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.
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FBI SEATTLE 8- 12- 47 ( ~05 PN PST KLS
:RECTOR AND SACS CHICAGO AND BUTTE ~ RGENT 1::· tr~
SIGHTED BY FR~ISMM! AND HAROLD ~L, TACotlA , ~N·: • ,
SM DASH X . REMYTEL AUGUST SEVEN LAST . EMIL ~ITH, UNITED A!RLIMES
PI~OT , INTERVIEWED RE ASSOCIATIONS ijITH HAROLD A, DAHL , FRED C4RISMAN
AND KENNET1~ARNOLD IN TACOMA , WN . , FROM JULY THIRTYONE TO AUGUST THIRD'
LAST . SMITH HAS RECEIVED PREVIOUS PUBLICITY FOR HAVINC SEEN FLYING
DISCS OR SIMILAR OBJECTS ON JULY FOURTH LAST IN CO~PANY WITH HIS CO
PILOT , RAL ~ EVEMS, DURING ROUTtiNE UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT OUT OF
BOISE , IDAHO . SMITH RELATES THAT HE WENT TO TAC0t1A , WN . , FRot,1 SEATTLE
ON THURSDAY , JULY THIRTYONE LAST IN RESPONSE TO TELEPHONE CALL FROM
KENNETH ARNOLD AT TACOtA . SMITH CLAir:s HE HAD PREVIOUSLY MET ARNOLD
ON TKO OCCASIONS , THE FIRST TIME ON JULY FIFTH LAST IN OFFICES OF
SEATTLE POST- INTELLIGENCER HHERE BOTH WERE INTERVIEWED RE FLYING
THEY HAD SEEN , ANO ON SECOND OCCASION IN BOISE , IDAHO, ABOUT .THREE
\-!EEKS AGO \.Jl.{ILE HE , SMITH , WAS PASSING THROUGH ON ROUTINE FLIGHT • m;
THIS LATTER OCCASION , ARNOLD iJAS HJ CO>IPANY OF CAPTAIN1 DA'VIDSQtJ
AND LIEUTENAITT DRGJ;TN, ARMY INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS , AND
\1J'"OMNSOM OF THE IDAHO STATESMAN NEWSPAPER . SMITH CLAH'S NO
ACQUAINTANCE WITH DAHL OR CHRISMAN . SMI1H RELATES THAT ON
JULy THIRTY ONE LAST IN TAC01,1A' WN . ' THE DAHL /\ND CHRIS;jAN ·sroRY' WHICH
BOTH HAVE SUBSEQUENTLY AD~ITTED TO BI FALSE WAS TOLD TO S~ITH~ARNOLD ,
CAPTAIN DAVIDSON , AND LIEUTENANT BROUN BY C1iRISMAN AND DAHL , SUBSEQUEST
TO T'HS INTERVIEW, CHRISMAN GAVE CAPTAIN DAVIDSON AND BRO\iN A BOX OF
FRAGMENTS WHICH THEY A~Yls TOO}( WI~H THEM ON
FATAL FLIGHT . SMITH STATES ...IlLA, ON !~•T)JiHMY·, :AliC.t!S1Z'F:J:.R~J LAS7,
1/ rllVEXEo :;~c,1...,.. - ~ .;;, a / 7-• O
,•'\/AFTER LEARNING or THE CRASH AMD DE(\ TH OF DAVIDSON AND BROUN , AR 1oLD
C!LLED RAYitflNi,;..PALMrn , EDITOR OF Tll~~TllnE PRESS IN EV1!8TON, IL:.INOIS
, ~ l
AND WAS TOLD BY PALMER TO DISCON~,Ni~ HIS INVESTIGATIO O THE DAHL-.
S!.. "MONEY 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.