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
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IN REPLY
REFER TO:
HEADQUARTERS AIR DEFENSE COMMAND MITCHEL FIELD, NEW YORK
15 September 1947
SUBJECT: Unidentified Flying Objects (Interview - Walter I. White)
SUMMARY OF INFORMATION:
The following information relative to the sighting of a possible flying disc 4 August 1947, was received 10 September 1947 from Mr. Walter I. White, 19-57 79th Street, Jackson Heights, New York.
On 4 August 1947, Mr. White, Pan American Airways Inc., was the navigator of a Constellation type aircraft on a flight from Gander, Newfoundland to La Guardia Field, New York. At 1600, at a position approximately 10 miles NW of Boston, Mass., Mr. White sighted a flying object which he was unable to identify. At this time Mr. White was sitting in the copilot's seat, and looking out the right side for other aircraft that might be in the vicinity. Mr. White stated that when he first sighted the object, it appeared to be about 5 miles away, and at least 1,000 feet below the level of the Constellation. Mr. White believes that he studied the object for almost 30 seconds before he called the pilot's attention to it. Mr. White described the object as being a deep gold in color, and that its' surface reflected light. It appeared to be about 15 feet in length, and from 2-5 feet in depth; elliptical in shape and blunted at the ends. Mr. White estimated the speed of the object as being 175 miles per hour, and that it was travelling in an east-erly direction, on a course of approximately $110^{\circ}$ magnetic. Mr. White then told the aircraft commander that there was an unidentified object to the right, and again glanced out to observe the object, catching a momentary glimpse of it before the pilot banked the plane to the left. When the aircraft banked Mr. White lost sight of the object. At this point, Mr. Powell, the aircraft Captain, exclaimed that he was able to see a similar object on his side. Mr. White was unable to see the object on Mr. Powell's side. He stated that he does not believe that it was the same object that he had viewed inasmuch as the one he saw if it had remained on the same course would have been hidden from view by that time by the wings and tail section of the Constellation. Mr. White stated that the pilot then righted the plane. The entire incident transpired in less than a minute and one-half.
Mr White describes the weather condition at the time of sightings as follows: about 5/10th scattered cumulus, with tops at 10,000 feet; visibility 10 miles; wind at flight level. West at about 15 mph. The flight level of the aircraft at this time was 8,000 feet, TAS 270, and the magnetic course was SW.
AGENTS NOTES: Mr Walter I. White has been employed by Pan American Airways for the past five years as a Navigator, and during the war worked with PAA 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.