The article below was published in the newspaper The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, USA, on page 1, on June 26, 1947.
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PENDLETON (Or.) June 25. -- (AP) -- Nine shiny objects flying at 1200 miles an hour over the Cascade range of western Washington - That's what Pilot Kenneth Arnold, Boise, Idaho, today reported he saw while on a routine flight over the mountains.
He stuck to his story tonight while experts said they had no explanation as to what the "objects" could be.
"It seems impossible," Arnold said, "but there it is."
He said they were bright, saucer-like objects - he called them "aircraft" - flying at 10.000 feet altitude. A flash of reflected sunshine brought them to his attention and for a second he was stunned by their "incredible" speed, he said.
They flew with a peculiar dipping motion, "like a fish flipping in the sun," he said. "They were extremely shiny, and when they caught the sun right it blinded me."
He said they were about 25-30 miles away when first sighted flying south. He glanced at his clock, timed them between Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier, a distance of 47 miles, and by triangulationgigured the speed of the "objects" at 1,200 miles an hour.
He rolled down the window of his plane, thinking it might have caused the reflection, but he still saw them with the window down, Arnold continued.
Arnold also said a DC-4 was flying in the vicinity and he estimated the "objects" were about the same site as the four-engined passenger ships, although the "objects" did not have wings.
He said they appeared to fly almost as if fastened together - if one dipped, the others did too.
Chicago Tribune Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 25. -- The War Department said tonight it culd shed no light on the report of a pilot that he had sighted 1200-m.p.h. "aircraft" in Western Washington. The Army is not conducting any high-speed experimental tests in the area and an Army spokesman said the only object known to be capable of a speed of 1,200 miles an hour is a V-2 rocket, which travels at about 3500 miles an hour, too fast to be seen.
To: Kenneth Arnold or Newspapers 1940-1949.
