Documents / FOIA release

The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (Nicap)

Central Intelligence Agency · 2001-03-12 · 186 pages · text by 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. 30 …sighting, was Flying Safety Officer, Hdq., Tactical Air Command, 300th Base Unit, Langley Field, Va. His…
  • p. 35 …Hq Sq Sec, First Air Force Mitchel Air Force Base, NY 20 September 1957 Mr. Donald…
  • p. 37 …Confidential Report (certified by NICAP Director & Ass't Director) Disc buzzed Naval Air Station ## UFOs…
  • p. 38 …A Navy Commander stationed at Anacostia Naval Air Station, was flying over Virginia, when he looked…
  • p. 45 …the morning after the sighting," Captain Nash reported, "we were telephoned by the Air Force. . . to…
  • p. 50 …PST), official logs show, the UFO was reported to Seattle Air Route Control Center. Logs of…
  • p. 118 …miles northeast of the station estimated 3000 feet. ## 13102 Reported object to Seattle Air Route Control…
  • p. 123 …A STATEMENT DISTRIBUTED BY THE BASE COMMAND SAID THE PHENOMENON WAS REPORTED IMMEDIATELY TO THE AIR…
  • p. 129 …The pilot called Nowra air control, whose radar showed three objects flying together. The pilot identified…
  • p. 130 …headed northeast across the St. Lawrence River. . . It was 9:05 p.m. Labrador time and…
  • p. 171 …Penney, Commanding Officer of the Stallion Site Camp north of the base headquarters. Cpl. Glenn H…
# Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0

divergent interpretations of some of the cases in this report, we suggest two books which present the skeptical position:

Flying Saucers and the U.S. Air Force, Lt. Col. Lawrence J. Tacker, (Van Nostrand, 1960).

The World of Flying Saucers, Dr. Donald H. Menzel, (Doubleday, 1963).

Both books argue that UFOs have been adequately investigated, and that there is no evidence indicating they are anything other than misidentified conventional objects or phenomena.

This report contains a total of 746 UFO sightings. The main chronology [Section XI] lists 575 cases, with cross-references. (Statistics based on the main chronology are reported in Section XII) The witnesses in $50\%$ of these cases were trained or experienced observers. An additional 171 cases are included in separate chronologies [Section XII] which show the major concentrations of UFO sightings.

The reports come from 46 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Central America, 6 South American countries, 10 European countries, 4 African countries, 5

Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand, major oceans and numerous islands.

States with the highest frequency of sightings, as indicated by the selective process used, were: (1) California; (2) Ohio; (3) New Mexico; (4) Florida; (5) Illinois.

Other countries: (1) England; (2) France; (3) Canada; (4) Japan; (5) Brazil.

Of the 575 cases, two UFOs were observed in 41 cases, three UFOs in 30 cases, more than three UFOs in 81 cases. The remainder were observations of single objects.

Richard Hall

Washington, D. C.

May 1964

Cases discussed

About this file

FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 186 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.