The case occurred near Jefferson City, Montana, on April 17, 1967, at about 09:00 P.M. It had a first independent witness, a second independent witness and another two independent witnesses together (1+1+2), according to Air Force files.
One of the witnesses was a school principal in his car, who observed the object during 10 to 15 minutes. Other witnesses were companions of the school principal in another car, (names are Pistone, Wilson, Metz) and personal at the local airport. The school principal's report in the Air Force files is:
"I was coming home from a PTA meeting and heading down a small country road, blacktop, and I was thinking of the blackboards the PTA had promised to give me for my school. All of a sudden I noticed a glow coming from over the cliff - and I thought, well, one of the old goony birds is off course, and she's going to land in this cornfield. And this was the first thing that hit my mind. Then this unbelievable object - shaped something like a World War I helmet - came over the top of the cliff... I slowed down at this point ... I couldn't understand why an airplane would be on this glide path - and this huge object, over 300 feet, I'd estimate, came over the cliff and stood still almost directly over me for a split second like any object changing direction and then took off towards the airport... It was a terrific bright light. The top of the car seemed to have no effect in holding out the light. It was a terrific bright light, unbelievable, I tell myself. When I looked at my hands, it looked like I was looking at X-Ray photos."
Note: "goony birds" is a nickname for the propeller driven C-47 airplane of the USAF.
The school principal went out of his car and joined his companions in the other car which was stopped. This other car was following that of the school principal at some distance. All watched the object together. The object hovered above some power lines for about ten minutes.
The report of the school principal continues:
"Well, then I decided the airport should know about it, so I headed towards the airport. But I didn't have to tell the people outside. They had seen it. A couple of lawyers from Kansas city were still standing with their mouth hanging open. It had flown practically over the airport, but they hadn't told the tower yet. It's a small airport, and there is no glass tower where they would be watching. They were busy inside because the Ozark flight was due in... By the way, the Ozark pilot... if I remember hearing the radio correctly, said, "I see it - It's below me - It's huge," as he was coming in for a landing. When the Air Force came down, his attitude was not "did you see it" but "how much of it did you see?"
The Air Force investigator was a Lieutenant. The Air Force documented the case and concluded it was an "unknown." Then, in their listing, they said it was a "balloon", then the Star Sirius, and did not elaborate about that. Later, astronomer J. Allen Hynek was able to get a taped interview of the school principal.
The Project Blue Book case number should be comprised between 11562 et 11676 included.
