64 Years Later After Famous Sighting No Solid Answer On UFOs

On this date 64 years ago Kenneth Arnold was flying his small private plane near Mt. Rainer, Wa., when he saw something so strange that it would have lasting effects on America when he described to reporters that he saw nine flying mental “disks,” or the once common phrase, flying saucers.

And while many claimed to have seen UFOs before June 24, 1947, Arnold’s sighting made people pay attention to the skies and made national headlines. But that has changed, according to Jennifer Stein.

“The press is a lot less open about reporting sightings,” wrote Stein, director of the Main Line Mutual UFO Network, a chapter of the national organization MUFON, in an email interview with the Haverford-Havertown Patch. “Sixty four years ago it was not uncommon to see stories of UFO sightings on the front pages of many major news papers. Not any more, nowadays you’re lucky if a sighting makes the back page of the paper, but the sightings have not changed, only the reporting of them.”

The Main Line MUFON group, where they hold meetings at the , has members throughout the area, including a field investigator who lives in Havertown, Stein stated, but she could not release the person’s name due to privacy concerns.

“We are a civilian organization, but made up of a lot of ex-military men with UFO experiences as a result of their career in the military,” Stein explained. 

For many, after witnessing something that they cannot describe, they join MUFON for answers, such as the case for Stein.

“In 1975 I had a sighting, but thought I was the only one who saw this craft at close range. Twenty five years later I learned I was not alone at the time of the sighting,” wrote Stein. “Then I realized I had to learn what this was, so at 45 I joined MUFON and become active now (and) 11 years later I have a whole local group that meets monthly and has been doing so for nine years now.”

Stein stated that the more people witness a alleged UFO sighting, that is enough to change their views.

“People change when they have a sighting. As more and more have a sighting, the attitudes shifts. National polls reveal more than 80 percent of Americans believe we are not alone and most likely being visited,” wrote the 56-year-old. “Other polls show some people (believe) we are being observed and studied, and sampled by way of minerals, plants materials, toxins, and human biological samplings.”

Stein, like many others, believes that the government is intentionally trying to debunk people who claim to have seen UFOs, but she stated that is becoming increasingly hard to do with so many credible witnesses.

While attending MUFON and UFO conferences, people from all walks of life, from the average person to police officers, U.S. Air Force and Naval officials, have made claims of seeing unusual lights or objects in the sky, Stein wrote.

“They help (spread credibility about UFOs), but it takes more and more and more of them to really make a difference. Often when they do come out they are discredited. Just like Kenneth Arnold was for his sighting.  He wasn't the only one who saw these craft that day. There were about four other recorded reports that have made it through history to this day of that same time,” Stein explained.

Some UFO believers, such as the Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, stated that UFOs are real and that the U.S. government is covering the truth up.

“A few insiders know the truth … and are studying the (alien) bodies that have been discovered,” Mitchell, who holds a doctorate in science, said in a 2004 interview with the St. Petersburg Times.

“Few will come forward, and they risk their reputation. Most only come forward very late in life like Edgar Mitchell when reputation doesn’t matter to them any more,” Stein wrote regarding Mitchell’s comments.

And while Mitchell received both praise and ridicule for his statements, Stein explained that MUFON has its hands full just investigating alleged UFO sightings.

For example, according to the Main Line MUFON chart of reported UFO sightings, Pennsylvania is tied with Arizona for being the fifth highest state in the nation in monthly UFO reports, which are 10. The highest is California, which received 33.

“I have gotten reports twice or three times from an individual who doesn’t want to be named, and doesn’t want to make an official report with MUFON. He see’s a UFO that appears over (Rt.) 202 and turnpike interchanges not far from the (King of Prussia) mall about 10 a.m. in the morning on a regular basis,” Stein mentioned.

In fact, Stein shared with Patch a YouTube video of what appears to be bright lights over Center City during a Bruce Springsteen concert. The video accompanies this article.

But with pilots and astronauts making claims that they have seen strange things in the skies, will the truth, whatever it is, ever be discovered, Stein was asked.

“Some people feel like they have learned a lot … I bet the military knows a lot,” Stein wrote.