The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (Nicap)

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Photographic Cases (Continued)

3. Cmdr. A. V. Orrego, Chilean Navy. Reported sighting and photographing UFOs over an Antarctic base. Objects described as "one above the other, turning at tremendous speeds." Major Donald E. Keyhoe queried the Chilean Embassy and was told the films were classified. ("Flying Saucers From Outer Space," p. 44). Other sources indicate movie film was taken.

4. Norwood, Ohio, searchlight case. Rev. Gregory Miller, Norwood, Ohio, in the presence of other witnesses, with help of Norwood police officer, obtained 16 mm black and white movies of a large disc hovering in a searchlight beam. The disc emitted "two distinct groups of triangular-shaped objects." (CRIFO Newsletter, Vol. I No. 5, August 6, 1954). One of series of well-witnessed sightings logged by Army searchlight operator, Sgt. Donald R. Berger. Three 25 foot rolls of movie film were exposed, using a Hugo Meyer F-19-3 camera with telephoto lens; also several still photographs with a Speed-Graphic and 14 inch Wallensach telephoto lens, the best of which were submitted to Time-Life and reportedly never returned. One photograph reproduced in "Inside Saucer Post. . .3-0 Blue," by L. H. Stringfield, Cincinnati, 1957.

5. Balearic Islands. A United Press Newspictures photo reportedly taken by Enrique H. Muller is reproduced in "The Coming of the Saucers," by Arnold & Palmer, Amherst, Wisc., c. 1952. Shows large circular, fiery-looking UFO with rays of "flame" spinning off edge in pinwheel fashion. No reference points visible. No camera data available.

6. White Sands, N.M. tracking station, April 27, 1950, photographed UFO which had been observed visually. Reportedly shows smudgy dark object in motion. ("Report on UFOs," by Capt. E. J. Ruppelt, Doubleday, 1956, p. 123). Filmed by Askania Cine Theodolite.

7. Paul Trent, McMinnville, Oregon, obtained two of clearest UFO photographs on record. Both show disc with superstructure. Reproduced by Life magazine (June 26, 1950) with comment that Mr. Trent is "an honest individual" and "the negatives show no signs of having been tampered with." Images closely similar to UFO photographed over France in March 1954 (see below).

8. White Sands, N.M., tracking station, May 29, 1950, photographed UFO which had been observed visually. Films by Askania Cine Theodolite cameras from two separate stations reportedly showed bright dots of light. ("Report on UFOs," Ruppelt, p. 124.)

9. Nick Mariana, Great Falls, Montana, obtained 16 mm color movies of two UFOs which appear as bright circular points of light. Footage of UFOs at closer range, confirming visual observation of discs with rotating rims, was reported missing from film when returned by Air Force. Remaining footage was contained in United Artists documentary movie "UFO" and compared to July 2, 1952, Trementon, Utah film showing similar images. Mr. Mariana used Daylight Kodachrome film in a Revere turret type camera and obtained 315 frames showing the UFOs. The film was examined by the Air Force and Navy, but no formal reports released. Report on Photogrammetric analysis by Dr. Robert M.L. Baker, Jr., Douglas Aircraft Corporation, on file at NICAP. Air Force explanation that UFOs were reflections off jet aircraft said to be "quite strained," and the analyst states no definite conclusion. However, UFOs could not be explained as any conventional objects.

10. White Sands, N.M., tracking station, July 14, 1951. UFO tracked on radar, observed visually through binoculars, photographed on 200 feet of 35 mm movie film. Film reportedly shows round, bright spot. ("F.S. From Outer Space," p. 48).

11. Lubbock (Texas) "Lights" photographs by Carl Hart, Jr., show V-formation of large perfectly circular objects. (See "Report on UFOs", p. 144 et seq.). Capt. Ruppelt, head of Air Force Project Blue Book, reported that "In each photograph the individual lights in the formation shifted position according to a definite pattern." Main photograph reproduced in True, May 1954. Taken with Kodak 35 camera set at f/3.5, shutter at 1/10 of a second.

12. Barra de Tijuca, Brazil, photographs of disc, taken by magazine writers Ed Keffel and Joao Martins. NICAP has never obtained any negatives for analysis. Prints show disc from five different angles. Critics have pointed out that in main photograph shadows on object do not coincide with shadows on ground below.

Until this criticism is fully answered, photographs must be considered suspect.

13. Utah Movie. Warrant Officer D.C. Newhouse, USN, obtained 16 mm color movies of a group of UFOs which he and his wife observed visually near Tremonton, Utah. At relatively close range, UFOs appeared flat and circular "shaped like two saucers, one inverted on top of the other." Mr. Newhouse unpacked his Bell and Howell Automaster camera, with 3 inch telephoto lens, from the trunk of his car and obtained about 1200 frames of the UFOs on Daylight Kodachrome film. During the filming, Mr. Newhouse changed the iris stop of the camera from f/8 to f/16. The film was submitted to Navy authorities, who forwarded it to the Air Force at ATIC in Dayton, Ohio, where it was studied for several months. According to Mr. Newhouse, frames of the movie showing a single UFO moving away over the horizon (hence providing some ranging information) were missing when the film was returned. The hypothesis that the objects were out of focus sea gulls was considered by the Air Force, but could neither be confirmed nor denied. The report of Photogrammetric analysis by Dr. Robert M.L. Baker, Jr., Douglas Aircraft Corporation (which included a study of the 1950 Montana film--see above) also examined this possibility. He states: "The motion of the objects is not exactly what one would expect from a flock of soaring birds (not the slightest indication of a decrease in brightness due to periodic turning with the wind or flapping)." Dr. Baker reports that no definite conclusion could be reached, but "the evidence remains rather contradictory and no single hypothesis of a natural phenomenon yet suggested seems to completely account for the UFO involved." [See Section IX re: later Air Force statements on Utah film]

14. Shell Alpert, U.S. Coast Guard, Salem, Mass., visually observed and photographed four UFOs in formation. Taken through window of laboratory, picture shows four roughly elliptical blobs of light. Photograph reproduced widely in newspapers and magazines. Date coincides with peak of Summer 1952 sighting "flap", in which four objects flying in formation were observed several times. Official Coast Guard letter, 8 August 1962 (copy in NICAP files): "...it never has been determined what caused the phenomenal lights shown [in the photograph]."

15. Peru. Round UFO observed by Sr. Pedro Bardi, agricultural engineer, and others on a farm about 4:30 p.m., in Madre de Dios, Peru, noticed when short wave radio went dead. Object also seen four minutes later near Porto Maldo where Sr. Domingo Troncosco, customs administrator, photographed it. Photo shows elongated object trailing smoke, passing over the top of a tree and in front of a cumulus cloud. Photograph submitted by James W. Moseley. (For story and picture, see UFO Investigator, Vol. I No. 2, August-September, 1957).

16. Ralph Mayher, Miami, Fla. Using 16 mm film exposed at 24 frames per second, Mr. Mayher obtained good footage of a high speed UFO. Calculations by a physicist at the University of Miami yielded the information that the object was about 27 feet in diameter and travelling about 7550 mph. Retaining a few frames for personal study, Mr. Mayher submitted the main portion of the film to the Air Force for analysis. The film was never returned and no analysis report was ever released. (For story and pictures, see PIC magazine, June 1954). Enlargements of a few frames show a fiery looking roughly circular object, symmetrical, with two small peaks or projection on opposite sides of the disc.

17. Gun camera photos. Nr. Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, August 1, 1952. Two jet interceptors chased a UFO which had been tracked on radar, and one obtained gun camera photographs of it before the object accelerated at high speed and disappeared. ("F.S. From Outer Space," p. 107-8; Hartford, Conn., Courant, August 2, 1952). Part of the 35 mm gun camera film is reproduced in True, December 1952, showing a faint, dark circular image. The Air Force says radar tracked a jet aircraft, while the pilots saw and chased a radiosonde balloon assuming it was the UFO which had shown on radar. The rapid acceleration of the object which the pilots observed (and filmed while stationary) would appear to rule out this interpretation.

18. Operation Mainbrace. During fleet maneuvers in the North Sea in September 1952, UFOs were sighted in the vicinity on several occasions. [See Section XII]. On September 19, American reporter Wallace Litwin, on board the aircraft carrier "Franklin Roosevelt", took three color photographs of a large silvery