There have been multiple attempts to explain and analyze what could have possibly fallen out of the sky during the Kecksburg UFO Incident.
What Landed In Kecksburg? Theories Range From UFOS To Meteorites To Nothing At All
Because of how the object landed in Kecksburg — and how it was allegedly taken away by the military shortly thereafter — many have long assumed that a UFO piloted by aliens crashed in the woods that night. Indeed, that’s why the Kecksburg UFO Incident is referred to as “Pennsylvania’s Roswell.”
But what else could the object have been? Theories abound.
One of the most widely accepted theories is that a meteorite could have landed in Kecksburg. This is what many newspapers reported the day afterward, and it is indeed possible that such an object could have been seen streaking through the sky. Some have speculated that the object was a bolide, an bright meteor or fireball, possibly from the asteroid belt.
Another theory is that the Kecksburg UFO was a foreign object — but a terrestrial one. One of the odder theories suggests that it was a bell-shaped Nazi time machine called Die Glocke, possibly acquired by the U.S. during Operation Paperclip. Another posited that the Kecksburg UFO was part of the Soviet satellite Kosmos 96, which did re-enter the atmosphere on December 9 after attempting to reach Venus. However, this is unconfirmed.
Zusurs/Wikimedia CommonsA depiction of Die Glocke, a mythical Nazi time machine that bears some resemblance to the “acorn-shaped” object which landed in Kecksburg.
Finally, one theory even suggests that nothing landed in Kecksburg on Dec. 9, 1965. While something did streak through the sky, a fact established by thousands of witnesses, including pilots, articles in scientific journals suggested that it landed elsewhere. Both the Sky & Telescope and Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada argued that the object actually landed closer to the north or northwestern shore of Lake Erie. Reports that it landed in Kecksburg could have been an optical illusion.
Even today, it’s difficult to determine what exactly happened during the Kecksburg UFO Incident. But some sparse clues have emerged.
Evidence From The Kecksburg UFO Incident — And The Lingering Mystery
Wikimedia CommonsA recreation of what one witness claimed to have seen in the woods in 1965.
According to reporting from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2005, NASA determined that the Kecksburg UFO was actually a Soviet satellite that broke up as it reentered the atmosphere. However, a NASA spokesperson admitted that records pertaining to the Kecksburg UFO Incident had since been lost.
“As a rule, we don’t track UFOs,” the spokesperson said. “What we could do, and what we apparently did as experts in spacecraft in the 1960s, was to take a look at whatever it was and give our expert opinion. We did that, we boxed [the case] up and that was the end of it. Unfortunately, the documents supporting those findings were misplaced.”
A journalist named Leslie Kean, who worked with the Coalition for Freedom of Information, eventually compelled NASA to release their records about Kecksburg. However, the new information didn’t reveal much. The documents handed over to Kean did not contain a “smoking gun,” though they did deepen the mystery somewhat by suggesting that the object that landed in Kecksburg was neither Soviet nor American-made.
Kean told NBC News that she suspects that the Kecksburg UFO was thus a UFO — or something the U.S. government still wants to keep secret. It could have been a spy satellite, for example, or a piece of new technology.
This theory was echoed by John Ventre of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), who suggested in 2015 that the Kecksburg UFO could be “General Electric Mark 2 Re-entry Vehicle” which was launched by the U.S. as a satellite, before it fell out of orbit. However, this theory is unconfirmed.
Public DomainThe design of a General Electric Mark 2 Re-entry Vehicle.
“Personally, I’m rooting for the UFO evidence since I’m with the Mutual UFO Network,” Ventre told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2015. “But I really have to say that we have an extremely good theory that this was a spy satellite.”
The Kecksburg UFO Incident thus joins a number of other strange UFO sightings in the mid-20th century, including the alleged alien attack that occurred during the Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter of 1955, and the alleged abduction of Betty and Barney Hill in 1961. And Kecksburg has embraced its reputation as the “Rosewell of Pennsylvania” with an annual UFO Festival put on by the volunteer fire department.
The mystery has also been featured in numerous UFO investigation shows and documentaries, including Unsolved Mysteries, The New Roswell: Kecksburg Exposed, and UFO Hunters. It’s also inspired fictional works, like the BBC’s 2024 drama Limelight: The Skies Are Watching.
But the Kecksburg UFO Incident remains just that — a mystery.
“We need confirmation from NASA or the Air Force. We’ve left messages. but we’re not getting any phone calls back,” Ventre remarked to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “All the characteristics in our report match up with the Kecksburg UFO. So we’re putting this out there and hoping it will get picked up and maybe some people who know something will finally, after all these years, step forward and give us some answers.”
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