The Beverly Incident And The Wave Of UFO Encounters In Massachusetts, April 1966

The UFO encounter in Beverly, Massachusetts is perhaps one of the best UFO and alien incidents on record. Not least as it featured multiple witnesses who observed the mysterious object from an extremely close range. The sighting, though, was just one of many that appeared to be of the same craft in the Massachusetts region in April 1966, while also sharing similarities with a similar surge of sightings in Michigan the month before.

In fact, the object witnessed and the details of how it behaved can be found in many other UFO sightings that have occurred over the decades, suggesting that these particular crafts and the encounters that are on record with it might begin to provide us with a view of the truth of the mysterious and persistent sightings.

Might these particular sightings have been for a specific purpose, and if so what might that purpose have been? And were they an extraterrestrial mission or a top-secret military intelligence one? Or might they have been part of some bizarre and equally unexplainable mass hallucination? Whatever the truth of the matter, that something strange was taking place at this moment in time is not questioned.

While we will examine some of the many UFO sightings that occurred in the northeastern United States very shortly, we will first return our attention back to Beverley in Massachusetts and one of the best-documented sightings of a wave of sightings that would take over the Bay State in the spring of 1966.

Something “Whizzing, Ricocheting Around” Outside!

At around 9 pm on 22^nd April 1966, 11-year-old Nancy Modugno was in her bed when a sudden bright, blinking light began to shine through her bedroom window. ^[1] Obviously curious, she got out of bed and walked to the window. When she looked outside, she was more than shocked to see a football-shaped object approximately the same size as a car around 40 feet away. It was extremely bright and flashed blue, green, red, and white lights.

The object was moving slowly just above the houses, making a “whizzing, ricocheting sound” as it did so. She continued to watch the object as it made its way over the nearby Beverly High School before descending and disappearing behind the trees appearing to land in a nearby field.

At this point, Nancy turned and made her way downstairs as quickly as she could. She found her father (her mother, Claire, was out visiting friends in a nearby apartment) and blurted out what she had just seen. As she began telling him, the television set began to go blurry with static. Her father, while telling her to calm down, got up to try and adjust the set. As the picture became increasingly blurred, eventually disappearing completely, Nancy’s father told her to go back to bed. However, determined to make him listen to her, she refused.

As the scene was unfolded, two of her mother’s friends, Brenda Maria and Barbara Smith, returned in order to telephone for a pizza. They immediately asked what was wrong. As the young girl told them what she had seen, Barbara noticed the light through the window. She would later recall that “it was just a red flashing light that moved slowly around the sky”. It eventually disappeared behind some trees. At first, Barbara suspected the light was a small aircraft.

After listening to Nancy’s tale, Barbara and Brenda offered to walk over to the field so that she could see that it was just a plane.

“Look! It’s Directly Over Us!”

Claire, after her friends quickly informed her what Nancy had told them, joined the two women for their walk to the field. As they did, though, they began to realize that what they were looking at was far from a small plane. Above their heads, they could see three strange objects that circling overhead, almost as if they were involved in some kind of aerial game. They noticed how they were distinctly oval-shaped and flashed with bright lights. One of them also appeared to be decidedly closer to them than the other two, appearing to be hovering directly over the high school.

As strange as the encounter was proving to be, they decided to continue on. The flashing blue, green, and red lights lit up the ground as they got closer. Brenda decided to wave her arms at the object. However, no sooner than she had done so it immediately headed in their direction.

Barbara turned to run in the opposite direction before she heard Brenda telling her to look up as it was “directly over us”. Barbara did so and saw a “round object” that appeared “like the bottom of a plate”. She would further describe it as a “solid, grayish-white” that was shaped “like a giant mushroom”.

Barbara, along with Claire began running from the scene once more. After a few moments, they turned and noticed that Brenda had not followed them. Instead, she was standing along in the field with the bizarre object overhead.

An Object “Like A Large Plate” With Flashing Lights!

Brenda remained where she was, looking upward at the still approaching craft. She would later recall that the closer it came she noticed that the lights were “all around (it) and (were) turning”. She also described how the atmosphere appeared “blurry” overhead.

As she continued to look up she began to hear her friends calling her name, eager for her to join them away from approaching object. This appeared to snap her out of her almost trance-like state, and she turned and headed toward her friends. Beyond scared, all three of the women hurriedly made their way back to the apartments. As they did so, the object began moving once more toward the school.

Once back in Claire’s apartment, the woman immediately called other residents to let them know what was taking place. One of those calls went to Mr. and Mrs. Lessor, who immediately ventured over to Claire’s apartment. Another resident who the women contacted was Theresa Scanzani, who while not being able to join them, claimed to have seen one of the objects pass directly over the apartments from her back yard.

In no time at all, multiple residents were outside looking at the aerial spectacle before them. One of the strange craft was still hovering directly over the high school no higher than 30 feet from the roof, with the other two were further in the distance, now appearing like large stars that were changing color. After several moments, Mr. Lessor reported the sighting to the police.

They arrived a short time later. By this time, many more residents had ventured outside. The object was still above the school, rising and descending repeatedly. By the time the two officers had joined the crowd the object was high in the sky, little more than a star. Needless to say, the two officers were dismissive of the report when they viewed the object at this altitude.

Then, however, the object began a sudden descent, once again stopping just above the school, glowing red as it did so. The police now gave the unfolding situation their full attention. One of them, Officer Mahan, would later recall that the object appeared like a “large plate” which had “three lights, red, green, and blue”. He recalled how the lights flashed but that the object remained perfectly silent.

The policeman, Officer Bossie, would recall that the object hovered for several moments before it began to glide through the air. After several moments, Bossie and Mahan got back inside their police car and headed toward the school where the object hovered.

A Credible Sighting With “Mature And Sincere” Witnesses

The closer the two police officers got to the object the more they could see that it definitely wasn’t a plane or a helicopter. They would describe it as being shaped like a “half dollar” with red, green, and blue lights. They further described what looked like “indentations” toward what they assumed was the back of the craft.

They pulled the cruiser to a stop and exited the vehicle. When they did so, the object began to move in circular motions over the top of the school. Then, it began to slowly move away and rise into the sky. As the seconds went by it began to pick up pace, eventually disappearing behind the buildings in the distance.

As the officers and the crowd watched the object disappear, they suddenly noticed that the other two objects had also vanished.

Mrs. Lessor, unbeknown to the other witnesses, kept a watch over the area from her apartment until late in the evening, At just after midnight, she witnessed “one object (that) appeared over the High School”. She described this object as “most white” which “when it was about to stop it turned green”. It circled the school three times, stopping directly over it at the end of each lap before disappearing into the distance.

The case was examined by several UFO investigators and organizations and has been reexamined multiple times in the decades since.

According to Ray Fowler’s report, the witnesses were regarded as “mature and sincere” and did not appear to be “seeking publicity”. He would further state that all of the witnesses were “very familiar with the conventional running lights, configuration, and noise of conventional airplanes and helicopters” due to the number of aircraft they all regularly witness flying in and out of Logan, and Beverly airports, both of which are nearby.

What’s more, the sheer number of corroborating witnesses of the three women who saw the object up close – two of whom were on-duty police officers – added further credibility to the account.

Many More Sightings At The Same Time

There were also other points of interest that were replicated in many other sightings. ^[2] For example, in the town of Sharon – only 50 miles away – there were six other reports of strange objects in the sky on the 19^th and 20^th April. Even more intriguing, on those same evening, according to NICAP files, there were over 20 UFO reports on the eastern seaboard of the United States (some of which we will examine very shortly).

One of the most intriguing sightings was the aforementioned incident in Sharon. On the night in question, four police officers, as well as a family of three, witnessed a “football-shaped” object with red and white flashing lights that were so close they could almost “see inside”. One of the policemen, Officer Bernard Coffey would describe distinctly seeing the red lights on what appeared to be the front and rear of the craft, with the white lights running in between, along the main body.

The short video below examines the Sharon sightings a little closer and the video below is a news report of the incident.

Regular Sightings Increase

There were, as we mentioned above, many other sightings around the same time as the incident in Beverley. ^[3] In fact, if we go back several days to just before 8 pm on 12^th April in Dorchester, Massachusetts, a “low-flying object” with colored lights and dome on the top was reported to be circling over the top of a schoolhouse while occasionally “bobbing up and down” (almost identical to the details in the Beverly sighting a week later). What’s more, there were, according to a report in the 13^th April 1966 edition of the Boston Globe American, several examples of power failure in the region around the same time.

Just over two hours later in the town of Brockton, a cigar-shaped craft with a red-orange light at each end was reported hovering over the highway. Although it was in the state of Michigan, the following evening in Kalamazoo, a police officer, along with several corroborative witnesses, reported a similar cigar-shaped object. This time they reported flashing white lights with occasional red and green flashes (once more, very similar to lights reported in the Beverly incident).

At just before 8 pm on 16^th April in Sherborn another cigar-shaped object was reported hovering near the highway. This time the witness claimed the object had a red light at each end with blue light running along the side. Just short of 24 hours later at 7:15 pm on 17^th April in Danvers, multiple people witnessed and reported a strange elliptical object circling in the skies. All claimed it had white lights that appeared to rotate around its edge. It eventually disappeared into the clouds.

Only 15 minutes later in Peabody – only five miles from Danvers – came another surge of sightings. Multiple people reported seeing an oval-shaped object that made zigzag and circular movements in the sky. It had domed-top and red, green, white, and blue lights on its underside. The object then zipped away and disappeared into the distance at brilliantly high speed. At the same time, an identical object hovered over a nearby school for several moments before also disappearing at high speed.

Around 45 minutes later, only nine miles away in Wakefield, a similar object was witnessed. Several residents reported seeing the oval-shaped craft. And once again they reported how it would rise and descend while shining red, blue, green, and white lights. On this occasion, as opposed to hovering over a school or other building, it hovered over Lake Quannapowitt. Some witnesses also reported hearing a low humming noise.

Something Very Definitely In The Skies Over Massachusetts

Almost exactly 24 hours after its previous sighting, another incident unfolded in Peabody at 7:15 pm on 18^th April. Once more an oval object was reported by several witnesses, who would also state it had a blue glow to it with red-green flashing lights. It would, they claimed, hover in one place for several moments before moving back and forth at high speed. It did this several times before disappearing.

Several hours later, at just before 10 pm in Cohasset (around 25 miles away), another oval-shaped object was reported. Witnesses reported a set of “white body lights” on its underside, with flashing red lights around the edge. Interestingly, when a searchlight was pointed at it, it immediately rose into the air at great speed and disappeared.

At just before midnight in Lancaster in the state of Ohio, a motorist almost collided with a bright object that had seemingly landed in the middle of the road. They would describe the object as having bright, white lights with “intense red body lights”. After bringing his vehicle to a stop, he turned around to view the object once more. By the time he had done so, it was flying at low altitude over a nearby field. Then, with no warning, the lights went out and the object, for all intents and purposes, disappeared.

We examined the incidents in Sharon (back in Massachusetts) above. Around 12 hours after those, however, at noon on 19^th April, another bizarre object was reported in Peabody near the Boston Metroplex. Several witnesses reported seeing an oval-shaped object with red, green, and white lights that were moving in an “up and down motion”. They continued to watch as it appeared to land in a nearby field. Two curious witnesses went to get a closer look. However, by the time they located the field the object was high in the sky, rising and eventually disappearing.

A strange sighting occurred in the state of Connecticut on the same day at 8 pm in Hartford. On this occasion, two oval-shaped objects with red and green lights were reported hovering directly over the Rock Hill Veterans Home and Hospital.

Two hours later, back in Massachusetts in Bellingham (around 80 miles from Hartford), a cigar-shaped object with bright red lights was witnessed hovering overhead. Witnesses recalled hearing a low hissing or humming sound that appeared to come from the strange craft.

Just short of two hours later, at 11:45 pm in Quincy, another multi-witness incident unfolded. Several local residents reported seeing a large disc-shaped object accompanied by two smaller discs, each with red and white lights on their underside that flashed. Witnesses also reported that they moved in a strange pendulum-like motion, moving back and forth as they did so.

More Reports Come In

Several nights later on 22^nd April in Halifax, around 60 miles from the town of Beverly, three women reported a round object with multi-colored flashing lights that descended and then kept pace above their car. They each recalled the object made a low humming sound. On the same evening, this time in Springfield, a teacher and student witnessed a dome-shaped object with three lights on its underside move across the sky at great speed.

Again on the same night, this time at 9:30 pm in Wenham, several students at a nearby Gordon College witnessed a circular, orange object approach their location, stopping around 600 feet away at an altitude of approximately 100 feet. Raymond Fowler, who heard of the incident while giving a talk at the Gordon College Philosophy Club several weeks after it happened, would investigate the case and speak to some of the witnesses.

According to his research, two of the witnesses – Vivian and Patricia – were leaving the Student Union when Vivian first noticed the strange object and quickly alerted her friend. Both of the girls looked up at the strange craft for several moments before Patricia ran into a nearby coffee shop to inform another friend, Diane, of the bizarre events unfolding outside. As she was doing so, the object began approaching, eventually coming to a stop in the air.

After several moments, the object made a sharp turn and disappeared out of sight at a considerable pace. Fowler would write in his report that “as it turned, its shape had changed to an upright sliver of light, then to a larger, glowing, flattened oval”. All of the witnesses agreed they had not seen anything like this previously, and it was certainly not a conventional aircraft, with Patricia elaborating that it was definitely the “largest thing she had seen in the sky”.

Of this particular sighting, Fowler would state that it was his opinion that the witnesses were submitted a “sincere straight-forward non-embellished” report and, of more interest to us here, that they very likely “had witnessed one of the three objects reported three miles to the southeast at Beverly”. He would offer that the “object description, nearness to the Beverly sighting and (the) occurrence within the same timeframe” convinced him that this was the case.

In the early hours of 23^rd April, at around 2 am in the state of Iowa in Yorktown, another intriguing event took place. A family who owned a farm witnessed a cigar-shaped object over their land, a red light clearly visible at each end, along with blue and amber lights along its exterior. The object descended and landed in one of the fields making a large “roaring” sound as it did so. Moments later, several loud “crackling” sounds came from the craft, causing the already spooked cattle to vacate the vicinity. The family watched the object until it rose into the air and disappeared. When they went to examine the area a short time later, they could clearly see indentations on the ground where the craft had been.

Several hours later at 8:40 pm back in Massachusetts in Randolph, multiple witnesses, including several police officers, witnessed an “elongated egg-shaped” object with white lights around its edge, as well as colored lights on the underside that flashed.

The Same Details Keep Coming Up!

At around 10:30 pm on the evening of the 23^rd going into the 24^th April, a family from Dorchester witnessed a disc-shaped object with a domed-top overhead. As it moved through the sky, it did so with a strange “bobbing up and down” motion, and the yellow and red light blinked alternately. It stopped over a nearby building and remained motionless directly over the top for several moments.

Then, the object headed towards the family’s own apartment building, stopping over the top of it and another apartment building opposite. As it remained overhead, the family could hear a low “humming” sound. Once more, it remained stationary for several moments before making a sudden turn and taking off into the distance.

Several hours later, at around 5 am, the same family witnessed an identical object (or quite possibly, the same object as only hours earlier). It once more hovered extremely close to their apartment building. This time, as well as the low humming sound, they could also hear “weird whirring and mechanical noises”.

As the family watched the object once more, they were shocked by a sudden explosion sound that made the windows in the apartment physically rattle and all the lights go out. The object had disappeared. It would turn out that the entire area had suffered a power failure, the official explanation offered being that there had been a “breakdown in insulation of the wiring”. Whether the power failure was connected to the presence of the strange object is perhaps open to debate.

The Sighting Of Mr. And Mrs. “M”

An incident that unfolded several months after the wave of sightings around the Beverly incident is worth our attention here. On the evening of 17^th September 1966 in Ipswich, Massachusetts, local residents, Mr. and Mrs. “M” witnessed an almost identical object to that one seen in over the state throughout April 1966. ^[4]

The pair claimed they had seen an “elongated cigar-shaped object” that appeared to be standing or hovering on the beach close to the edge of the water. It was a golden, white color, which dimmed and brightened several times. They watched the object for around an hour before it simply appeared to disappear from the sight the lighter it got as morning approached. Although they couldn’t be certain, it appeared there was a ladder protruding from an unseen opening at the side of the craft extending to the beach below.

At one point during the sighting, the couple observed two other lights that appeared to be heading toward the object over the beach. They recalled how these two objects moved with a “skipping motion, sometimes fast, sometimes slowly”. They eventually came to a stop directly over the object. However, much to the couple’s confusion, there now appeared to be three lights. They continued to watch as the lights occasionally made their way away from the object and out over the water.

The sighting remains unsolved, but the details and descriptions are remarkably similar to many of the sightings that took place in April.

A Very Similar Surge Of Sightings In Michigan The Previous Month

It is very much worth our time examining a small wave of sightings the previous month in March in the state of Michigan. In the early hours of 17^th March, for example, between 4 am and 7:30 am in An Arbor and Milan, several police officers witnessed several bizarre objects with green and white lights along its exterior. According to the report, they “hovered and maneuvered at variable speeds” and they became brighter and dimmer as they moved. Even stranger, they appeared to move in complete unison with each other before they finally disappeared.

The same day, at just before sunset in Grand Rapids, three young girls witnessed a “large oval (object) with glowing red lights”. They also recalled that there were what appeared to be portholes around the edge of the objects “which flashed alternately”. It moved slow, to begin with, eventually accelerating within seconds and vanishing into the distance.

Just over 24 hours later, at 5:20 am on the 19^th March in Big Rapids, multiple local residents witnessed an “elliptical object” that contained what appeared to be several “rectangular windows” along the side. There was also a “blue-white haze” that surrounded the strange craft while bright lights flashed on the underside. Even more unnerving for the witnesses, at one point during the encounter, a bright “light beam” shone from the object into the property they were inside.

The following evening, at around 8 am on the 20^th March in Dexter, Frank Mannor and his son, Ronald, as well as multiple other witnesses, including at least 12 policemen, witnessed a “luminous car-sized object” with a “cone-shaped top”, a “flat bottom”, and bluish-green lights shining down from one side and red lights from the other. They also described the surface of the object as “scaly” or “waffled”.

As the witnesses watched the object, all of the lights suddenly went out. Only a moment later, they came on once more only the object was in a different position around 1500 feet from where it had been only moments earlier. It then proceeded to light up a bright yellow color, rising around 500 feet into the air before descending once more. The object hovered for around two to three minutes before two bright lights appeared in the distance. It appeared to the witnesses as if the object in front of them responded in some way to these lights as it immediately rose into the air and headed toward them with a tremendous burst of acceleration.

The following evening, between 10:30 pm on 21^st March and 4 am on 22^nd March, no less than 17 students of Hillsdale College witnessed a “football-shaped” object that had red, green, and white lights “pulsating” from it. It would ultimately pass over their heads and disappeared into the distance behind them, making the witnesses wonder if it had crashed. However, 30 minutes later, it reappeared.

The police, who had been notified of the sighting, along with the Civil Defense Director, William Van Horn, arrived at the college and performed a search of the grounds. When they reached the college dorm area, Van Horn witnessed the object for himself, viewing it through binoculars. He would estimate it was around 1500 feet away from them and was approximately 25 feet wide. As they watched, the object rose to around 100 feet from the ground before returning to only a few feet away and hovering for several moments. By 4 am, the object had disappeared for good although radiation was later detected at the location the object hovered.

Two more sightings were reported on the evening of 24^th March in between Ypsilanti and Hillsdale an unidentified object maintained pace with a train – whose crew observed the sighting – before it pulled ahead of the train and hovered in front of it. Even more bizarre, as the crew looked on, a second object appeared and “docked” with the first one. On the same night, in Holland, a motorist noticed a “glowing circular object” with red and white lights appear out of the sky and keep pace with their car for several miles at an altitude of around 150 feet.

On the 26^th of March, in Ann Arbor, several witnesses watched a “glowing red disc” descend to around 10 feet before it flew at a level distance above the ground for several moments. It then disappeared as quickly as it had arrived.

Early on the morning of 28^th March in Niles, a truck driver was driving down the highway when his attention was captured by a strange object overhead. The bizarre craft was oblong or oval-shaped and had a series of red, green, and white lights along the side of its body. At one point, the driver flashed his headlights at the strange craft. To his amazement, the object blinked its own lights in a similar manner, as if in response. It then made a sharp turn and disappeared at high speed.

At 2 am on 31^st March in the town of Vicksburg, a motorist was forced to bring their vehicle to a sudden stop when they noticed a strange object hovering just above the road and completely blocking the way. They would recall how the object was disc-shaped and extremely bright but a distinct gray color, and with several flashing lights on its exterior. The motorist continued to watch as the object moved from place to place in front of him at great speed, making the car shake somewhat. The witness also heard a sound like a swarm of bees (which is a detail that is often noted in close proximity sightings). After several moments, it made a sudden turn and darted into the distance.

There were even several sightings in the opening days of April. At just after midnight on 1^st April, for example, in Dearborn, a motorist was driving along the road when a cigar-shaped object that appeared to have domes on both the top and bottom and red and green flashing lights, came out of nowhere and moved at the same pace as the vehicle for several moments. All the while the craft remained near the car, the radio produced nothing but static.

Just short of a week later, on 7^th April in Beulah, another cigar-shaped object was reported. What’s more, this also had red and green lights along its exterior. After hovering over the car for a short time it flew ahead of it before circling back around and the disappeared. The witness recalled that it made a strange noise as it passed overhead although they did not elaborate as to exactly what this sound was.

Whether the above accounts are connected to those that would unfold in Beverly and the rest of the state of Massachusetts only weeks later is perhaps open to debate. It is, though, not that much a stretch of the imagination to think this connection is very likely.

They’ve Been Happening For Decades!

There are many other sightings, both before and after the Beverly incident on record. Certainly far too many to be mentioned here. However, it is very much worth pointing some of them out.

Arguably one of the better known, and to many, credible UFO encounters was the Portage County UFO Chase, which unfolded around the same time as the Beverly incident (on 17^th April) in the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania. The description of the object witnessed that evening (by multiple on-duty police officers), is remarkably similar to the object described many times in the sightings we have highlighted above. For example, it was described as being oval-shaped with “revolving red body lights” which later changed colors to white, to red, to green, and then to blue. Many other witnesses from the community would describe seeing the same object with “flashing red and green lights”.

Over a decade earlier during the wave of UFO sightings in 1952, a resident of Georgia claimed to have witnessed an object shaped like a spinning top that gave out flashing colors of red, blue, and green. In the same year, a meteorologist at the Dalles Weather Station in Texas reported an “elongated” object that changed color “from white to blue, and then red and green” while hovering strangely in the air.

Perhaps one of the most intriguing of these other cases occurred just over two decades after the Massachusetts wave, on the evening of 3^rd September 1987. ^[5] At around 8:30 pm on the night in question, multiple witnesses – including several police officers – outside a movie complex at the Greensgate Mall near Route 30 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, were shocked to see a bizarre oblong object appear at low altitude overhead.

The object passed over the highway, a little higher than the powerlines, and appeared to be heading toward the West Penn Power substation. Witnesses would describe the object as “blimp-like” but that was “immense”, approximately 300 feet long. The exterior of the solid object appeared to be made from a “silver or dull gray” metal and was moving at around 50 miles per hour. None of the witnesses could recall hearing any sound from the huge craft at all. They did, however, clearly recall that it had flashing red and white lights along its sides.

The onlookers continued to watch the aerial display before them, amazed at the control with which such a large craft was moving at such a (relatively) slow pace. Then, without any warning, the object “suddenly turned vertically in the sky”. At the same time, the power in the mall and the surrounding area suddenly went off sending the scene into blackness. The witnesses would eventually find the object in the skies a few moments later, now back in its original position.

Investigators and a crew from West Penn Power soon arrived on the scene to investigate the sudden loss of power. They would, according to the official report, discover that three of the main fuses had blown. Investigator and author, Stan Gordon, would speak with several electrical engineers as part of his investigation into this incident. He was told that “when several fuses blow simultaneously (it) was quite unusual”.

Whether the power outage was a consequence of the strange object’s presence or not remains unknown. However, it is certainly something we have seen before in other UFO cases.

A Small Look Inside The UFO And Alien Question?

There are certainly some intriguing details about the UFO incident in Beverly, Massachusetts in April 1966, perhaps not least as it unfolded amid a surge of sighting in and around the region. NICAP’s Ray Fowler noted in his report that NICAP themselves had received 26 reports from the state of Massachusetts in April 1966, 22 of which were classed as “unknowns”.

In many cases, the objects described would appear to be the same, specific kind – an oblong craft with red, white, green, and blue lights. Does this suggest one specific race of aliens or merely one particular vehicle for a specific mission? And if that is the case, what might the purpose of this speculative mission have been?

Perhaps one of the most intriguing details is the hovering over buildings by many of these cigar-shaped objects, particularly schools, of which Fowler stated there were five such reported cases to NICAP. Were these buildings simply selected as they stood out to these apparently extraterrestrial visitors, or is there a more specific reason?

What, though, if we assume these objects were actually top-secret military vehicles and not alien craft? Might the sightings during April 1966 – at least some of them – have been part of some kind of testing of technology, while at the same time, examining the public’s reaction to an apparent “alien” craft? While this is pure speculation on our part, it is certainly worth considering. Was there some kind of highly advanced reconnaissance technology onboard, one that could penetrate rooves and walls of solid buildings, for example? And if so, why would they want to scan schools? Was the building merely incidental and was simply chosen at random?

That something very real was seen throughout Massachusetts in April 1966 (and in the state of Michigan the month before) is surely without a doubt. The sheer number of sightings with almost identical descriptions and details tells us as much. What those objects were, where they came from and why they were in the skies over the northeastern United States, and what these things mean for the larger UFO and alien picture remain unanswered.

Check out the short video below which looks at the subject of UFO sightings a little more.