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This Project Blue Book case file, digitized by the Internet Archive, covers Incident 144: two Eastern Airlines pilots reported that a wingless, cigar-shaped object with a flaming exhaust passed their DC-3 about 20 miles southwest of Montgomery, Alabama, on 24 July 1948. The file includes an OSI interview with a Robins Air Force Base employee who saw a similar object, negative aircraft traffic reports from many bases, and later correspondence. A December 1948 intelligence report found fairly consistent descriptions across four related sightings.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
DETAILS: At 0945, 10 August 1943, Lt Colonel Cropper, Acting District Commander, 6th District Office of Special Investigations, interrogated Mr. Robins Air Force Base employee, regarding an aerial phenomena witnessed by while on duty at Robins Air Force Base on the night of 23 July 1948. The following is a transcript of this interrogation: "Q.1. What is your full name, age, address, and employment? A.1. I am 23, unmarried, and live at Macon, Georgia. I am a member of the Transient Maintenance Alert Crew on the midnight shift - 2400 to 0800 hours. Q. 2. Do you recall the date and time that you saw this object? A.2. It appeared on Friday night, the 23d of July 1948 between 0140 and 0150 hours, Eastern Standard Time. I was standing fire guard on a C-47, directly across from Operations, and I had to take down the take-off time which was between 0140 and 0150. Q. 3. What was the weather condition? A. 3. Good visibility and no clouds. Q. 4. Were there any lights around you? Outside lights or beacons? A. 4. I am not sure whether the flood lights on the hangar were on or off. I was facing the north looking away from any possible lights. Q. 5. In what direction did you see this object? A.5. It was coming out of the north. I was facing the north and actually didn't see it until it got overhead, but it came out of the north and was in my view for about twenty seconds. The last I saw of it the object was taking a southwest course. Q. 6. Describe in your own words what you actually saw from the time it appeared until it disappeared. A.6. The first thing I saw was a stream of fire and I was unmiscided as to what it could be, but as it got overhead, it was a fairly clear outline and appeared to be a cylindrical shaped object with a long stream of fire coming out of the tail end. I am sure it would not be a jet since I have observed P-843 in flight at night on two occasions.
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 161 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.