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

NICAP · 83 pages · text by OCR

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.

  • p. 3 …that Captain states in his report that he has never witnessed a night refueling operation . Yet
  • p. 12 MEMO ROUTING SLIP NEVER USE FOR APPROVALS, DISAPPROVALS, OR RECURRENCE, OR SIMILAR ACTIONS 1. NAME OR…
  • p. 20 …could be a jet tanker refueling operation. Never having witnessed refueling operation at night, I am…
  • p. 33 …could be a jet tanker refueling operation. Never having witnessed refueling operations at night, I am…
  • p. 36 …Airlines, quoting Captain saying that he had never seen jet refuelling operations at night and that…
  • p. 39 …planes for 15 years, said, "I have never seen anything like it before." Killian said other…
  • p. 40 …said never seen anything before." man said other members crew and the 35 passengers saw the…
  • p. 45 …all my period of flying, I have never in my life seen anything even remotely resembling…
  • p. 46 …I thought - well, there must be something to it, but what, I was never sure. These…
  • p. 47 …is in New York, but I have never experienced an thing like that before. It might…
  • p. 52 …since 1929 and who states he has never seen anything like this before, is not likely…
  • p. 58 …the situation by ATIC later declassified but never released, stating that the flying saucers were interplanetary…
  • p. 59 …of Intelligence investigations of UFOs: "It will never be possible to say with certainty that any…
  • p. 62 …could be a jet tanker refueling operation. Never having witnessed refueling operation at night. I am…
  • p. 66 …This man had been a civilian pilot for five and he said that he had never…
  • p. 69 …is in New York but I have never experienced anything like that before." WHEN Killian first…
  • p. 72 …He told the Detroit Times, "I never attached any importance to the fact that they may…
  • p. 73 …encounter "awe inspiring" and said he had never seen anything like that in the air before…
  • p. 80 …at night. (Original statement to American Airlines: "Never having witnessed refueling operations at night, I am…
  • p. 82 …could be a jet-tanker refueling operation. Never having witnessed refueling operations at night, I am…
December 27, 1949

Air Force Press Release: "The Air Force has discontinued its special project of investigating and evaluating reported flying saucers. The reports are the result of misinterpretation of various conventional objects, a mild form of mass hysteria, and hoaxes, and continuance of the project is unwarranted."

## December 29, 1949

Declassified Air Force secret summaries of Intelligence investigations of UFOs: "It will never be possible to say with certainty that any individual did not see a space ship, an enemy missile, or some other object." Discussing the motives of possible visitors from space, the Intelligence report also stated: "Such a civilization might observe that on earth we now have atomic bombs and are fast developing rockets. In view of the past history of mankind, they should be alarmed. We should therefore expect at this time above all to behold such visitations."

## February 22, 1950

Air Force Headquarters statement after a Navy visual and radar tracking report of two UFOs at Key West Naval Air Station: "There is absolutely no evidence that flying saucers exist."

## March 22, 1950

Air Force statement after the published flying saucer report by Commander (now Captain) R. B. McLaughlin, U.S.N., then officer in charge of Navy guided missile tests at White Sands Proving Grounds. This report, cleared by Security and Review at the Pentagon, described several UFO sightings at White Sands, including the report of an elliptical object over 100 feet long tracked at 18,000 miles per hour at an altitude of 56 miles. Air Force comment when queried about this Navy report: We have no evidence that the flying saucers are other than hallucinations, hoaxes, and errors in identification.

## January and February, 1951

Air Force statements: "We have no evidence that such objects exist; In general, such reports are hallucinations, mistakes, hoaxes or natural phenomena."

## June 24, 1951

Air Force statement given to Look magazine by an ATIC colonel: "These reports come from sincere people; they are not crackpots. They are seeing something: we have to find out what."

From this date on the Air Force has consistently clouded pertinent UFO information to such an extent that legislative bodies as well as the public in general are still confused.

It is easily seen how the Air Force has obscured the real UFO issue by throwing first hot and then cold water on the subject. Is it any wonder the public is now faced with a "controversial subject"?

It is either a case of deliberately confusing the public or that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing The Air Force found itself struggling with the problem of wha to tell the public after the tremendous surge in sightings by highly trained observers. It could either reveal its evidence that the UFO's were real, and probably interplanetary, or it could brush off the reports as being worthless. The latter policy was chosen and it remains in force to this day. Why?

In twelve years the Air Force has been attacked and charged many times with "cover up "misleading statements", "censorship". and "criminal negligence" in dealing with UFO's. Isn't it time this situation came to a focus?

About this file

Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 83 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.