December 21, 1964 — Fishersville, VA
5:00 p.m. Driving east on US Highway 250, Horace Burns is approaching Fishersville, Virginia, when an enormous cone-shaped object appears from the north and descends slowly in a gradual slant.
Just before it crosses the highway 200 feet in front of him, the UFO narrowly misses power lines. It is so huge that when it passes nearly in front of him, it fills his entire windshield. The UFO comes down gently and lands in a field to Burns’s right.
Meanwhile, Burns’s car engine has shut off. The object appears to be at least 125 feet in diameter and 80–90 feet high. After 60–90 seconds, it rises up several hundred feet, makes a sound like rushing air, and shoots off to the northeast, vanishing from sight. A high level of radioactivity is detected at the site December 30 by investigators German professor Ernest G. Gehman and engineer Harry M. Cook.
They obtain a Geiger counter reading of 16–18 milliR/hr. Two Blue Book investigators—T/Sgt. David N. Moody and S/Sgt. Harold T. Jones—visit the site with Gehman on January 12 and take further readings (1.5 milliR/hr on Burns’s left rear car door). They dispute Gehman’s earlier results, but a possible 11x–12x drop in radiation level in 13 days possibly indicates a radionuclide with a 3–4 day half-life. [Eberhart]
Record Card:
Blue Book Report:
Sources:
“‘Saucer’ Reports Are Flying,” Staunton (Va.) Daily News Leader, January 15, 1965, pp. 1–2;
“Some Believe, Some Doubt UFO Story,” Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, January 17, 1965, p. B-3;
“Gigantic UFO Lands near Staunton, Virginia,” FSIC Bulletin 2, no. 1 (Oct. 1964/Feb. 1965): 1–3;
Ernest G. Gehman, “Gigantic UFO Lands Near Staunton, Virginia”, The Author, 1965; [REPRINTED in FSIC Bulletin Vol.2 No.1]
Letter to Hector Quintanilla from J A Hynek, February 23, 1965;
“Huge UFO at Staunton, Va.,” APRO Bulletin, May/June 1965, p. 6;
“Opposition Flap 1965.” Flying Saucer Review 11, no. 3 (May/June 1965): 3-6;
Donald B. Hanlon, “Virginia 1965 Flap.” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 2 (March/April 1966): 14–16;
Keyhoe, Donald E., and Gordon I. R. Lore Jr., eds. UFOs: A New Look. Washington, DC: National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, 1969, pp. 21-22;
Gordon I. R. Lore and Harold H. Dennault, Jr., Mysteries of the Skies: UFOs in Perspective, 1969, p. 171;
Jacques Vallée, Passport to Magonia: A Century of Landings, p. 303; [Case 628]
Ted Phillips, Physical Traces Associated With UFO Sightings (Center For UFO Studies, July 1975), Case #182, p. 33;
Mark Rodeghier, UFO Reports Involving Vehicle Interference, Case 136, p. 23;
Richard Hall, The UFO Evidence, Volume II, pp. 3,36-37;
Brad Sparks, Blue Books Unknowns Catalogue, Case 1595, p. 303;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 3rd Ed., pp. 491-494, 950;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 4th Ed., pp. 540–542, 1064;
Case File from the Condon Archives @ APS Library; [Seems to be missing a page]
NICAP, “Car Engine Fails after Object Lands”;
[With the 50+pg BB File, with alot more newsclippings and letters]
Project Blue Book, [case files];
Donald Keyhoe, “I Know the secret of the flying saucers,” TRUE Magazine, January 1966; [Transcription]
Donald E. Keyhoe, “I know the secret of the flying saucers.” TRUE Magazine (January 1966): 34-36, 94-95; [Case on p. 36]
Comments by Air Force Consultant, J. A. Hynek on Keyhoe’s Article, January 1966 Issue of “True Magazine.”
Jacob Fife, “The Story of the Alleged 1964 Fishersville UFO Landing and the Chaos That Ensued,” WHSV-TV, Harrisonville, Virginia, April 25, 2023;
John Greenewald, “Project Blue Book: The Alleged 1964 UFO Landing in Harrisonburg, Virginia,” The Black Vault, May 22, 2024;