Documents / FOIA release

The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (Nicap)

Central Intelligence Agency · 2001-03-12 · 186 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This is a copy of "The UFO Evidence," a report published in May 1964 by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) in Washington, D.C. and edited by Richard H. Hall. The CIA released its copy in 2001. The report draws 746 sightings from more than 5,000 signed reports and argues that unexplained UFOs are real, artificial objects under intelligent control. It criticizes Air Force secrecy and calls for a Congressional inquiry into Project Blue Book and a larger scientific investigation.

  • p. 14 …The chief cameraman of the expedition, John Bjornulf, managed to expose about 10 seconds of movie…
  • p. 15 …Test devices of one nation would not be observed worldwide see Section X, Worldwide UFO Reports…
  • p. 137 …Two silvery disks observed and photographed from eclipse expedition planes. VIII June 30, 1954--Nr. Goose…

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

# Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0

plane was on a southwesterly course, and the object, looking like a meteor, was falling across their path from left to right. But instead of burning out, the "meteor" halted abruptly directly in front of the plane.

"What the hell is it, a jet?" MacIntosh shouted.

As the UFO remained a constant distance in front of the plane, Captain Hull grabbed his microphone and called Mobile Tower:

Mobile quickly answered that a thick cloud layer was obscuring vision, and asked Captain Hull if he thought the object was in the vicinity of Mobile.

"Bates Tower, this is Capital 77. Look out toward the north and east and see if you can see a strange white light hovering in the sky."

"Affirmative," Hull replied. "It is directly ahead of us and at about our altitude or slightly higher. We are right over Jackson and have descended to 10,000 feet. . . "

Immediately after the radio exchange, the UFO began to move. It darted back and forth, rising and falling, making extremely sharp turns, sometimes changing course 90 degrees in an instant. The color and size remained constant.

"MacIntosh and I sat there completely flabbergasted at this unnerving exhibition," Captain Hull reported. After 30 seconds or more, the UFO ceased its violent maneuvers and again appeared to hover ahead of the plane. About this time Mobile Tower called back:

"Capital 77, we are trying to raise the Brookley AFB Tower."

At this moment, the UFO began another series of "crazy gyrations, lazy 8's, square chandelles. . . " and then shot out over the Gulf of Mexico rising at a steep angle. It diminished rapidly to a pinpoint and disappeared in the night. (Elapsed time: At least two minutes.)

"The one thing which I can't get over," Captain Hull stated, "is the fact that when it came, it came steeply downward; when it departed after its amazing show, it went steeply upward!"

December 19/20 of 1958 was a cloudless night in Dunellen, New Jersey. At 12:55 a.m., Patrolmen LeRoy A. Arboreen and B. Talada were on night patrol, cruising west on Center Street. From an area elevated about 15 to 20 feet they had an unobstructed view to north, south, and west.

In a signed report to NICAP, [9] Patrolman Arboreen (exNavy man and graduate of the New Jersey State Police Academy) described the experience:

"This object came at us from the west. At first it looked like a red hot piece of coal about the size of a quarter held at arm's length. In a matter of seconds it was as large as a ruler held at arm's length. That is when it came to a complete stop. . .

"The shape of the object was distinct. (See illustration.) The body of the object was solid bright red and it gave off a pulsating red glow completely around the object. The object hovered a few seconds, then made a left turn and again hovered for a few seconds, then went straight up like a shot. We watched it until it completely faded beyond the stars."

In this matter-of-fact manner, the two officers described an occurrence which is totally inexplicable. Meteors do not hover or shoot upward. No known aircraft is elliptical, and glows bright red in flight, not to mention the observed performance.

Nor does any known phenomenon descend through the atmosphere like a meteor, then circle around, as Engineer Carr observed. Nor does the gyrating light observed by Captain Hull, descending, pacing the airliner, then ascending, have any natural explanation.

## HAVE UFOs BEEN SEEN IN OTHER COUNTRIES?

This surprising misconception, that UFOs are exclusively a native phenomenon of the United States, is completely refuted in the Foreign Reports Section [X]. Part of the reason for this erroneous belief is the lack of information on foreign sightings reported by newswire representatives abroad. In 1962, for instance, a major concentration of sightings occurred in Argentina [Section XII, Argentine Chronology], beginning in May and lasting almost all year. A few of the May sightings were reported briefly in the New York Times (June 3, 1962) from a Reuters dispatch, but in a manner implying that the sightings lasted only one day. In general, U.S. news coverage of these sightings was practically nonexistent. Reuters apparently was the only news agency to report them at all outside of Argentina.

Most major countries of the world for years have had either official or unofficial investigations of UFO sightings [Section X]. American servicemen overseas have contributed many reports. At 11:20 a.m. March 29, 1952, an Air Force pilot was flying a T-6 north of Misawa, Japan. It was a bright cloudless day. Lt. D. C. Brigham was in the T-6 target plane in a practice intercept mission, with a flight of two F-84's pursuing him.

As the first F-84 overtook him at 6000 feet, Brigham noticed a flash of sunlight behind it and saw a small shiny disc-shaped object gaining on the interceptor. The UFO curved toward the F-84, decelerating rapidly to the Thunderjet's air speed (150 to 160 mph) and flipping up on edge in a 90 degree bank. Then it fluttered along close to the interceptor's fuselage (between the two aircraft) for 2 to 3 seconds, and pulled away around the starboard wing, flipping once, apparently as it hit the slipstream. Finally, the object passed the F-84, crossed in front, pulled up abruptly, accelerated, and shot out of sight in a near vertical climb.

Lieutenant Brigham estimated that the UFO at its closest point was 30 to 50 feet away from his plane. It was round, shiny as polished chromium, and seemed to be about 8 inches in diameter. Throughout the observation, the disc rocked back and forth in 40 degree banks at about one-second intervals. [See Section XII, Flight Characteristics.] Lieutenant Brigham saw no exhaust or protrusions, but reported a ripple in the apparently metal skin around the edge of the disc. [10]

Foreign pilots, scientists, and engineers also have observed UFOs many times. Around sunset June 30, 1954, south of Goose Bay, Labrador, a British Overseas Airways (BOAC) airliner was paced by a large "parent" object and about six satellite objects [See Section X, Foreign Reports]. Later that night (about 2:15 p.m. local time near Oslo, Norway), two UFOs operating in tandem were observed and filmed under especially favorable conditions. [11.] A solar eclipse was in progress, and three planes carrying scientists and technicians on a scientific expedition were flying through the moon's shadow. About 50 people in the three aircraft saw two "enormous" silvery discs swoop down from some clouds 15 to 20 miles away (estimate based on fact UFOs were in sunlight).

The objects sped along the horizon keeping an exact distance from each other, one slightly behind and above the other, both with forward edge tilted down. The observers detected apparent rotation, as the UFOs levelled off and disappeared into the distance after about 30 seconds. The chief cameraman of the expedition, John Bjornulf, managed to expose about 10 seconds of movie film which showed the UFOs. The films, released by Gaumont, a British firm, were shown on American television September 26, 1954. Still photographs of the UFOs have also been printed. Ernest Graham, one of the witnesses, stated that 50 persons afterwards wrote reports on what they had seen. [12]

Another unexplainable disc was observed, tracked on radar, and chased by two U. S. Air Force jet pilots somewhere in the Far East. [13.]

Cases discussed

About this file

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. 186 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.