UFOs in the daily Press:

PURSUIT BY FLYING DISCS HOAX, P-38 PILOT ADMITS

A P-38 pilot's story of a flying disc which disintegrated before his eyes after pursuing him over Montana was a complete hoax, the flyer's boss said today.

L. J. Archer, superintendent of the Fairchild Photogrammetric Engineers Co., employers of Pilot Vernon Baird, said he had talked to Baird and that the pilot admitted it was all a terrible mistake.

"I made up the story when three or four of us were sitting around the hangar just gassing."

"Somebody must have heard it and spread the word. I'm flabbergasted that anyone believed it."

"I've been so busy on the phones since the story got out that I haven't been able to do any flying all day."

Meanwhile, a ground and air search today failed to locate any of the eight or nine "flying saucers" reported to have landed last Thursday on a mountainside near St. Maries, Ida.

Sheriff Oron L. Thomas said a search party of 10 volunteers scoured the area without finding such objects, although residents of the area he interviewed directed them to the spot where they reportedly fell.

A search by a National Guard plane from Spokane and by a local pilot also failed to reveal anything in the timber on the mountainside.

Mrs. Walter Johnson of suburban Dishman made the first report yesterday of seeing the saucers fall and she said about 10 persons viewed the sight. She said they fell last Thursday while she was visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ben Beeman. She said neighbors also saw the saucers independently.