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.

46
lighting
plasmoids.
Here
again,
we
appear
to
be
dealing
with
a
meaningful
obser-
vation
of
some
vehicle
or
craft
of
non
-terrestrial
origin.
Its
reported
instan-
taneous
disappearance
defies
(as
does
the
same
phenomenon
reported
by
J.
B.
Whitted
and numerous
other
UFO
witnesses)
ready
explanation
in
terms
of
present-day
scientific
knowledge.
Powell
reported his
sighting
at
Willow
Grove
NAS,
but
it
engendered
no
interest.
6.
Case
6.
Eastern
Quebec,
June
29, 1954.
A
case
in
which
I
have
not
been
able
to
directly
interview
any
witnesses,
but
about
which
a
great deal
is
on
record,
through
contemporary
press accounts,
through
the
pilot's
subsequent
report,
and
through
recent
interviews
by
BBC
staff
members,
occurred
near Seven
Islands,
Quebec,
just
after
sunset
on
6/29/54.
A
BOAC
Stratocruiser,
bound
from
New
York
to
London
with
51
passengers,
was
followed for
18
minutes
(about
80
miles
of
airpath)
by one
large object
and
six
smaller
objects
that
flew
curious
"formations"
about
it.
The
pilot
of
the
Strato-cruiser
was
Capt.
James Howard,a
highly
respected
BOAC
flight
officer
still
flying
with
BOAC.
At
the
time,
he had had
7500
flight
hours.
About
20
witnesse,
includ-
ing
both passengers
and
crew,
gave
statements
as
to
the unprecedented nature
of
these
objects
(Refs.
4, 10,
and
Associated
Press wire
stories
datelined
June
30,
1954).
Discussion.—The
flight
was
at
19,000 ft
in
an
area of
generally
fair
weather,with
good
visibility,
attested
by
Howard
and
by
weather
maps
for
that day.
No
obvious
optical
or
electrical
explanation
seems
capable of accounting for
this
long
-duration
sighting.
The
objects
were
dark, not
glowing,
and
their positionrelative
to
the sunset
point precludes
sundogs
as
an
explanation.
Mirage
phenom-
ena
could
not account
for
the
eighty-mile
persistence,
nor
for the type of
sys-
tematic
shape
-changes
described
by
the
witnesses,
nor
for
the
geometrically
regular
formations taken
up
by
the
satellite
objects
as
they
shifted positions
from
time
to
time.
Just
before
an F-86
arrived
from
Goose
AFB
at
Howard's
request,
First
Officer
Boyd
and
Navigator
George
Allen,
who
were
watching
the
objects
at
that
moment,
said
the small
objects
seemed
to
merge
into
the
larger
object.
Then
the
large
object
receded
rapidly
towards
the
northwest
and
was
out
of
sight in
a
matter of
seconds.
Such
a maneuver
of
a
number
of
satellite
objects
seeming
to
merge
with or
to enter
a
larger object
has
been
reported
in other
UFO
incidents
around
the world.
7.
Case
7.
Goshen,
Ind.,
April
27,
1950
Another
early
airline
sighting
that
seemed worth
personally cross-checking
involved
the
crew
and
passengers of
a
TWA
DC
-3
on
the evening
of
4
/
2
7/50(Refs.
4,
5,
10,
23).
I have
interviewed both the
pilot,
Capt.
Robert
Adickes,
and
the
copilot,
Capt.
Robert
F. Manning, and
confirmed
all
of
the
principal
features
first
reported in
detail
in
a
magazine
account
by
Keyhoe
(Ref.
31).
The
DC
-3was
at about 2000
ft.,
headed
for Chicago,
when,
at
about 8:25
p.m.,
Manning
spotted
a
glowing red
object aft
of the starboard
wing,
well
to
their rear.
Manning
sent to
me
a
copy
of
notes
that
he had
made
later
that night
at
his
Chicago
hotel.
Quoting
from
the notes:
"It
was
similar
in appearance
to
a
rising
blood
red
moon, and
appeared
to be
closing
with
us
at
a
relatively
slow
rate
of convergence.
I
watched
its
approachfor
about
two
minutes,
trying to
determine
what
it
might
be.
I
then
attracted
Adickes'
attention
to
the object
asking
what
he
thought
it
was.
He
rang
for our
hostess,
Gloria
Henshaw,
and
pointed
it
out
to
her.
At
that
time the
object
was
at
a
relative
bearing of
about 100
degrees
and
slightly
lower than
we
were. It
was
seemingly holding
its
position relative
to
us,
about
one-half
mile
away."
Manning's account then
notes that Capt. Adickes sent the stewardess back
to
alert
the passengers
(
see
Keyhoe's
account, Ref. 31),
and
then
banked
the
D0-3
to starboard to try to close
on
the
unknown
object.
Manning
continuesin his
4/27/50 notes:
"As we
turned, the
object
seemed
to veer
away from
us in
a
direction
just
west
of north,
toward
the
airport
area of
South Bend.
It
seemed
to
descend as
it
increased
its velocity,
and
within
a
few
minutes
was
lost
to
our
sight
.
.
."Discussion.—Although, in
my
interview,
I
found
some
differences
in the
re-
collected
shape of the
object,
as remembered by
the
two
TWA
pilots,
both
were
positive
it
was no
aircraft,
both emphasized
its
red glow, and
both
were im-
pressed
by
its
high speed departure.
Manning remarked
to
me
that he'd
neverseen anything
else like it
before or since;
and he
conceded, in response to
my
query, that the decreased
number
of
airline reports
on
UFOs
in recent years