Disclosed

Exeter incident

Date
3 Sep 1965
Place
Kensington, near Exeter, New Hampshire, United States
Record
Curated case
Assessment
Contested
Evidence strength
467 case pages by decade; this one falls in 1960s with 49 othersAll cases

What was reported

At about 2 a.m., teenager Norman Muscarello saw a silent group of pulsing red lights hovering over a field near Route 150 and ran to the Exeter police; patrolman Eugene Bertrand returned with him and both, then officer David Hunt, saw the lights rise over the trees. Project Blue Book first attributed it to stars and planets and to aircraft from a large Air Force exercise that night, then changed the listing to unidentified after the officers objected that the exercise had ended. John Fuller's book made it famous. A 2011 analysis in Skeptical Inquirer proposed the strobe lights of an aerial-refuelling aircraft.

What officials concluded

Unresolved

Project Blue Book: unidentified (revised from an exercise-aircraft explanation)

Strongest ordinary reading

Aircraft lights, possibly an aerial-refuelling tanker's, proposed; not established

Evidence profile

Sensors1 of 9
  • Yes: Visual
  • No: Infrared
  • No: Radar
  • No: Video
  • No: Photo
  • No: Film
  • No: Audio
  • No: Night vision
  • No: Other sensor
Witnesses3 counted
  • Yes: Civilian
  • No: Military aircrew
  • No: Military ground
  • No: Airline crew
  • No: Sensor operator
  • Yes: Law enforcement
  • No: Scientist
  • No: Astronaut
  • No: Intelligence official
  • No: Other
ShapeLight only
  • Yes: Light only
  • No: Orb or sphere
  • No: Disc
  • No: Triangle
  • No: Cylinder
  • No: Cube
  • No: Other shape
Effects1 reported
  • No: Physiological
  • No: Physical trace
  • No: Electromagnetic
  • No: Sound
  • Yes: Silent

Videos that discuss it

1

Claims and verdicts

1
  • Multiple named historical cases (1947 Weather Bureau discs, Portland 1947, New Mexico 1947, Misawa Japan 1952, Southern California/Kelly Johnson, Exeter NH 1965, Westall Australia 1966, Beverly MA 1966, Malmstrom AFB, Portage County OH, Redlands CA 1968, Broad Haven UK, Ariel School Zimbabwe) each describe a metallic/silver disc wobbling, tilting, or oscillating on its edge.

    You do see a consistency here, right?

    Said in UFO Skeptic Mick West Challenged To A Debate

Outside sources

On the map

42.93° N, 70.95° W, plotted at the town or city

Show on the map