Symposium on unidentified flying objects: hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninetieth Congress, second session, July 29, 1968.

42
smith
emphasized
to
me
that
there
were
no
cloud
phenomena
to
confuse
them
here
and
that
they
observed
these
objects
long
enough
to
be
quite
certain
that
they
were
no
conventional
aircraft.
They
appeared
"flat
on
the bottom,
rounded
on
top",
he
told
me,
and
he added
that
there
seemed
to
be
perceptible
"roughness"of
some
sort
on
top,
though
he
could
not
refine
that
description.
Almost
imme-
diately after
they
lost
sight
of the
first
five,
a
second
formation
of
four
(threein
line
and a
fourth
off
to
the
side)
moved
in
ahead
of
their
position,
again
travelling
westward
but
at
a
somewhat
higher
altitude
than
the
DC
-3's
8000
ft.
These
passed
quickly
out
of
sight
to
the
west
at
speeds
which
they
felt
were
far
beyond
then
-known
speeds.
Smith
emphasized
that they
were
never
certain
of
sizes
and
distances,
but
that they
had
the
general
impression that
these
dies
-like
craft
were
appreciably
larger
than
ordinary
aircraft.
Smith
emphasized
that
he
had
not taken
seriously
the previous
week's
news
accounts that
coined
the
since
-
persistent
term,
"flying
saucer."
But,
after
seeing
this
total
of
nine unconventional,
high-speed
wingless
craft
on
the evening
of 7/4/47,
he became
much
more
interested
in
the
matter.
Nevertheless, in talking
with
me,
he
stressed
that
he
would
not
speculate
on
their
real
nature or
origin.
I
have
spoken
with United
Air Lines
personnel
who
have
known
Smith
for years
and
vouch
for
his
complete
reliability.
Discussion.—The
7/4/47 United Air
Lines
sighting
is
of
historic
interest
be-
cause
it
was
obviously
given
much
more
credence
than
any
of the
other
85
UFO
reports published in press
accounts
on
July
4,
1947
(see
Ref.
8).
By
no means
the
most
impressive
UFO
sighting
by
an
airliner
crew,
nevertheless,
it
is
a
significant
one.
It
occurred
in
clear
weather,
spanned
a
total
time
estimated
at
10-12
minutes,
was
a
multiple-witness
case
including
two
experienced observers
familiar
with
airborne
devices,
and
was made
over
a
1000
-ft.
altitude
range(climb
-out)
that,
taken
together
with the fact that the nine
objects
were
seenwell
above
the
horizon,
entirely
rules
out
optical
phenomena
as
a
ready
expla-nation. It
is
officially
listed
as
a
Unidentified.
2.
Case
2.
Montgomery, Alabama,
July
24,1948
Another one
of the
famous
airline
sightings
of
earlier
years
is
the
Chiles-
Whitted
Eastern
Airlines
case
(Refs.
3,
5,
6,
10, 23, 24, 25,
26).
An
Eastern
DC
-3,
en
route
from
Houston
to Atlanta,
was
flying
at
an
altitude
of
about 5000
ft.,
near
Montgomery
at
2
:45
a.m.
The
pilot,
Capt. Clarence
S.
Chiles,
and
the
co-pilot,
John B.
Whitted,
both of
whom
now
fly
jets
for Eastern,
were
experienced
fliers
(for
example,
Chiles
then
had
8500
hours
in
the
air,
and
both
had
wartime
military
flying
duty
behind
them).
I
interviewed both
Chiles
and
Whitted
earlier
this
year
to
cross-check
the
many
points
of
interests
in
this
case.
Space
precludes
a
full
account
of
all
relevant
details.
Chiles pointed
out
to
me
that they
first
saw
the
object
coming
out of
a
distant
squall
-line
area
which
they
were
just
reconnoitering.
At
first,
they thought
it
was
a
jet,
whose
exhaust
was somehow
accounting for the
advancing
glow
that
had
first
caught
their eyes.
Coming
almost
directly
at
them
at
nearly
their
flight
altitude,
it
passed
off
their
starboard
wing
at
a
distance
on which
the
two
men
could
not
closely
agree: one
felt
it
was
under 1000
ft.,
the
other
put
it
at
sev-
eral
times
that.
But
both agreed, then
and
in
my
1968
interview,
that the
object
was some
kind
of
vehicle.
They
saw
no wings
or
empennage, but
both
were
struck
by
a
pair
of
rows
of
windows
or
some
apparent openings
from
which
there
came a
bright
glow
"like
burning
magnesium."
The
object
had
a
pointed
"nose",
and from
the nose
to
the rear along
its
underside there
was a
bluish
glow.
Out
of the rear
end
came an
orange
-red
exhaust or
wake
that extended
back by about
the
same
distance
as
the
object's
length.
The two men
agreed that
its size
approximated
that of
a
B-29, though perhaps twice
as
thick.
Their un-
certainty
as
to true
distance,
of course,
renders
this
only
a
rough
impression.
There
is
uncertainty in the record,
and
in
their respective
recollections,
as
to
whether
their
DC
-3 was
rocked
by
something
like
a
wake.
Perception of such
an
effect
would have
been
masked by
Chiles'
spontaneous
reaction
of turning
the
DC
-3
off
to
the
left
as
the object
came
in
on
their right.
Both saw
it
pass
aft
of
them and do an
abrupt
pull-up;
but only Whitted,
on
the
right side,
saw
the
terminal phase
in
which the
object
disappeared
after
a
short but
fast
vertical
ascent.
By
"disappeared", Whitted
made
clear to
me
that
he meant
just that;earlier interrogations evidently construed
this to
mean
"disappeared
aloft"
orinto the broken cloud deck that lay above them. Whitted
said that
was
not so;the
object vanished instantaneously after its
sharp
pull-up.
(This
is
not an
iso-
lated instance of abrupt disappearance. Obviously
I
cannot account for sucheases.)