On April 5, 1946, Army Air Corps Captain Jack E. Puckett who was the Assistant Chief of Flying Safety on the staff of General Elwood Quesada, was piloting a C-47 transport plane on a scheduled flight from Langley Field, Virginia, to McDill Field, Tampa, Florida, USA.
While beginning their initial descent into Tampa's McDill Army Air Base Lieutenant Glass glanced outside the cockpit window and noticed a bright, shining metallic object up in the skies with them moving at incredible speed. Fearing a possible mid-air collision, Lieutenant Glass immediately pointed it out to Captain Puckett. Before any immediate evasive action could be taken the object narrowly passed them by.
Puckett wrote:
"At approximately 6 p.m., while flying at 4000 feet northeast of Tampa, I observed what I thought to be a shooting star to the southeast over the Atlantic Ocean. My copilot, Lieutenant Henry F. Glass, and my engineer both observed this object at the same time. This object continued toward us on a collision course at our exact altitude. At about 1,000 yards it veered to cross our path. We observed it to be a long, cylindrical shape approximately twice the size of a B-29, with luminous portholes."
A stream of fire was emitted at the rear end of the metallic looking object, about one-half its own length. The object was lost of sight beyond the horizon.
Based on reference points and the duration of the sighting, the pilots estimated its speed at 2,000 miles per hour
The sighting duration was of three minutes, a time long enough to rule out any possibility of its being a meteor, also ruled out by the luminous portholes, the proximity and the change of direction.
