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.
Report Number Manner of Disappearance Remarks 1 Climbed very fast and out of sight No definite shape could be determined and even with the aid of 4 to 6 power binoculars object could not be brought into focus 2 3 Obscured by a cloud bank From letter this observer wrote, it is obvious he is a well-educated person. Seeks no publicity. 4 5 Lost in brilliancy of the moon Observers (2 rated, 2 air intell.) phoned Field Ops to ascertain no scheduled experimental a/c were in vicinity. Sky chart attached to reel 6 Cannot explain, except that reflection angle may have changed abruptly Observer is Admin. Asst. in the Rochet Sonde Sect. of NRL. Two other "scientists", and wife of one, were in party and made same observation 7 8 Don't know whether they put on a tremendous burst of speed, or disintegrated. However, they did disappear into sunset Observers were Pilot, Co-Pilot, of scheduled UAL DC-3. Stewardess also saw objects. Suggest reading of very detailed statements. 9 Unexplained When first sighting object near horizon, observer looked at chart in his lap to check position. When he looked out window again, object was off his left wing at 11 o'clock 10 Disappeared at an angle of about 30° above the earth's surface Rolled from side to side 3 times in its path across the sky. Sun reflected from top side, but never from underside, even when turning 11 Unexplained None 12 Unexplained None 13 Pilot (at 300MPH) attempted to keep object in sight, but unable to do so Observer contacted bases in area we reported no a/c in air at time 14 Unexplained First 4 discs flying line-a-trail 15 Unexplained Seemed to cut clouds open as it passed thru. Trail was like beam seen after a high-powered landing light is switched off. 16 Not stated Object was observed paralleling the course of a C-47 then landing.
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.