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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.
“Headquarters”21 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
Mr Eastern Air Lines Miami, Fla. The following is a report of an unidentified aircraft which was sighted by and me, as we were twenty miles southwest of Montgomery, Ala. July 24, 1948, as we were on Eastern's trip 576. At 2:45 A.M. we were cruising at 5,000 feet when there came, what looked like a Jet type of aircraft to our right and alightly above meeting us. It was a clear moonlight night with the visibility excellent; therefore, we were able to view the ship as it passed for a period of around ten seconds. It was clear there were no wings present, that it was powered by some jet or other type of power shooting flame from the rear some fifty feet. There were two rows of windows, which indicated an upper and lower deck, from inside these windows a very bright light was glowing. Underneath the ship there was a blue glow of light. After it passed it pulled up into some light broken clouds and was lost from view. There was no prop wash or rough air felt as it passed. After talking to the only passenger awake at the time; he saw only the trail of fire as it passed and pulled into the clouds. I called the company at Columbus and asked if there was any reported jet army craft and requested if the ATC had any aircraft under control. I was told that no such craft was reported by either source. /3/ Capt E. A. L. DOWNGRADED AT 3 YEAR INTERVALS; RECLASSIFIED AFTER 12 YEARS. DOO DII. 5200.10 UNCLASSIFIED ---
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.