Project Blue Book case file: Kenneth Arnold

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

Pilot E. was flying his plane at an altitude of approximately 9,200 feet. He trimmed out plane in direction of Yakima, Washington, which was almost directly east of his position and set in his plane observing the sky and the terrain. To the left was a DC-4 and to his rear approximately 15 miles distant there was a 14,000 ft elevation. The sky was clear as crystal. A bright flash suddenly reflected on the plane. Upon looking to the left and to the north of Mt. Eainer he observed a chain of 9 peculiar looking craft flying from north to south at approximately 9,500 ft elevation and going seemingly in a definite direction of about 170°. Thought at first they were jet aircraft but noticed that every few seconds 2 or 3 of them would dip or change their course slightly just enough to cause the sun to strike them at an angle which reflected brightly on the plane. As they approached Mt. Rainier he could observe their outlines against the snow quite plainly, but couldn't find any tails. Clocked speed and found it to be approximately 150 MPE. Never before had he observed planes flying so close to mountain tops. They flew directly south to southeast down the hog's back of a mountain range. Pilot thought they were at approximately the same elevation as he was. They flew in rather diagonal chain-like line as if linked together and seemed to hold a definite direction but swerved in and out of the high mountain peaks. Distance which was almost at right angles seemed to be between 20 to 25 miles. Thought they were quite large to be observed at that distance even on a clear day. They seemed smaller than the DC-4 but he judged their span to be as wide as the further-est engines on each side of the fuselage of the DC-4 (45 to 50 ft). The chain seemed to be approximately five miles long.

NOTE: It was the opinion of the agent interviewing Kr. that he saw the "flying discs" In this regard agent further stated that if Mr. Arnold could write a report of such a character and did not see the objects he was in the wrong business and should be engaged in writing Buck Rogers fiction.

The attached is what would later produced. See "Fate" magazine article by

Seemed to travel in sidewise position and did not appear to whirl or spin

They seemed longer than wide thickness being about 1/20 of width