Documents / Official release
This FBI file section (62-HQ-83894, Section 2) collects 1947 Bureau memoranda, teletypes and enclosures on reported flying discs. It includes a Newark interview report on a disc seen at Hackensack, New Jersey on August 3, a Detroit report on fused sand from Midland, Michigan, and War Department requests to investigate Richard F. Shaver of Lily Lake, Illinois after sightings over southern Wisconsin. It also covers Army Air Forces investigation reports and a Delaware pilot's claimed rocket-like sightings near Rehoboth Beach.
From the source: Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: N/A, N/A. The FBI's 62-HQ-83894 case file includes investigative records, eyewitness testimonies, and public reports concerning Unidentified Flying Objects and flying discs documented between June 1947 and July 1968. The records include high-profile incident accounts, photographic evidence from sites like Oak Ridge, TN, and technical proposals regarding potential propulsion systems. Additional topics include convention programs, researcher accounts, and extensive media coverage from the period. This file is partially posted on FBI vault with more redactions and some pages missing. Included here is the complete case file with several newly declassified pages and only minor redactions.
: .... • .... ' I ., •I .,. August a, 1947 FLYmG 'DISCS Ini'o:nnation was received fl-om the n>w Chemical Company, lfidlona, Michigan, that on July 10, 194?, one ~m:md »3:ward Lane, an ~loyce of'. Dow Chem.cal Company since about 1922., brouetit some mater~ to theu J'hy:sics laboratory. He stated that about 5 :15 p . m. , July 9, he and h1.s wife, Leura, were l'ralking in a !ield. when they heard a pll.ff noise about one hundred feet e:vrgy. ThEU turned and saw n ball of -white about the size of a b.lshel basket blming appr(>ximate'.cy a foot ott of the fll'OU.lld. The fire died out immediately and 'later Lane scooped up a three inch areu of l\iaod eand into a can tor examination at -their labora1:,<>u. Upan irtterv:Lew t,y FBI Aeents, ~nd told subetantio;Lly the sam.a story, blt lira. Lane was reluctant to talk and rveey indefin1te o.bou.t what hnppcned. There were marked discrepancies in thoir stories. Lbw authorities oonsidered the .story- tantastic but have exailltned the mateial and state contents ares ordinary ~and, not radio active, rut ,gt'Ving orr amm:>nia caoJ a StlalJ. silver nugget nlir.ost pure excep1;, for sand m.xcd in it, not radio active; molted or fused eand "ffllioh gives off ru:imonia odor and little droplets of silver melted in sand and soI!le gr~sh color caterial which is radio active . The level of radio activity 1n this znaterinl is ext.rei:iely· low. An emplczy-ee of Dow, formerly employ,ed by the Oovern.men.t at Los Alanxls Project, stated tho fused B£Uld luus some characteristics of Los Alnnx:,s sand but he does not believe it 1o the same. Raym:,nd Lane ia lmom to have in his possesSion a ~ quantity of luJiilnouo pa1nt, radio active, to be an llr.lateur photographer and to have a limited knowledge of chem!.ctry and ,Ph;;lfaics, He io described na very peculiar, aurl~•, antagonistic to plant protection o.rticars and interested 'ill photography and olectric1ty. Lane ie rrhito, wns b::>ni ~ 7, 1902, at Freesoil, W.ohigan. 9½11 He is 5 ' , weighs 145 pounds, has dark brown he.:l.r:, porlly bald, served in the U,6 . Ar.:qr trow 1918 to 1923. He was arrested for hlrglary in :Midland County, W.chigan, in 1924, for which ho served a sixty day sentence. Noithc:r Rnyllt)nd Lane nor hts wife w.l.11 admit their story is a prank. "" 0 ver , neither ai.·e able to point out tho exact location of thts incidsit, The -ArJSU Airforce Intelligence at Solf'ridge Field, Ui.ohigan, has been ed and the material has been turned over to them. RGF:mae ~ ·' fiJ
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 194 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.