Puget Sound, Washington, USA, on July 8, 1947:
ACUFO-1947-07-08-PUGETSOUND-1
In an article about the many recent sighting reports of "flying discs" in the area, the newspaper Post-Intelligencer, of Seattle, Washington, USA, for July 9, 1947, reported that Chet Proud, 3040 N. 36th St., flying a seaplane over the Puget Sound off Ballard, saw two or three disks over the Olympic Mountains, "high and going very fast," at about 9 a.m.
| Date: | July 7 or 8, 1947 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 09:00 a.m. |
| Duration: | ? |
| First known report date: | July 9, 1947 |
| Reporting delay: | 1 or 2 days. |
| Country: | USA |
|---|---|
| State/Department: | Washington |
| City or place: | Off Ballard in the Puget Sound. |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 1 |
| Reporting channel: | The press. |
|---|---|
| Visibility conditions: | Day. |
| UFO observed: | Yes. |
| UFO arrival observed: | ? |
| UFO departure observed: | ? |
| UFO action: | Flew high and fast. |
| Witnesses action: | Observed. |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | ? |
| Witnesses interpretation: | Flying discs. |
| Sensors: |
[X] Visual: 1.
[ ] Airborne radar: N/A. [ ] Directional ground radar: [ ] Height finder ground radar: [ ] Photo: [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages: |
|---|---|
| Hynek: | DD |
| Armed / unarmed: | Unarmed. |
| Reliability 1-3: | 1 |
| Strangeness 1-3: | 2 |
| ACUFO: | Insufficient information, possible planes. |
[Ref. pir1:] NEWSPAPER "THE POST-INTELLIGENCER":
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Either the flying disks are bypassing Seattle onlookers for disks were resting their chin necks yesterday.
Reports of disks seen over Seattle, which reached a peak Monday night, fell off sharply. Only two reports were phoned to the Post-Intelligencer all day yesterday.
Chet Proud, 3040 N. 36th St., flying a seaplane over the Sound off Ballard, saw two or three disks over the Olympic Mountains, "high and going very fast," at about 9 a.m., he said.
Earl Klenpke, 2004 17th Ave. S.W., said he saw a single disk at 2:30 p.m. It was traveling northwest over the city at about 75 or 80 miles an hour, "moving in a straight line with an up and down motion."
He said the disk was "very shiny," oval-shaped, about 8 feet high and 10 feet long, and had a glass dome atop it. Klenpke said he observed the disk through field glasses for seven minutes and that his mother saw the disk, too.
[Ref. tbr1:] TED BLOECHER:
Ted Bloecher indicated that Chet Proud, private pilot of 3040 N. 36th Street, was flying a seaplane over Puget Sound off Ballard at 9:00 a.m. PST on July 8, 1947, when he saw "two or three" disc-like objects to the west, over the Olympic Mountains. In an unfortunately abbreviated account in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, he described the objects as flying "high and going very fast."
[Ref. dwn1:] DOMINIQUE WEINSTEIN:
French ufologist Dominique Weinstein compiled a catalog of the cases of UFOs observed from aircraft. This case appears in the February 2001 (6th edition) of his catalog as:
| DATE | 47.07.08 |
|---|---|
| TIME | 09:00 |
| COUNTRY | USA |
| PLACE | Puget Sound, near Ballard, Seattle, Washington |
| P | |
| TYPE OF PLANE AND WITNESSES | a Seaplane pilot |
| UFO DESCRIPTION | 2 or 3 disc-shaped object flying high and very fast over the Olympic mountains |
| Radar | |
| G | |
| X | |
| E | |
| SOURCES | 365 03 |
The sources "365 03" are referenced at the end of the catalog as:
report on the UFO wave of 1947, Ted Bloecher
Project 1947 Reports, newsclippings and documents (cases from Jan Aldrich and Barry Greenwood)
[Ref. gvo1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:
1947, July 8
USA, Puget Sound, near Ballard, Seattle (Washington)
At 9 a.m., the pilot of a seaplane saw two or three disc-shaped objects flying at high altitude and at very high speed above the Olympic Mountains (Project ACUFOE, catalogue 1999, Dominique Weinstein, who states that he had delisted (vog: whereas this sighting is still included there) this observation since, according to Jan Aldrich, it concerns the same case as that of July 7.)
[Ref. rhg1:] RICK HILBERG:
July 8 - Chet Proud, a private pilot living in Seattle, Washington, was flying a seaplane over Puget Sound off Ballard at 9:00 a.m. when he saw "two or three" disk-like objects to the west, over the Olympic Mountains. He described the things as flying "high and going very fast."
The source is indicated as "Seattle Post Intelligencer 7/9/47."
In 1947 in the US, many small seaplane models were operating.
For example, on the photo below, a Grumman G-44 Widgeon in 1947.
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The information is very meager; I found no other information in the contemporary Press so far.
The fact that the pilot did not know whether he saw 2 or 3 objects may indicate that he did not see them quite well, so that I cannot exclude that they might have been planes or jet planes.
Insufficient information, possible planes.
* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.
| Main author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | July 7, 2026 | Creation, [pir1], [tbr1], [dwn1], [gvo1], [rhg1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | July 7, 2026 | First published. |
