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Military plane was flying over Amherst during reported UFO sighting

  • GORDON DANIELS<br/>a C-5 flying above above Hampshire County

    GORDON DANIELS
    a C-5 flying above above Hampshire County Purchase photo reprints »

  • KEVIN GUTTING<br/>A C5 Galaxy undergoes inspection on the flight line of the 439th Airlift Wing stationed at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee.

    KEVIN GUTTING
    A C5 Galaxy undergoes inspection on the flight line of the 439th Airlift Wing stationed at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee. Purchase photo reprints »

  • GORDON DANIELS<br/>some of the C-5s' that are part of the 439th Air Lift Wing on the flight line at Westover Air Reserve Base.

    GORDON DANIELS
    some of the C-5s' that are part of the 439th Air Lift Wing on the flight line at Westover Air Reserve Base. Purchase photo reprints »

  • GORDON DANIELS<br/>a C-5 aircraft goes through an inspection inside a hangar at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee

    GORDON DANIELS
    a C-5 aircraft goes through an inspection inside a hangar at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee Purchase photo reprints »

  • GORDON DANIELS<br/>a C-5 flying above above Hampshire County
  • KEVIN GUTTING<br/>A C5 Galaxy undergoes inspection on the flight line of the 439th Airlift Wing stationed at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee.
  • GORDON DANIELS<br/>some of the C-5s' that are part of the 439th Air Lift Wing on the flight line at Westover Air Reserve Base.
  • GORDON DANIELS<br/>a C-5 aircraft goes through an inspection inside a hangar at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee

By REBECCA EVERETTStaff Writer

Monday, January 21, 2013
(Published in print: Tuesday, January 22, 2013)

AMHERST — The Federal Aviation Administration says a military aircraft was flying over Amherst Jan. 8 when residents reported seeing a mysterious object flying silently overhead.

However, a spokesman for an area military base said descriptions from town residents don’t match with what he knows of the aircraft.

Residents in the Amherst and Pelham area reported that between 5:45 and 6:30 p.m. a triangular or diamond-shaped aircraft — about the size of two or three cars, by one account — appeared to travel silently, slowly and unusually low over the area.

After receiving an inquiry from the Gazette, officials at an FAA facility at Bradley International Airport, which provides radar coverage for western Massachusetts, reviewed radar data in the Amherst-Pelham area for Jan. 8 from 5:45 to 6:15 p.m., said James Peters, a spokesman for the FAA.

“The only aircraft that was operating in the area was a military aircraft doing practice approaches to Westover (Air Reserve Base),” Peters wrote in an email to the Gazette.

Westover’s chief of public affairs, Lt. Col. James Bishop, initially said on Jan. 9 that the base had no record of an aircraft flying in the area after checking with the on-duty controller.

But last week, Bishop confirmed what the FAA had recorded a military aircraft flying in the area. He said a C5 cargo plane took off from Westover at 5:30 p.m. that evening. “It went out of the area and returned later and flew again in the local area until about 9:30 p.m.,” he said.

He said he would be surprised if people mistook a noisy C5 for a low-flying, silent object, though.

“There’s just no mistaking that,” he said. “It’s quite a loud sound and quite a big aircraft.”

According to the U.S. Air Force’s website, a C5 Galaxy cargo plane is one of the largest aircraft in the world and is used to transport up to 270,000 pounds of cargo, from equipment to troops. It has a wingspan of 222.9 feet, a length of 247.1 feet and a height of 65.1 feet and travels around 518 mph.

On Jan. 15, a week after the first reported sightings, police took a report from someone who said he spotted another unidentified flying object. Police determined it was a helicopter.

Rebecca Everett can be reached at reverett@gazettenet.com.

ufoeducation wrote:
24/01/2013

I'm also interesting in hearing from any witnesses to this event. Your anonymity is guaranteed. Please contact me at ufoeducation@gmail.com with information on this or any other similar sighting. I will try to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.
Knest wrote:
24/01/2013

Those old enough may recall that authorities had once attributed these sightings to the effects of swamp gas (yes, really). Claude Cockburn said it best, "Never believe anything unless it is officially denied."
GI_Joe wrote:
23/01/2013

You do know the F-117's are flying again?? Yes.. See this article here. It fits exactly what they might have seen and didnt hear. The 117 is a sub-sonic aircraft and has exhaust baffling to decrease noise and heat signature.. http://www.stormclimb.com/2011/08/22/f-117-stealth-fighters-stored-at-tonopah-flying-again/ I cut and pasted the key paragraph here. But much to the delight – and confusion – of plane spotters, the F-117 Stealth Fighter was filmed flying near Groom Lake in 2010. Four airframes plus two maintenance spares are reportedly back in use for R&D purposes, but the fate of the rest sounds decidedly ominous.

Boston wrote:
23/01/2013

One would think that the folks who live in and around the Amherst area would know what a C-5 Galaxy (the biggest plane in Air Force inventory) looks and sounds like, day or night. The FAA and AF are covering something up, something they either know full well about (coverup of UFO, experimental AC, etc..), or cannot explain it at all (save face).
Believer wrote:
23/01/2013

I have witness the same kind of craft described on this report. It happened on October 18 2012 at about 9:30pm. Me and my daughter where in my yard looking at the clear sky for satellites when two triangular shape small crafts side by side passed right above us with no noise at incredibly fast then slowed down and turned north towards the Amherst area with such synchronism that it almost looked like they where attached to one another. I live 5 miles from Westover ARB, I see military planes and fighter jet all the time, These where not them.
EdSanborn wrote:
22/01/2013

I am very interested in speaking with anyone who believes they may have seen the UFO during the late afternoon or early evening of January 8th. Please call or txt me at (978) 979-1796 or feel free to email me at edwardsanborn@gmail.com . I'm trying to see if we can get a better sense of what people saw no matter what it is. Thanks, Ed
NESkywatcher wrote:
22/01/2013

So they want us to believe that a C-5 that we all know is very loud was flying low and silent with only 3 lights and during a time where they first stated there was no aircraft in the air. Nice try but as for me I have reported what I seen to MUFON and let a non governmental entity investigate. Seeing FAA and Air Force both are government run I want the radar from there investigated with a non governmental expert or will it be a case of whoops we deleted it so sorry. Just think of this 300 years ago we thought the earth was flat and now we know it is round and we are just a speck on the cosmic map. "WE ARE NOT ALONE"
Brian 1776 wrote:
28/01/2013

From reading the article, it is hard to say that the Government or anyone suggested that the C-5 plane was connected to the sightings of a UFO. Just the opposite. The spokesperson correctly stated that it would be hard to confuse a C-5 with a silent low flying UFO! AND, the Earth was well known to be round from the time of ancient Greece at least! Though earth is a speck in the Universe, we do not know nominator for the fraction: Planets With Intelligent Life/ Galaxy. WE do not have one iota of fact to indicate whether intelligent life is common or vanishingly rare.

Boston wrote:
22/01/2013

Baloney. My husband and I saw something similar when we were traveling South on I-91 one Sunday night in 2006. it was hidden behind some trees initially and i thought it was the moon. It started moving toward us very clumsily and stayed over our heads for a minute (which seemed like an hour) and then whizzed up faster than I've ever seen anything move in my life. To this day when we see the moon up in the sky we say, "Are you sure it's the moon."
Boston wrote:
22/01/2013

I see weird things too when I'm on acid.
Boston wrote:
23/04/2013

No joke. I'm a Christian with no history of alcohol or drug abuse. To this day my husband has trouble talking about it. I like to speculate about who, what, and why, but he wants no part of it!
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