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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.
AIR TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE CENTER Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Dayton, Ohio Dear Sir: Enclosed is an article concerning a mysterious silvery tubular flame-belching object that flashed through western Alaska skies late Sunday. I feel sure that this object is the same type object that almost collided with an Eastern Airlines DC-3 in 1948. I would like to take this time to review this case for I think it is outstanding. For on the evening of July 24, 1948, an Eastern Airlines DC-3 took off from Houston, Texas. It was on a scheduled trip to Atlantic with intermediate stops in between. The pilots were Clarence S. Chiles and John B. Whitted. At about 2:45 a.m.; when the flight was 20 miles southwest of Montgomery, the captain, Chiles, saw a light dead ahead and closing fast. His first reaction, he later reported to an ATIC investigation team, was that it was a jet, but in an instant he realized that even a jet couldn't close as fast as this light was closing. Chiles sailed he reached over, gave Whitted, the other pilot, a quick tap on the arm, and pointed. The UFO was now almost on top of them. Chiles racked the DC-3 up into a tight left turn. Just as the UFO flashed by about 700 feet to the right, the DC-3 hit turbulent air. Whitted looked back just as the UFO pulled up in a steep climb. Both of the pilots had gotten a good look at the UFO and were able to give a good description to the Air Force intelligence people. It was a B-29 fuselage. The underside had a "deep blue glow." There were "two rows of windows from which bright lights glowed," and a "50-foot trail or orange-red flane" shot out the back. By now, does ATIC know what the object was? If so, does ATIC also know where the object came from? One thing for sure when you take a object traveling at tremendous speed about 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the earth, that is tubular-shaped could most certainly also be a 3-20usalage shaped, and both these figures had arrange Flunesa shooting from the tail. This also makes no sit back and think. I will be looking forward in hearing from you. Sincerely yours, ---
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