Kenneth Arnold's sighting

Strange Things Seen Flying High, 1200 Miles an Hour by U. S. Pilot

PENDLETON, Ore., -- (UP) -- Nine bright, saucer-like objects flying at "incredible" speed at 10.000 feet altitude were reported here Wednesday by Kenneth Arnold, Boise, Idaho, pilot, who said he could not hazard a guess as to what they were.

Arnold, a United states forest service employe engaged in searching for a missing plane said he sighted the mysterious objects Tuesday at 3 p.m. They were flying between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams, in Washington state, he said, and appeared to weave in and out of formation. Arnold said he clocked them and estimated their speed at 1.200 miles an hour.

Inquiries at Yakima last night brought only blank stares, he said, but he added he talked with an unidentified man from Ukiah, south of there who said he had

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Strange Things Seen Flying High

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seen similar objects over the mountains near Ukiah yesterday.

Arnold said he clocked the time the objects took to fly from Mount Rainier to Mount Adams, and from that estimated their speed at 1200 miles an hour. He said they appeared to fly almost as if fastened together - if one dipped, the others did, too.

After the incident, he said, he talked to other pilots when he landed at Yakima, Wash., but none of them had seen anything similar.

Recently there have been several "Mystery missile" reports in Oregon, one which fell on the Hill Military academy grounds in Portland later was attributed to thaw blowing out an ice cap from an hollowed-out piece of metal. On another occasion a nurse in Vancouver, Wash., found a red-hot egg-shaped object. Geologists said it was not of meteorite composition. It never has been explained satisfactorily.

In Washington, the war department said it had no information on the Oregon sky mystery.

"As far as we know, nohting flies that fast except a V-2 rocket, which travels at about 3500 miles an hour - and that's too fast to be seen," said a spokesman.