A Continuing History of Sightings of Triangular-shaped Craft 
in the Wallkill River Valley of New York State.

by Dr. Bruce Cornet and W. Marc Whitford

Abstract or Summary

Marc Whitford, Dinah Bertran, and Bruce Cornet witnessed and 
recorded a deliberate performance by a stealth black 
triangle on 17 May 1997 near Montgomery, NY, at about 11:10 
pm.  During that performance the triangle flipped over and 
flew upside down and sideways for a distance before righting 
itself in a most unusual manner, which cannot be duplicated 
by a fixed-wing aircraft so low to the ground and at night.  
Then the craft did a series of turns without banking, 
descended very slowly, and disappeared below tree top 
level in an area where no airport or landing strip exists.  
As it did so it vented a plume of golden white plasma that 
can be seen on one of the time exposures taken by Dinah.  
Marc was later told by someone, who claimed to work for 
Lockheed Skunk Works, that we had been given this performance 
by the U.S. military as part of their gradual release of 
information on a new top secret aircraft (possibly the 
triangular X-22A ), which possesses technology allegedly 
derived from reverse engineered alien spacecraft (cf. Corso, 
1997: The day after Roswell).  Whether or not this 
disclosure is true remains to be proven, because the area 
where the performance occurred has a history of UFO activity 
that goes back to the 1930's and possibly earlier, before 
reports of recovered alien spacecraft in 1947.  

In our contribution we discuss evidence that supports the 
thesis for intense ongoing alien activity in the Wallkill 
River valley of New York, which was first brought to the 
public's attention by Dr. Ellen Crystall in her book, Silent 
Invasion (1991).  We begin by describing some earlier (1992-
1994) encounters with triangular and diamond-shaped stealth-
black craft in this area, which is generally known as the 
Pine Bush UFO hotspot. 

For those viewers who want a quick overview and summary, we 
list the figures below, followed by brief descriptions of 
the evidence. We prefer the name TLP (Transient Luminescent 
Phenomenon) instead of UFO, because it is more neutral and 
does not connote an extraterrestrial origin or implication.

Figure 1   Map of the Pine Bush UFO hotspot, showing various 
observation stations along rural roads in a dominantly 
agricultural setting, Orange County, New York.  Two of the 
four towns or villages surrounding this area are shown.  The 
green circle containing a triangle is considered to be the 
geographic center of the UFO hotspot, and is marked by an 
unusual 300-foot diameter circle defined by vegetation and 
contour.  Filling most of this circle is an eight-foot high, 
flat top mound possessing remnant sides which imply an 
original hexagonal shape.  The second green circle marked 
with an X is the estimated destination or place of 
disappearance of two TLPs videotaped on 17 May 1997 by the 
authors.  Data for the second TLP videotaped that night are 
illustrated in figures 8-16.

Figure 2   Date: 23 June 1992.  Time: 11:12 pm.  Place: West 
Searsville Rd. next to the Wilde farm, northwest of 
Montgomery, NY.  Witnesses: Bruce Cornet, Ellen Crystall, 
and four other people.  On that night they witnessed a 
cigar-shaped craft possessing multicolored lights rising 
slowly and silently to the west of their location.  This B&W 
photograph is the first of two taken of this TLP (Transient 
Luminescent Phenomenon) before it unfolded wings and turned 
on sound like that of a conventional jet.

Figure 3   The second of two time exposures showing the 
lights on a cigar-shaped TLP as they moved apart as wings 
unfolded and sound of a conventional jet was heard for the 
first time.  The group of witnesses then jumped into their 
cars and gave chase down country roads, and caught up to 
this TLP after it stopped and hovered, apparently waiting 
for them.  As they watched, this object, which now resembled 
an all black Boeing 707 without engines, swivelled around 
and flew over them back in the direction it came.  See text 
for a more complete account of this encounter.

Figure 4   Date: 2 June 1993.  Time: 11:47 pm.  Place: West 
Searsville Rd. next to the Wilde farm, northwest of 
Montgomery, NY.  Witness: Bruce Cornet.  This is the last of 
three time exposures taken of this TLP, which shows a 
regular oscillation originating well after the shutter to 
the camera opened.  Because the camera shutter was operated 
by an electronic switch at the end of a cable, no vibration 
was introduced to the camera system during the time 
exposure.  This photograph demonstrates the possible origin 
of a wave form at the light source, which is both 
unconventional (anomalous) and not characteristic of 
turbulence for fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters.  This 
oscillation is possible for a craft which uses its surface 
to create an antigravity electromagnetic wave used in 
propulsion (cf. Corso, 1997: The day after Roswell).  As the 
wave form is generated, the plasma lights generated and 
controlled by this electromagnetic effect will also vibrate 
sympathetically.

Figure 5   Date: 18 June 1994.  Time: 9:47 pm.  Place: West 
Searsville Rd. next to the Wilde farm, northwest of 
Montgomery, NY.  Witness: Bruce Cornet. Two time exposures 
(23 seconds duration) showing a TLP as it flew directly over 
his position (travelling west to east).  The craft then 
turned north without banking (an anomaly), and disappeared 
into the distance.  Initially the TLP was observed rising up 
above the tree line to the southeast as if taking off from 
an airport, but it was much too low to the ground to have 
originated from Stewart airport 9 miles away (another 
anomaly).  The first three time exposures taken of this TLP 
(not shown) were of it travelling from east to west.  As it 
passed to the south, it turned sharply north towards the 
camera and flew over Bruce, completing an unexpected U-turn 
(a third anomaly).  Even though the lights were positioned 
in a conventional pattern, the golden hue is atypical of 
conventional aircraft (a fourth anomaly).  As it flew 
overhead it produced a series of sine-wave type 
oscillations, which gradually dampened to extinction in each 
time exposure.  Each oscillation began sufficiently after 
the camera shutter was opened not to have been the result of 
shutter vibration.  Because Bruce suspected that this craft 
would produce such oscillations (based on his experience), 
he deliberately bumped the camera to create a chaotic 
vibration on the film.  He was tired of hearing skeptics 
dismiss his evidence as nothing more than camera vibration. 

This experiment demonstrates that the regular oscillation 
originated at the light source, because the chaotic 
vibration dampened quickly, while the regular oscillation 
continued to dampen slowly as if the camera bump had not 
occurred.  Similar regular oscillations that begin at or 
shortly after the opening of the camera shutter, and which 
take more than two seconds to dampen to extinction, are 
unconventional and anomalous characteristics of TLPs.  Had 
the regular oscillation originated in his camera system, it 
would have combined with the added vibration to produce a 
third wave form, which would have continued long after the 
chaotic vibration disappeared.  In other words, if his 
camera system were susceptible to long term vibrations, the 
vibration introduced by the bump to the camera would not 
have disappeared as quickly.

Figure 6   Date: 10 July 1992.  Time: 11:53 pm.  Place: 
South Searsville Rd. near Rowe Lane, just north of 
Montgomery, NY.  Witness: Bruce Cornet.  This is the last 
picture on a roll of black and white film taken of a diamond 
or kite-shaped TLP as it slowly crossed a long open field 
towards the camera.  As the roll of B&W film was being 
rewound and replaced by a roll of color film, this TLP 
slowed down and stopped in mid air, hovering while Bruce 
completed the change of film rolls.  Once the new roll was 
loaded and the camera was again pointed at the TLP, it 
dimmed its bright lights and began to move towards the 
camera, flying almost directly over his position.  The 
brilliance of the two outer lights, their uneven movement 
through the air (the camera was firmly locked onto a stable 
tripod), and the haze visible between those lights (which 
obscures the central pulsing light) are typical 
characteristics of unconventional aircraft or TLP in this 
region of the Wallkill River valley.  See 
http://wwwOrionWorks.com/bcornet/Vol_1 for additional images 
of performances by this type of craft.

Figure 7   Two color time exposures for the 10 July 
performance of a large diamond or kite-shaped TLP as it 
turned above the observer, revealing the unusual hues or 
colors of its lights.  The distribution of lights on the 
underside of this craft can be determined by the coordinated 
bumps on the light traces.  The analysis of those bumps 
indicates that the lights are asymmetrically positioned, 
unlike that for most aircraft, which have a bilaterally-
symmetrical distribution of lights.  For example, the outer 
red and green lights, which on a plane would be located at 
the wingtips, were positioned diagonally across the bottom 
of a solid diamond shape.  The green light was located on 
the right angle of the diamond, but the red light was not 
located at the left angle (it was positioned between the 
nose and lateral points of the diamond).  This analysis 
demostrates that if this had been a conventional jet, it 
would have made the turn oriented sideways without the nose 
of the plane parallel to the central pair of gold and red 
lights (as illustrated in the idealized orientation for a 
conventional aircraft).  

Figure 8   Date: 17 May 1997.  Time: 11:13 pm.  Place: Muddy 
Kill Lane on a low ridge west of Montgomery, NY.  Witnesses: 
Marc Whitford, Dinah Bertran, and Bruce Cornet.  Time 
exposure (18 seconds duration) showing the TLP approaching 
our position from the north over a low ridge.  A high cloud 
bank can be seen in the picture, along with a silhouette of 
the tree line and house/street lights.  The TLP appeared to 
us as being lower in altitude over this ridge than normal 
for aircraft on approach to Stewart airport 8.5 miles away.  
The picture also shows the TLP inclined slightly to the 
left and a strange bar of light underneath that may have 
been a reflection coming off of a layer of fog underneath 
the craft.  The tilt of the lights is not as obvious in the 
corresponding video frames in Figure 9, perhaps due to a 
slight tilt of the camcorder.  The opening and closing of 
the shutter to the reflex camera can be heard on the audio 
track to the videotape, allowing us to determine the exact 
correspondence of the time exposures with the video 
sequence.  

Figure 9   Twelve video frame picks for 17 May performance, 
showing the TLP approaching us from the north.  Two outer 
lights can be seen separated by a smaller pulsing central 
light.  As it approached us it slowly rotated to a 45 degree 
inclined position without turning, and then leveled out 
again.  Conventional fixed wing aircraft cannot hold such a 
position unless banking during a turn.  As the TLP returned 
to horizontal, its bright outer lights flashed alternately 
(11:12:54-55 pm).  When the videotape was slowed down and 
studied frame by frame, it was discovered that these lights 
flashed a series of times in a repetitious pattern, 
indicative of a signal.  But because the flashes occurred in 
less than thirty video frames (one second), all we visually 
saw were brightened quivering lights.  

Figure 10   Thirteen video frame picks for 17 May 
performance, showing the TLP brightening its left light as 
it slowly came towards us.  Landing lights on a conventional 
aircraft will momentarily brighten as the plane banks or 
turns and each light points directly at the observer, but 
this craft did not turn.  The light on the right increased 
in brightness and size until it was about four times the 
size of the light on the left.  As this happened, Marc's 
camcorder began to malfunction, and he got a low battery 
symbol in his viewfinder.  Then his camcorder shut down 
completely.  He had fully recharged his battery before the 
trip to Pine Bush.  After this performance was over his 
camcorder resumed working again.  He checked the condition 
of the camcorder battery, and found it to be fully charged 
and capable of operating a floodlight attachment normally.  

Figure 11  Eight video frame picks plus enlargement for 17 
May performance, showing TLP banking in front of cameras as 
it turned sharply east after coming directly at us.  During 
this bank we briefly saw its triangular shape and 
indications of structure on the bottom, based on reflections 
or small lights in positions where there is no structure on 
a conventional fixed-wing aircraft.

Figure 12  Time exposure (22 seconds duration) and five 
video frame picks for 17 May performance, showing TLP 
flipping over onto its back.  The time exposure shows the 
outer lights coming closer together as the orientation of 
the craft progressed from full bottom view to side view.  
The positions of the coordinated lateral strobe  flashes on 
the time exposure enable a realistic reconstruction of the 
orientation of the craft (provided as the silhouette of a 
triangle).  Neither the time exposure nor the reconstructed 
orientations of the triangle show the TLP making a turn or 
bank to the north, which is one possible but incorrect 
interpretation from viewing the video footage alone or by 
itself (due to a lack of references in the video picture).  
The time exposure shows the craft climbing or increasing its 
altitude while making the roll over.  Any pilot performing 
such a stunt so close to the ground at night would want to 
have as much altitude as possible in the event of a 
miscalculation.  Thus, the rapid decrease in apparent size 
of the TLP is not due to a rapid increase in distance from 
the camera, but due to the illusion of size change created 
by viewing the triangle from the side.  In the next figure 
(Fig. 14) the TLP is shown flipping back over to right side 
up, and in doing so it seems to rapidly increase in size.  
But the time exposure of that maneuver shows that the craft 
was travelling in a straight line and descending.

Figure 13   Map of the UFO hotspot area showing the 
reconstructed flight path for the 17 May TLP performance, 
the location of the observation station (on a low ridge) 
from which the videos and time exposures were taken, and the 
approximate area where the TLP descended below tree top 
level just northeast of the town of Montgomery, NY.

Figure 14   Time exposure (8 seconds duration) and thirteen 
video frame picks for 17 May performance, showing TLP 
flipping back to right side up.  At the beginning of this 
sequence the craft is upside down and flying sideways with 
the normally right side and angle of the triangle facing 
forward.  Labels and arrows attempt to show how this craft 
rotated about an axis aligned with its direction of 
movement.  The time exposure provides critical evidence that 
helps distinguish between a turn and a flip, because the 
video record by itself is subject to more than one 
interpretation.  During this maneuver the point on the left 
raised up as the craft used its engineered top surface as an 
air brake.  Once the craft had slowed sufficiently to make 
the flip (time exposure shows strobe light flashes becoming 
more closely spaced), the engineered nose of the triangle, 
which was on the right side relative to the direction of 
movement, rotated downwards and underneath, while the back 
side of the triangle rotated over, bringing the craft right 
side up but still flying sideways.  Think of this maneuver 
as a barrel roll done sideways.  Then the craft began to 
move in the direction of its engineered nose, which was now 
on the left side relative to the direction of movement, 
which appeared on the video to be a sharp left turn.

Figure 15   Time exposure (31 seconds duration) for 17 May 
performance, showing TLP turning towards the east and then 
beginning a slow descent.  The progressive decrease in 
spacing between the flashes of the central orange strobe 
light implies that the craft was decelerating as it 
descended.  The fact that the outer lights brighten as the 
strobe interval decreases also supports a decrease in speed, 
allowing those lights to affect the film emulsion more (thus 
producing a wider light trace).  The speed of the craft for 
this time exposure is estimated at initially about 60 mph 
decreasing to as slow as 40 mph, implying an unusual or 
unconventional source of lift.  

Figure 16   Two time exposures (20 seconds duration) for 17 
May performance, showing TLP slowly descending below tree 
top level about 2.7 miles from observation station. The area 
where this TLP went down contains a golf course, farm 
fields, and residential homes just to the north of the town 
of Montgomery, NY.  As the craft descended it produced a 
vertical plume of golden white light, which is interpreted 
as a plume of plasma energy that may have been released as 
the craft prepared to land.

A version of this article will be published in the Beyond 
Boundaries newsletter (Joyce L. Murphy, editor, Rainbow, 
TX).  The Beyond Boundaries homepage is at 
http://rampages.onramp.net/

jmurphy/ (jmurphy@onramp.net).  

Introduction

For a number of years (since 1992 for BC) the authors have 
conducted field research on what we now call Transient 
Luminescent Phenomena (TLP), commonly known as the UFO 
phenomenon.  We prefer the name TLP, because it is more 
neutral and does not connote an extraterrestrial origin or 
implication.  Our research has been concentrated in a region 
of the Wallkill River valley of New York, commonly referred 
to as Pine Bush.  Dr. Ellen Crystall wrote the book Silent 
Invasion (1991), which is based on her then 10 year old 
study of this unusual light activity in the valley.  Other 
books, such as Night Siege by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Phil 
Imbrognio, and Bob Pratt (1987), discuss mass sightings of 
TLPs in the Hudson River valley region just to the east of 
Pine Bush during the early and mid 1980's.  This phenomenon 
is well known to most of the local inhabitants, many of whom 
have had sightings.  Anyone who has visited Butch's Barber 
Shop in Pine Bush will find a wall containing many newspaper 
articles on the subject of UFOs.  Two years ago there was a 
large billboard on the side of a barn picturing a classic 
UFO.  It could be seen from State Route 17 going north just 
before the exit for State Route 302 to Pine Bush.  The 
billboard stated: "Welcome Home ET."  It has since been 
taken down.  All the attention this phenomenon has gotten in 
the region underscores the fact that something highly 
unusual has been occurring there for many decades.

This article is based on a series of recent sightings and 
videotapes taken of the famous Pine Bush "Black Triangle", 
which is illustrated by Crystall as a drawing in her book as 
it hovers above a cemetery along State Route 52 between Pine 
Bush and Walden, NY.  The center of UFO or TLP activity is 
not located at Pine Bush, however, but is located about 
midway between four small towns covering a region of about 
26 square miles (Figure 1). In clockwise direction from the 
center of the TLP hotspot, these towns are Walden (4:00 
o'clock), Montgomery (6:00 o'clock), Pine Bush (10:00 
o'clock), and Wallkill (2:00 o'clock) in Orange and Ulster 
counties, New York.  The most intense TLP activity has been 
observed in a four square mile area over and on the Owen's 
dairy farm and surrounding farmlands and woodlands.  
Agricultural and dairy farming is in decline in the region, 
and some property in the hotspot area has been sold for 
residential development.  New homes can be seen in several 
places surrounding the fields and wooded areas where TLPs 
have been observed originating and disappearing, but that 
development has not affected TLP activity to date.  Visitors 
and residents commonly aggregate in one small area along 
West Searsville Road near its intersection with Hill Avenue 
to witness this phenomenon at night.  Most visitors see 
nothing, they say, except conventional aircraft flying over 
the region.  The really convincing TLP activity is sporadic 
and unpredictable.  Only in this spot do UFO enthusiasts and 
the curious not have problems with local residents who live 
along many of the local roads.  If you talk to these 
residents, some will admit to seeing unusual lights at 
night, but most don't want to talk about their experiences.  
Some will laugh and even state that they have never seen a 
UFO and don't believe that they exist.  But if you talk to 
the children, you will sometimes get a very different 
picture of what they and their parents have reportedly seen, 
but don't talk about in public.

In addition to the black triangle, other types of strange 
flying craft have also been observed in the area, mostly at 
night.  The authors have witnessed and photographed the 
unusual manta-ray-shaped craft, which closely resembles the 
marine animal in shape, including a long retractable tail 
(based on eye witness accounts).  Others have seen 
boomerang-shaped craft, luminescent globular-shaped objects, 
as well as the classic saucer-shaped and cigar-shaped UFOs.  
But the triangular and manta-ray or diamond-shaped objects 
are by far the most commonly sighted when these craft fly 
close enough to observers to be identified in silhouette.  
All the non-luminescent craft have non-reflective bodies, 
which appear black or even transparent against the night 
sky, even around their brilliant plasma lights.  The lack of 
significant light reflection off the fuselage is one 
important characteristic which distinguishes these craft 
from conventional aircraft (excluding known stealth military 
aircraft, such as the B-2 and F117, and the new less-well-
known triangular X-22A and HALO).  Because reports of 
sightings are not common, and because many people have not 
reported seeing anything unusual in the area even after 
coming out night after night for weeks, there is much 
disagreement as to what is really going on in and around 
Pine Bush.  It is not uncommon to hear skeptics say that all 
people are seeing are conventional aircraft, and that most 
if not all reports of TLPs are, according to them, 
misidentifications of airplanes or natural phenomena.

Several times a month the anomalous TLP activity is so 
common in the region that the skies appear to be "filled" 
with a half dozen or more aircraft at a time.  Many visitors 
have remarked that they have never seen so many planes in 
one area except perhaps at a busy international airport 
(e.g. Paul Devereaux, 1997, pers. comm.).  Large 
international airports such as Newark and Kennedy are 
located hundreds of miles away to the southeast.  On some 
occasions we have counted and recorded as many as 63 
apparent aircraft flying over the valley in a three hour 
period between 8:30 pm and 11:30 pm.  Most had strobes and 
red lights that resemble aircraft lights at a distance.  
Even Stewart airport, located on the opposite or eastern 
side of the valley, does not see that kind of air traffic at 
its busiest hour.  American Airlines and U.S. Air make 
routine landings there, but on normal flight schedules.  The 
Airforce keeps a squadron of planes at Stewart, but they are 
mostly C5's and C130's used by the Air National Guard for 
practice flights.  Rarely are those planes flown over the 
region in question, and most only fly to the east of the TLP 
hotspot area during the day (G. Filer, 1997, pers. comm.).  
In 1992, however, Bruce witnessed and photographed a C5 
circling high above an area just north of the town of 
Montgomery during the day where a TLP had been photographed 
by him descending below tree top level the night before.  
When C5's and C130's do fly over the region, they fly at 
altitudes higher than the TLPs (usually above 2000 feet).  
Most TLPs are seen at altitudes lower than 1500 feet, and 
frequently well below 1000 feet (i.e. three to five tree 
heights above the ground at close range).  Even private 
aircraft from nearby Orange County airport do not fly that 
low except at or near the airport!  And we have never seen 
military aircraft fly on the weekends when many TLP 
sightings are made, because the Air National Guard usually 
does not fly on weekends.  These anomalies must be taken 
into consideration when observing air traffic in the area, 
something that skeptics rarely consider in giving their 
second hand opinions.

To the south of the TLP hotspot, about a mile south of 
Montgomery, NY, is Orange County airport.  Planes traveling 
to and from this airport can be seen off and on during most 
days.  The airport usually closes at 9:30 pm when the runway 
lights are turned out.  Air traffic around that airport is 
usually minimal compared to Stewart air traffic.  
Occasionally a plane will come in for a landing after 9:30 
pm.  The runway lights will be turned back on just before 
that plane arrives in accordance with a formal flight plan.  
Most of the TLP activity we have observed occurs after 9:30 
pm, however, ruling out that airport as a main source of TLP 
activity.  In 1993 Bruce witnessed a plane take off from 
Orange County airport after dark and then begin to chase 
after a TLP in its vicinity, which was quite amusing. 

Initially the TLP was observed moving slowly at a low 
altitude (est. 1000-1500 feet) when the small plane 
approached it from the south just after leveling off after 
takeoff.  As the plane banked sharply east towards the TLP, 
the TLP began moving at a higher rate of speed.  As the 
plane increased its engine noise and gave chase, the TLP 
suddenly took off and disappeared beyond sight from the 
ground in an apparent evasive maneuver.  No sound was made 
by the TLP.

That was not the first experience Bruce had which convinced 
him that unusual lights were flying around this region at 
night.  The first incident which convinced him he was not 
misidentifying a conventional aircraft occurred on 23 June 
1992.  "I was with a group of spectators, and it was my 
first time out in the field with Ellen Crystall.  Someone in 
the group brought to our attention a row of lights moving 
slowly from north to south low over the low ridge behind us 
(to the west).  We turned around and I began taking the 
first of two time exposures (Figure 2).  That picture shows 
the TLP climbing.  I moved my camera for the next picture 
(Figure 3) and opened the shutter.  Just after I did this, 
the object, which resembled a long cigar-shaped fuselage, 
unfolded wings and we began hearing a sound like that of a 
jet.  Previously the TLP had been moving silently.  It 
unfolded its wings vertically, flew straight for a distance, 
then turned east and rotated into a horizontal position as 
it headed in the direction of Stewart airport.  One person 
in our group yelled out, "No way," in reference to his 
disbelief that what he had just seen was nothing more than a 
conventional jet on a flight path to Stewart.  He ran to his 
car and jumped in, and began giving chase down West 
Searsville Rd.  We followed in suite, and for a short period 
of time there was this caravan of cars racing down back 
roads in rural Orange County, New York, chasing a TLP that 
now resembled a jet."  Skeptics might say that all we 
witnessed was a jet banking, and that what we thought was 
the deployment of wings was instead a rotation of the plane 
during a turn.  But the TLP continued to fly in a straight 
line for a distance before turning, and the photograph shows 
it descending rapidly, much too soon for a landing at 
Stewart.

"At the time I was unprepared for such a display of illogic, 
and clung to my seat as we bounced along a narrow curving 
farm road doing more than 50 mph.  The lead car turned onto 
South Searsville Rd., which is on line with one of the 
flight paths to Stewart, and to my astonishment we seemed to 
be catching up to this object.  The lead car stopped at the 
next intersection with Albany Post Rd., and the driver got 
out of his car.  As we stood there in the middle of the road 
beside our cars, we watched the lights on this dark object 
as it hovered, swiveled around, and then began coming back 
towards us.  I looked up and saw silhouetted against a high 
silver-colored cloud bank illuminated by the Moon what 
looked like an all black jet as it traveled back in the 
direction it had come.  But what struck me as unusual about 
its shape is that it had no visible engine pods on its wings 
or body.  It sounded like a jet, and looked like a Boeing 
707 in outline, but for the first time in my life I was 
truly confused as to what I had just witnessed."

The two time exposures taken of this object clearly show 
what we saw the lights doing that night.  The first time 
exposure (Figure 2) shows a cluster of lights, large and 
small, moving in an erratic pattern up and down as the TLP 
moved forward.  This movement produced an uneven sewing 
stitch pattern on the black and white print.  If the camera 
and tripod or zoom lens had been vibrating, a similar 
pattern might be generated, but it would be symmetrical and 
not uneven as this light trace is.  Nor was there a wind 
present to generate a harmonic vibration in the camera 
system.  I have had a harmonic vibration generated in my 
camera setup when it was influenced by a strong constant 
wind.  In that case a sine wave type vibration did show up 
on the photographs.  But when the picture in question is 
compared with the next picture taken in sequence, something 
quite different is revealed (Figure 3).  The uneven sewing 
stitch pattern is no longer present.  On the right side of 
the photograph the lights appear clustered as before, but 
they quickly begin moving apart as we saw wings on this 
craft unfold.  The wings did not unfold horizontally, as 
might be expected, but unfolded vertically.  You can see the 
lights diverging into a configuration that crudely resembles 
the lighting pattern on a conventional jet: i.e. wingtip 
lights, headlights on the wings near the fuselage, and 
lights along the fuselage and at the tail.  But instead of 
the light traces on the photograph showing the previous 
sewing stitch pattern, they are relatively straight except 
for a shallow irregular undulation.  

Thus, these two images show a change in lighting pattern and 
movement, which cannot be easily explained in conventional 
or prosaic terms.  They also show the TLP making an arc, or 
rising to a higher altitude just before deploying its wings, 
then descended back to a lower altitude. The lights moved 
apart too quickly for a turn, and from that point forward 
the lights on the photograph are parallel to one another, 
indicating no subsequent change in rotation or orientation 
relative to the observer and camera. In other words, the 
photographs do not show the TLP turning.  Planes can't fly 
with their wings oriented vertical to the Earth for very 
long and maintain altitude, and a descent at that low 
altitude over a ridge would be unsafe.  In a sharp turn or 
bank, however, planes can hold a vertical position for a 
short period of time, but this craft had not begun to turn 
at that point.  In addition, commercial jets usually do not 
bank very steeply (with wings vertical), except in an 
emergency, due to the higher "G" forces that would be 
created, which could cause potential injury to passengers.

During the first three years of Bruce's investigation in the 
area, he obtained many photographs showing various types of 
oscillations in the light traces on his photographs.  At 
first he wanted to believe that his camera system had been 
vibrating when the photographs were taken, especially since 
the oscillations were largest at the beginning of the light 
trace just after the shutter had opened, and decreased or 
dampened down within five to ten seconds into the time 
exposure.  But no matter how much precaution was taken to 
reduce or prevent internal vibration in the camera, these 
oscillations persisted for TLP activity.  He even switched 
to an electronic shutter opener with cable which Minolta 
makes for its cameras to insure that no physical energy from 
the movement of his finger could create a vibration.  
Sometimes the oscillation would not begin until a second or 
two after the shutter opened based on the position of the 
oscillation along the light trace (Figure 4).  Most 
photographs of conventional aircraft that he took with the 
same camera system did not show these types of oscillation.  
When they did occur they were limited in development and 
could be attributed to camera vibration. Tests conducted on 
his camera system showed that a mechanical or physical 
oscillation could be generated with a strong tap to the 
tripod or lens, but the oscillation generated always died to 
extinction in less than 2.0 seconds. Why is this important?  
Any evidence which can be used to distinguish conventional 
aircraft from unconventional ones is important in TLP 
identification and investigation.  Since most oscillations 
recorded for TLP activity lasted well into the time exposure 
and were much longer in duration than 2.0 seconds, Bruce 
surmised that the oscillation was being created at the 
source.  In order to test this hypothesis, he began 
introducing deliberate vibration to his camera system so 
that he could have a comparison of the two types of 
oscillation on the same photograph.  When he did this he got 
some interesting and unexpected results.

In one test he was photographing a suspected TLP that was on 
an east-west ascending flight path similar to that of jets 
taking off from Stewart airport.  These lights were suspect 
because they were too low in altitude for a normal take-off 
from Stewart.  The trajectory indicated a lift-off or origin 
closer to the observer than Stewart and away from the 
direction of Orange County airport.  Just after he completed 
the third time exposure in sequence the TLP suddenly began a 
turn towards him and circled back over him.  That maneuver 
by itself is highly unusual for a commercial aircraft, 
particularly one coming out of Stewart. The craft flew 
directly over his camera position and then turned sharply 
north without banking and flew off into the distance (Figure 
5).  It's altitude is estimated at less than 2000 feet based 
on the size of the image on the photograph.  On take-off 
from Stewart, aircraft are usually well above 3000 feet by 
this location in the valley.  As the craft flew over him he 
gave his camera a sharp bump with his hand.  The photograph 
that resulted (Figure 5b) reveals not only that the TLP 
produced up and down symmetrical oscillations that dampened 
to near extinction well into the time exposure, but that the 
vibrations created by the bump did not influence that 
pattern of oscillation other than disturbing it for about 
1.5 seconds.  Once the camera vibration had dampened and 
disappeared, the oscillations of the light trace continued 
as if the camera bump had not occurred.  

This experiment and others prove 1) that the oscillations 
originate at the light source, 2) that they are deliberate 
and under the control of the pilot, 3) that they were 
intentionally produced just after the shutter on his camera 
opened, and 4) that the pilot somehow knew when the shutter 
was opened in order to time the oscillations with that 
opening and the beginning of the light trace record.  All 
four proofs imply that what he was photographing was either 
not a conventional aircraft or not an aircraft using 
conventional technology.  The fact that the oscillations 
were produced in a majority of cases in a position on the 
time exposure that could be mistaken for shutter vibration, 
indicates a sophisticated knowledge of how our camera 
systems work and how skeptics think: If it looks like a 
camera vibration, by God it must be a camera vibration!  

The second experience Bruce had which convinced him he was 
not observing and photographing conventional aircraft 
occurred on 10 July 1992.  On that night he was standing by 
his truck along side South Searsville Rd. near its 
intersection with Rowe Lane.  "I spotted a pair of bright 
golden lights approaching me from the north.  These lights 
were unusually low to the ground at a distance, which raised 
my suspicion that it was not a conventional aircraft.  I 
began a series of black and white time exposures as these 
lights slowly advanced towards me across a long open farm 
field.  When the TLP was no farther from me than about one 
half mile, I ran out of film.  The last picture on that roll 
shows two large lights the brightness of landing lights with 
a pulsing light in between.  The photograph shows these 
lights moving in an uneven or bouncing fashion (Figure 6).  
I immediately began rolling back the film in an attempt to 
change rolls.  I popped the back of the camera, took out the 
film cartridge, and ran to my truck, where I fumbled for a 
new roll. I ran back to the camera and began loading the new 
roll of Kodak 400 ISO color film.  I concentrated intensely 
on the process, not looking up or keeping track of where the 
TLP was located.  When I finished, I looked up thinking that 
I would find it coming over me, but instead saw it hovering 
at a distance in front of me.  Based on its new position, 
the pilot had slowed down and then stopped in order to give 
me time to reload my camera!  As soon as I looked up and 
pointed the camera at the TLP again, it began to move.  I 
took two photographs of it flying directly over me (Figures 
7a and 7b).  I saw an unusual shape, very different from 
that of a conventional aircraft.  It looked more like a kite 
or black diamond in silhouette.  As it passed over me it 
turned down the intensity of its bright "landing" lights to 
the intensity and size of navigation lights (which 
conventional jets can't do), which allowed eight additional 
multicolored lights to become visible (11 lights total).

"Between the two color photographs the pilot changed the 
colors of its lights from yellow to white and green to blue.  
But the green and red outer lights, which on a conventional 
aircraft would be interpreted as navigation lights located 
at the wingtips, were not symmetrically or bilaterally 
positioned on the fuselage.  The green/blue light was at the 
left angle of the diamond (looking up at the bottom), while 
the corresponding red light was in between the front of the 
craft and the right angle.  Based on the size of the image 
on the photographs this craft is estimated to have been at 
an altitude of no more than 1000 feet.  I remember it being 
the relative size of a small private jet viewed from the 
ground standing at the end of a runway.  It made a soft 
swooshing sound not unlike that of the sound of a jet at a 
distance as it slowly moved away in the direction of Stewart 
airport, which confused me because stereotyping says that 
UFOs don't make jet-like sounds.  But conventional fixed-
wing aircraft can't stop in midair, and no commercial pilot 
would slow down so that someone on the ground would have 
time to change a roll of film."

The four examples of TLPs discussed above are but a very 
small sampling of the data we have collected over the past 
five years.  We have accumulated literally thousands of 
photographs representing hundreds of similar encounters to 
bolster our claim of anomalous transient luminescent 
activity in the Wallkill River valley near Pine Bush, NY.  
Following the 23 June and 10 July 1992 TLP encounters, an 
intense three year photographic investigation of this 
phenomenon was conducted by Bruce, along with a 20 square 
mile geologic and magnetic survey.  The results of his 
research and this survey are accessible at two websites to 
anyone who has access to the internet: 
http://www.OrionWorks.com/bcornet/, Volume 1 (since June 
1995) and Volume 2 (since September 1996).  But this article 
is not just about past activity in the valley.  It is about 
the ongoing and recent TLP activity, which over the past six 
years, ever since the publication of Silent Invasion by 
Ellen Crystall in 1991, has gradually attracted the 
interests of new field investigators (in addition to the two 
authors).  Among those are Barbara Hartwell, John diTuro, 
Tom Mann, Sue Mann, and Dinah Bertran.  More recently Bryan 
Williams and Thomas Sinisi have begun their own 
investigations.  The youngest investigator is Andy Morrison 
from Allentown, PA.  He is only 15 years old, but has a 
professional-looking website on his findings: 
http://members.aol.com/asmorrison/index.htm, called Center 
for Extraterrestrial Studies.

What prompted this article was an encounter in the valley 
with two black triangles on 17 May 1997.  Bruce Cornet, Marc 
Whitford, and Dinah Bertran were all witnesses to this 
unusual event, which consisted of a staged performance for 
two camcorders and one 35 mm reflex camera.  Dinah operated 
the still camera and took the time exposures.  Bruce 
describes what happened from his perspective: "That evening 
began like any other trip up to Pine Bush from New Jersey.  
We arrived in the field area at about 9:00 pm, just after a 
storm front had moved through the valley as it traveled 
east.  The sky was still filled with high clouds, and what 
rain remained was but an intermittent drizzle.  The drizzle 
quickly disappeared and the high clouds began to dissipate.  
Soon star fields began to appear.  At first we stopped along 
South Searsville Rd. near the center of TLP activity, but 
saw nothing.  At about 10:30 pm we drove up to Muddy Kill 
Lane off of Corbett Lane, located just west of Montgomery, 
NY.  Muddy Kill Lane, named after the creek in the valley 
below, is located on a north-south oriented ridge that rises 
140 feet above the valley floor.  On a clear night you can 
get a great view of the valley from there.  On this night we 
had at least five miles visibility (based on an Orange 
County airport radio report).  From that vantage point one 
can see where Stewart airport is located in the distance - 
about 8.5 miles away, but you can't see planes land at 
Stewart without a telescope on a crisp clear night.  Even 
with a 30X zoom on my Sony Hi-8 camcorder, the best I can 
get are tiny dots of light as planes take off and lands.  
Thus, if we should see a TLP clearly go down below tree top 
level, and can resolve its lights, it cannot be landing at 
Stewart!  A second airport, Orange County airport, is 
located much closer - just slightly more than two miles due 
south of our location that night.  We can clearly see small 
planes taking off and landing there.  But Orange County 
airport normally closes at about 9:30 pm, and on a night 
such as this when a storm front had just moved through the 
area, there would be little activity there.  And we saw 
none.

"When we got up to Muddy Kill Lane, no sooner had I turned 
off the engine to my van and a black triangle (also called a 
flying triangle or FT) flew over us.  Its altitude is 
estimated to have been about 1000-1500 feet.  I got out of 
the van with my camcorder, and was able to capture about 30 
seconds of it up close, then an additional 3 minutes and 40 
seconds of it flying east, banking to the right, then slowly 
descending, and turning towards us again as it dropped below 
the tops of trees.  It went down between 2 and 3 miles from 
us based on my familiarity with the terrain during the day, 
which was visible at the time in silhouette due to local 
lights and to a horizon illuminated by the City of Newburg 
(where Stewart airport is located).   In the area it went 
down there are only farm fields large enough for a 
helicopter to land in.  But this was no helicopter.  The 
lighting and jet-like sound it made were anything but that 
of a helicopter, and only a jump jet could land where this 
TLP disappeared.  Its shape was not that of a jump jet 
either.  Its shape was that of a triangle with a boom 
sticking out in front."

The time interval for the event was 10:58:55 pm to 11:03:05 
pm.  Its heading over us was due east, and its last heading 
before disappearing was due west.  It disappeared behind 
trees into fields just north of Montgomery, NY, at a heading 
of 109 degrees compass, the direction in which Stewart 
airport is located.  Stewart airport operations, however, 
reported that no aircraft of any kind landed at Stewart at 
or near the time this TLP went down.  Its calculated average 
speed, based on an estimated distance of 3.5 miles traveled, 
was about 50 mph.  If it had traveled as far as Stewart 8.5 
miles away (9 miles with the turn back), it would have had 
an average airspeed of 128 mph, near the stall speed of any 
conventional jet.  Neither airspeed calculation when 
combined with Stewart airport flight records favors the 
interpretation that what we observed was a conventional jet 
landing at Stewart.

This is not the first time we have witnessed and recorded 
anomalous flight patterns or TLPs going down below tree tops 
in that area.  On 2 October 1992 four people (Bruce, Bob, 
Fred, and Elaine) were watching the night sky from the Muddy 
Kill Lane observation station when they witnessed a set of 
brilliant lights moving south over Walden, NY.  The time was 
10:45 pm.  This TLP moved quickly and then slowed down to 
nearly a stop, moved gain and slowed down without changing 
apparent direction, repeating that patterns several times 
before descending at a seven degree angle to a field in the 
same area where the two 17 May TLPs disappeared.  All four 
witnesses were surprised by what they saw, and thought that 
the TLP was attempting a landing.  The flight pattern they 
observed could be duplicated by a helicopter, except that no 
sound was associated with this TLP, and helicopters flying 
over that area can be clearly heard from the Muddy Kill Lane 
location.  Ultralight aircraft can neither travel as fast as 
this TLP was observed to travel nor as slow (except into a 
wind), and it is highly unlikely that any sane pilot would 
fly that low at night and land in an unlit field unless it 
was an emergency.  If it was a plane, the next day there was 
no indication of a landing in any of the fields near where 
the TLP disappeared.  On 12 August 1993 Bruce witnessed and 
photographed an almost duplicate performance by another TLP 
at about the same time: 10:40 pm.

More recently on 25 January 1997, Bruce and John Macedo, Jr. 
witnessed three TLPs as each in succession went down in the 
same place in a different region of the valley.  The TLPs 
were videotaped as each circled, flared its lights, and then 
dropped slowly below tree tops between the towns of Walden 
and Wallkill in a wooded area containing fields and a small 
lake (Lake Osiris).  On this video a viewer can witness the 
lights of the last two TLPs blink on in the sky above the 
place where the previous TLP just disappeared.  This 
videotape is important in that it establishes a record of 
three very similar flight patterns and TLPs descending for 
what appear to be landings in an area where no landing strip 
for airplanes exists.

The Anomalous Performance of a Black Triangle

Through our research and observations, we have become 
alerted to many anomalies in the flight paths, speed, and 
flight characteristics of TLPs in this region of the 
Wallkill River valley.  Because of the poor observation 
skills of most people who witness TLPs, unless the behavior 
of the craft is obviously different or abnormal compared to 
that of a conventional aircraft, these objects will 
invariably be misinterpreted as conventional.  This 
statement is quite the opposite of what most skeptics say.  
It has become apparent through many test cases that people 
on the ground observing an anomalous performance will have 
very different interpretations of what they saw depending on 
their skills of observation, beliefs, and personal biases.  
A skeptic once told Bruce that he had to have been holding 
his camera to produce the numerous loops and circular 
motions of the light traces, and would not accept his 
statement that the camera had been locked down on a tripod 
when the photograph was taken.  But many people who take 
pictures of anomalous lights in the valley end up with 
similar images.  In the majority of those cases a flash was 
used and the camera was set at 1/60th of a second speed, 
precluding any significant camera movement as a cause for 
the spaghetti-type pattern of light traces they got on film.

In one example Bruce photographically recorded a large 
diamond-shaped craft lifting off from a swampy area slightly 
less than a mile to the north, slowly rise and move towards 
a group of observers on West Searsville Rd., then slowly 
rotate 90 degrees so that it was flying vertical to the 
ground as it passed the observers about 2500 feet (estimate) 
due west of our location.  "We first observed it to the east 
of the low ridge which parallels West Searsville Rd.  
Because it had lights positioned on that diamond similar to 
the positions and colors of lights on a conventional 
aircraft, and because it stuck its angled side up into the 
air on its closest approach, observers on the ground with 
binoculars were convinced that what they saw was nothing 
more than a conventional jet silhouetted against the night 
sky.  The sound it produced was further evidence to them 
that it was a jet, even though the sound was much too low in 
decibels for that distance.  No one except me seemed to 
think it was unusual that this misidentified TLP flew at an 
apparent maximum altitude of only a few hundred feet above 
the ground, nor was anyone else convinced that it had been 
too low behind the trees when first observed to have been 
above tree height.  How could it have been too low if it was 
a jet someone commented.   It disappeared from sight behind 
the ridge to our west, which rises to a peak only 140 feet 
above us in that immediate area!  That should have been a 
clue, but it was overlooked due to stereotyping and 
information filtering.  When I got my photographs back and 
analyzed them, the evidence was unmistakable that everyone 
else had been fooled when someone in the group yelled out, 
'I see a tail fin; it's got a tail fin; it's a jet.'  But 
what he thought he saw was probably only the upright side of 
the diamond." 

Simple trigonometric calculation of altitude based on the 
point it disappeared behind the ridge 1300 feet from us 
gives an angle of about six degrees and a maximum altitude 
of only 270 feet, well below the safe cruising altitude of a 
commercial passenger jet, even one that is on approach to an 
airport nine miles away!   Note: This TLP was initially east 
of the ridge, crossed over it at a low point on the ridge, 
and disappeared behind it.  FAA regulations require a 
minimum safe altitude of 1500 feet for commercial jets.  
Such performances of TLPs in this area are common, and it 
would seem that whoever is behind them enjoys pulling the 
wool over our eyes.  And because group concensus is usually 
regarded as the correct interpretation, investigators such 
as us who disagree with that concensus are usually 
considered mistaken at best and deluded at worst.  Because 
of these tendencies, we are going to describe the 17 May 
sighting in unusual detail, noting sixteen anomalies so that 
the reader can begin to appreciate what skills in 
observation are required to avoid being fooled by these 
clever high-tech performers.

On 17 May about seven minutes after the first triangle or 
TLP went down below tree top level at 11:03 pm, Dinah 
spotted another set of lights coming at us from the north 
over the ridge on which we were standing.  We began 
videotaping this event with two camcorders: Marc's Sony 8 mm 
and Bruce's Sony Hi-8 camcorder, while Dinah took time 
exposures with a 35 mm reflex Cannon AE1 camera with 300 mm 
telephoto lens.  The camera was mounted on a tripod. The 
ridge rises about 200 feet above the valley floor in this 
area, with peaks rising to not much more than about 300 
feet. The lights initially appeared low over the ridge, and 
seemed to gradually rise as they came towards us, which is 
confirmed by the time exposures taken by Dinah.  Estimated 
initial elevation of the craft above the valley floor was 
about 1000 feet (700 feet above the highest parts of the 
ridge).  Such an elevation is lower than normal for aircraft 
flying to Stewart, which at this location fly over us at an 
altitude of 2000 feet or more on a glide path to Stewart, 
alerting us to the first anomaly (Figure 8).  

The lights appeared golden in color, not white like typical 
aircraft lights.  There were two closely-spaced bright 
lights on the outside and one small pulsing light in 
between.  No navigation lights were observed, alerting us to 
a second anomaly (Figure 9).  If the bright lights 
represented landing lights as on a conventional aircraft, 
they would be positioned either on the wings close to the 
fuselage or on the fuselage.  The absence of any color 
navigation lights farther out and away from the landing 
lights either indicated that this craft was flying without 
those lights turned on (against FAA regulation), or that it 
did not have wings on which lights could be mounted.  As 
this TLP got closer, the central light became resolved into 
two lights: a solid white light above a pulsing red light - 
but still no navigation or wingtip lights.  

This TLP seemed to take forever to get to our position.  It 
soon became apparent that whatever it was, it was headed 
directly for our position.  Bruce's video record begins at 
11:11:07 pm.  It took about one minute and 40 seconds to 
reach us from the time it was first spotted.  That amount of 
time would not be considered unusual if this were a 
conventional jet flying at 3000 feet or higher and initially 
spotted several miles away.  High altitude, perspective, and 
distance can create the illusion of slow speed.  But the low 
altitude of the TLP and reference to landmarks it seemed to 
pass on the ground indicated that it was no more than a mile 
away from us when first observed, alerting us to a third 
anomaly.

Commercial jets on approach to Stewart airport typically use 
the red beacons on peaks along this ridge for navigation.  
But we have never witnessed any jets flying directly above 
this ridge when going to Stewart, because the pilot would 
have poor visibility of those beacons from the flight deck.  
Instead, conventional aircraft typically parallel the ridge 
to the west and turn after passing the beacon located just 
to the north of our position.  From that position pilots can 
easily see the beacon and know when to begin their turn.  
That turn orients airplanes directly on line with the main 
runway at Stewart.  But whatever was coming towards us was 
not following normal procedure, which alerted us to the 
fourth anomaly (Figure 8).

Small planes on approach to Orange County airport just to 
the south of our position sometimes fly along the ridge as 
this TLP was doing, because the main runway there is 
oriented parallel to the ridge.  But Orange County normally 
closes at 9:30 pm.  We discounted that destination as a 
possibility when the TLP turned to the east in front of us 
as if it were going to Stewart.  

At 11:12:42 pm the craft began to bank or list to its right 
(starboard) but did not turn.  It gradually raised its left 
side up and tilted at an angle of about 45 degrees from 
horizontal, but did not turn, alerting us to a fifth anomaly 
(Figure 9). The craft then slowly tilted back to horizontal, 
reaching horizontal by 11:13:05 pm on the camcorder clock.  
This maneuver took 23 seconds.  A conventional airplane 
would have difficulty holding a tilt like that for so long 
without slipping sideways or descending in altitude due to 
decreased lift efficiency against gravity at slower landing 
speeds, even with flaps completely extended.  

As the TLP returned to horizontal it flashed both of its 
outer lights, one after the other multiple times in rapid 
succession.  Light flashes can occur on conventional jets 
when the aircraft is approaching an observer and it turns 
slightly so that each landing light points directly at the 
observer.  But the TLP did not turn.  It continued to travel 
in our direction without turning, alerting us to a sixth 
anomaly (Figure 9).  Landing lights on a conventional 
aircraft do not point directly ahead, but are slightly 
angled towards an imaginary common point out in front of the 
pilot.  If this had been a conventional aircraft making a 
bank, the tilt direction would indicate a turn to its right.  
As the nose of the plane moves right, its left light would 
flash first, followed by the right light due to their 
individual orientation.  We have observed and videotaped 
such flashes produced by conventional jets during turns.  
When analyzing the video frame by frame, there were multiple 
flashes, not just two, and they formed a pattern: The right 
light on the craft flashed, followed by a normal frame, then 
the left light, a pause for three video frames, 
followed by the right light, then a normal frame, followed 
by the left light flashing again.  After several more normal 
frames both lights flashed simultaneously, followed by 
several normal frames and then the right light again and a 
repeat of the previous pattern.  Even if these light flashes 
were due to orientation, the sequence of flashes (right to 
left) is contrary to the inferred direction of turn based on 
its bank orientation, alerting us to a seventh anomaly.  
Moreover, the pattern of light flashes, if intentionally 
produced, is also an anomaly that was not apparent to us at 
the time of initial observation, because it happened in less 
than a second.  Shades of CSETI in reverse!

At 11:13:14 pm the craft began to brighten its left light 
(right side from our perspective).  The intensity of the 
flaring was considerable as the light became at least four 
times the size of the light on the right side of the 
triangle (Figure 10).  As this happened, a small dot 
appeared on Bruce's video in the upper left quadrant of the 
screen, and it danced around in relationship to the movement 
created by his unsteady camera at maximum zoom.  Such a dot 
will appear in the picture when the brightness of a light 
being recorded becomes very intense.  Normally an aircraft 
landing light will not become that bright unless the camera 
or observer is looking directly into it.  Because of the 
angled-in orientation of landing lights, the brightening of 
the left light means that, if this was an aircraft, it was 
turned slightly to its left for this to happen.  Because the 
TLP continued to fly straight towards our position, if it 
were a conventional jet, it had to be flying without its 
leading edge facing towards us.  Such a flight attitude is 
highly unusual, alerting us to an eighth anomaly (Figure 
10).

As this dot appeared on my camera (11:13:50 pm) Marc said 
that the battery to his camcorder was dying.  He later said 
that a low battery warning icon began to flash on his 
screen, and then his camera went dead!  Just before that he 
said his picture began losing integrity and began to quiver 
as if the timing code were being interfered with.  Bruce's 
camcorder, however, continued to operate normally.  Marc had 
a freshly charged battery.  We saw him recharge that batter 
at Bruce's house before we left for Pine Bush.  After the 
event Marc checked his camcorder battery with an attachable 
video light and found his battery to be fully charged and 
the video light bright, indicating that it was a camcorder 
malfunctioned rather than a truly dead battery.  Under 
normal circumstances and by themselves the malfunction of 
his camcorder and the TLP event would not be correlated.  
They would be described as coincidences.  We would agree, 
except for the fact that we have heard reports of similar 
incidences of apparent battery failure from people on West 
Searsville Rd. who were trying to videotape an unusual light 
or craft in their vicinity at the time of the malfunction 
(J. diTuro, 1997, pers. comm.).  Once the TLP disappeared, 
they said, their camcorders returned to normal function 
without any indication of battery failure.  Therefore, the 
camcorder malfunction due to a dead battery indicator 
message at a crucial moment is considered the ninth anomaly, 
even though it was not directly part of the TLP performance.  
It has almost become a trademark for UFOs to produce an 
electrical dampening field during a staged encounter.

Marc noted the first audible sound at 11:14:34 pm.  He said, 
"It sounds like a jet," but sounds can be deceiving.  After 
analyzing the sound recorded on the videotape using 
frequency spectral analysis software on one of our 
computers, it was discovered that there is no indication of 
any white noise (typically 1-7 kHz) produced by this TLP.  
The only sound loud enough to be recorded ranged from 300 Hz 
to 600 Hz, with a median at about 470 Hz.  An F18 fighter 
jet, for example, produces a prominent frequency at 474 Hz.  
But commercial and military jets also produce numerous 
frequencies above this range, which were absent.  The sounds 
on the tape attributable to this TLP had a decibel level 
significantly less than that of our voices, which were 
recorded at about 40-50 decibels, and it is barely audible 
except when it was loudest (approaching 20 decibels).  A 
commercial jet at that same apparent distance would produce 
a much louder sound, most of which would be white noise 
coming from its engines.  There was no sound of a turbine 
engine whine (i.e. multiple frequencies between 900 Hz and 
2500 Hz for commercial and military jets).  The sound of the 
TLP seemed to pulse at 232 Hz on the spectrogram, whereas 
turbine engine sounds recorded for both commercial and 
military jets pulse between 30 Hz and 50 Hz.  A brief breeze 
recorded by the shotgun mic with windscreen as the TLP 
passed us was at least three times the loudness of the 
loudest sound coming from this craft.  Despite the comment 
by Marc on the tape, the sound recorded has none of the 
typical characteristics of the sound produced by a 
commercial passenger jet, indicating the existence of a 
tenth anomaly.  We have not ruled out the possibility that a 
stealth military jet could produce a similar sound.  We 
conclude, however, that whatever this was, it did not 
produce the sound of a commercial jet on approach to Stewart 
airport.  Only one plane landed at Stewart during the time 
of this event according to operation records, and that was 
an American Airline passenger jet, which landed at 11:21 pm.

At 11:14:38 pm the craft began a slow bank to its left (our 
right).  As it turned the central white light resolved into 
two small white lights, one behind the other.  Just in front 
of this pair of lights and at the point of the triangle a 
small dim reddish light can be briefly observed.  The rear 
light of the white pair of front lights went out as the 
craft turned, and another white light, slightly larger, 
appeared (blinked on) on the underbelly of the craft behind 
the central white light and slightly to its left.  This new 
light was positioned to the right (our left) of the pulsing 
red light, and appears on the video to be slightly behind 
(to the rear of) the red light.  Such a pattern of changing 
lights is not typical of conventional aircraft, alerting us 
to an eleventh anomaly.

At 11:15:06 pm the craft was vertically oriented in its turn 
towards the east.  In that rotation you can see on the video 
that the central rear white light was positioned behind the 
pulsing red light and also positioned slightly rear of the 
two outer white lights marking the lateral margins of the 
triangle.  On conventional aircraft this light is invariably 
positioned directly on line with the two outer lights near 
the wingtips.  But as this craft turned in front of us we 
agree that we saw the outline of a triangle, not an elongate 
fuselage with wings attached.  In addition, reflections 
flashed off objects sticking out from the bottom of this 
craft as it turned.  The reflections were in positions on 
the triangle where there is no corresponding structure on a 
conventional plane with wings.  The light reflections can be 
briefly seen on the video, and they give visual aid in 
identifying the triangular margins of the craft.  The odd 
shape of this TLP and the absence of any visible wings 
alerted us to a twelfth anomaly (Figure 11).

By 11:15:14 pm it was clear to us that the craft was rolling 
onto its back (Figure 12).  It completed that maneuver and 
was completely on its back by 11:15:22 pm.  At this point in 
time the craft was moving due east away from us after 
completing its turn.  It executed the rollover just after 
making the turn.  It then moved away from us in a straight 
line, which is confirmed by the time exposures (Figures 12, 
13, and 14).  The map (Figure 13) shows the flight path 
which all three of us observed.  Both Marc and Bruce 
commented on the video, "It just rolled over. The TLP rolled 
over onto its back," alterting us a thirteenth anomaly.

Pilots do not normally execute such maneuvers except as 
performances, and most pilots would not make them at night 
so low to the ground.  Such a maneuver is very dangerous at 
night when the pilot's perception and observation are 
limited to instruments.  Because of this fact, some people 
who have reviewed this video have a very difficult time 
accepting what they see.  Two skeptics instead interpreted 
the rollover as a continued turn towards the north, and that 
what we observed was nothing more than a conventional 
aircraft making a sharp bank.  But careful analysis of the 
data strongly argues against such an interpretation.  A 
pilot, who was shown this video, said that what he sees is 
indeed a roll over (B. Hamilton, 1997, pers. comm.).  
Because of this possible confusion should our videotape 
become widely distributed and viewed at large, we think that 
it is important for the reader to understand how information 
when viewed in isolated can be misinterpreted.  

When viewing only the videotape record, on which there are 
no reference points against which to distinguish between a 
turn and a rollover, more than one interpretation is 
possible - but only one is correct.  A competent 
investigator will analyze and correlate all the pieces of 
evidence.  If the observations of three witnesses are 
intentionally omitted or dismissed as misinterpretations, 
then alternative interpretations are indeed possible when 
the video is studied in isolation.  One skeptic said that 
the craft appears to get smaller during this maneuver.  He 
interpreted that fact as evidence of a turn that rapidly 
increased the distance between the TLP and the camera.  But 
if the craft turned north instead of flipping onto its back, 
its heading after the turn would have been very different 
from that which we observed.  And that kind of 
misinterpretation is simply not possible unless we were 
blind. The question becomes, how rapidly would the craft 
appear to decrease in size for each of the two 
interpretations?  A rollover to an on-edge view will create 
the illusion that the craft is growing smaller rapidly, 
because the outer lights will appear to move closer together 
as the craft flips.  The deciding factor for us is the time 
exposure of this maneuver.  Does it show the craft turning 
sharply back towards the north?  No!  It shows the craft 
continuing to fly in a straight line (Figure 9).  The time 
exposure also shows the distance between the outer lights to 
decrease rapidly as the orientation of the craft changed 
during the roll.  In addition, the next time exposure shows 
the craft rotating back or flipping to right-side up again.  
During that maneuver the distance between the lights 
increased significantly, blowing a major hole in the 
skeptic's argument, which is based on apparent size relative 
to distance.  What this lesson has taught us is that first 
hand observation should be valued more than second hand 
interpretation.

Once on its back the craft rotated clockwise so that the 
right side of the triangle was forward.  In other words, the 
former leading point was now on the right, and the former 
right edge was in front.  Thus, this craft flew away from us 
upside down and sideways relative to its original 
orientation before it rolled over.  The TLP continued to 
rotate until at 11:15:40 pm the former right point of the 
triangle was in front.  Then the craft began to tilt this 
leading point upwards and began to flip back over to right 
side up (Figure 14).  If the previous rollover is difficult 
for skeptics to believe, this second maneuver is by-the-
seat-of-your-pants mind boggling.  As the leading edge 
raised up, it resembled a Dorito chip being slowly flipped 
by the wind.  In other words, the axis of rotation was not 
from front to rear as in a barrel roll, but from side to 
side.  For a conventional aircraft to make such a maneuver 
would require that it slow to near stall speed, raise its 
nose upwards, and then flip over backwards!  But as this TLP 
made this incredible maneuver, it did not fall out of the 
sky as a plane would do, but gradually descended in a 
straight line (Figure 14b).  Once right side up it turned 
gently more towards the north but without banking, 
apparently following the new direction in which its 
engineered nose was pointing.  After turning it resumed a 
straight and horizontal course (11:16:10 pm), now towards 
the east-northeast, and began to descend slowly (Figure 15).  

From the time it began to first bank towards the east until 
now, two minutes and 30 seconds had elapsed.  A conventional 
jet flying to Stewart at a minimum air speed of 150 mph 
would travel 6.25 miles in that amount of time, but this TLP 
had barely reached the position of the Wallkill River, which 
is only 2.8 miles from our observation station in the 
direction it was traveling!  That means its average speed 
was not much more than 67 mph over that distance, which is 
well below the stall speed of any normal fixed wing 
conventional jet (i.e. excluding all jump jets).

At 11:17:38 pm Marc noted that the craft turned sharply 
toward the north without banking (Figure 13).  The TLP was 
now traveling due north at a very slow speed.  At 11:18:10 
pm it made a steep bank near Walden towards the right as it 
turned around and headed back south.  At 11:18:24 pm Bruce 
commented about his eyes watering.  He had been experiencing 
strong eye irritation every since the craft flared its right 
light during the initial approach.  Marc said that his eyes 
also felt strange as if more sensitive to the wind and 
moisture.  The TLP proceeded south at a slightly faster 
speed, passing just above the height of a red directional 
beacon to the east of Walden at 11:18:44 pm.  At 11:19:02 pm 
the craft appeared to slow down and nearly stop, but it was 
quickly determined that it had turned towards the camera and 
was headed back in our direction (towards the west).  It 
then began a very slow descent towards us, and was just 
above the tree line at 11:19:52 pm, alerting us to a 
fourteenth anomaly (Figure 16).  Had this been a jet on its 
way towards Stewart airport 8.5 miles away, it would not 
have turned around and come back towards us, nor would its 
lights have been resolved by the telephoto lenses on both 
the camcorder and the 35 mm camera.  And we certainly would 
not have been able to capture it on video and film passing 
so far down below the tops of so many individual trees.

The TLP continued to skim across the tops of the trees at 
11:20:07 pm, and produced a distinctive plume of light that 
rose almost vertically many tens of feet above the TLP, 
which is visible on the time exposure (Figure 16). It is 
possible that this plume is plasma being discharged just 
before it landed.  Such a plume of yellow white light is 
highly anomalous, indicating a fifteenth anomaly.  It went 
down below the tree tops at 11:20:17 pm, in an area much 
closer to our location on the ridge than Stewart airport, 
alerting us to a sixteenth anomaly (Figure 16).  At 11:20:28 
pm one can still see its lights behind the trees on the 
video, about one third to one half of the way down from the 
tops of those trees.  The craft continued to move south 
(seemingly sideways) as it descended behind the trees, 
presumably over an open field.  It came very near to the 
position of the red beacon light marking the direction of 
Montgomery, NY. That beacon can be seen to the right of the 
TLP in the same shot on the video.  The lights went out or 
were completely obscured by vegetation by 11:20:35 pm. 
Ironically, it disappeared just north of a golf course that 
had been a landing strip during WWII (Figure 1).  There are 
large open fields located just to the north of the old 
runway.  However, tall trees are now growing on what remains 
of that runway, making it impossible for a plane to land 
there, and very difficult for a helicopter to safely land 
except in the fields to the north.  A possible location 
where it disappeared is marked on the map in Figure 1 
(arrow).

The Wallkill River valley is 7.5 miles wide between our 
location on the ridge and the high ridge on the other side 
of the valley.  This craft seems to have gone down no more 
than 3 miles from us, which is the distance to north end of 
that golf course.  The distance the craft flew from the time 
it was first sighted to the time it disappeared below tree 
tops is estimated to be about 6 miles (5.7 miles by map 
measurement). The entire event took approximately 9 minutes 
and 30 seconds.  If we use 7 miles as a conservative 
distance traveled (which takes into account inaccuracies in 
our determination of its flight path), the calculated 
average speed of this craft was 44 mph!  Even if we increase 
the distance to 10 miles, the speed increases to only 63 
mph, which is still well below the stall speed for 
conventional jets.

Conclusion

Unusual and anomalous performances of TLPs have been going 
on over and around Pine Bush for more than three decades 
(Crystall, Silent Invasion, 1991), and they will continue to 
occur despite the confusion created by skeptics who say that 
what people are seeing are conventional aircraft because of 
the light patterns they display, the sounds they produce, 
and the proximity of two airports.  It continues to amaze us 
that so few UFO investigators have taken this hotspot 
seriously.  The opinions and beliefs of some investigators 
with whom we have had contact may be the reason why. Too few 
people are well trained in aircraft observation, even though 
they may think they are.  Too often we have heard a person 
standing on West Searsville Rd. say, just after a TLP passed 
overhead, that it was only a jet, propeller-driven plane, or 
helicopter because of the sound it produced, even though the 
craft was not clearly visible.  They were too easily 
persuaded to stereotype the event based on inadequate data, 
and too willing to look past or discount anomalous evidence.  
It is usually these same people who then leave the area 
spreading disinformation to others about what they think is 
happening at Pine Bush.  In this case, disinformation does 
not come from outside the community of UFO enthusiasts and 
investigators, but from within it.  Without videos, time 
exposures, and sound recordings, which can be analyzed 
scientifically, in our opinion it is a waste of time for 
people to look for UFOs in the Wallkill River valley.  Any 
valid sightings then become submerged in the background 
noise of anecdotal folklore.  

Why are TLPs so difficult to identify there, whereas in 
other areas they seem to leave witnesses with more obvious 
physical clues, such as descriptions of discs or crop 
circles?  The answer may lie in two explanations: 1) a 
general information embargo by extraterrestrials and 2) 
intentional misdirection, as a mother bird will do when a 
potential predator or threat comes too close to its young or 
to the nest.

James W. Deardorff (1986) at the beginning of his paper, 
Possible extraterrestrial strategy for Earth, (Quarterly 
Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 27, 94-101), 
summarizes: "The arguments are reviewed which hold that our 
Galaxy is nearly saturated with extraterrestrial life forms, 
that our existence requires in hindsight that they were and 
are benevolent towards us, and that our lack of detection of 
them or communications from them implies that an embargo is 
established against us to prevent any premature knowledge of 
them.  An inconsistency is detected, in that any sudden 
lifting of the embargo in a manner obvious to the public 
would cause societal chaos and possibly touch off a nuclear 
exchange, while any communications received via radio 
telescope would likely be either quickly confiscated by 
government agencies and not revealed to the public, or 
heavily censored.  The inconsistency is that the advanced 
civilization should be expected to have planned some other 
strategy, if it is actually benevolent, experienced and 
intelligent...... These arguments have caused much debate on 
'Where are they?' and 'Why haven't we seen them?'  Rather 
than defaulting in the face of these questions, attention 
has now shifted towards hypotheses about the 
extraterrestrials which might explain our apparent failure 
to have been contacted or exploited."

Deardorff goes on to say, "Harrison collected and extended 
these ideas by proposing that a 'biogalactic' law naturally 
exists wherein intelligent life forms which are 
destructively aggressive tend to wipe themselves out in a 
solar system of their birth and do not go on to colonize a 
galaxy.  He concluded that the reason we have not yet 
noticed any advanced civilization in the Galaxy may be that 
the selection process places an embargo on direct contact 
with any civilization still planet-bound.  The embargo would 
be such that 'civilizations must not be encouraged or aided 
to quit their planets prematurely.  They must prove their 
fitness to mingle with alien creatures, and there is no 
better way of demonstrating unfitness than self-
desctruction'..... Even a gradual public awareness of an 
extraterrestrial existence and eventual appearance would, 
over a several-month period even, still be such a shocking 
revelation that it could cause economic chaos and topple 
governments.  The religious consequences alone could be 
huge, since large masses of people would likely begin to 
question the basis of their own beliefs if an 
extraterrestrial presence were confirmed.  That is, any 
religion based upon worship or adoration of a human figure 
may no longer seem valid or universal upon learning of the 
definite existence of extraterrestrials having a history of 
many thousands or millions of years, and upon learning 
possibly of the alien religious or spiritual leanings, if 
any.  Hence benevolent extraterrestrials are expected to 
avoid this abrupt course of action."

Under 'An extraterrestrial communication plan compatible 
with the embargo', Deardorff says, "One possibility, given 
that the extraterrestrial race had somehow studied human 
society for a considerable time period without our 
knowledge, and understood human psychology well, is as 
follows.  The extraterrestrial communications could be 
emplaced in a manner easily accessible to the general public 
but in a form not acceptable or believable to scientists.  
Government agencies, upon advice from scientists, would then 
take no actions, and the embargo would more or less remain 
intact.  Awareness of what was taking place would then 
proceed very gradually - no faster than humankind in general 
was inherently prepared to accept the extraterrestrial 
messages.  In this way the extraterrestrial intelligence 
need make no hasty decision on precisely when or if 
humankind was prepared to recieve their communications, or 
whether governments could be trusted to forward the 
communications faithfully to the people in general.  There 
would be no forceful extraterrestrial intervention in human 
affairs, so that governments would still be free to initiate 
a nuclear holocaust if they so desired, thus quickly 
answering the question of whether or not mankind is 
ethically prepared to enter a new 'cosmic' age."

"A scenario for this type of extraterrestrial strategy might 
involve their communicating with just one or a very few 
recipients scattered about the globe.  A recipient would be 
supplied with a comprehensive message over an extended time 
period, so that he or she could fully understand it, and 
would also be allowed to gather extensive evidence on the 
reality of the events so as to be able to gain some measure 
of public acceptance of the messages.  However, in order 
that scientists in general should not be alerted, only the 
recipient would be allowed to partake in the communication 
sessions and to witness the extraterrestials themselves.  
The messages might, moreover, contain vague descriptions of 
extraterrestrial technological achievements that would read 
like magic or science fiction.  They might even contain a 
few absurdities purposely added; these, along with the 
absence of any detailed instructions on how to effect any 
technological breakthroughs, would help ensure that any 
scientists who happened to learn about the communications 
would regard them as hoaxes or fiction.  The evidence would 
also be rejected by scientists because of the demand that 
tentative acceptance of the reality of an event requires 
that it either be reproducible or repeatable at will, or 
have been observed by trusted investigators.  Meantime, the 
messages would get published, translated into various 
languages, and distributed throughout the world amonst other 
occult literature.  A large number of publishing companies 
already handle similar literature."  Deardorff concludes: 
"The embargo against Earth would thus be a leaky one, 
designed to hold against scientists and governments in 
general while very gradually giving way to the general 
public." (Deardorff, 1986: 94-99).

Steven V. Johnson, artist and webmaster for Bruce's home 
page, provided a most interesting response after reviewing a 
video of the 17 May TLP event.  He said in a letter sent on 
6 June: "Taking your claims into consideration, this causes 
me to ponder a controversial premise which I'd like to run 
past you, asking you for your input. It would almost seem 
that your acrobatic, other worldly aeronauts/astronauts have 
a very sophisticated sense of humor (not my first choice I 
might add!) or that they have revealed to you the fact that 
they know EXACTLY how to fool observers on the ground who 
are attempting to visually document (video tape) them with 
essentially a "counter illusion" that causes the unusual 
flight maneuver to be easily (and quite naturally I might 
add) discounted and reinterpreted as a more prosaic 
maneuver. What an amazingly sophisticated way of covering up 
their aerodynamic clandestine activities. It almost makes me 
think of the famous Star Trek law: "The Non Interference 
Directive." Perhaps, your visitors are still law-bound NOT 
to give you undeniable evidence that you could present to 
the skeptical/scientific community that would force our 
planet to conclude that they really do exist flying (and 
flippin about!) in our skies. But that doesn't mean that 
they can't play around with the "Non Interference Directive" 
rule by allowing you to PERSONALLY (almost intimately I 
might add) record a clearly unnatural flying maneuver, but 
ONLY as long as their aerodynamic activities would be 
recorded in such a way as to cause most skeptics to 
interpret the maneuver in a more prosaic way. This premise 
of mine produces TWO very interesting conclusions: (1) 
Skeptics will continue to have all the "evidence" they need 
to deny the existence of these particular "UFOs," meaning, 
Ah!  My world and the skies above are still a safe and 
predictable place, and (2) It gives YOU further conclusive 
PHYSICAL PROOF that these "UFOs" are behaving in totally un-
aerodynamically ways that strongly suggests that there is 
technology involved here that doesn't appear to belong to 
"us." How truly, TRULY, ironic! I must confess that I find 
this "ironic" and convoluted conclusion of mine hard to 
swallow. It's assuming a lot of unsupported subjective 
assumptions that I have no way of verifying or falsifying. 
It's pure and simple guess work on my part, and totally 
unscientific."  

Johnson describes well the leaky embargo hypothesis of 
Deardorff in action.  Need we say more?  Was that why the 17 
May TLP event corresponded in time with the landing of an 
American Airlines jet at Stewart airport, giving the skeptic 
adequate reason to believe that what we witnessed was 
nothing more than a routine commercial flight, especially 
when the compass direction at which the TLP disappeared was 
in the same general direction as Stewart airport?  So that 
we do not risk exposing a possible information embargo any 
more, we will leave it up to the readers to decide for 
themselves: Is it Pine Bush or Pine Bluff?

Copyright 1997 B. Cornet and W.M. Whitford.