Presque Isle, PA being encounter — July 31, 1966

On July 31, 1966, visitors at Beach 6 in Presque Isle State Park, Pennsylvania, were waiting for help after their car became stuck in sand. Betty Jean Klem and Douglas Tibbets described a light that brightened, moved erratically, and appeared to descend behind nearby trees. Klem told the Erie Morning News that the car vibrated as it came down. The group also reported a dark, featureless figure near the vehicle and sounds on its roof. Police responded to the stranded party. Subsequent investigation involved Air Force personnel and a NICAP team; contemporary newspaper coverage described impressions in the sand and plaster casts. A Civil Defense radiation check reportedly found no abnormal reading. The aerial observation entered Project Blue Book as case 10798, listed among its unidentified cases. That status should not be extended automatically to the proposed origin of the figure or every claimed trace. The plate reconstructs the stranded-car and distant-light phase rather than reproducing an original photograph. The linked case video is a retrospective account, not footage of the reported landing.