Documents / FOIA release
This is part five of the FBI's UFO file, a set of Bureau memoranda and reports from 1947 to 1949. Most of it covers the FBI's inquiry into the Maury Island flying disc story in Tacoma, which concluded that the disc fragments were ordinary rock formations and that the story was a hoax. It also examines the fatal crash of a B-25 at Kelso and finds no sign of sabotage. The file includes other items: the Rhodes disc photographs, a proposed flying saucer convention in Alexandria, Louisiana, and ash from a fire near Scranton that someone suggested came from a flying saucer.
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SUBJECT: Final Mission Report TO: Commanding Officer Air Rescue Service MacDill Field, Florida 1. MISSION NUMBER Thirty-Mine. a. At C400 PST, 1 August 47, AIRY FLIGHT SERVICE notified this detachment that a plane had been soon to crash and burn thirteen (13) miles south of KELPO, Washington (4608'N, 122065'N). 2. KATURE. ## 5. ACTION TAKEN a. 1 Aug 47. At 04:30 PST, AFS received information from Mr. O. C. Clark, local sheriff of KELSO, Nash., that the scene of the crash was fifteen (15) to twenty (20) miles east of KELSO in the vicinity of OOLE CREEP. The KELSO Chief of Police saw an aircraft fly low over the town, then crash and burn to the east. The time was about 02:30 PST. A check of aircraft known to be in the vicinity revealed that B-25 #1316 had departed NOCBORD FIELD at 0212 PST for HAMILTON FIELD, California. The weather was reported as CFR. A full moon made visibility exceptionally good. The pilot's name was CAPT. K. C. DAVIDSON; the plane carried three (3) additional persons. The Base Operations Officer and Base PIO were notified. This detachment began organizing a ground party of base personnel to supplement that being formed by the KELSO Chief of Police. At 0500 PST information was received from KELSO by AFS that ground fog in the valleys at the scene of the crash was preventing a ground party from looting the plane. Since no communication had been received from B-25 #1316, it was assumed that it was the plane reported as crashed. ARS C-47 was pre-flighted to transport the Army ground party to KELSO but a check of the field conditions there deemed it advisable to use a smaller aircraft. Of the two C-45s available, one belonging to AFS was unserviced after a night flight; the other, belonging to AACS, was readied even though a responsible officer of that organization was not present to authorize the flight. For at KELSO prevented take-off until 0700 PST. The ground party, led by CAPT. K. L. LITTRELL and CAPT. T. H. FORSBSNC, consisted of six men including a medical technician and a photographer. At 0600 PST, the KELSO Chief of Police notified AFS that a passenger of the crashed airplane was in his office and had confirmed ## CLOSE # CONFIDENTIAL
FOIA release, from the fbi-vault 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. 74 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.