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.
“Norfolk”1 page
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
# FLYING SAUGER MYSTERY SOLVED July 12, 1947. The most impressive reports of the so-called flying saucers or discs were those from aviators who claim they saw disc-shaped objects flying through the air in various formations at high altitudes and at a high rate of speed. The first report was from an aviator who stated that these so-called flying discs had a somewhat shiny appearance and would fly in formation and change their position from time to time. Most reports stated that they appeared in the late afternoon or about dusk. Most all reports were to the effect that these objects had the appearance of an inverted disc or saucer, and some of them reported that they appeared to be rotating in their flight. The mystery of the flying saucers or discs may be solved by the use of a little applied science along with a few simple experiments. These flying discs or saucers can be observed by any motorist traveling along the highways when the sun is shining on most any afternoon or evening. During the daylight most of these so-called flying discs are reflections from the sun shining upon some bright object in or on the automobile driven by the observer. For instance, if you were driving in a north-westerly direction with the sun shining on the handle of the front or rear door on the left side of the car, you may notice a shiny object appear in the ventilation wing of the window on the drivers left, if it is opened to about a 450 angle.
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.