Wayne City, Illinois: Bright light paces young couple's car, radio whines, engine falters
From 11:30 p.m. on August 4, 1963, Ronnie Austin and Phyllis Bruce were paced by a bright round light near Mount Vernon and Wayne City, Illinois; on his way home it came within 100 feet of Austin's car while the radio whined and the engine almost failed.
Background
At 11:30 p.m. Ronnie Austin and Phyllis Bruce were driving east on State Highway 15 past the Mount Vernon, Illinois, airport when they noticed a bright white round object about 20 degrees above the southwest horizon that seemed to keep pace with them for several miles and then moved about 600 feet in front of them. After Austin dropped Bruce off at her home in Wayne City, they watched it hanging in the southeast for about 15 minutes. On a gravel road on his way home the object, now orange, shot ahead of him, came within 100 feet of his car and passed above it while the car radio made a whining noise and the engine almost failed. At home Austin's parents and brother and sister also saw the light, which hovered to the southeast and became indistinguishable from a star by 1:10 a.m.; Austin was so shaken that he was given a sedative. The case was reported by the Mount Vernon Register-News, Fate and the APRO Bulletin and listed by NICAP among electromagnetic-effect cases. The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.