Project Blue Book file, RB-47, July 17, 1957

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

Aircraft began turhing. ECM #2 picked up signal at 160 deg relative bearing. Utah regained scope contact. and aircraft comdr regained visual contact. At 1052Z ECM #2 had signal at 200 deg relative bearing, moving up his D/F scope. Aircraft began closing on object until the estimated range was 5 n. mi. At this time object appeared to drop to approximately 15.000 ft altitude. and aircraft comdr lost visual contact. Utah also lost object from scopes.

At 1055Z in the area of Mineral Wells, Texas, crew notified Utah they must depart for home station because of fuel supply. Crew queried Utah whether a CIRVIS Report had been submitted, and Utah replied the report had been transmitted. At 1057Z ECM=2 had signal at 300 deg relative bearing, but Utah had no scope contact. At 1058Z aircraft comdr regained visual contact of object approximately 20 n. mi. northwest of Ft. Worth, Texas, estimated altitude 20,000 ft at 2 o'clock from aircraft.

Case added further details on this portion of the events, stating that he requested and secured permission from Utah to dive on the object when it was at lower altitude. He did not recall the sudden descent that is specified in the contemporary account, and there are a number of other minor points in the Intelligence Report that were not recollected by any of the crew. He told me that when he dove from 35,000 ft to approximately 20,000 ft the object blinked out, disappeared from the Utah ground-radar scopes, and disappeared from the #2 monitor, all at the same time. McClure recalled that simultaneous disappearance, too. It should be mentioned that the occasional appearance of a second visual and radar-emitting source was not recalled by any of the officers when I interviewed them in 1969.

## Austin area Texas - Gwinnett Area

McCold recalled that, at about this stage of the activities, he was becoming a bit worried about excess fuel consumption resulting from use of maximum allowed power, plus a marked departure from the initial flight plan. He advised Chase that fuel limitations would necessitate a return to the home base at Forbes AFB, so they soon headed north from the Ft. Worth area (Point F). McClure and Chase recalled that the ALA-6 system again picked up a

. 3000 mes signal on their tail, once they were northbound from Ft. Worth, but there was some variance in their recollections as to whether the ground radar concurrently painted the object. McCold was unable to fill in any of these details. Fortunately the 1957 Intelligence Report summarized further events in this part of the flight, as they moved northward into Oklahoma:

At 1120Z aircraft took up heading for home station. This placed area of object off the tail of aircraft. ECM #2 continued to [get] D/F signal of object between 180 and 190 deg relative bearing until 1140Z, when aircraft was approximately abeam Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. At this time, signal faded rather abruptly. 55 SRW DOI [55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, Director of Intelligence] has no doubt the electronic D/F's coincided exactly with visual observations by aircraft comdr numerous times, thus indicating positively the object being the signal source.

It was Chase's recollection that the object was with them only into southern Oklahoma; Hanley recailed that it was with them all the way to Oklahoma City area (Point G); the others remembered only that it was there for some indefinite distance on the northbound leg between Ft. Worth and Topeka, their home base.

## Blue Book

The records indicate that Project Blue Book received summary information on this incident from ADC on Oct. 25, 1957 (over two months after occurrence of the event). A "Brief Summary" ends with the following paragraph:

In joint review with the CAA of the data from the incident, it was definitely established by the CAA that object observed in the vicinity of Dallas and Ft. Worth was an airliner.

This refers to a near-collision of two DC-6 American Airlines near Salt Flats, Texas, 30 mi. from Paso at 14,000 ft at 5:30 a.m. of this day. (See the map on page 68.) The case is now carried in the official Blue Book files as "Identified as American Airlines Flight 653."

Mason Street

On June 15. James C. MacDonald was found dead in the desert near Tucson, apparently a suicide. He was 51 years old. (See page 18)

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