June 5, 1969: The Sky Was Falling!

Thursday June 5, 1969 was a busy day:  

In the first authenticated case of falling space debris causing damage on Earth, the Japanese freighter ship Dai Chi Chinei was heavily damaged by wreckage from a Soviet spacecraft that had re-entered Earth's atmosphere. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Google News Archive Search

"Rivet Amber", a U.S. Air Force RC-135E reconnaissance spy plane similar to one shot by North Korea a month earlier, disappeared along with all 19 of its crew while flying an exercise over the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. Although the plane was not shut down, it sent a distress call to Elmendorf Air Force Base as it traveled from between the island of Shemya and Eielson Air Force Base. The plane was believed to have been monitoring Soviet radar and radio communications from a distance. No trace of the aircraft nor its crew has ever been found. Read more on this here: Shemya's Rivet Amber (hlswilliwaw.com)

The files of Project Blue Book indicate 69 pages of "busy" as well. In a file labeled, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri was a summary sheet concerning one event, one object, seen 05/1750z - 05/2250z

The objects all appeared to come from the east and head to the west or west northwest but the descriptions of the objects verified.

One witness said they were "cone shaped" (almost a capsule configuration), lime green to green. Another witness called the objects seen as "bullet shaped" and silver-blue. One witnessed said there were three of them but one witnessed said it seemed they appeared to be one object and then broke into three pieces, following behind the leading one. Another witness indicated they had appeared to be moving in formation with the two leading and one traveling behind. The basic shape did not shape and the object appeared sharp rather than fuzzy. One witnessed indicated the three parts appeared to be connected by a fine wire or something similar. One indicated a white vapor trailing.

One interesting thing about these files is that some uncommon areas of the files are 'blacked out".  It is not uncommon to see names, places, information blacked out with what appears to be a marker or black grease pencil.  Oddly, in these reports often it is the sketch the witness drew when responding to the question, "where were you....in relation to object...and surroundings." Two responses by witnesses have this area blacked out. One has what reads as the remanent of arrows pointing "North" and "West". In that case the plane the man was in was heading east and the objects seen were heading west. So, one has to wonder was the arrow pointing north means. The other one, from shapes left, seems to infer the witness was explaining what he saw via references to where he was in his neighborhood at the time. Why black that out? On another there is a "correction" a rare notation in the files stating the witness was "confused" about the date entered (June 4) and so it was corrected to read (like the others) June 5.

Given the multi-state nature of the sighting the flight line appears to have been very level and straight west and visible (based on the reports in the file) in St. Louis, Missouri; Iowa, Greenfield, Indiana; Illinois and Iowa. 

The file conclusion is also strangely worded. One letter to a witness and the summary used the word "stimulus": "the stimulus of your UFO sighting of 5 June 1969 has been identified by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory as a meteor.  A preliminary search has found a significant meteor in Mexico in February and a "fireball" in England on June 7. Nothing related to June 5 has been found to date. 

Of note is that NICAP only reported the St. Louis event "  June 5, 1969; St. Louis, MO. 4:00 p.m. This radar/visual was written off as a meteor and observed by three air crews. Four dart-shaped objects witnessed by American Airlines Flight 112, a 707 heading east at 39,000 feet, a United Airlines flight eight miles to the rear at 37,000 feet, and a National Guard jet four miles further at 41,000 feet. The NICAP source claims the objects were tracked on FAA radar at St. Louis. The pilot of the National Guard plane later claimed the UFO formation had approached his craft almost "directly ahead" before altering its course abruptly and ascending quickly at the last moment. (NICAP UFOI Feb " (UFO Report (nicap.org)).

Phillip Klass, poster child for Debunkers, related only the St. Louis in his article "UFO's in Flight Formation" adapted from his "UFO'S Explained" volume. Isolated incidents, like lone witnesses, are much loved by the debunkers Too many focus in on only one region. We talk about the "Washington 1952 Flap" not realizing there were things beings seen all over the country in the months prior and after.  The "Great Midwestern Temperature Inversion Flap of 1965", ignores the thousands of witnesses, newspaper articles and facts that seriously put a hole in that particular dingy. Like