Kenneth Arnold's sighting

Pilot Sees 'Saucer-like Objects' Flying at 1,200 m.p.h. in Oregon

Pendleton, Ore. June 25. -- (AP) -- 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.

He added he talked today with an unidentified man from Ukiah, south of here, who said he had seen similar objects over the mountains near Ukiah Tuesday.

"It seemed impossible," Arnold said, "but there it is."

Arnold said he clocked the objects from Mount Rainier to Mount Adams and estimated their speed at 1,200 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.

Oregon is perhaps more concerned than many areas over reports of mysterious objects because of the wind-borne balloons launched from Japan during the war. One of the bomb-laden balloons fell near Lakeview, Ore., in May, 1945, killing six persons.

At Portland, Ore., Edward Leach, senior CAA aeronautical inspector, said he could offer no explanation of the fast-flying objects reported by Arnold.

"If they were actually as described," Leach said, "I don't know what they could be. I rather doubt that anything would be traveling so fast."

Leach said he was not sure whether objects traveling at 1,200 miles an hour could be seen clearly enough to tell what they were weaving in formation, as reported.

In Washington, the War Department said it had no information on the Oregon sky mystery.

An Army spokesman expressed interest in any object which would fly at the estimated speed of 1,200 m.p.h., declaring:

"As far as we know, nothing flies that fast except a V-2 rocket, which travels at about 3,500 miles and [sic, "an"] hour - and that's too fast to be seen."

Moreover, the V-2, unlike the saucer-shaped objects seen in Oregon, are cigar shaped.

The spokesman said it was safe to say that the Army is not conducting any high-speed experiments tests in the area mentioned and is certainly "not shooting" in populated regions.