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.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
SUBJECT: Interview with the shakes. No unusual attitude on the part of the guard was noted but it was dark. (This is in direct contradiction with the original dispatch and the statement that it was not present when the dispatch was prepared and sent from Prague, and as a consequence did not have a chance to verify the contents. 4. The testimony does not in my opinion support the theory developed sucer-like or unconventional aircraft. It is quite possible that the objects seen were the exhausts of normal jet aircraft in a steep climb. The fact that none were seen on the ground night indicate that the aircraft were in a dive followed by a sharp pull-up in such a way that nothing was seen until the exhausts were visible to the observers on the train. However, it is possible that the aircraft were indeed of the short or almost vertical take-off variety. Hartt Smith HERGART SCOVILLE, JR. Assistant Director Scientific Intelligence Cony of /c
Not linked to a story yet.
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.