The Missing Time Incident Of 1966 Nebraska

By
Marcus Lowth
Published Date
June 30, 2020
Last Updated
October 5, 2021
Estimated Reading Time
9 min read
Comments
2
Posted in
UFOs, Close Encounters

There are many UFO sightings on record, but ones that are accompanied by missing time are particularly interesting. Perhaps not least as they might suggest something more akin to alien abduction than just a mere sighting.

UFO in a stormy sky

UFO in a stormy sky

An incident in the autumn of 1966 in Nebraska could be just such a case. A journey that should have taken no longer than five minutes seemingly took over half an hour. And what’s more, the witness to these strange events seemingly had no recollection of the events.

It is perhaps interesting that the incident we are about to examine occurred on an otherwise lonely road. Many potential and apparent abduction cases occur in similar locations around the world. Does this suggest a deliberate targeting of exposed individuals? Or might it be the locations themselves, perhaps built on or near locations that are energetically charged and flowing with paranormal activity?

The account wasn’t reported until decades later in 2004 and entered the public arena through the files of Peter Davenport of the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC). It is from those files that the following account is based.

The Engine Was On, The Wheels Were Spinning, But The Bike Wasn’t Moving!

The witness was 17 years old at the time of the incident, [1] although it was his ex-wife (who was his girlfriend at the time) who would eventually make a report in 2004. On the night in question on 5th September 1966, the unnamed teenager was riding on his motorcycle to his girlfriend’s house to meet her parents in Columbus, Nebraska.

He was due to arrive at around 9 pm and was around a mile away from his destination when he noticed something truly out of the ordinary overhead. He could see a bizarre object which was “completely circular” and was around 100-feet above him. It also had a combination of green, red, and yellow lights on the underside. He would further recall how a pattern on the underside reminded him of the spokes on a wheel.

UFO over farmland at night

UFO over farmland at night

Although he could make out the shape of the object, due to the darkness of the evening he could not see any further detail such as the color, or any specifics on the top side. He did recall, though, that it made a “low humming sound” – a sound that “resonated” through him.

By the time he realized that the object was not moving and was, in fact, stationary, he increased the speed of the bike. However, then things turned even more bizarre.

The engine of the bike was indeed raging, and the wheels below were spinning as they should. The bike and consequently himself, though, remained in the same place on the road. Due to his familiarity with the road, he knew this was not something he was imagining. For example, he knew he should have passed certain locations on the roadside by now.

He increased the speed even more. Still, the bike remained where it was, working, but seemingly frozen.

Missing 30 Minutes And A Distinct Change In Personality!

The next thing he knew, he was traveling (and moving) once more along the road. However, he had the distinct impression that he was missing something. What’s more, despite going nearly 70 miles per hour only seconds ago, he was now seemingly coasting along at around 25 miles per hour.

He took a moment to clear his mind and then, while still very much concerned and unnerved, he continued on his journey.

By the time he arrived at his girlfriend’s parents’ house, he was around 30 minutes late. The journey itself should have taken no more than 5 minutes. As he pulled up the property, his girlfriend immediately saw how pale he looked and how jumpy he was acting. In fact, he was distinctly quiet for the rest of the evening. This change, while discreet, was something that didn’t leave him for some time, at least according to the recollections of his (then) girlfriend.

It wasn’t until a month or so later that he would eventually reveal to her what had happened that strange night at the start of September.

An Eventual Episode Of Realization

It was while the pair were on a night out around four weeks after the missing time episode when things began to make a little more sense to the witness’s girlfriend. They decided to park their car near a radio tower in a quiet part of the town. They had been before and many of their friends did the same. However, on this evening, things took a sudden change.

Flying saucer over river

Flying saucer over river

After only being there for several minutes, the witness suddenly declared they had to leave. As his girlfriend tried to calm him and find out what the matter was, he would suddenly blurt out what he had seen a month earlier on the way to her parent’s home. He still, though, could not account for the missing 30 minutes. Or why his bike was seemingly frozen in the same spot for such a prolonged period of time.

The pair would eventually marry and have children. However, they would divorce several years before the report of the incident was made. His wife also claimed that his constant state of fear and occasional panic would last for many years. And even at the time of their divorce, he would refuse to speak of the night in question.

Other Sightings During An Abundance Of UFO Activity

1966 and 1967 were both big years for UFO sightings, in particular 1967 which would see a wave of UFO activity around the world. However, the build-up to that wave of incidents began in the fall of 1966. More specifically, there were several such incidents around the same time as the Nebraska missing time case which are very much worth mentioning here.

For example, on the same evening as the alleged encounter above, in Minnesota at Finland AFS, a sighting of an oval-shaped object was reported. What’s more, the object had red, yellow, and green lights on the underside – the same as the lights seen in Nebraska around an hour earlier. As well as being seen visually, it was also picked up on the radar signal. So convinced that something untoward was in the skies above the region a decision was made to scramble two F-89 jets from nearby Duluth. However, as shows up in other similar reports, as soon as the fighters approached the object it disappeared with lightning speed.

UFO over farmland in a stormy sky

UFO over farmland in a stormy sky

Only two nights earlier, on the evening of 3rd September in Harlingen, Texas, a local resident would notice significant disturbance on his television. When he went outside to inspect what the matter was, he witnessed a “fantastic spinning light” that illuminated the entire area below. Unfortunately, the report does not say what colors the lights were, only that the object hovered there for some time. And furthermore, it had been seen in the area on other occasions.

Whether the above accounts are connected or not is obviously open to debate. They are, however, extremely interesting when considered against the missing time account in Nebraska. And perhaps even more so when considering the wave of UFO encounters that would occur in 1967.

The Case Of “Mark” From Minneapolis

It is perhaps examining the case of “Mark”, who would report his encounters to an online reporting website decades after they occurred, but that contain similar details to the above encounter. Perhaps interestingly, he would start his report by claiming that “to the best of his knowledge” he had never been abducted. However, he did have two specific “blocks of missing time” from the early 1970s. And what’s more, there appeared to be no medical reasons why he should suffer these bizarre and random blackouts.

He would claim that the first of these strange episodes occurred at around 2 am in the early hours as he was driving along Highway 10 to Osseo in northern Minneapolis. The road was quiet as you might expect, but when he arrived at his home and pulled into the driveway, he suddenly realized that he had no memory whatsoever of the journey. Even pulling onto the drive had been done in an almost trance-like state. He likened it to being a passenger who fell asleep during the journey, only waking upon arrival and consequently, confused.

Even stranger, he noticed that 50 minutes had passed by. In the car with him was a friend. However, to his disbelief, his friend had seemingly fallen asleep and also remembered nothing of the journey. When Mark told him that he too could not recall the drive home his friend thought he was merely tying to pull his leg and so brushed his words aside. After persisting with his claims, though, his friend relented, now a lot more concerned about the situation.

What is perhaps interesting here is that the are many cases of alien abduction on record where the witness has been with one or multiple other people before the apparent abduction, and they have simply fallen (or remained) asleep well the events unfold – as if they had been intentionally placed in a temporary comatose state.

This, however, would not be the first incident that Mark would experience with missing time.

The Missing Weekend

Only several months later, he would claim that have returned home from work one Friday evening, as normal, ready to enjoy the weekend. The next Monday morning he arrived at work as usual. However, when one of his work colleagues asked him through idle chitchat would he had done during his days off, he realized he could not recall a single thing after walking through the door on the Friday evening. Almost as if he had simply fallen into a deep sleep and not awoken until the Monday morning two days later.

Perhaps even more bizarre, and concerning for the witness, he still can’t recall the events of that missing weekend even today. He claimed to have spent considerable time and effort in an attempt to recall the events of those missing days. He would even speak with several friends who he usually spent time with, all of them stating that they had not been with him on the dates in question. It would appear that no one had any idea what he had done or where he had been over that 48 hour period.

In his report, Mark also mentioned several other strange incidents that he had been witness to. For example, at some point in the late-1950s or early 1960s while he was playing little league baseball, he noticed a strange, spherical object with a strange “blue-green gaseous glow” to it moving at overhead with remarkable speed. He continued to watch the object for several moments – completely taking his attention off the game – before it disappeared into the distance.

In more recent times (at some point in 2000s, he witnessed a bizarre cylindrical object as he was driving on a sunny day just north of Minneapolis. The object appeared to be headed in the same direction as he was, giving him chance to focus on it for several seconds at a time. He couldn’t recall any particular markings on the side of the object, and that it appeared to have no wings or any visible means of propulsion.

He would take his eyes off the craft for a split second so as to focus back on the road. However, in that time the object had simply disappeared. It was visible for around 15 seconds in total. Mark wasn’t sure if the object had sped off into the distance or “vanished into another dimension”.

A Clear Case Of Alien Abduction?

There are perhaps several intriguing details to note about the encounters of Mark. Not least that it would appear, despite his certainty that he has not been abducted, that he very well might be a victim of repeat alien abduction. Simply the fact that he appears to have had sightings that go back to childhood is often suggestive of some kind of repeat alien interaction. And when we consider that these sightings have seemingly continued into the contemporary era, we might suspect that these extraterrestrial contacts are continuing today.

The missing time and the fact that his passenger friend appeared to sleep right the way through the strange event is, as we mentioned above, suggestive of alien abduction encounters. And perhaps further suggests that Mark was the specific target of the abduction, which would again lean toward the notion that he has likely been abducted several times throughout his life.

If Mark is a victim of repeated alien abduction, it would suggest that he, like many others, is just one of many such abductees. People who very likely have suffered similarly repeated abduction episodes over the course of their lives going back decades. This would suggest something more than merely random incidents, but rather a predetermined program that is perhaps still in action today. A program that has unknown consequences for humanity as a whole. We might ask, how many other people might have had very similar incidents occur to them as Mark, only they haven’t reported it? Indeed, these strange missing time events might be much more widespread than some might think.

An Intriguing Incident That Will Likely Remain A Mystery!

Did the anonymous witness suffer an alien abduction that evening on a lonely road in Columbus, Nebraska?

All the signs are certainly there, not least the missing 30 minutes of time. Was he taken on board the strange circular craft before being sent back on his way on his motorcycle? Was this incident really wiped from his mind? Or might it be possible that he very much recalled the events of that half an hour? However, he simply refused to speak about it? Might that have been why he would act as fearful for his life when returning near to the location a month later?

Or might that fear have been something in his unconscious? Something that doesn’t provide memories. But instead only evokes emotions such as distress, desperation, and outright terror.

Without hearing the witness’s side of the story there is so much left unanswered here. And it is not likely that we shall be able to fill in those gaps. Did the witness, for example, suffer any similar incidents in the years that followed? Did he recall any further memories of the night in question? And if the incident wasn’t a case of alien abduction, just what did happen during those 30 minutes? And what technology or energy caused the apparent standstill of his bike?

It is certainly an intriguing account. And one that, if we can assume the credibility of the person who made the report for a moment, certainly suggests something a lot more out of the ordinary than a mere sighting of strange lights in the sky. Just what did happen that September evening in Columbus, Nebraska, though, will likely remain a mystery.

Check out the video below. It examines the alien abduction and missing time phenomena a little further.

References

References
1 Close-range sighting of circular craft; missing time, September 5th, 1966, UFO Evidence http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case1064.htm

Marcus Lowth

Marcus Lowth is a writer with a love for UFOs, aliens, and the Ancient Astronaut Theory, to the paranormal, general conspiracies, and unsolved mysteries. He has been writing and researching with over 20 years of experience.

Marcus has been Editor-in-Chief for several years due to his excellent knowledge in these fields. Marcus also regularly appears as an expert on radio talk shows including Troubled Minds and Unexplained Radio discussing these topics.

Read Marcus' full bio.

You can contact Marcus via email.

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2 Comments

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  • Lanine Aken says:

    i was 11 at that time and was riding my pony in the field when i saw a saucer shape hovoring over me and the pony i got scared and rode down to the house

  • Jim Hayes says:

    I wonder if déjà vu has something to do with a time shift. There is so many experiences with lost time, during an abduction could it be possible that the abductee was shifted back a little to early.

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