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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.
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there was one around Toledo, Ohio, and another around Windsor, Canada. And both of them, when I brought it to their attention, had sighted the same three shining objects. And the other two admitted that the objects were higher than they were. One had been watching the lights for 10 to 15 minutes already, and a triangulation was done, and an estimate of 15 miles distance between me and the nearest object was made. The estimated size of the objects was about 300 feet. I then called Airway Traffic Control and asked them if they had a flight of any three planes on an airway traffic clearance, and there were none. I also tried to pick them up on my radar screen, but our radar is primarily for weather surveillance, and not for airplanes, so I did not get anything on my radar. "I personally was not contacted by the United States Government in regard to the sighting. However, we have a procedure with the airlines that when there are unknown sightings of any kind, we make a report for the company, which, in turn, reports this to the Government for immediate dissemination. I immediately called my company in Detroit, and Detroit itself gave it to the Government." (Editor's note: The procedure Captain Killian is referring to is known as CIRVIS - Communication Instruction for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sighting from Aircraft.) ## PASSENGER AND HOSTESSES VERIFY SIGHTING One of Captain Killian's passengers, Mr. N. D. Puscas, 41, of 30835 Barton, Garden City, Long Island, New York and General Manufacturing Manager of Curtis Wright Aircraft Company's New York Division, had this to say to the press: "The way he broke the news to us was very clever. No one panicked or showed any signs of worry. Everyone immediately began to show a keen interest in what was going on. He did a fine job. There wasn't a cloud in the sky when I looked out and saw the objects in precision formation. They were round-like, and every now and then one would glow bright er than the other as if it had moved nearer to the plane. I have been making that same trip a number of times because the home office is in New York, but I have never experienced an thing like that before. It might have been imagination, but when the object rose I thought I could see a little tail like an exhaust." The plane's hostesses, Mrs. LeGate, 22, of Welton, Arizona, and Miss Beverly Pingree, 25, Oakland, California, said respectively, "I don't know what they were. I'm a terrific science-fiction fan but . . . " and "I'm not a science-fiction fan, but I know what I saw." ---
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