Documents / Official release
This FBI file, 62-HQ-83894 Sub A, collects newspaper clippings on flying saucers that the Bureau filed between 1947 and 1960. They include July 1947 reports of discs over Portland, Idaho, Seattle and Washington, and a Grand Blanc, Michigan pizza maker's complaint about his moon photograph. There are also clippings on Reinhold Schmidt's November 1957 space ship claim at Kearney, Nebraska, the Coast Guard cutter Sebago radar sighting, Carl Jung's 1958 remarks, and Captain Peter Killian's 1959 airliner sighting.
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.
• 0-19
J~ /. Tolson
j./ f" Ladd ~
Nicho~
,,, .. ·-FIVE-STATE WHATZIT
Well, It Sure Was
Some Ball of Fire
It has been pretty well established today that the "mass of
flaming, incandescent matel'ial" which flashed across the sky
over Washington and five eastern-states last night was a meteor,
a flying saucel' "as big as a washtub," or a mass of flaming, in
candescent material. ~!--------------
The Naval Observatory, the
Weather Bureau and observers at
National Airport lean toward the
meteor theory.
Scores of Washingtonians, who
saw it, leaned in all directions.
Police remained stolidJy upright,
and the FBI had no comment.
HOW IT LOOKED
But citizens here, in Maryland,
Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsyl
vania and Ohio couldn't be silenced.
They said:
• "Suddenly this thing came
swooping down from the eastern
skies. It looked like it was right
. above the housetops. It was a ball
o! bright greenish fire with a long
tail." (T his was a housewife).
• "I thought it was a flying
saucer. I thought it \vas a flare a t
first-that is, I thought it was a
flare until the darned thing swooped
down- and then up again. It seemed
to follow the contours of the road.''
(Army veteran).
• "It looked at first look like a
P,lane on fire, it was that big. It
was sun-colored with a tail." (Sub
urbanite.)
• Shaped like a sta1· "about as big
as the inside of a tennis raclcet."
{12-year-oJd boy.)
SHOCICING
Four Frederick farmers saw "a
ball shooting across the horizon."
Near Washington, three United
Press correspondents said it was like
this:
• "A rocket with a fiery tall ...
It shocked us, it lool<ed so close."
(Frank Eleazer.)
• "A big magnesium f lare . . . It
gave off sparks." (Robe1·t Loftus.)
• It plunged out ot the sky "very
fast," like a plane shot down in the
war. It was trailing a tail of
flame."- (John A. Goldsmith.)
George Lincoln, of 756 S. Green
brier-st, Arlington, saw something
"about as big as a wash tub. I was
sure it was going to crash, some
place," he said.
A Maryland state trooper, sitting
out his lonely vigil atop Negro
Mountain in far Western Maryland,
said "it" passed over him, too.
I-=N<YI' '
f SEP 19 1952
Belmo~ ~
Clegg ~~ t
Glavin _ _ _
Harbo ____
Rosen ___ _
Tracy ___ _
Laughlin __
Mohr ____
Winterrowd __
Tele. Rm. _ _
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Times-Herald
-Wash. Post
Wash. News
-Wash. Star
N.Y.. 1:Ierald Tribune _ _
N.Y. Mirror
N.Y. Compass
I Date : Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 124 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.