Documents / Official release
This 1949 War Department file 319.1, Flying Discs, is a set of U.S. Air Force Flight Service Center reports on unidentified flying objects sent to the Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson. The reports cover sightings over Kansas City and Olathe, Rome, Seattle, Greenville, Spokane, Medford, Columbus, Portland, Mountain Home, Jackson and Chanute AFB. Most remain unexplained, but the Greenville object was found to be a weather balloon. The file also holds a 1948 order telling units to report disc sightings.
From the source:Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: 1/9/50, N/A. This file primarily contains incident reports on Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) written in compliance with the 1948 Flight Service Regulation (FSR) 200-4. The incidents were witnessed by military sources, as well as by some Civilian Aviation Authority (CAA) ones. The reports typically include information such as dates, locations, weather, and altitude, plus detailed descriptions of appearance and movement. Some messages from the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) and Army Airways Communications System (AACS) are also included, as well as additional military intelligence reports, several diagrams, and a report from a weather station in Japan.
“Headquarters”23 pages
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# HEADQUARTERS 6TH WEATHER SQUADRON Albrook Air Force Base Canal Zone 322 17 February 1949 SUBJECT: Unidentified Aerial Objects Vicinity of San Andres Islands, Caribbean Sea TO: Commanding General Military Air Transport Service Washington 25, D. C. ATTENTION: AC/S, A-2 1. In accordance with Restricted letter, Headquarters, 2108th Air Weather Group, subject: Report on Information on "Flying Discs", dated 24 March 1948, the following report is submitted. 2. At 2030 hours on 8 February 1949, Captain McBride of the S. S. Antigua, A United Fruit vessel, berthed at Cristobal pier area, Canal Zone, was interviewed by Intelligence personnel, Caribbean Air Command, concerning three aerial objects sighted by officers of his ship on voyage to Canal Zone from New Orleans, Louisiana. 3. Captain McBride stated that the first object, which appeared to be a disc, was sighted at 1630 on 6 February 1949 at 12 degrees 30 minutes north latitude, 81 degrees 10 minutes west latitude, in the close vicinity of the San Andres Islands. The S. S. Antigua's course was 152 degrees at 16 knots. When sighted, the object was at an altitude of 60 degrees from the horizon as determined by the ship's sextant in the direction of 120 degrees. As it passes directly over the ship, several officers described it as a round, silver-colored sphere. Although McBride had difficulty in determining its height, he estimated the diameter as 12 to 14 inches. As it passed overhead, bearing 310 degrees, it changed color from silver to yellow to red and went out of sight in the dusk at an altitude of 22 degrees. The wind at the time was estimated at force four, approximately 29. 4. At 1700 on the same date two more objects were sighted, one off the port bow at an altitude between 50 and 60 degrees, and the other off the starboard bow bearing 201 degrees at an altitude of 47 degrees. Both disappeared abeam in the dusk. None showed any luminousity or motivating power. 5. The circumstances described suggest a possibility that these objects are some type of weather balloons. A study made by this headquarters of the prevailing winds at all altitudes during the period 4-6 February 1949 virtually eliminate any possibility of a radiosonde instrument being the object sighted. The only release point which might have
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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. 143 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.