KECKSBURG.

Thousands of witnesses observed the object, which appeared to maneuver before descending into a wooded ravine outside the small village of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania. NASA initially attributed the fireball to a bolide meteor; the US Air Force later attributed it to debris from the Soviet Kosmos 96 Venus probe. Both explanations have been challenged by orbital analysts.

Local volunteer firefighter James Romansky and other residents who reached the woods before authorities arrived described an object roughly the size of a small car, acorn or bell-shaped, made of bronze-coloured metal, with a band of hieroglyphic-like markings near its base. Within hours, US Army personnel arrived in force, sealed the woods, and — according to multiple local accounts including those of WHJB radio reporter John Murphy — recovered an object on a flatbed truck.

Murphy collected witness statements and photographs at the scene. He produced a radio documentary, "Object in the Woods," whose master tapes were later confiscated by men he described as government officials; the broadcast version aired in heavily edited form. Murphy was killed in a hit-and-run in California in 1969 under circumstances researchers have flagged as unusual.

In 2003, the Sci-Fi Channel funded a NASA Freedom of Information Act lawsuit pursued by journalist Leslie Kean, which compelled NASA to search for documentation. NASA eventually claimed the relevant boxes had gone missing. A federal judge in 2009 ordered NASA to perform additional searches but no records confirming or denying a recovery have been produced. Kecksburg is sometimes called "Pennsylvania's Roswell" — a comparison strengthened by both the persistence of witness accounts and the documented record of unsuccessful FOIA pursuits.