Don Berlinner describes the case as follows:

Sept. 13, 1952; Allentown, Pennsylvania. 7:40 p.m. Witness: private pilot W.A. Hobler, flying a Beech Bonanza. One object, shaped like a fat football, flaming orange-red color, descended and then pulled up in front of the witness’ airplane. Seen for 2 seconds.

Beech Bonanza

Sparks’ entry is basically a repeat of Berlinner’s. He lists the duration as being <15 seconds but adds a question mark. He also gives a more descriptive entry of the pilot’s reactions.

The Blue Book file3

The case file consists of a record card and a report from Mitchell AFB in New York, which summarized/quoted a letter from the witness dated September 23rd. The event reported by the witness contains the following information:

• The date was listed as September 13, 1952

• The time was listed as about 19:40 EDT

• The witness was a pilot in a plane flying at 10,000 feet over Allentown, Pennsylvania. The direction he was flying towards ap- pears to be northeast.

• The pilot was located 15-20 miles NE of Allentown when he saw the UFO.

• The pilot described the object as a “fat football and three feet in diameter”. He also noted it was very bright and flaming or- ange-red in color.

• The object was at 11 o’clock high and descending at a 30 degree angle.

• He thought it was a falling star. To avoid collision, he pulled up.

• The object then rose in a 65 degree climb and flew over the aircraft’s windshield.

• The pilot did a 180 degree turn but the object was gone by the time he completed the turn.

• The event lasted no longer than 2 seconds by the witness’ estimate.

The witness spent the next twenty minutes thinking about the sighting and verifying it was not a reflection in his windshield.

The witness then mentioned he was prompted to report his sighting based on a 18 September 1952 Newark Evening news article describing a flaming object that hovered a town for twenty minutes.

Analysis

The record card mentions that this could be a meteor but the change in direction seemed to rule out this possibility. I disagree. The change in direction is what the pilot perceived. This was an observation that, based on the estimate of the pilot, was only two seconds in duration. That seems like a short period of time to observe details and get them correct. If he saw a meteor, it might appear to be descending towards him in a collision but the meteor would actually pass over his aircraft. The change in direction would be a perception issue and not an actual physical change in direction. Based on the description, the meteor went from NE to SW.

A search of the newspaper archive reveals that there was a fireball meteor seen between 7 and 8 PM on September 12th (see next page).4,5,6,7 It was visible in Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, and Tennessee. Its motion was towards the west and many people described it as very bright. The time of the meteor, the direction of travel, and the area of visibility seem to match what the witness reported. The only difference is the date. It is important to point out that the pilot submitted his report on the 23rd, ten days after the event. It is possible the witness may have gotten the date incorrect in his letter.

Conclusion

This event should be listed as a “possible meteor” with the chance of it being “probable” if we assume the date listed was incorrect and what was seen was the September 12 fireball. We cannot be sure if he got the date wrong but, based on the similarities of the observed meteor on the 12th, it is plausible. In either case, the observation was characteristic of a bright meteor and it should be removed from the listed of unidentifieds and the Weinstein list.

Quelle: SUNlite 5/2023