Eastern Air Lines pilots report a flaming cigar-shaped object near Montgomery
July 24, 1948 · Near Montgomery, Alabama (in flight) · Sighting · Original document
At 2:45 am on 24 July 1948, Eastern Air Lines captain Clarence S. Chiles and co-pilot John B. Whitted were cruising at 5,000 feet on trip 576 about 20 miles from Montgomery, Alabama, on a clear moonlit night. In his written account Chiles says something like a jet came toward them on the right and slightly above, with no wings visible and flame shooting from the rear, and passed in about ten seconds. The investigators' check-list records a cigar-shaped object about 100 feet long with a red-orange exhaust and a blue glow underneath, which pulled up sharply with a burst of flame. A passenger is also named as a witness.
Era: Flying discs and the first inquiries · Themes: Civil aviation, U.S. military investigations
Why it matters (3/5)
An airline crew's report filed and summarised by Air Force investigators at the time, and still one of the most cited cases of 1948.
The other side
The check-list takes some details, including the speed and the sharp climb, from the Atlanta Constitution of 25 July 1948 rather than from an interview. The pages read do not record an official conclusion; later explanations, such as a bright meteor, were not checked here. Newspaper reports kept in the FBI's file say the Army Air Forces in Washington and the Weather Bureau at Montgomery both suggested the pilots had passed a radar weather-observation balloon with reflective tinfoil boxes.
Sources
- Incident Summaries 101-172 (NARA 38-143685, box 7) (U.S. Department of War), primary
- FBI file 62-HQ-83894 "Flying Discs", Section 4 (1947-1949) (Federal Bureau of Investigation (released by the Department of War)), criticism