Documents / Official release
This section of the FBI's 1947 flying disc file (62-HQ-83894) collects correspondence between FBI field offices and Army Air Forces intelligence. It includes a Portland prospector's claim to have seen disc objects near Mount Adams on June 24, 1947, an Air Force report on the August 1 crash near Kelso, Washington that killed investigators Davidson and Brown, and the Maury Island claims of Dahl and Crisman. Other items are an MIT analysis of cast iron fragments from New Hampshire, the A. C. Urie Twin Falls sighting, and the Bureau's decision to stop its disc investigations.
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.
“Cooper”5 pages
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! llttal Bur:au ol lnuestigation .
Bnit.eh itate.G :il.epartm.ent nf .ih.utic..e
422 - Federal Office Building, Civic Center \ ),.J.S...,_..
San Francisco 2, CaliforniaIN REPLY, PLEASE REFER TO
September 19, 1947
P'lLE NO.-- - ---
r' L .JDireotor. FBI
Attention: Assistant Director D. M. LADD
0
RE s ,REPORTS OF FLYING DISCS
~• Dear Sir:- ~
I am transmitting herewith copies of a '\-estricted" letter da
September 3, 19471 which was furnished to me by Lieutenant Colonel DON
L. SPRINGER, A-2, Army Air Forces, Hamilton Field, California~ which letter
is designated to certain Commanding Generals in the Army Air Forces from
Colonel R.H. SMITH, Assistant Chief of Staff - Intelligence, Headquarters
Air Defense Command, Mitchel Field, New York, concerning "Cooperation of FBI
with AAF on Investigations of 'Flying Disc• Incidents".
It is my understanding from recent Bureau instructions that we are
to assist the Air Force Intelligence personnel in the investigation of flying
disc incidents. However, it will be noted from the attached letter that it
is Army interpretation that it was their intent that the Bureau would investi-
gate those incidents of the so-oall ed "discs" being found on the ground and
apparently not those which are observed only in flight. Further, the atten•
tion of the Bureau is respectfully called to paragraph two of this letter
and to the last sentence therein which states, "The services of tp.e .EB~ were
enlisted in order to reli eve the numbered Air Forces of the task of tracking
d~ all the iiiiiiy urstances whioh turned out to be ash can covers, toilet
seats and whatnot. "
In the first place, the instructions issued by the ArJJiy Air Forces
in this letter appear to limi t the type of investigations which the Bureau
will be asked to handle and secondly it appears to me the wording of the last
sentence in the second paragraph mentioned above is cloaked in entirel y
uncalle~ .for language t ending to indicate the Bureau will be asked to con?uo~~
inve~t~gations only in those oases which are not important and which are //YU •
- almost, in fact, ridiculous. ~
The thought has occurred to me the Bureau ~ight desire to discuss Jthis matter f'urther with the Army Air FQrces both as to the types of investi
gations which we will conduct and also to object to the scurrilous wordage
which, to say the least, is insulting to the Bureau in the last sentence of
paragraph two. / 'J G L~4 J / .elilco~nEJn lt~:l:....l 'i~LI.~- /#{
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5 u uCl 2 2, 1J47 rv Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 190 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.