This article was published in the daily newspaper the Daily Tribune of Royal Oak, Michigan, USA, on March 21, 2003
Also check other files on the Michigan 1966 swamp gas story.
ANN ARBOR (UPI) - At least 40 persons saw an eerie unidentified flying object land in a swamp near here Sunday night, police said today. Twelve witnesses were policemen.
Officers said four sister ships hovered in a quarter-circle above the object until it took off with a warbling sound like the echo of a ricocheting bullet.
Policeman Robert Huniwell of Dexter, a nearby village, said he and other residents of the area saw similar objects zipping through the skies early last Monday and Wednesday.
Frank Mannor, age 47, a farmer, and his son, Ronald 19, said they approached within 500 yards of the object. It lay in a swamp, they said, with pulsating haloed lights on each end. Mannor said it was pitted "like coral rock" and about the length of a car. He drew a picture of it showing its shape as about that of a football.
"There seemed to be a kind of fog underneath it," Mannor said.
He said his son said, "look at that horrible thing!" and the craft vanished. Two deputies, Mannor's son-in-law and other witnesses said it zipped over the tree tops. They described the same noise. Mannor and others said it was like the warbling sirens used on some police cars or a ricochetting bullet.
Six police cars chased the formation but the objects vanished.
Policemen said they and other witnesses except the Mannors could see only lights because of the darkness.
Robert Taylor, Dexter police chief, said he watched the object from Mannor's home on a knoll overlooking the 300-acre swamp.
"I saw a red glow down in the swamp," Taylor said. "It was a pulsating bright red and then it grew dimmer. I put the binoculars on it and saw that there was a light on each end of the thing."
Deputy Stanley McFadden said at least 60 persons saw the strange lights in the air or on the ground.
