27MAY96 - Monday (12:00 Midnight)

This evening I was to meet with John Tosti to test his intuition that something would "break loose" tonight in the skies over Mt. Tabor Road. Mt. Tabor Road is located in a more sparsely populated area of north-western Monroe County, therefore, I was surprised to encounter a low flying aircraft, directly over the roadway at midnight. As it approached my position, it seemed almost motionless. I stopped my van and stepped out on the running board to get a better view. I could detect movement and the drone of a piston-engine. I could not actually see the body of the craft, only the lights. It was probably an airplane. Probably. Alright then, assuming it was a conventional airplane, one has to ask - what was it doing out there at that late hour? And why was it flying so low? And what kind of electronic equipment would it have to possess in order to fly safely under those conditions? Somehow I knew it's presence was not a mere coincidence.

I got back in the van and drove another 1/8th of a mile to the rendezvous where I met with John. As soon as I stepped out of the van, John quietly yelled, "Bring your camera, there's one over here!" as he pointed toward the eastern sky. This time I was successful in my attempt to capture some decent video images of a yellow-orange sphere, as it floated almost motionless over the tree line in the distance. After three minutes or so, a car came up over a rise in the road between the sphere and my vantage point, it's lights shining directly at me. At first I thought, perhaps the car's lights were causing the sphere to appear dimmer. John from a different position, however, indicated that the sphere in fact had "dimmed down". After the car passed our position, I could see that the sphere remained dim. A few seconds later, the object "blinked out".

We were still standing around in the yard thirty minutes later, discussing what we had just witnessed when, what appeared to be a prop-driven airplane powered by a piston engine, approached from out of the west. It was barely above the tree tops when it banked sharply over our location, then turned back toward the west. I was able to videotape the lights of the craft as it turned directly overhead. As soon as the "plane" passed from view I spotted another yellow-orange sphere in the distance. Dim at first, it hung motionless in the northern sky. Seconds later, with the suddenness of a light bulb being switched on, the glowing orb attained it's full brilliance. Fortunately, my video camera was able to record the whole event before it "dimmed down", then disappeared from view.

A post script to this event: John came over to my house a couple of days later to view the video footage I had captured.

I said to John, "Before you watch this, tell me what kind of plane you heard turning around in the back yard?"

"It was a twin engine prop plane." he replied

"What kind of engines?" I asked.

"Piston" he answered.