Unidentified flying objects: hearing before the Committee on Armed Forces of the House of Representatives, Eighty-ninth Congress, second session, April 5, 1966 ...

5994
It
seems
entirely
likely
that
as
the
present spring
thaw
came,
the trapped
gases,
CIL,
H2S,
and PHs,
resulting
from
decomposition of organic
material,
were
released.
The
chemistry
book
by
Sienko
and
Plane
has
this
to
say.:
"In
air,
Phosphine
PH,
usually bursts
into
flame
apparently
because
it
is
ignited
by
a
spontaneous
oxidation
of the
impure
P2114.
The
will-of
-the-wisp,
sometimes
observed in
marshes,
may
be
due
to
spontaneous
ignition
of
impure
PH,
which
might be
formed
by
reduction
of
naturally
occurring
phosporus
compound."
It
has
been
pointed
out
to
the
investigating
personnel
by
other
scientists
in
this
area
that
in
swamps
the
formation of
H2S
and
CH,
from
rotting
vegetation
Is
common.
These
could
be
ignited
by
the spontaneous burning of
PH,.
The
association
of
the
sightings
with
swamps
in
this
particular
instance
is
more
than
coincidence.
No
group
of
witnesses
observed
any
craft
coming
to or
going
away
from
the
swamp. The
glow
was
localized,
and Deputy
Fitzpatrick
described
the
glow
from
beyond
a
rise
adjacent
to
the
swamp
as
visible
through
the
trees.
He
stated
that
the
light
brightened
and
dimmed
such
as
stage
do—
smoothly
and
slowly—and
this description
exactly
fits
the
Hillsdale sighting
also.
The
brightening
and dimming
could
have
been
due
to
the
release
of
vari-
able
quantities
of
marsh
gas.
The
disappearance of the
lights
when
people
got
close
with
flashlights
or car
-
lights
would
indicate
that
the
glow
seemed
bright
to
dark
-adapted
eyes.
The
night
was
dark
and
there
was
no moon.
The
Hillsdale
girls
kept
their
rooms
dark
in
order
to see
the
swamp
lights.
It
appears
very
likely
that
the combination of the
conditions
of
this
particular
winter
(an
unusually mild
one
in
that
area)
and
the
particular
weather
condi-
tions
of
that
night—it
was
clear
and
there
was
little
wind
at
either
location—
were
such
as
to
have
produced
this
unusual
and
puzzling
display.
SPECIAL
REPORT
OF
THE
USAF
SCIENTIFIC
ADVISORY
BOARD
AD
HOC
COMMITTEE
To
REVIEW
PROJECT
BLUE BooK
I.
INTRODUCTION
As
requested in
a
memorandum
from
Maj. Gen.
E. B.
LeBailly, Secretary
ofthe Air Force
Officer
of Information, dated
September
28,
1965 (tab
A), a
Scientific
Advisory
Board
Ad
Hoc
Committee
met on
February
3, 1966, to
reviewProject
Blue Book.
The
objectives
of the
committee
are
to
review the
resources
and
methods
of
investigation
prescribed
by
Project
Blue
Book and
to
advise
the
Air
Force
of
any
improvements
that
can
be
made
in
the
program
to
enhance
the
Air
Force's
capability
in
carrying
out
its
responsibility.
In
order to bring
themselves
up
to
date,
the
members
of the
committee
initially
reviewed the
findings
of previous
scientific
panels
charged with
looking
into
the
UFO
problem.
Particular
attention
was
given
to
the report
of the Robertsonpanel
which
was
rendered
in
January
1953.
The
committee next heard
briefings
from, the
AFSC
Foreign Technology
Division,
which
is
the cognizant Air
Force
agency
that
collates
information
on
UFO
sightings
and
monitors
investigations
of
individual
cases. Finally,
the
committee reviewed
selected
case
histories
of
UFO
sightings
with
particular
emphasis on
those
that
have
not been
identified.
II.
DISCUSSION
Although about
6
percent
(646)
of
all
sightings
(10,147) in
the years 1947
through 1965 are
listed
by
the Air Force as
"Unidentified,"
it
appears
to
the
committee
that
most
of the cases
so
listed
are simply
those
in
which
the
infor-
mation
available
does not
provide
an
adequate
basis
for
analysis.
In
this
con-
nection
it
is
important
also to note that
no
unidentified objects
other
than
those
of
an
astronomical nature
have
ever been observed during
routine astronomical
studies, in
spite
of the large
number
of observing
hours which have
been devoted
to the sky.
As
examples of
this
the
Palomar
Observatory
Sky
Atlas contains
some
5,000 plates
made
with large instruments with
wide
field
of
view;
the
Harvard meteor
project
of 1954-58 provided
some
3,300
hours of observation;
the Smithsonian
visual 'prairie
network
provided 2,500 observing hours.
Not
a
single unidentified object
has been reported
as appearing on any
of these
plates
or been sighted visually in
all
these observations.
The
committee concluded that in the
19
years since the
first
UFO
was
sighted
there
has been no
evidence that unidentified flying objects
are
a
threat to ournational security.
Having
arrived at
this conclusion the committee then turnedits attention to considering
how
the Air Force should handle the
scientific
aspects