Documents / Official release
This Federal Bureau of Investigation file section (62-HQ-83894, Section 4) collects 1947 to 1949 correspondence on flying discs. It includes Portland police officers' accounts of a silvery object over the city on September 11, 1947, an Alaska pilot's July 1947 sighting near Bethel, citizen letters answered by J. Edgar Hoover, and a 1948 Air Defense Command directive on disc investigations. The FBI replied that it was conducting no flying disc investigations. Later items concern William Albert Rhodes's disc photographs and a Los Angeles letter judged a probable prank.
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 ',,. 80HF fBEli'fIAb Headquarter• Air Defense CoDnand Mitchel Air Force Base, New York 4 February 1948 D 333.5 (CIB) SUBJECTs Invutigation and Reporting of "Flying Disc" Incident• T01 Comnanding Generals, First, Seoond, Fourth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Fourteenth Air Foroes, Air Defense Command ATTNs AC of S, A•2 1. The numbered air forces of this command are responsible for the prompt investigation and reporting of inoidenta relating to "flying disos'' which occur within their respeotive areas. Numbered air force A•2s, after evaluating disc incidents, will detennine the extent of investigation. Futile expenditure of military funds and manpower must be avoided. 2. "Flying discs" will be investigated as provided for in Counter Intelli• genoe Incident Cases, taking cognizance of the USAF Operating Intelligence Echelon structure. Where it ia evident that witnesses, who were together at the time of incident but who are widely separated at the time of investigation would corroborate each other's story, only one witness need be interrogated. If there is a reasonable indication that a reported incident ia a hoax or the fabrication of a publioity seeking individual, no further investigative etfort will be expended. However, a report of such eiroumstances will be auanitted to the FBI offioe concerned. a. CIC personnel attached to the numbered air forces of this command may be utilized to prosecute the investigation of subject inoidents. b. Investigations will be coordinated with the FBI Office concerned in accordance with instructions contained in letter, thi• headquarters, D 333.3 EX, subjeot, "Cooperation of FBI with AAF on Investigation of •Flying Diao' Incidents," 3 September 1947. 3. Report• will be narrative in style and will cov$r only those faota pertinent to the subject. Where aouroe credibility cannot be eatabliahed, or when an incident lacks foundation, the report will merely atate aame. Two types of report will be subnitted on all inoidenta . a. Spot ~•ports (fragmentary reports) will be subnitted on all incidents and will be followed by a Letter Report. b. Letter Reports will be subnitted to report the completed inTeatigation of all "flying diso" incident•• 4. Reports will be aul:mitted in duplicate promptly, usually be regular mail. However, Spot reports on incidents of substantial character, 1. e., thoae in which the patent credibility of the witness is beyond challenge and whoa )eohnical fto,~1' ◄ I
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 214 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.