Close Encounters
By MUFON’s Valerie Schultz
During the early morning hours of December 10, 2016, a large and silent craft was observed moving slowly northeast over southern Maine. Two separate cases about this sighting were reported to MUFON.
It Was the Size of a Football Stadium!
According to testimony in MUFON Case #80969, the witness explained that his location on a mountaintop in East Baldwin offered him a perfect panoramic view of the area. The witness recalled that “December 10, 2016, was a clear night with no moonlight and no clouds. I was outside at 4:30 a.m. with my German Shepherds when I observed three craft flying towards me from just under Orion’s Belt. I thought they were military as I heard the roaring of what sounded like an old 1960s jet engine at full throttle. As the craft got closer, I saw that there were two smaller escorts and one giant craft/object in the middle that was the size of a football stadium! The three crafts approached from the West then changed direction to head Northeast. They were perfectly aligned in formation traveling over five hundred feet in altitude but alarmingly low. I realized they were in some kind of force field that obstructed the clear view of the center, giant craft. Stars were obscured all around the force field for hundreds of yards. The rear end had a rounded look to it that was glowing a strange yellow color. The front was somewhat curved but it was the size that was so impressive. There were three reddish orange lights in the front of the craft.”
A witness drawing with the distortion field. Courtesy of MUFON.
A witness drawing with the direction of travel. Courtesy of MUFON.
The witness was not entirely sure of the shape of the giant craft because of the force field surrounding it. However, he said it was “shaped and sized like a football stadium with great height, width, and depth, but no noise.”
The escorts were in triangular shape similar to a TR-3B craft. They each had “one red light up front and two red lights in the rear at the base of the triangle.”
The witness was surprised at the sound that he heard coming from the escorts. He explained that when all three crafts were overhead there was no sound. But when the three crafts were approaching and then again after the craft had passed, the witness heard a strange sound. This sound seemed too loud and too constant, which led the witness to believe that the sound was artificial.
Another peculiar piece to this encounter is that during the sighting the witness reported feeling ill. “As the formation approached, I was hit with a wave of nausea, felt anxiety, and fear. One of my K-9s ran off back to the house and the other cowered behind me. Both have been agitated ever since and hesitant to go out at night.” When asked how long the illness lasted, the witness described that he felt chronically fatigued and had aches in his joints for a month. He also said that he developed a post-traumatic (PTSD) feeling whenever he heard a jet overhead and speculated that he had symptoms of radiation poisoning. His dogs did not have any physical sickness, but they too become anxious when hearing the roar of a jet’s engine. This also lasted for about a month afterwards.
The duration of this sighting was five minutes and he estimated the three crafts’ speed at around 200 miles per hour. When we spoke of the altitude of the craft, the witness replied, “My house is at one thousand feet and I would estimate the three crafts were two to three thousand feet above me.” The witness followed up by stating that their altitude was well under five thousand feet and added, “It was just so startling to see such craft so low and so close.” The witness submitted a drawing of the event.
It Moved Effortlessly
like a Boat through Water
Meanwhile, at 4:44 a.m. on December 10, 2016—fourteen minutes later, in Windsor (sixty-three miles northeast of East Baldwin)—a man was driving his wife to work on Route 17. She observed a large object outside her car window and asked her husband to pull over. According to testimony in MUFON Case #80908, the witness said, “I stopped the vehicle to see for myself. It was large and shaped like a carpenter’s framing square, triangle shaped, at least 6 red lights and a weird turquoise light that went off at its point. It was silent.”
A witness drawing of their view from a car. Courtesy of MUFON.
A witness drawing with a moon comparison. Courtesy of MUFON.
The craft was described as two to three times the size of the moon, and the witness watched as the craft traveled slowly over high tension power lines. The altitude was reported to be about two hundred to three hundred feet. This witness also submitted a drawing of the sighting and added, “It wasn’t your normal plane. I could not believe the size of it.”
When asked about the speed of the silent craft, the witness replied, “It’s difficult to explain, like a satellite, but not as quick. Like a jumbo jet when it comes in for a landing, but a bit slower. It was slow enough to where we could make out some detail, but fast enough to where it was out of our sight within ten minutes or so.”
It seemed to the witness that there was some sort of force field around the craft. He described it as “shimmering similar to road heat on a hot day. The craft was effortlessly moving like a boat through water, floating with no resistance.” They also reported that the huge craft was silent, but after the craft had passed them, a “strange rumble sound” was heard.
Like the East Baldwin witness, both the husband and wife became nauseous when observing the craft. The wife continued on to work after the sighting and “struggled that day with the nausea and vomiting.” The husband felt nauseous for a few hours after, but the wife’s illness lasted for three days.
Along with a detailed drawing of what they observed, the Windsor witnesses submitted a short video of the sighting. Analysis of the video was performed by MUFON’s Director of Research, Robert Powell, who broke it down into individual frames. By doing so, Mr. Powell was able to observe stars in the video’s background. The stars provided us with a frame of reference to observe the object’s movement. The object in the video was stationary during the few seconds it was visible.
Comparing the Two Cases
MUFON Cases #80969 and #80908 have several similarities in their descriptions. The first witness, in East Baldwin, observed a football stadium sized craft (with two triangular escorts) approach from the west and travel northeast at 4:30 a.m. on December 10, 2016. The second case, #80908 from Windsor, occurred fourteen minutes later, at 4:44 a.m., and also traveled northeast. Both witnesses reported the crafts were traveling around 200 to 300 miles per hour. Using the formula speed = distance divided by time or 63 miles ÷ 14 minutes, the average speed would equal 4.5 miles per minute. If you then convert the miles per minute to miles per hour—60 x 4.5—then the resulting speed of the craft would equal 270 mph. This clearly correlates with witness testimony about the crafts’ speed. When compared with the typical speed of a commercial airliner, which travels between 546 and 575 mph, 270 mph is noticeably slower.
When we compared accounts of the shape of the large craft, we discovered that the East Baldwin witness found it difficult to discern due to a field that distorted it and blurred out stars. The front of the craft seemed round and had three big reddish-orange headlights. The rear also seemed round and had a yellow glow. The Windsor witnesses observed a large, triangular-shaped object, which they compared to a carpenter’s framing square (triangle shape with two sides coming to a point in the front). On each side of the craft they observed two red lights that pulsed back and forth in one- to two-second intervals, with another red light at the front point. There were also two smaller lights on the front tip with a turquoise/green/blue color that had a shimmering effect, and did not blink. The shape descriptions are different; however, both cases mentioned some type of distortion field around the object that gave a wavy, slightly obscured appearance to the sky. The Windsor witnesses described the craft “floating with no resistance like a boat going through water.” They also noticed a shimmering effect coming from the craft like road heat on a hot day.
In both cases, the witnesses described the large craft as silent when it passed overhead. The East Baldwin witness heard a strange and possibly artificial jet sound as the three crafts approached, and then again after they passed, but it was silent when they were overhead. Again, this is similar to the Windsor witness who heard a “strange rumble sound” after the craft passed.
Witnesses from both cases reported feeling ill as they observed the craft. The East Baldwin witness was hit with a wave of nausea as the three crafts approached. He, along with his dogs, became anxious and fearful, which lasted for a month. The Windsor witnesses both became nauseous while observing the craft and for a few days after.
When speaking with the witnesses in these two intriguing cases, they both come across as extremely credible. Also, it is quite clear that they witnessed something highly unusual in the early hours of December 10, 2016. An interesting point to note is that the Windsor witnesses observed the large, silent craft travel over high-tension power lines, seemingly following them as the craft slowly traveled northeast into interior Maine (refer to “The Tote Road Boys” story earlier in this book for similarities in power line interest from UFOs). An important connection between the cases is that all three witnesses became ill with nausea as they watched the large craft. All three witnesses were concerned about the health effects that they encountered while observing this low-flying unidentified craft, and the East Baldwin witness mentioned that “there were an unusual number of ambulance calls in the area for anxiety or heart attacks the following day.”
MUFON Case #80969 was investigated and closed as “Unknown” by Field Investigator Fred Richards and by me, as State Director for Maine. MUFON Case #80908 was investigated and closed as “Unknown” by me.