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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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from yellow to bluish white, with their intensity varying from extreme brilliance to temporary fadeouts. Killian considered the possibility that the lights were trying to signal but could discern no pattern in the light changes. "Their motion also was unlike an airplane. Occasionally one of them would zoom straight ahead of me. Then it would drop back into position off my wing, apparently lagging as if to let me catch up. The airplane was flying a constant course and these movements were easily observed." Killian called his encounter "awe inspiring" and said he had never seen anything like that in the air before. AT FIRST there was no comment from the Air Force on Captain Killian's report. Then three days later, on February 28, the Air Force released a statement through the Air Technical Intelligence Center. The report stated that the airline crews had all been misled by the Belt of Orion. Glimpsed through broken clouds, said the AF report; Orion's stars created an illusion of fast-moving objects, deceiving the airline pilots." In support of this judgment, the Air Force declared that one of its transport planes flying from Washington to Dayton that same night had seen Orion through the broken clouds at 8.500 feet and could vouch for the illusion. COMMENT: Captain Killian pointed out, as did other observers at the same time, that the airplane was above the clouds and had about 100 miles visibility. In addition, it was frequently possible for the observers to see both the Belt of Orion and the UFO's at the same time. It seems unlikely that six airplane crews and all their passengers were befuddled. Killian later declared that "no experienced pilot is going to be deceived like that. We all see stars through cloud breaks thousands of times. In addition, the only clouds we had that night were 3,500 feet below us." An Air Force spokesman publicly ridiculed all "flying saucer" witnesses and sarcastically labeled some of them as persons who "can't remember anything when they sober up next day." This statement was quoted in the New York Herald Tribune. COMMENT. Captain Killian took particular exception to this statement, pointing out that the Air Force knows that airline pilots don't drink before flights—"it's one of our strictest rules." Donald Keyhoe, director of NICAP, declared that the Air Force spokesman's statement was "plainly meant to serve three purposes:
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