Date of sighting: March 9, 1967
Location of sighting: Mississippi River, Moline to Galesburg, Illinois, USA
News source: http://www.qconline.com/news/local/retired-moline-officer-recalls-the-day-the-ufo-paid-a/article_7dc54e34-9e44-5183-8aa9-24cd82704eff.html
Hey guys, I found the actual footage that Bill shot back in 1967. Somehow it got put up for sale and is at this odd site. It can be purchased for those that may want to post it on Youtube for historical reasons. To see the UFO you will have to jump to the 2 min mark. SCW. URL is http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675039973_unidentified-flying-object_flying-object-at-night_daytime-in-Moline If you buy the footage, please post it onto Youtube and put the URL in comments below. Thanks, SCW
I found an old report that states (but no photo):
March 9, 1967; Moline, IL
Policeman spotted two UFOs in the afternoon. Police officer William Fisher said he was riding his motorcycle on patrol when he spotted a boxcar-sized object hovering at about 3,000 feet. He said a second UFO materialized as he watched, and both sped from sight. Fisher took color motion pictures of the objects, one frame of which is displayed at the top of this page. (NICAP & MUFON files)
News states:
Bill Fisher still vividly remembers the strange, bright, silvery object that appeared to be hovering over the Mississippi River on the afternoon of March 9, 1967.
Mr. Fisher, then a Moline police officer, had just parked his three-wheel patrol motorcycle on 16th Avenue across from Sacred Heart School, where his son William Jr. was a student. Others saw the object, too, including neighbors, several students and a couple of nuns. Mr. Fisher retrieved an 8mm movie camera from his police trike and got some footage. It had moved away by then, and what’s caught on film is a little indistinct.
But those two minutes of footage helped make Mr. Fisher a star witness in a U.S. Air Force investigation of several UFO sightings reported from Moline to Galesburg over a few days in March 1967. Two investigating USAF captains arrived the very next day.
“The Air Force asked, ‘How high up was it?’ Mr. Fisher recalled recently. “‘I don’t know.’ ‘Well, how big do you think it was?’ ‘I think it was as big as a box car.’
“So that gave them a little perspective. From where I was standing, looking that way (north), I thought it had been over the Arsenal. Of course, I was naturally suspicious — somebody spying on our government.”
In an unusual episode in a very well respected 30-year career as one of Moline’s Finest, Mr. Fisher also soon found himself sought out by a variety of UFO-ologists, from prominent Northwestern University astronomer J. Allen Hynek to a mysterious trio dressed in black who confronted him at the police station. He and his film were written up in UFO magazines and supermarket tabloids. Mr. Fisher also was interviewed for a 1972 book co-edited by astronomer Carl Sagan called "UFOs: A Scientific Debate."
Last Tuesday Mr. Fisher celebrated his 80th birthday with a surprise party at the East End Bolders Club in Moline, including a bagpipe serenade for the former grand marshal of the St. Patrick Society Grand Parade. (More at source).
