Documents / Official release

Washington State ‘UFO’ Investigation, 1952-1960

Federal Bureau of Investigation · 1952 · 55 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This Federal Bureau of Investigation Seattle field office file (100-18945) gathers flying saucer material from 1952 to 1960. It holds newspaper clippings, citizen complaint forms and agent memoranda about sightings over Pasco, Kennewick, Seattle, Richland and the Hanford reservation, Spokane and other Washington locations. The file records 1952 agreements with military intelligence on passing reports to OSI and the Air Force. One Hanford sighting from 1953 was attributed to a meteorological balloon. The FBI itself carried out no investigations.

From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 Incident: July 1952-1960, Washington State, United States. This file details an investigation of various sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) in Washington state between July 1952 and August 1960. This file includes memoranda and correspondence between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Air Force regarding UFO sightings.

  • p. 2 …I never have seen the like of it before." SERIALIZED FILED JUL 30 1952 FBI - SEATTLE…
  • p. 3 …Basin News Pasco, Washington 100-19550 SEARCHED INDEXED SERIALIZED FILED JUL 3 1 1952 FBI • SEATTLE
  • p. 4 …47-2061 共83 SEARCHED INDEXED SERIALIZED FILED AUG 14 1952 FBI - SEATTLE
  • p. 10 …100-18945-44 SEARCHED INDEXED SERIALIZED FILED FEB 27 1953 FBI - SEATTLE
  • p. 14 …WHERE SHOWN OTHERWISE 45 100-18945-43 SEARCHED INDEXED SERIALIZED FILED G·4 1953 FBI·SEATTLE
  • p. 16 …Flying Saucer file SEARCHED INDEXED SERIALIZED FILED AUG 4 1953 FBI·SEATTLE
  • p. 26 …180-18945-54 SEARCHED INDEXED SERIALIZED FILED: JUN 18 1954 FBI
  • p. 27 …SERIALIZED FILED...
  • p. 29 …WHERE SHOWN OTHERWISE 100-18945.56a x SEARCHED INDEXED SERIALIZED FILED JUN 9 1954 FBI - SEATTLE
  • p. 30 …Letter on this 18945-57 100-18495 SEARCHED INDEXED SERIALIZED FILED JUN 28 1954 FBI - SEATTLE…
  • p. 31 …18945 CONFIDENTIAL 10018945-5808 SEARCHED INDEXED SERIALIZED FILED JUN 25 1954 FBI - SEATTLE
  • p. 34 …SEARCHED INDEXED SERIALIZED FILED JUN 21 1954 FBI - SEATTLE
  • p. 35 …the above for our information. SEARCHED... INDEXED. SERIALIZED... FILED... JUN 21 1954 FBI - SEATTLE Special Agent
  • p. 42 …EXCEPT WHERE SHOWN OTHERWISE 100-18945-65 SEARCHED INDEXED SERIALIZED FILED OCT. 1 1956 FBI·SEATTLE
  • p. 55 …SERIALIZED...FILED AUG 19 1960 FBI - SEATTLE

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2. Any report of a flying saucer or similar matter received from a complainant by the FBI would be disseminated to all intelligence agencies if the report was an immediate one, that is the sighting had just been received and it appeared to be a matter that the other agencies would not know about. It was agreed, however, that if it was a sighting that had occurred some time before, that all that was necessary was for a letter to be written to the OSI for their referral to Air Force Intelligence.

## PARACHUTE LANDINGS

There was a general discussion concerning parachute landings and it appeared to be the consensus of those present that the most important thing to determine on a parachute landing was if it came from an unidentified plane. This can only be determined through a check with Air Force Intelligence through OSI. It was suggested, therefore, that OSI maintain a liaison with Air Force Intelligence at McChord Field, who received reports of incidents such as unidentified planes, parachutes, etc. from the Civil Air Patrol, Civilian Defense Air Watchers, etc., so that if a parachute report was received from Air Force Intelligence as coming from an identified plane that the information could be immediately disseminated to all intelligence agencies. There was some discussion about the recent incident of a parachute landing which occurred in the vicinity of Walla Walla, Washington, where there was approximately a ten-hour delay before the information was received from OSI, McChord.

As concerns submarine sightings, it appeared that all agencies desired to be notified immediately of sightings of submarines that were not identified as friendly. It also appeared that Major Bosse, Regional Office No. 3, was most anxious to receive any kind of report, whether it be flashing lights, flying discs, etc. immediately for referral to his headquarters.

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About this file

Official release, 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. 55 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.