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.
“Socorro, New Mexico”1 page
.. On December 7, 1948 •• went out J.n Mr. tfA'l'HAlf SNITH'• car and ploked up h1a wife and left hia hoae in South Pasadena about 11 A. M. We drove out to an airport where hia plane was about rorty a1lea trom Pasadena DN he was having the plane repaired. He wanted to be aure the plane was on a truck betore we left for the destination where the di•c •••. Iri aaking thia trip, we proceeded out by a race track and ~•••done ot the Kaiser ateel works and the Virginia Dare Wine Orchard. I would say we went directly north or northeast tr,om Pasadena, ca11rom.1a. We droTe through a town called Matonia (phonetic) and tollowed a roaa through •o•e mountaina and through. a ••11 de1ert. I would eatiute the di•tance trom Pasadena to where the d1ac ••• tound to be about 150 mllea. The terrain 1n wh1oh the diac waa tound could be described •• tlat,deaert. and de■ olate. t would like to •~lain that Jlr. PERSON haa private ~pert,- (an airport which he purcba••d rrom the govemaent) right by the location or the d1ac. Mr. PER.SOR thought the di•c might have been launched tro11 hie ail'J)ort. but whether that ••• it or not - •• don• t know. Nr. PERSON 1a1d he usually tlew at an altitude or about 8,000 te•t and, or course, he tlew lower 1n ao• apaced. He did not mention hia altitude at the t1M he tlrat eaw the diac . 'lbe disc waa located preot1ca117 Juat outa1de his pros:,erty and •• were going north, •o it would be eaat or hia property. He has about 900 acres. When •• arr1ved at Mr. ,PERSON' • propert7, •• aaw the d1ac, or .flying wing, and it n■ on th• ground 1n a aeJll1-vert1cal poe1t1on, approxiJnately a 45 de~• arigle, With the le:t"t wing babedltd in the gr9und. In loold.J:tg at the ground, it appeared that the obJect had hit the earth with cona1derable force and had slid 300 to 400 feet. It wa• dent•d but was generally intact. I th1illc the picture, I took with a Revere 8 - camera quite well ahow th• tom, shape and size or the "wing." I am 5 ' 7" tall and 1n atand1ng next to the object when it was in an upright poaition, 1t wae alightl7 higher than my height. I would ••7 it waa rollgbly seven feet in diameter, b•f ore crashing. On each e1de or the obJect there were w1rma approxillately t~ur feet b7 twent7 inches and three 1nohes thick with an axle that protruded through the dlac and 1.J\to the wing■• It waa aounted on ball bear1nge which the diac rotated on. 2
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.