Casebook -> Home

Cette page en français

The Redmond UFO incident, USA, September 24, 1959:

Table of content:

	Brief summary of the events.
	Research and short discussion.
	Federal Administration of the Aviation letter to NICAP.
	NICAP summary of the case.
	MUFON investigation summary.
	References.

Brief summary of the events:

On September 24, 1959, just before dawn, police officer Robert Dickerson was cruising the city streets in his patrol car when he noticed a bright falling object like a meteor. But instead of "burning out," the object took on a larger, ball-like appearance, stopped abruptly, and hovered about 200 feet above the ground. Its glow lit up juniper trees below it.

The patrolman watched the UFO for several minutes, then drove toward it on Prineville Highway, turning in at the airport. The UFO, meanwhile changed color from bright white to a duller reddish-orange color, and dived rapidly to a new position NE of the airport.

The object flew over Redmond Airport, situated southeast of the city of Portland and hovered over the field, where it was observed for several minutes by FAA officials.

At the FAA office, Flight Service Specialist Laverne Wertz had just completed making weather observations minutes before, and had seen nothing unusual. Now Patrolman Dickerson, Wertz, and others studied the hovering object through binoculars. The UFO was round and flat, with tongues of "flame" periodically extending from the rim.

At 1310Z (5:10 am. PST) official logs show, the UFO was reported to Seattle Air Route Control Center. Logs of the Seattle center show that the report was relayed to Hamilton AFB. The Seattle log continues:

"UFO also seen on the radar at Klamath Falls GCI [Ground Control Intercept] site. F-102's scrambled from Portland."

Six F-102 fighters were scrambled from Portland. As they took off, the Air Force radioed the pilots of a B-47 bomber and a F-89 fighter on routine flights nearby, ordering them to join the chase.

As the Redmond Observers studied the UFO, they noticed a high speed aircraft approaching from the southwest. The Redmond log continues:

"As aircraft approached, UFO took shape of mushroom, observed long yellow and red flame from lower side as UFO rose rapidly and disappeared above-clouds."

The UFO was seen again briefly, hovering about 25 miles south of the airport. Radar continued to show the UFO south of Redmond for about two hours, at various altitude changing from 5.000 feet to 52.000 feet.

Research:

USAF:

The air force started to explain away the UFO as "Venus," then as "a balloon," then when confonted by NICAP who sent them FAA logs and witness accounts establishing the inconsistence of both explanation, they concluded that the case has "still insufficient data." In 1963, they changed the "insufficient data" explanation back to the "planet Venus" explanation.

NICAP:

NICAP noted that aviation personnel other than pilots, such as Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) control tower operators and flight controllers, flight crew members, ground crews, airport supervisors, etc, have made regular reports of UFOs. The FAA often has cooperated with NICAP, in some cases furnishing logs, teletype reports, and other documentary material. Some of the information has come from NICAP members employed by the FAA, other from public servants (not NICAP members) who apparently have no prejudices about UFOs and merely believe that the subject should be treated frankly and openly.

In "Aliens from Space", 1973, chapter 3: "The Hidden Gamble", the founder of NICAP, US Marines retired Major Donald E. Keyhoe tells the story of the Air Force's attempt to shoot down this UFO, and the subsequent cover-up of the events.

Ground Saucer Watch:

Recently the US ufological research association Ground Saucer Watch has summoned via attorney Peter A. Gerstein that documents held by the CIA, including FAA letters, about this event and other events be photocopied and provided to them in respect of the Freedom Of Information Act.

MUFON

The researchers at MUFON, Mutual UFO Network, a nationwide private ufological research group in the US, have managed to get some more information on the case in 1989.

Weinstein's ACUFOE:

Dominique Weinstein's catalogue of aircraft and UFO encounters ACUFOE has this entry about this case:

Short discussion:

Here we have I case in which I find reasons to think beyond any reasonable doubt that UFOs are sometimes real, that they were a cause of military reaction by USAF at odds with their repeated statements that UFOs do not represent any threat to US National Security, that UFOs have flight capabilities way beyond any possible human conceived aircraft at that time, that there is incontrovertible evidence that the UFO phenomenon provides a set of empirical observation data that deserve scientific consideration instead of the giggles of most unaware scientists.

References:

• "UFOs and the National Security State" book by Richard Dolan.
• "Aliens from space", book by Major Donald E. Keyhoe, USM, ret.
• "The UFO encyclopedia", book by Jerome Clark.
• "Aircaft and UFO Encounters", by Dominique Weinstein.
• "The UFO Evidence", by Richard Hall, NICAP, 1964, p.113.
• MUFON UFO Journal #257

Feedback  |  Top  |  Back  |  Forward  |  Map  |  List |  Home

This page was last updated on June 1, 2002.