Alternate Perceptions Magazine, September 2025
Advent of The Flying Saucers - 1960 (Part Two)
By Rick Hilberg
September 30, 1960 - Kansas City UFO Encounter. This report was sent to me in the early 1960s by the witness, William Davenport: "Coming home from work on September 30th, I pulled up to a stop sign and looked to the right, then to the left, when I saw it. A bright object was heading toward me slowly. As nearly as I could judge, it was about 300 feet above the tree tops.
"I turned off the car engine and got out so I could watch it better, and with the engine off I could possibly tell whether the thing had an engine that might make some sound. It didn't.
"My first impression was that it looked a little like one of those paper airplanes we made when we were kids, only the front end appeared to be cut off square. It crossed above the street I had been about to cross and at that time was heading in a northwesterly direction. It then turned and headed due north. It was then that I got a good look at the rear of the object. There appeared to be two brilliant white lights like round taillights side by side. The entire object was a dazzling white.
"It seemed to be following the Ward Parkway, one of the main streets in Kansas City, Missouri. This happened about 5:55 p.m. I watched it for perhaps two minutes. I was pretty excited when I got home, as you can probably imagine. My wife thought I should call the Kansas City Star and report it. They said that they were receiving many reports. I hung up on them.
"The next morning there was an item on the front page. However, the description didn't coincide with what I had seen. Most observers saw a bright object to the north of the city, and they said it appeared to be a large bright balloon. Perhaps the other observers saw the same object I did, only from the rear, which might make it appear round. Perhaps there were two different objects. The one I saw was over the south part of the city and everyone else reported it in the north, without exception.
" It evidently was in view for at least thirty minutes because one person watched it from 6:15 to 6:33. I saw it (if it was the same thing) at 5:55. Most reported seeing it at 6:00. The Kansas City Star said that one observer described it as onion-shaped with some kind of antenna on top. Another said it looked like a balloon with an instrument carriage beneath it.
"A weather bureau forecaster here watched it. It didn't appear to him to be a weather balloon. An area military unit and the weather bureau reported a "blip" on radar but could not determine what it was."
October 18, 1960 - "Something" Crashes in Pennsylvania. A red object came plunging out of the sky near Smethport at around 11:30 p.m. that night and broke into two sections before crashing to the ground and starting two separate fires. The flaming red object, trailing a tail of fire, was seen by Charles Herzog family of Colegrove. Mr. Herzog said the red object came out of the air and broke in two, prior to crashing. The break occurred shortly before it crashed and started the fires.
It was described as a large red object.
Wilber Willians, Fish Warden of McKean County, called the Sheriff's Department at Smethport around 11:30, stating that Charles Herzog had sighted a red object crashing to earth. The crash scene was in an area known as Sackett Hollow and is about a mile north of Colegrove.
The McKean County Sheriff's Department immediately checked with Bradford-McKean Airport to see if they had any report of the incident. They didn't. However, James Huff, spokesman at the airport, said an airliner was due to arrive at 12:30 a.m. and further stated he would have the pilot check that area for any fires. The pilot said he observed two small fires about a mile north of Colegrove. The Allegany Airlines plane was at an altitude of 6,000 feet at the time. The pilot further stated that some parked cars were visible about a quarter of a mile from the fire area. He also stated that the fires seemed to be growing in intensity.
John Keller of Colegrove, noticed a plane circling the general area where the two fires were reported. Curious, he called the county sheriff to see why the plane was circling. He also decided to check out the area but found nothing. The area of the alleged crash was described as dense and hilly.
Another plane from the Bradford-McKeen Airport also reported seeing the two fires, according to the sheriff. After several days of searches, apparently nothing was ever found in the way of possible debris. Bob Barry, the director of an area UFO group contacted the Air Force regarding the incident, but they said they had nothing on it but seemed interested in details and the names of witnesses. Barry thought the Air Force was interested in investigating the incident and even arranged for a follow-up meeting with Barry on the case. Barry was convinced that something actually happened, and that the Air Force may have found something tangible.
December 3, 1960 - "Saucer" Startles Hunters in New Jersey. On the third, a duck hunter named Earl Leeds and his grandson had a frightening experience with a UFO in the meadows near Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was about 6:00 a m. when the two men spotted the object flying straight at them, only about 300 feet above the ground. Leeds loaded his shotgun and was prepared to shoot down the object, but it then rose vertically into the air and flew away. The strange intruder was saucer-shaped and measured about sixty feet in diameter. It had a red glow that lit up the ground and that changed to purple as the thing zoomed up into the air. The UFO traveled silently at all times, and moved with a jerky motion "like a bouncing ball," according to Leeds
