The Ascent

The Illusion

The Escort

The Signal

Special Agent 707

The Transformation

Cemetery Sighting

August Flap

Manta Ray

Another Performance

Westchester Wing Sightings

Light Show

Weird Sound

Swamp Gas

Martin Story

Plasma Orbs

The Experiment

ETI Communication

Jibe Not

Laser Beam Encounter

It's Happening Again

Snaking Manta

The 6 August 1992 mini-Flap over Orange County, NY

by Bruce Cornet, Ph.D.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Data

AOP#1

AOP#2

Discussion

Conclusion

Copyright on the video data presented on this web page is jointly owned by Ellen Crystall and Bruce Cornet, who were working together and sharing data from 1992 to 1994.


Introduction

Between 9:30 pm and 10:00 pm on 6 August 1992 (Thursday) a mini-flap occurred over Orange County, NY.  It was witnessed by hundreds of people, many of whom called Steward International Airport in Newburgh to either report what they saw or to inquire about airtraffic in their area.  Based on the sequence of events and the direction at least three AOP traveled, the mini-flap appears to have been intentionally staged.

Ellen Crystall was traveling from her home in northern New Jersey to Middletown, NY, when she spotted the lights of a large AOP to the north of the Harriman exit (#16) on the New York Throughway (I-87).  Soon after she took that exit and was traveling on State Rte 17M towards Middletown she noticed that the lights were getting closer to the highway and that they were moving in the same northwesterly direction, as if pacing her car.  When the lights got close enough to the highway and to her that she could get detailed video shots of the lights, she pulled off to the shoulder of the road and stopped (right shoulder just beyond 55-speed-limit sign in picture below).  The AOP stopped when she stopped.  It stopped to the left of the highway over distant rise in picture below.

rt17aop2.jpg (19313 bytes)

She stopped less than a mile west of the exits for Goshen, NY, which is the next town south of Middletown (at red X on path #1 on map below).   Middletown is located just off the lower left side of that map.

Reference map

orangec4.jpg (137278 bytes)

Crystall got out of her car with her camcorder, and began videotaping the AOP.  To her amazement it seemed to put on a show of alternating pulsing lights as if performing for the camera.  She heard no engine sound, only the drone of traffic on the highway.  At one point on the video a semi tractor trailer passed her, momentarily blocking the view of the AOP.  Crystall was able to record 12 minutes of video before the AOP began moving northeast and out of sight.  During that interval of time the AOP slowly rotated clockwise, then counterclockwise, and slowly drifted away from her, then back towards her before leaving.  The time indicated on her video is 9:42 pm to 9:54 pm.

Following her sighting, Crystall drove to Cornet's residence, where she discovered that he had videotaped another AOP, which seemed to put on a performance for him and several other witnesses (path #2 on map above).  He told her that he was in his kitchen just before the event, and had a strong (telepathic?) thought to go outside to look for AOP.  The thought was something like, "Outside a ship approaching."  He went outside and immediately saw a brilliant golden light approaching his condo from the direction of Montgomery, NY, to the north.  When it slowed to a stop, turned, and then began moving slowly and silently towards the southeast, he had verification that it was not an airplane or helicopter.

He ran into his condo, informed his fiancée and her daughter (who just happened to be visiting him that evening) that there was an AOP outside, got his camcorder and returned outside.  A neighbor's daughter saw their commotion and followed them to the front lawn where they saw a triangular formation of lights moving slowly west over Rte 211E towards Crystal Run Mall.  When the AOP got to the location of the mall, they saw it stop, rotate 180 degrees, and begin to travel back towards them.  Cornet videotaped it as it approached them and flew silently past them to their east, back in the direction from which it had come.  The time of their sighting was 9:40 pm to 9:52 pm, almost the exact same time Crystall videotaped her sighting.

Cornet and Crystall drove to Montgomery, NY, to their favorite observation area along West Searsville Rd. near Pine Bush, and discovered several other people who had witnessed the triangular AOP as it flew towards Middletown and a rendezvous with Cornet.  They said another AOP followed the first one, but went in a different direction after passing them.  The path of AOP #2 is based on two separate groups of witnesses.

At the same time Crystall and Cornet were witnessing their AOP, the Crampton family witnessed a large disc-shaped AOP as it approached their home near Washingtonville, NY, stopped over their house for several minutes, and then proceeded towards the north northeast (see path #3 on map above).  Later Cornet met someone who said that he and a friend had seen a similar object over Vales Gate (southwest of Newburgh, NY) as it flew west in the direction of the Crampton's residence that same night not long before the Cramptons spotted it.  The Cramptons discovered that all three wall clocks in their home had stopped at the time the AOP hovered over their house.  That time was 9:45 pm.  Some of their wall clocks were battery operated, while others ran off house current.  They had to replace all their clocks.  A couple Polaroid pictures were taken of the circular AOP, but only the three lights on its belly showed up on the picture.  The Cramptons were interviewed by the Sightings TV show and a portion of Crystall's video was played on that program, which aired on 21 May 1993.

sightcmp.jpg (39454 bytes)

Data

AOP #1 (semi-rhombohedral in shape) videotaped by Ellen Crystall using a compact Canon 8mm camcorder at Goshen, NY.

AOP # 2 (triangular in shape) videotaped by Bruce Cornet using a large Sears VHS camcorder at Middletown, NY.

AOP #3 (circular or disc shaped) witnessed by the Crompton family at their residence near Washingtonville, NY.

AOP #1

At the beginning of the Crystall's video record one can see five bright white lights, four of which are positioned as if on the corners of a rectangle, with the fifth light in between and slightly outside two of the four lights.  A smaller pulsing reddish light can be seen positioned just behind the fifth white light.

She described the object as angular, but not like a triangle.  She said its shape based on the position of its lights resembled a rhomboid-shaped object but with something sticking out front.  If you take a look at the images below as the AOP turned clockwise, you can make out its overall outline, which is quite different from what people typically describe (i.e. discs or triangles).  More details will be given below.

Frame from near beginning of Crystall's video.

bkgrnd0.jpg (54598 bytes)

The animated gif below was compiled using 54 frames taken from Crystall's video.  Some of the images are slightly blurred, while others are sharp and clear. Because of problems Crystall had in keeping her camcorder focussed, the progression of frames could not be arranged in a timed sequence.  In other words, as the animated gif runs the image will seem to jump or the craft appear to move or rotate suddenly.  Because the lighting on the AOP changed with new lights appearing and old ones disappearing, it is difficult to grasp the orientation of the craft towards the end of the animation, especially when the number of lights decreases to only three.

At the beginning of the animated gif the lights are the brightest and largest, a characteristic of AOP performances in the Pine Bush area.  Also, the number of lights increased from six to nine or more.  Because the lights were distributed around the shape of the craft, its shape can be made out more clearly in the early part of the video.  Its movement or rotation can also be seen more clearly at the beginning of the animation.

In addition, as it turned, the relative position of some lights seems to change. When this video was initially analyzed, the rotation of the craft was not documented because it rotated so slowly, taking four to five minutes to make a 120 degree rotation.  In real time the lights on the video appeared to move and join or divide and move apart.  But by speeding up the action not only is the shape of this unusual object made more clear, its rotation becomes very apparent.

Some of the relative motion of the lights does not seem to be due to rotation of the craft.  The overall pattern or distribution of lights becomes warped and distorted as the object rotates, giving the impression that something was distorting the image.  In some orientations the amount of distortion is more apparent than in others, implying that whatever the cause, it was orientation dependent.  In addition, as the object rotates clockwise, one can not only see the outside of the laterally-positioned lights, but after rotation one can see the same lights from the inside.  Yet other lights appear to be blocked by an invisible fuselage, only to reappear as the craft continues to rotate.

I suggest that some of the lights were located on an open frame which surrounded a central body or fuselage, or were located on pipes and struts that stuck out at various places on the fuselage.  Because these lights were positioned a distance away from the fuselage, they could be seen from opposite sides when the AOP was oriented in certain directions.  In addition, the warping or distortion of the lights and their relative positions might be due to a strong gravity field around the central body, which bent the light more in certain orientations.

Animated gif.

chester2.gif (179057 bytes)

 

© E. Crystall & B. Cornet 1992

Sixteen selected frames have been assembled in one image to allow you to follow the rotation in steps.  By tracing various lights, you will be able to see which lights become blocked by a fuselage (or were turned out), and which lights become distorted or skewed in position.  The AOP seems to make a rotation of at least 180 degrees, allowing both sides to be seen.  The only orientation not apparent or identifiable is a frontal view.

Assembled frames from Crystall video.

composi1.jpg (33317 bytes)

Enlargement and image inversion of four selected frames.

composi3.jpg (41533 bytes)

Note that the four evenly-spaced cluster of lights on the left of frames 5 and 10 are seen from the outside in frame 5, but from the inside in frame 10, although they are slightly distorted and less bright in frame 10, implying that they are being imaged through a mostly invisible medium or structure.

AOP #2

On that same night and at the same time Cornet was videotaping a triangular AOP (otherwise known as an FT or Flying Triangle) as it began its return run after turning over Crystal Run Mall in Middletown, NY.  Because of street lights the AOP is not clearly visible until it reached Goshen Turnpike where Cornet lived.  He was able to videotape the AOP as it traveled north to the east of his location.  Because of an automatic focus (no manual override) he had trouble keeping it in focus when he tried to zoom in on it.  Some data were lost because of this difficulty.  However, he was able to capture enough of the fly-by to be able to analyze the video and reconstruct the flight path of the FT.

As the FT moved above and clear of street lights, it passed very near to the Moon, which was nearly a full Moon.  After it passed the Moon, it began to rotate as if banking, but did not bank.  As it flew by it presented its belly to the camera, where five large lights were positioned, which more-or-less outlined its shape.  The FT was able to maintain a near-vertical orientation for much longer than a conventional aircraft can during a bank.  After passing, the FT rotated back to a horizontal plane, descended to a lower altitude, and disappeared to the north as it passed behind trees.  As it departed, three red lights were seen across the rear of the triangle (one central and one at each corner).  Below each red light was a small white light.  The red lights blinked randomly or out of unison.  No sound was heard as it flew past the witnesses, which numbered four.

bkgrndc.jpg (55284 bytes)

 

crystal1.gif (150817 bytes)

© E. Crystall & B. Cornet 1992

Below are images photographed off of a TV monitor and drawings which show how the lights seemed to shift or change position.  Some of the apparent shift could be due in part to changing orientation and changing brightness.  After carefully comparing individual frames, Cornet concluded, however, that the three large white lights across the rear of the belly may have uniformly moved forward relative to the three small white lights, which were located below the three rear red lights (see drawings below).  If a gravity field existed around the FT, its affect on shape and position of lights might account for an illusion of shifting lights.  If the lights were plasma lights, their effect on shape of objects behind them is already well known (Hill, 1995).

augeven4.jpg (76445 bytes)

Discussion

Clearly the AOP Crystall videotaped does not fit the description of any conventional aircraft made by humans.  If this was a flying object made by humans, its overall shape and lighting indicate that it served no normal function.  If made by humans, the AOP had to utilize extraordinary technology to produce the effects recorded on video, and it had to have been designed with a goal of performance before witnesses on the ground.  Accum's Razor reduces the possibilities to either a manufactured hoax by some rich group or individual, or to a craft not of this world.  Can we be certain as to which possibility is more probable?  Not without additional data.  Identification cannot be based on the absence of (positive) data.

The AOP Cornet videotaped also does not fit the description of any conventional aircraft made by humans.  Its five large bright belly lights do not match the pattern of lights on any conventional aircraft or helicopter.

The circular AOP described by the Cramptons is also unlike any conventional aircraft.  They estimated that it was at least 300 feet in diameter, and possessed three lights on its belly, arranged to form a triangle.

Conclusion

On 6 August 1992 witnesses in five different locations observed three different flying objects which do not fit the description of conventional aircraft.  These objects flew from the direction of the Hudson River either southwest or northwest as they converged on the Goshen-Middletown area of New York State.  When they reached that area, each one stopped and turned around.  Each one seemed to target individuals on the ground.  In other words, their pilots wanted their craft to be seen (and photographed or videotaped).  They all then proceeded back towards the northeast (see map above).

What was the purpose of this coordinated performance?  Were some pilots out for joy rides or to see what kind of a response they might get from mostly unperceptive and apathetic humans?  The disc-shaped AOP that entertained the Cramptons also caused their wall clocks to malfunction or stop.  Was this intentional and if so why?  But most important of all is the question: Why only a few of the people who saw these AOP documented the events?  Even the Sightings producers did not adequately document them on their program, and they had access to most of the data.  Only a short clip from Crystall's video was shown on the program with no explanation or analysis as is done here.  Why not? 

If the military had put on this performance, it would have cost something.   Aviation fuel, ground crews, and pilots don't come cheap.  So, who did it?   Got any suggestions?

bcornet@monmouth.com

Copyright © 1999 Sirius Onion Works
Last modified: October 23, 2005