Altamont, NY being encounter — April 30, 1974

NICAP’s November 1974 UFO Investigator reported an earlier, previously unpublicized incident in Altamont, New York. Ruth Currie placed it on or about 30 April 1974, between 9:30 and 10:30 p.m. Her daughter drew attention to a bright light several hundred feet from their house. Both approached and reportedly recognized an oval object on the road. Dogs were barking throughout the neighbourhood. Currie described windows around the object’s upper portion, shining with a brilliant golden light. An undefined shape appeared to move inside. She sent her daughter to summon Rose Curtis, who made similar observations and then called her husband. Mr Curtis arrived as the object was rising and saw it accelerate away. The witnesses said they examined the location the next morning and found a burned area roughly 60 feet in diameter. Ernest Jahn uncovered the story while investigating separate August 1974 Albany-area sightings; their police and radar reports do not corroborate the April landing. The contemporary article describes an indistinct shape inside, rather than the catalogue’s figure working on a dome. The date was approximate; the claimed burned area does not establish a measured vehicle diameter.