Project Blue Book case file: Kenneth Arnold

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

On 24 June 1947 at 1400 Mr. Child took off from the Chehalia, Washington Airport in his personal plane and headed for Yakima, Washington. Mr. the trip was delayed for an hour in search of a large marine transport that supposedly went down near or around the southwest side of Mt. Ranier. After take-off Mr. flew directly toward Mt. Ranier at an altitude of approximately 9,500 feet, which is the approximate elevation of the high plateau from which Mt. Ranier rises. He made one sweep of this high plateau to the westward, searching all of the various ridges for the marine ship and flew to the west near the ridge side of the canyon where Ashford, Washington is located. Unable to see anything that looked like the lost plane, Mr. made a 360 degree turn to the right above the town of Mineral, starting again toward Mt. Ranier and climbing to an altitude of 9,200 feet.

Mr. and reported that the air was so smooth that it was a real pleasure flying, and, as most pilots do when the air is smooth and they are at a higher altitude, he trimmed out the aircraft and simply sat in his plane observing the sky and terrain.

Mr. reported that there was a DC-4 to his left and rear at approximately 14,000 feet. The sky was reported to be as clear as crystal. He hadn't flown more than two or three minutes on his course when a bright flash reflected on his airplane. He couldn't find where the reflection came from, but to the left and north of Mt. Ranier he did observe a chain of nine peculiar looking objects flying from north to south at approximately 9,500 feet. They were approaching Mt. Ranier very rapidly, and he assumed that they were jet aircraft. Every few seconds two or three of the objects would dip or change course slightly, just enough for the sun to strike them at an angle and reflect brightly. The objects being quite far away, he was unable to make out their shape or formation. As they approached Mt. Ranier he observed their outline quite clearly. Mr. stated that he found it very peculiar that he couldn't find their tails but assumed they were some type of jet aircraft. The objects were observed to pass the southern edge of Mt. Ranier flying directly south to south-east down the hog's back of a mountain range. The elevation of the objects was estimated to have varied approximately one thousand feet one way or another but remained very near the horizon, which would indicate that they were near the same elevation as the witness. Mr. stated that the objects flew like geese, in a rather diagonal chain-like line as if they were linked together. They seemed to hold a definite direction but swerved in and out of the high mountain peaks. The witness estimated the distance between him and the objects to be approximately 25 miles. Using a Zeus fastener, or cowling tool, he estimated the size of the objects to be approximately two thirds that of a DC-4. He observed the UFO's passing a high snow covered ridge in between Mt. Ranier and Mt. Adams and reported that as the first object was passing the south crest of this ridge the last one was entering the northern crest of the ridge. Later measurement of length of this particular ridge revealed it was approximately five miles, so it was estimated the chain of objects was five miles long. Mr. timed the objects between Mt. Ranier and Mt. Adams and determined they crossed this 47 miles in one minute and forty-two seconds. This is equivilant to 1656.71 miles per hour.

In a subsequent interview Mr. described the objects as appearing like saucers skipping on water. This description was shortened to "Flying Saucers" by newspaper men and resulted in the popular use of this term.

It is the Air Force conclusion that the objects of this sighting were due to a mirage. Mr. 's statement concerning how smooth and crystal clear the air was is an indication of very stable conditions which are associated with inversions, and increase the refraction index of the atmosphere.