This case was investigated by Army Air Force Intelligence and was of particular concern to military officials because of a perceived threat that the Soviets may have been behind the appearances of flying saucers. If this was the case, then it was obvious that in order to spy on the U.S., flights from the U.S.S.R. would have to pass over Canada. The initial report was filed by Harmon base intelligence officers on July 16, with a more detailed report received at the Pentagon on July 21.
Air Force Brigadier General George F. Schulgen, then chief, Air Intelligence Requirements Division, Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, A-2 (Intelligence) ordered intelligence officers at Wright Field in Dayton to go to Harmon Field to assess the situation and report directly to the Pentagon. The Wright T-2 chief, Colonel Howard M. McCoy, dispatched a team by July 30.
The T-2 investigation report on the Harmon Field case noted: “The bluish-black trail seems to indicate ordinary combustion from a turbo-jet engine, athodyd motor, or some combination of these types of power plants. The absence of noise and apparent dissolving of the clouds to form a clear path indicates a relatively large mass flow of a rectangular cross-section containing a considerable amount of heat.”
The report did not consider that a meteor or fireball had made the trail, even though this explanation was the official conclusion on the case file. However, Blue Book documents showed that the Pentagon was still focused on a Soviet connection. As noted in a report on the case, “Wright Field investigators spoke with the commander of Harmon Field and others to make sure that no British or Canadian aircraft had been in the area at the time. And since they knew no American aircraft were to blame, they privately concluded something of ‘foreign origin’ made that curious split in the clouds over Newfoundland.”
What we are left with is a well-witnessed and intensely investigated UFO case, reported long before the term UFO was coined by the American military. In the early years of the Cold War, the Soviets were suspected, since the object seen was not “friendly.” The photographs show a very strange rocket-like exhaust trail or contrail, proving that something definitely was seen by a number of qualified observers that day. It was one the first photographs of an unidentified flying object reported in North America.
In 1947, an unusual object was seen over a U.S. air force base in Newfoundland. Photographs were taken of the smoke trail it left behind.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
San Francisco, California November 3, 2004
An airline transport pilot with 14 years’ experience in commercial aviation can’t quite explain what he saw at 11 p.m., November 3, 2004. His aircraft was approaching the city from the east, passing just north of Stockton, when he received instructions from the tower to descend from 35,000 to 24,000 feet [10,500 to 7,200 meters].
“While approaching San Francisco from the east, an orange dot began to glow and seemed to flash higher up to the west of us. I thought that it was a planet. It then changed color from orange to white. Again, I thought a planet could be illuminated through a [local] atmosphere that would explain the color change.
“It then began to move in a northeasterly direction. Once again, being in an airplane, it is very easy to think an object is moving, from small corrections the autopilot makes. I found a handful of stars to serve as a reference point and verified that the object was slowly moving north.
“It moved about 30 degrees and then stopped. Then, it made a slight tangent to the right and continued moving for about 20 more degrees. It stopped and turned again to the right and continued for 10 degrees, then stopped again and disappeared.
“The whole sighting ran about two minutes or so from start to finish. It was difficult to judge the actual distance and speed. When I talk about ‘moving in degrees and turning,’ I am talking about my [cockpit] viewpoint and compass degrees. The UFOs size was very small, about the size of the stars and planets you see in the sky.
“We had initially been at 35,000 feet [10,500 meters] but had descended to 24,000 feet [7,200 meters] when we saw the object. We were above the clouds with a clear view, and there was a crescent moon behind us. The weather in San Francisco was partly cloudy skies and light rain.
“There were two of us in the cockpit, and we both witnessed the same thing. We were both in awe. I have been flying for 14 years have never witnessed something like this before.”
Reported by Anonymous
Source: UFOCasebook.com
The first death due to a UFO took place on January 7, 1948. Captain Thomas Mantell, a veteran pilot who had flown in the battle of Normandy in 1944, was scrambled with three other pilots in response to reports of an unidentified object over Marysville, Kentucky. The sightings started at about 1:20 p.m., with many area residents reporting something in the sky, and at 1:45 p.m. an object looking like a white umbrella was seen by an airport tower operator and the commanding officer at Fort Knox.
Mantell, flying an F-51, climbed dangerously high in order to get closer to the object, reaching an altitude of more than 6,000 metres, without his oxygen mask. On his radio, he described the object as “metallic” and “of tremendous size.” He continued to fly upward, but the other pilots decided to break off the pursuit. Radio contact was lost with Mantell as he reached 6,900 metres. The wreckage of his plane was found near Franklin, Kentucky.
News reports announced that an air force pilot died while chasing a flying saucer. However, after a lengthy investigation, the object was identified as a Navy Skyhook balloon, a secret high-altitude experiment — information not shared with the air force. Mantell had died because of military compartmentalization: only those involved in the Skyhook program knew of its existence, and the air force did not know it was a military operation. He was not shot down by a flying saucer; he had climbed too high and his engine likely stalled, leading to the unfortunate crash.
• During the afternoon of April 5, 1948, several researchers at a geophysics laboratory on Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico all saw two unusual dish-shaped objects, white or grey in colour, about 30 metres in diameter, and high up in the sky. One object moved upward, then moved sharply to one side, dropped and made a loop in the air and vanished. The other flew rapidly to the west, made a similar loop and vanished as well.
• On May 7, 1948, at 3:00 p.m., three people in Memphis, Tennessee, saw as many as 50 shiny objects flying at high speed across the sky. Although most were travelling all in a straight line, a few seemed to occasionally deviate from the line and weave in and out. They did not make any noise, even though a few seemed to have whitish tails that were thought to be exhaust. A check with a meteorological office showed that only one balloon had been launched that day, and there had not been any military aircraft flying in the vicinity that afternoon. The suggestion that the witnesses had seen a train of daytime meteors was rejected. The incident was listed by Project Blue Book as “unknown.”
• On June 30, 1948, the ship Llandovery Castle had left Kenya bound for Cape Town. At 11:00 p.m. on July 1, it was going through the Straits of Madagascar when the lookout and some passengers saw a light high in the sky heading in their direction. As they watched, it descended until it was only about 15 metres above the water and began travelling alongside the ship. As it flew, it shone a beam of light like a searchlight down onto the water, then the beam and its lights were extinguished. The crew and passengers of the ship were then able to see that the object was