Documents / Memo
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum to the Director of Central Intelligence, dated 31 October 1955, was signed by Herbert Scoville, Jr., Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence. It summarizes debriefings of four observers, including Senator Russell and Colonel Hathaway. From a train traveling from Baku to Tiflis, near Alyaty, they saw glowing, rotating objects rise steeply. The memo finds that only Colonel Hathaway's testimony supports unconventional aircraft and that the evidence does not show the Soviets have a radically new aircraft type.
From the source:Release of 2026-07-10 Incident: 1955, Azerbaijan. This memorandum summarizes a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) debriefing of a group of four individuals who reported observing a “flying saucer” or “unconventional aircraft” in 1955. The group, which included U.S. Senator Richard Russell, a U.S. military service member, and two U.S. Government officials, reported observing a luminescent “greenish-yellow” phenomenon, as seen from aboard a train while traveling within the Soviet Union, in present-day Azerbaijan, between Baku and Tiflis (Tbilisi, Georgia). The document concludes by stating that the observation can “probably be explained as steep climbing aircraft or missiles,” and that “the evidence does not appear sufficiently firm to warrant the conclusion that the Soviets have developed […] a radically new type of aircraft.” The document “CIA-UAP-D021” contains a contemporary analysis of the incident.
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SUBJECT: Bightings of Flying Cancers or Unconventional Aircraft observations can probably be explained as steep climbing aircraft or missiles. Further discussions will probably be required before the matter can be completely resolved. In the meantime, however, the evidence does not appear sufficiently firm to warrant the conclusion that the Soviets have developed and have in operation a radically new type of aircraft. BRENT SCOVILLE, JR. Assistant Director Scientific Intelligence OSI:HScoville:gs (31 October 1955) Distribution Orig & 1 - fwd 1 - DD/I 1 - OCI 1 - ASD/SI 1 - GM/SI 2 - AD/SI Copy of
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Memo, from the pursue collection. 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. 3 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.