1974: Ronald Reagan UFO Sighting

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTING REPORT

Date: 1974

Sighting Time:

Day/Night: Night

Location: Bakersfield, California

Urban or Rural: -Airplane

Hynek Classification: NL (Nocturnal Light) Point or extended luminous source observed at night.

Duration: several minutes

No. of Object(s): 1

Height & Speed: high rate of speed

Size of Object(s): ?

Distance to Object(s): several hundred yards away

Shape of Object(s): light

Color of Object(s): Bright

Number of Witnesses: 4

Source: Editors of Publications International, Ltd.

Full Report

by the Editors of Publications International, Ltd.

One night in 1974, from a Cessna Citation aircraft, one of America’s most famous citizens saw a UFO.

There were four persons aboard the plane: pilot Bill Paynter, two security guards, and the governor of California, Ronald Reagan. As the airplane approached Bakersfield, California, the passengers called Paynter’s attention to a strange object to their rear. “It appeared to be several hundred yards away,” Paynter recalled. “It was a fairly steady light until it began to accelerate. Then it appeared to elongate. Then the light took off. It went up at a 45-degree angle at a high rate of speed.

Everyone on the plane was surprised. . . . The UFO went from normal cruise speed to a fantastic speed instantly. If you give an airplane power, it will accelerate-but not like a hot rod, and that’s what this was like.”

A week later Reagan recounted the sighting to Norman C. Miller, then Washington bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal. Reagan told Miller, “We followed it for several minutes. It was a bright white light. We followed it to Bakersfield, and all of a sudden to our utter amazement it went straight up into the heavens.”

When Miller expressed some doubt, a “look of horror came over [Reagan]. It suddenly dawned on him . . . that he was talking to a reporter.” Immediately afterward, according to Miller, Reagan “clammed up.” Reagan did not discuss the event again, at least publicly.

source & references: http://science.howstuffworks.com/ronald-reagan-ufo.htm