Near Ottawa, On being encounter — July 29, 1973

A professor and assistant dean at McGill University and his wife reportedly encountered an object while driving near Ottawa on July 29, 1973, around 9 p.m. They were returning toward Montreal after a vacation at Chalk River. The wife first noticed a bright, starlike light that seemed to approach their car. The fuller published description gives a round, bluish-white object with intensely lit yellowish portholes. As it passed overhead, the professor reportedly distinguished three humanlike silhouettes inside. Its apparent size was compared with a one-storey house. That comparison and the silhouettes are witness estimates, not measurements establishing either the object’s dimensions or the occupants’ anatomy. Wido Hoville and Don Donderi’s account appeared in UFO Quebec and Canadian UFO Report before being summarized by Musgrave. A proposed DC-9 identification attributed to the National Research Council was rejected by the witnesses; their disagreement does not independently determine the object’s identity. The plate shows the couple, round craft and three silhouettes, keeping faces unresolved and treating the car and vehicle construction as artistic.