Documents / Report
This declassified U.S. Air Force compilation of unidentified flying object incidents 101 to 172 contains check-list reports from 1948 and 1945. Incident 101 covers the 18 February 1948 sky explosion over Norcatur, Kansas, with letters from Norman G. Markham suggesting a lunar spacecraft, Dr. Lincoln LaPaz's reply judging it a genuine meteorite fall, and witness statements. The final incident, 172, records George F. Gorman's 27 minute F-51 pursuit of a white light over Fargo on 1 October 1948, corroborated by tower controllers and Dr. Cannon.
From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 Includes a "Check-List - Unidentified Flying Objects" that contains details about the incident. Many summaries also include witness lists or statements and other narrative reports or descriptions.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
# Atlanta, Ga. Aug 3, 1948 Mr. S. L. Shannon Eastern Air Lines Miami, Fla. The following is a report of an unidentified aircraft which was sighted by John Whitted and me, as we were twenty miles southwest of Montgomery, Ala. July 24, 1948, as we were on Eastern's trip 576. At 2:45 A.M. we were cruising at 5,000 feet when there came, what looked like a Jet type of aircraft to our right and slightly above meeting us. It was a clear moonlight night with the visibility excellent; therefore, we were able to view the ship as it passed for a period of around ten seconds. It was clear there were no wings present, that it was powered by some jet or other type of power shooting flame from the rear some fifty feet. There were two rows of windows, which indicated an upper and lower deck, from inside these windows a very bright light was glowing. Underneath the ship there was a blue glow of light. After it passed it pulled up into some light broken clouds and was lost from view. There was no prop wash or rough air felt as it passed. After talking to the only passenger awake at the time, he saw only the trail of fire as it passed and pulled into the clouds. I called the company at Columbus and asked if there was any reported jet army craft and requested if the ATC had any aircraft under control. I was told that no such craft was reported by either source. /s/ C. S. Chiles C. S. Chiles Capt E. A. L.
Report, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 210 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.