Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 27 October 1955 and signed by Herbert Scoville, Jr., Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, records an interview with a person who reported seeing unconventional or saucer-like aircraft from a train. The observer saw two greenish-yellow fiery balls rising rapidly, with a searchlight nearby. The memo concludes that the testimony does not support the saucer theory. It suggests the objects were probably exhausts of jet aircraft in a steep climb, or possibly short or vertical take-off aircraft.
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# O . [ . ] O 1. On 27 October, I interviewed a relative to an observation of unconventional or saucer-like aircraft during his visit. The following is a statement of his observations with my comments. I will submit separately his views on the statements but I believe he is in general agreement with the views stated herein. 2. The party was travelling between a train at the specific request of the observer who made every attempt to journey by train when possible. (This tends to refute the theory that the train trip was arranged in order to stage the operation with the lights turned out while the reminder of the party was in the next compartment with the lights on. He suddenly noticed a greenish-yellow ball rising rapidly. He rushed into the next compartment stating that he had seen what he thought was a flying saucer. They turned out the lights and looked out the window but initially saw nothing and the rest of the party was initially skeptical. However, suddenly a second ball was noticed rising rapidly and then the other members of the party were convinced. The second object was initially seen at a minimum altitude of 700 to 800 feet, and while the first object was initially viewed at an even higher altitude. Nothing was seen on the ground with the exception of a search light which was about one-half to one mile away and appeared to be aimed at a very low trajectory almost at the train. The subject did not on either occasion see the form of the object, only this fiery ball. No firm estimate could be made of the size or distance of the ball because there were no reference objects. However, the subject had the impression that the object could have been as small as a rocket although no trail was left by the rising ball. The object gave the impression of whirling and appeared to follow a single trajectory with no break in its flight pattern. The subject did not see any lights, only the yellowish glow (this in contrary to statements of other observers). The search light did not appear to be following the object. About five to ten minutes after the sightings and after the subject had returned to his own compartment, the guard came in and pulled down Approved for Release 2/2010 Copy of 10
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. 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. 2 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.