The October '92 Landing
by Bruce Cornet, Ph.D.
AOP Descends and Disappears into a Farm Field
On 2 October 1992 Fred Brock, Evelyn Brock, and Bruce Cornet witnessed an AOP descend below tree top level three miles away from their observation station on Muddy Kill Lane, Montgomery, NY. They had climbed up to the foundation of a new home on a low ridge overlooking the Wallkill River valley in order to skywatch. At 10:45 pm they notices a golden yellow light approaching from the east over Walden, NY. It turned south (to the right) and began moving towards the town of Montgomery. Because of its relatively low altitude for a plane at night, Cornet began to take a series of time exposures. Its speed or movement was erratic. As Cornet opened the shutter for several of his time exposures, the light sped up, then slowed down (Fig. 1).
In image #4 the light can be seen to rise as it slowed down. In image #5 the light slowed to a stop, then began descending at a seven degree angle. All images taken looking East. As the AOP descended it turned on an additional bright light (Fig. 2).
The descent was long, slow, and deliberate, taking about a minute and a half to travel a mile and a half (computes to 60 mph!). There was no noise associated with this flight (Fig. 3).
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As it passed due East in front of the triple red beacon on the mountain across the
valley, the AOP slowed down again, turned on more bright lights. Now its lights were
orders of magnitude brighter than conventional aircraft landing lights (image #8). It tilted further downwards, and then continued
its descent silently (Fig. 4).
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During the time exposures when the AOP sped up (e.g. image #2), it produced a very
unusual light trace on the photograph. A complex oscillation can be seen, that seems to
involve the spinning of two or more lights to produce a sawtooth pattern. Such a pattern
cannot be reproduced by camera movement (Fig. 5).
The AOP passed behind a couple trees and disappeared below tree top level in the direction of 109 degrees compass (Fig. 6).
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The AOP disappeared into a field just north of a runway to a defunct WWII landing field at Montgomery, NY. Had that the runways still been available, the descent and approach of the AOP could easily have been dismissed as an airplane coming in for a routine landing. But if this had been an airplane attempting to land on that runway, it would have had to negotiate 50 year old trees, some with three foot diameter trunks, which now grow all along the runway. The WWII landing field, you see, is now an 18 hole golf course.
Airplanes don't land in unlit farm fields at night unless there is a serious problem.
The Brocks and Cornet drove towards the general area where the AOP disappeared, only to discover that it went down on the east side of the Wallkill River. Evelyn briefly saw a set of lights hovering just below tree top level in the direction where it disappeared. By the time we stopped and turned around, the lights had disappeared.
On 4 October Cornet visited the field where the AOP disappeared. He found no indication of landing marks on the ground. The vegetation in the field was undisturbed. There were no signs of crop circles or burnt marks. His magnetometer showed no unusual readings. Above him a lone military C-5 transport from Stewart AFB slowly circled. Why?