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Utah, USA, in late September 1926:

Case number:

ACUFO-1926-09-00-UTAH-1

Summary:

On February 12, 1994, one “Wayne Thompson” submitted to “Fidonet UFO”, a Bulletin Board Service - a kind of ancestor of the World Wide Web - a report he said he had besides him, taken from a journal kept by Richard West; of which, he said, portions had been serialized in Sky Trails, a small general aviation magazine in the June, 1933 issue.

He said the report told that in late September, 1926 at an exact date so far unavailable, at 11:00 p.m., an Air-Mail pilot named Colin Murphy was repeatedly “buzzed” by a huge glowing object an hour after take-off from Salt Lake City. The pilot described the object as a cylinder without any wings or propeller that he could see, and at least three times the length of his DH-4 aircraft, i.e. at least 90 feet long, and 8 to 10 feet in diameter.

Murphy, “Wayne Thompson” said, also stated that every time the object approached closer than 50 yards to his aircraft, the engine would begin to sputter and misfire, so that he was finally forced to land in a sheep pasture. Upon landing, the object “took off like a shot out of a gun” disappearing to the south in a “few seconds”.

“Wayne Thompson” said he was curious about newspaper reports in the Salt Lake area that would mention this, as it would help to pin down the exact date.

The case was noted by various ufologists subsequently; as for me, like ufologist Jerome Clark before, I searched but found no trace of the existence of an aviation magazine called Sky Trails.

I also found that “Wayne Thompson” clearly invented another such early case.

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. jah1:] JAN ALDRICH:

The earliest source I could find so far about this alleged case was a post by U.S. ufologist Jan Aldrich on the UFO Updates mailing list on September 22, 1997. It said:

John Stepkowski was a contributor to several BBS and usenet e-publications such as CNI-News, those were often UFO newsclippings.

Let me specify that there was apparently no follow up postings on the UFO Updates mailing list about this, at least not in the next days.

[Ref. gvo1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:

[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH:

[Ref. jck1:] JEROME CLARK:

Erudite UFO historian Jerome Clark reported in his “Strange Skies” book of 2003 this alleged case of pilot encounter with a UFO over Southern Utah in late September 1926.

Clark said the report is shaky and the sourcing is vague, as it was given only as “Sky Trails, June 1933”, Clark saying that no issue of this alleged publication having ever surfaced. Clark says the story appeared on a UFO e-list in 1994 from someone untraceable who claimed that it was “taken from a journal kept by Richard West”, portions of which were serialized in the alleged Sky Trails magazine, supposed to be a general aviation magazine.

The story was that in late September 1926, at 2:30, airmail pilot Colin Murphy spotted a glowing cylinder-shaped object in the southern Utah sky.

The object had no wings, no tail, it was 3 times as long as the DH-4 Murphy flew, that is, 90 feet long. It was 8 to 10 feet in diameter.

The object approached the DH-4 several times, each time to within 50 yards, and the plane experienced engine trouble.

Alarmed, Murphy finally landed his plane in a sheep pasture, while the object “took off like the shot of a gun” and disappeared towards the south in a few seconds.

[Ref. rhl1:] RICHARD HALL:

[Ref. dwn1:] DOMINIQUE WEINSTEIN:

French ufologist Dominique Weinstein compiled a catalogue of the cases of UFOs observed from aircraft. The first case in February 2001 (6th edition) catalogue appears as:

The source “03” is referenced at the end of the catalogue as:

[Ref. prn1:] PETER ROGERSON:

In the 1970's, British ufologist Peter Rogerson published in Magonia magazine a long catalogue of close encounter cases, with little details and no research into the veracity or real strangeness of these cases; in the 2010's; he republished it on the Web, sometimes with additional evaluation - he had become a “skeptic” in the meantime. He added some new cases; including this one:

[Ref. nip1:] "THE NICAP WEBSITE":

[Ref. prt1:] JAN ALDRICH - "PROJECT 1947":

The Project 1947 website ([prt1]) indicated about the same time:

Jan Aldrich indicates that the “#“ means that the report is of doubtful reliability.

[Ref. get1:] GEORGE M. EBERHART:

Aircraft information:

Above: a US version of the DH-4 built by Airco.

The British DeHavilland DH.4, was used in 1918 by the American Air Service as a reconnaissance and bomber plane. After WWI, numerous now available DH-4 were used, including for airmail. So, there is no issue about the plane in the alleged UFO encounter.

Discussion:

My opinion is that this story was invented in 1994 by “Wayne Thompson“. Here is why:

1. I found no trace of any “Wayne Thompson” in the world of ufology.
2. “Wayne Thompson” is evidently the same person who made up another case, allegedly in Sussex in 1993, as Peter Rogerson indicated.
3. Like others, I found no trace that an aviation magazine called Sky Trails ever existed. In the 1933 Sussex case, the alleged source given by “Wayne Thompson” is also an apparently non-existent primary source.

I searched in Utah newspapers for September 1, 1926 to December 31, 1926 and found nothing related to this. Of course I do not have at hand all the Utah newspapers.

Evaluation:

Probable invention in 1994.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

• [jah1] * "1926 Utah Aircraft Encounter", post by Jan Aldrich, on UFO Updates, "A mailing list for the study of UFO-related phenomena", USA, September 22, 1997, at http://www.ufoupdateslist.com/1997/sep/m22-021.shtml
• [mdh1] ? "UFO's - A Century of Sightings", book by Michael David Hall, Galde Press publishers, USA, pp 15-16, 1999.
• [gvo1] * "Chronologie OVNI", electronic catalogue compiled by Godelieve Van Overmeire, Belgium, circa 1999.
• [rhl1] * "From airships to Arnold: a catalogue of UFO reports in the early 20th century (1900-1946)", by Richard H. Hall, UFO Research Coalition, USA, page 13, 2000, 2007.
• [dwn1] * "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena - Eighty years of pilot sightings - Catalog of Military, Airliner, Private Pilots' Sightings from 1916 to 2000", catalogue compiled by Dominique F. Weinstein, NARCAP International Technical Advisor, France, 6th issue, February 2001.
• [lhh1] * "*U* Computer Database", ufology database by Larry Hatch, USA, circa 2002.
• [jck1] * "Strange Skies - Pilot Encounters with UFOs", book by Jerome Clark, Citadel Press publishers, USA, pp 4-5, 2003.
• [prn1] * "INTCAT 1920 - 1929", catalogue of "close encounters and entities reports", compiled by Peter Rogerson, U-K., circa 2010, "updated February 2018", at http://intcat.blogspot.com/search/label/1920%20-%201929
• [nip1] * "1900-1938 UFO Sighting Chronology", listing compiled by The NICAP Website, USA, created December 18, 2006, updated April 6, 2016, at https://www.nicap.org/chronos/1900-1938.htm
• [prt1] * "Aircraft/UFO Encounters Prior to 1942", catalogue compiled by Jan Aldrich, on the Project 1947, ufology website, USA, not dated, as of 2021, at http://www.project1947.com/47cats/jan42.htm
• [get1] * "UFOs and Intelligence: A Timeline", electronic document compiled by George M. Eberhart, 2022.

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This page was last updated on November 6, 2023.