Documents / Document
This NICAP compilation by Dan Wilson gathers Project Blue Book records on the sighting of 24 February 1959, when American Airlines Flight 139, flying from Newark to Detroit, and two United Airlines crews saw three lights over Pennsylvania and Ohio. It includes the record card, pilot statements, Air Force letters and correspondence with an Akron UFO committee. The Air Force concluded that the lights came from three B-47s refueling from KC-97 tankers. Book excerpts disputing Captain Killian's later claims are also included.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
The lights in the cockpit were turned low and he noticed the lights off the left wing by normal scanning of the area. He then turned the cockpit lights off while he continued to observe the sighting. His description of the lights was that they varied from a yellow to a light orange and each individual light was the approximate size of a quarter held at arm's length. The three (3) lights appeared to be in trail, echelon upward, at an angle of approximately thirty degrees with a distance between each individual light of about the space of ten (10) quarters held at arm's length. The number two light appeared to hold its position throughout the period of the sighting. The number three light was quite erratic and would drop back, gain altitude and then pull back into position. This occurred approximately ten times during the period of the sighting. Captain indicated at times the number three light appeared to be indicated at times the number three light appeared to be dancing. c. Captain has been flying since approximately 1940. During the war he was a civilian flight instructor for approximately two and one-half years with the Navy. For the past fifteen and one half years he has been flying for American Airlines. He has approximately 20,000 hours of flying time. FOR THE COMMANDER: R. F. WERKMEISTER Major, USAF Administrative Officer 1 Atch Statement of
Document, cited by the archive. 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. 83 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.