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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…
# Saucers trail AIRLINER

Aug.

# By Curtis Fuller

# This amazing performance was witnessed by

39 persons on the plane for 45 minutes and 260 miles.

AT 7:10 p.m. on Wednesday, February 25. an American Airlines DC-6 airliner took off from Newark, N.J., nonstop for Detroit, Mich. Aboard were 35 passengers. At the controls were Capt. Peter Killian of Syosset, N.Y., an airline veteran of 15 years, and co-pilot John Dee of Nyack, N.Y. Stewardesses were Edna La Gate and Beverly Pingree.

After about an hour and a half in the air, the plane was cruising at 3,500 feet altitude between Philipsburg and Bradford, Pa. At 5:45 p.m. Killian looked off to the south where he saw three bright whitish lights in a single horizontal overhead.

"At first I thought it was the Belt of Orion (a group of stars in a constellation) but then I took a second look and saw both the Belt and the foreign objects," Killian later reported.

"When Dee caught the expression on my face he asked me if my eyes were tired. I then pointed in the direction of the 'things' and asked him if there were any lightning bugs in the cockpit.

"The objects were by no means close to the plane, but one would move in at intervals, fall back again, and change its place in the formation while keeping abreast of the ship."

Killian decided to let the pas-

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.