From Researcher: Stan Gordon
PA UFO/Fortean Hotline: (24 hours) 724-838-7768
paufo@westol.com

Stan Gordon's UFO Anomalies Zone: http://www.westol.com/~paufo

On October 21, 2002, I received an email report of a UFO incident from the witness involved. The sighting reportedly occurred on Sunday, October 20, 2002, near Tyrone, PA in Blair County. The man forwarded details concerning his experience, as well as two color photographs that he took of the object before it departed. The witness indicated that he had also forwarded this material to the National UFO Reporting Center.

The witness is very concerned about being ridiculed, and requests not to be identified. Due to his concerns, my only communication with the witness has been via email. He has responded to my request for additional details concerning his observation. Due to computer problems, I am unable to post the photographs at this time. I have talked with Peter Davenport at the National UFO Reporting Center, http://www.nwlink.com/~ufocntr/ who is expected to post the pictures as soon as he completes his sighting report updates.

Sighting report narrative:

The witness was hiking in the woods on Ice Mountain near the town of Tyrone. The man had stayed out longer than he expected that day. He estimated that it was about 7:30 P.M. (local time) as he was walking back to his vehicle, when he noticed a bright light south of his location, moving towards him in a northerly direction. His first impression was that it was an airplane. The light appeared similar to the brightness of a normal aircraft light when first observed. He then noticed that the light suddenly stopped, then began to pulsate and appear to brighten and dim. The witness then noticed a faint haze that was orange-red in color, and which encircled the object.

The pulsation pattern of the light began to increase, and it started to flicker very rapidly. The light became might brighter as it pulsated.
Suddenly a thin beam of very bright blue-white light was emitted from the bottom of the object to the ground.
The witness points out that this was not an ordinary searchlight. The witness stated, "This was no searchlight. Even a well focused searchlight tends to diffuse with distance, but this light was a tight, bright beam from top to bottom." The man tried to describe the appearance of the beam with the following statement. "Imagine a piece of dental floss held at arms length, and you'll have a good idea of the beam's apparent width from my location."

The witness said that the pulsating effect suddenly stopped, and the beam of light went out. The observer commented, "As far as the form, I couldn't see any craft or object per se, just the bright light itself and the beam that came down from it, as it was pretty dark at the time."
The object at first appeared to be circular in shape and orange-red in color. When the object stopped moving and began pulsating it seemed more oval or egg shaped. The object continued to hover in the sky, and the witness ran to his vehicle which was about 100 yards away, to get his Olympus digital camera. The witness took one photograph as the object hovered, then a second picture was obtained just as the object was beginning to move around slowly in a tight circle. As the man prepared to take a third picture, the object, "suddenly shot straight up in the air at fantastic speed and was gone from sight."

The sky conditions at the time of observation were described as partly cloudy. The witness did not detect any sound, or odd smells during the sighting. The witness estimates the total incident lasted about 5 minutes or less. The witness commented that at the location where the light beam appeared to meet the ground, he estimated that he was about 1/4 mile away, or farther from the object, and that it was about 1,000 feet in altitude. The witness also mentioned that there is a large microwave relay tower at the top of the mountain, and, "the beam appeared to be hitting the ground close to the tower." The man couldn't see the exact spot where the beam hit.

In closing, the witness had these comments to make. "I don't know what this thing was, but I know I've never seen anything like it before." and "If anyone else saw this object, please let me know. If for no other reason, so I can stop questioning my sanity."

Received via e-mail Oct 23.02