Documents / Official release
This FBI file serial collects 1947 Army Air Forces reports on flying disc sightings. It includes Air Defense Command interviews from September 1947 with Pan American pilot Alpheus Powell and navigator Walter White about orange objects seen near Boston on 4 August 1947. It also holds a Birmingham, Alabama report with a photograph, newspaper clippings and a sergeant's sworn statement, Newfoundland and Alaska sighting reports, notes on an instrument found in Illinois, and a Weather Bureau memo on a metallic disk.
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.
“Headquarters”18 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
After having been advised of my rights and privileges under the 26th Article of War, I, JAMES H. NORNISTON, Captain, Air Corps, O=667517 Second Air Transport Wing (Provisional), Fairfield-Suisean Army Air Base, Fairfield, California, do hereby make this voluntary statement to Captain William J. Fragier, Jr., and Sgt. Tommy Stemart, whom I know to be members of the Intelligence Office. I make the following statement of my own free will, not under duress, promise of reward or imminity: On Sunday, July the sixth, at Fairfield-Suiseun Army Air Base, while in the company of my wife, Mrs. James H. Burniston, I saw an object traveling from northwest to southeast at an estimated height of 10,000 feet or above at an excessive rate of speed estimated to be faster than any type of aircraft seen by me flown at that approximate altitude. This object was in sight for approximately sixty seconds, during which time it traveled approximately three-quarters the distance of the visible sky. No shape or definite color could be distinguished, the object rolled from side to side three times in its path across the sky. At one time the top of the object could be seen, when the sun reflected strongly from its surface in a flash; and at other times the bottom of the object could be seen, with no reflection from the sun. The estimated size at that height could be compared to that of an aircraft of the type C-54. Between viewing the top of the object and what appeared to be the bottom, there was a period when it was hard to see, or it would almost disappear. as far as shape is concerned, there was no way of recognizing shape, due to the speed of the object and its motion through the air. Sight of this object was lost when it disappeared at an angle of about thirty degrees above the earth's surface. I cannot attribute any sound to this object, because of the noise of a distant aircraft engines. The approximate time was verified by my wife as being less than one minute, during which time it was in sight. As to the identity of this object, it was not the shape of any type aircraft known to the undersigned. There was no shape of wings or fuselage. The object was noticed at first by the sun's reflowing off its surface and then the speed at which it was traveling. James H. Burniston Captain, Air Corps Received AFB1R-CD 23 July 147
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 126 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.