The Collinsville, Connecticut UFO Incident, December 13th, 1999 - Contrails - Part 1

This is an incredible case that has had extensive research put into by MUFONCT (Connecticut MUFON) and still lacks any reasonable alternate explanation of the very strange phenomena these four credible witnesses ranging in age from 12 to 80 saw. This is also yet another top case that has received little or no attention hardly anywhere in my opinion. There are two noticeable parts to this sighting, one observed from long range, and the other observed from a much closer range, with the totality of the sighting lasting about 40 minutes. There is also a fairly extensive analysis as well. Unfortunately (as in many top cases) there are no actual photographs known to exist, but there is much of everything else important. In the end, as always, it is up to every one of you to make up your own mind on what happened on the strange afternoon of December 13th, 1999 in Collinsville, Connecticut.

Chapter Summary
1.Strange Contrails
2.A UFO Close-Up
3. The Investigation
4. Alternate Explanations
5. Official Conclusions and My Conclusions

1. Strange Contrails

Before we start I want to quickly go over the witnesses(which chose to remain anonymous):
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Two adult men, 49 (called “Y”) and 51(called “F”)

The 12 year old son of “F” called “S”

An 80 year old female business associate called “W” 

Google Earth image overlooking Collinsville, Connecticut

This whole strange event starts at around 3:30 PM EST outside of an antique store in Collinsville, Connecticut on December 13th, 1999. The witness’s (F) son (S, who was twelve) was playing outside of the store when he ran in to tell his father “Dad, dad, something’s falling from the sky.” After being ignored the first time by his father the son came running back inside saying “Dad, you’ve got to come and see.” When his father finally went outside he reported that he witnessed a contrail, similar to that of an aircraft “dropping very slowly”. The direction of the contrail was straight down and the witness reported the width of the trial to be wider than a typical jet.

Map showing position of the sightings

Suddenly there was a “burst” and ”bright balls of light” from the contrail which had the witnesses thinking a plane had just exploded. However, the “contrail” continued its’ same heading before disappearing in a flash behind the near by hill.

Investigator sketch (under witness direction) showing the appearance of the contrails

After the father went inside feeling uneasy that he might have just witnessed a plane crash he asked his business associate(Y) to come take a look. When they went back outside there was another, second contrail. It appeared less wide than the first and was to the left of where the first one appeared but followed the same direction and pattern. It too had a “burst” mid way through its decent before it disappeared behind the hill like the previous one did. Suddenly the three witnesses saw a white dot comparable to a star appear in the sky. It got somewhat bigger then started showing a contrail, the witnesses saw 5 contrails(all displaying the same characteristics apparently) in all. Feeling somewhat scared the witnesses went inside.

Interview report of the witness “Y”:

Y, age 49, was one of at least four witnesses to an event that occurred on Monday, December 13, '99' at between 1500 and 1600 hours (EST). The witness was positive of the date since it was St. Lucia day, the beginning of his Christmas, but unsure of the particular day of the week (which was later determined from the calendar). He was certain of the time also, since one of his co-workers, F, drives his son, S from school to the antique shop (where they both work) at the same time each day. Both the co-worker and the son were witnesses, as well as an 81-year-old woman (also an employee of the antique store) named W.

The event actually takes place in two parts. Initially, F came in through the front door of the shop and alerted Y to the event. Upon exiting the front door onto the sidewalk, Y's attention was directed toward the west whereupon he observed what he described as a "light shower". Trails of light/light flashes were "coming down in slow motion through the sky " from approximately 60 degrees above the horizon. One of the "lights" split into "two balls of light" and continued to fall below the horizon. These light balls were numerous, occurred one at a time with one disappearing below the horizon before the next one began to fall, were bright, and left no "trail". Each one took approximately 60 seconds from appearance in the sky until it fell below the horizon, and they continued to materialize and fall for 20 minutes. During this event the witness was in and out of the store assisting customers. All falling objects originated and fell between 250 degrees and 260 degrees (magnetic). The witness believes that at least one falling object hit something because there was a bright flash just after it fell below the horizon.

The weather was clear; similar to the day that this interview took place, and we were facing almost directly into the setting sun which was still above the horizon at 1530 hours on the day of the interview. Y reports that on the day of the event the sun had already set behind the steep and tall ridgeline that comprises the western horizon. This interviewer believes that this must have been the case due to the reported time, and the fact that it was nearly impossible to look to the west during the interview because of the brightness of the setting sun. The witness reports that the light conditions were "dusky" during the event, which would have pegged the time at 1600 hours or later. Sunset was at 1612 hours on December 13.

It should be noted that the mountain range or ridgeline to the west is quite close to the position of the observers (less than 3 kilometers), making the top of the hill, which is the actual western horizon, approximately 20 degrees up from level. In addition, just over the hilltop lies Nepaug Reservoir.

The following is the site photo with the red dot showing the approximate origination elevation and azimuth of the contrails, all of which terminated at the horizon reportedly(From the antique shop perspective).