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.
# RESTRICTED CONFIDENTIAL Interrogation of John E. Woodruff (Cont'd) Q. What kind of a break did it make in the clouds? A. It cut a straight path right through the cloud. Q. Did it leave a trail? Q. Did it leave a trail? A. Yes, it left a trail dark blueish in color similar to a high power light. The trail was from approximately fifteen (15) to twenty (20) miles long. Q. Have you ever seen a meteor? A. Yes. Q. Do you think this was a meteor? A. No, I don't think so, it was cut too clean. This was as straight as an arrow. Q. What was the course of the object? A. Well, looking at the map I'd say North North East. Q. Have you been working around airplanes long enough to know the size of an aircraft and the height from a distance? A. Yes. Q. Fow long have you been working around aircraft? A. Seven (7) years. Q. Were you in the Army during the time of the War? A. No. Q. Did you take any pictures? A. No, I did not, but one of the boys took some. Q. Do you think the pictures will show up? A. Yes, it was an ideal day for pictures. John E Wooden JOHN E. WOODHUFF Chief Mechanic Pan American Airways Sworn and subscribed to before me this 17 day of July 1947. CONFIDENTIAL S. E. HINSON, JR Captain, Air Corps Adjutant
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.