Project Blue Book documents on the Killian case, compiled by Dan Wilson

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

# GROUND OBSERVERS CONFIRM AIR REPORTS

Added confirmation came from ground observers. On the evening of February 24, 1959 the neighbors of Mrs. Roy Renner, of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, saw something in the sky which they did not understand and could not identify. Knowing of Mrs. Renner's interest in celestial phenomena they called to her. The Renners came out immediately and, with their neighbors, observed three mysterious lights. According to these witnesses, the lights were the approximate size of the North Star, moving from east to west. Mrs. Renner, employing binoculars, said that the lights appeared to be circular, and were of yellow-red coloring. After observing the objects for about three minutes, Mrs. Renner made a telephone call to the Director of the UFORC. He in turn reported the sighting to Akron Radio Station WAKR, and requested that anyone having seen the lights should contact the Committee. Several persons called in with verifying reports. Their signed statements are in UFORC files.

Mr. C. was one such observer. Mr. C.'s home is ten miles from the home of the Renners, and is located in the southern section of Akron. He noted that the objects were red and somewhat on the dim side. He stated that the sighting could not have been the constellation Orion because the stars of Orion could be seen simultaneously in another part of the sky.

Some persons phoning in had seen a prop-driven plane moving in the opposite direction from the sighting, in another part of Akron. However, this plane was not observed in other parts of the city, the explanation being that the airplanes coming from Cleveland-Hopkins Airport to the Akron Canton Airport travel from Northwest to Southeast and cross only certain sections of the city.

None of the ground observers reported hearing any sound. Neither did they see the airplane piloted by Captain Killian. According to estimates through triangulation, Killian's plane was about fifteen miles north of the unidentified lights, so that it would have been out of the sight and sound of ground observers at this time. (Captain Killian lost sight of the lights when he descended through a haze preparatory to landing at Detroit, Michigan.) When the lights were spotted from the ground at 9:15 P.M., they were evidently still pacing Captain Killian's plane enroute to Detroit to the northwest. Further confirmation of the direction, and consequently, that the airline pilots as well as observers on the ground were viewing the same objects, came from United Flight 937 reports. The pilot of this flight lost sight of the lights after they had cut in front of his plane which was heading west toward the Akron Canton Airport. The objects then veered toward the northwest and disappeared.

## RELEASE OF OFFICIAL EXPLANATIONS

For three days, the Air Force maintained silence concerning these reports. Then on the morning of February 28, it released to the press this official opinion of the Air Technical Intelligence Center: "Pilots may have been seeing stars instead of unidentified flying objects in a recent flurry of flying saucer reports.

The Air Force Technical Intelligence Agency at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Dayton, Ohio, gave the opinion that the crew of an Air Force transport, flying between Washington, D.C., and Dayton filed a report similar to the reports given by the crews of two commercial airliners. The Air Force transport was flying under a broken cloud overcast at about 8500 feet altitude. Experts of the Technical Intelligence Agency said that they believed the pilots may have sighted stars, especially the formation Orion."

It should be noted that the Air Force statement says the Air Force transport crew also made a report "similar" to those made by the crews of two commercial airliners. The Air Force, then, in essence, admits that their own men reported seeing three lighted objects