The article below was published in the newspaper The Dunkirk Evening Observer, Dunkirk, New York, USA, on page 5, on June 27, 1947.
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Pendleton, Ore. (UP) -- Residents of Pendleton sought an explanation today for the nine strange "saucer-shaped" planes an amateur pilot claimed he saw flying at an estimated speed of 1,200 miles an hour across southwestern Washington.
The story was told by Kenneth Arnold, flying fire extinguisher salesman from Boise, Ida.
Slightly bug-eyed, he landed here yesterday and said he spotted the "extremely shiny nickle-plated aircraft" skimming along at 10,000 feet.
"They were shaped like saucers and were so thin I barely could see them," he said. "There were nine of them and they were flying in screwy formation about 25 miles away from me. It wasn't any military formation i ever saw before. And they were traveling faster than I ever saw before. I clocked them with a stopwatch during the time it took them to fly from Mount Rainier to Mount Adams. That's 42 miles and they made it in one minute 42 seconds - about 1,200 miles an hour."
There was no comment from military authorities.
To: Kenneth Arnold or Newspapers 1940-1949.
