NUFORC Sighting 176042

Occurred: 1984-10-16 19:35 Local
Reported: 2023-06-04 08:52 Pacific
Duration:
No of observers: 1

Location: Keene, NH, USA
Location details: Keene, NH

Shape: Triangle

UFO sighting articles about the 1984 "Zeller Incident" in Keene, NH“What is it? A UFO?,” (16 October, 1984), by Michael E. KnellTher

UFO sighting articles about the 1984 "Zeller Incident" in Keene, NH
“What is it? A UFO?,” (16 October, 1984), by Michael E. Knell

There may be a few skeptics this morning, but last night there was no doubt in the minds of people who spotted an unidentified object that was flying over Keene.

The telephone started ringing at the Keene Police Department at 7:34 p.m., with people reporting a strange craft that was hovering over the city, said patrolman Earl Nelson.

Then Keene Sgt. John C. Zeller called in: “He had it with a spotlight,” Nelson said. “I remember him saying it.”

Zeller was in a police cruiser on Route 12, just south of West Street, when he radioed the description: a white oblong aircraft with no marking. The craft hovered about 100 feet above the cruiser, making a humming sound.

Meanwhile, people spotted the object over Swanzey and Roxbury.

“After that, I was busy with the phones, calling FAA and the national UFO center,” Nelson said.

A strange object was spotted almost an hour later in Springfield, Mass: a slow-moving white light passing over the city, said Robert J. Gribble of the UFO Reporting Center in Seattle, which was founded largely to give people a place to report sightings.

“We have been getting about six reports a day,” he said. “That is pretty quiet. We usually get about 15 to 20 a day.”

Most UFO sightings can be explained easily, according to Gribble: “About 85 percent turn out to be bright planets, bright stars, advertising aircraft and so on,” and the rest go unidentified.

But the Keene UFO case doesn’t seem to fit any of the common explanations, Gribble said. The low, slow hovering seems to eliminate any kind of plane.

Posted 2023-07-10