0316 - Pilots - Canada
Embedded Files
0316C-1954 - Quebec / Labrador - BOAC’s Flying Jellyfish
0316C-1954 - Quebec / Labrador - BOAC’s Flying Jellyfish
Seven black objects followed the stratocruiser for 80 miles — then vanished when a jet fighter approached
by John Carnell
One of the most unusual and inexplicable UFO sightings hit all the London dailies on July 1 when British Overseas Airways Corporation announced that one of their Stratocruisers, the Centaurus, had been “escorted” for 80 miles over the coast of Labrador by seven unidentified flying objects. The objects changed shape and formation yet easily kept station with the giant airliner whose crew of 11 together with 51 passengers watched the occurrence and speculated upon its mystery.
The Centaurus, one of BOAC's fleet of sky-cruisers, was on a routine flight from New York to London. It left Idlewild Airport on the afternoon of June 29 for Goose Bay, Labrador, the last refueling point before the easterly ocean crossing. At approximately 8 p.m. (EST), just as the sun disappeared below the western horizon, the plane was flying a northeasterly course. Less than 200 miles remained before touchdown at Goose Bay.
The following is an extract from the Voyage Report of Captain James Howard in command of the aircraft. Captain Howard is a former bomber squadron leader with over 7,500 flying hours recorded in his log. This was his 265th Atlantic crossing.
Google Earth map of the sighting area showing the flight track (approx 49° True), initial sighting coordinates (51°53'N 63°10'W) and other locations.
“At 0105 G.M.T. today (June 30) about 150 nautical miles southwest of Goose Bay, height 19,000 feet, flying in clear weather above a layer of low stratus cloud, I noticed on our port beam a number of dark objects at approximately the same altitude as our aircraft. I drew the attention of the First Officer (Lee Boyd), to them. He said he had just noticed them also. I jokingly said that they reminded me of flack bursts. He agreed. (Sketch 1).
“It then became apparent that they were moving along on a track roughly parallel to ours and keeping station with us. The First Officer then called Goose approach to ask if there were any aircraft in our area (0107 G.M.T). They said No. During this time the shape of the large object changed slightly — also the positions of the smaller ones relative to the big ones. Some moved ahead, some behind. The First Officer then told Goose what we were watching and they said they would send a fighter to investigate. At this time the objects resembled Sketch II.
See below:
Capt. James Howard records the story of his unusual UFO sighting for a British Broadcasting Co. representative as his wife looks on. Capt. Howard was in command of the BOAC airliner from which sighting was made
Three sketches which Capt. James HOWARD drew in his log book. From top to bottom: (1) the "things", as the captain called them, with the bigger object in the shape of an inverted pear suspended in the centre between the wingtip of the Centaurus and the setting Sun; (2) the central object changes into a huge flying wing that looks as if it is turning to close with the aircraft; (3) the objects constantly change shape, the central object now looking like a giant telephone receiver on its back. [Images gleaned from www.ufocasebook.com.]
Google Earth map of the sighting area showing the flight track (approx 49° True), initial sighting coordinates (51°53'N 63°10'W) and other locations.
Sketches show how objects changed shape
“The shape of the large one continually changed but its position relative to us did not — always about 90 degrees to port. The distance from us appeared not less than five miles, possibly very much more. During this time both engineers, both navigators, the radio officer, two stewards and the stewardess watched it and all of us agreed on its shape. The number of small objects accompanied it (usually six were visible), and all were agreed that we had never seen anything like it before. At about 0120 the fighter reported that he was approaching us. The objects immediately began to grow indistinct until only one was visible. This grew smaller and finally disappeared (0123 G.M.T.) still at the same bearing to us. I reported to the fighter which direction to head for and then commenced descent to Goose, landing at 0145 G.M.T. As we taxied in another fighter was despatched to take over from the first.
“A U.S. Air Force Intelligence Officer met us and we gave him the story. I spoke to Fighter Control and he said he picked us up at 0113 G.M.T. (when we had the object in sight), but had nothing else on his screen but us.
“All who watched the objects are sure that the large one at any rate was no sort of winged aircraft. The small ones were just dots. They left no vapor trails. No lights were seen, just black silhouettes. The visibility at this altitude was unlimited with no cloud other than low overcast. The sun had just set. A large flock of birds might explain it if they were birds that could fly at a true airspeed of 238 knots at 19,000 feet formating on a Boeing for about 80 miles.”
Captain Howard added that another company’s aircraft had gone the same way about 25 minutes earlier but had seen nothing.
The release of this sensational report sent London reporters hurrying for interviews with the Captain and crew. The passengers apparently had dispersed by the time the Press arrived as no statements from them are recorded.
A News Chronicle reporter who interviewed Captain Howard at his home in Bristol quotes him as saying, “The formation of objects appeared suddenly and they were obviously not aircraft as we know them. All appeared black. I’ll swear they were solid. They were between five and 50 miles distant. There was a big central object which appeared to keep changing shape — sometimes it was wedge-shaped, sometimes like a dumb-bell, sometimes like a sphere with a projection. The six smaller objects dodged about either in front or behind the ‘parent'. They all faded away rapidly when the Sabre jet fighter contacted us.”
First Officer Lee Boyd, another former wartime squadron leader also living at Bristol, was quoted by a Daily Express reporter: “It was the greatest thrill of my life. I am willing to swear that what we saw was something solid, something maneuverable, and something that was being controlled intelligently.”
The same newspaper quoted the 31-year-old navigator George Allen: “I am absolutely convinced that the objects we saw were a base ship of some kind with a number of satellites linked with it.”
Meanwhile, the Daily Sketch approached the subject from a more feminine angle and quoted the 28-year-old air hostess Daphne Webster of Hounslow, Middlesex. “It was the most exciting sight I've ever seen,” she said, “but a little creepy. I was making tea when I saw the objects. The big one was constantly changing its size and shape — one minute like a cigar, then an orange, then a mushroom. The smaller ones kept changing formation but not their shape. Every one of us was far too intrigued to be afraid.” The Daily Mail added an additional statement of Miss Webster's: “The objects appeared to be not less than five miles away. It was difficult to assess their size because there was nothing in the sky at the time to measure them against. We are quite certain that the machines were in flight and were something solid.”
The best news coverage of the day was reserved for the Bristol Evening Post whose reporter found the pilot, first officer and navigator more expansive when relaxed in their homes than they had been facing the battery of newspapermen at London airport. Under a banner heading of FLYING OBJECTS “AS BIG AS A BLOCK OF FLATS” the Evening Post quotes Captain Howard, “They were definitely not ordinary aircraft of any type — or imagination. I've never seen anything which remotely resembled them before. They were not saucers — they never looked discshaped or flat. The size was impossible to estimate because we didn't know how far away they were. If they were 20 miles away the big object must have been the size of a block of flats; if five miles perhaps the size of a house.
“By comparison, if the big one was the size of the Queen Mary, the small ones were about the size of the tugs towing her out of harbor. The small ones were no more than bright dots — I couldn't distinguish any shape. They flew sometimes ahead or behind the large one, but never above or below." Discussing his radio call to Goose Bay and the dispatch of a Sabre jet fighter, Captain Howard continued, “The fighter was closing in within a minute or two. He signalled, "I am now 20 miles from you. What do they look like now?' And in that moment I suddenly found I couldn’t see the small ones and the large one was beginning to get smaller. Within two or three minutes it had diminished and finally was just a speck, and then it was gone. It didn't go forward or back, just got smaller until it disappeared.”
Captain Howard went on to say that it was possible the object was flying directly away from him at great speed and that the changing shape may have been caused as it banked or turned, but at no time did it do anything suddenly. “I have never believed seriously in flying saucers,” he concluded, “I am not sure that I do now. All I know is that I saw something extremely odd which was not an airplane.”
Not made known immediately was the fact that Captain Howard and his crew were interviewed by high-ranking Air Force intelligence officers after they landed at London Airport. Quoted by the Daily Sketch the Captain said: “The RAF are obviously very interested. No one took pictures — I wish now I had had my camera. But we all saw the same.”
On the same day the Daily Express, noted for its many discerning scientific articles, published a three-column article by its Science Reporter under the banner FLYING SAUCER? - NO SAYS CHAPMAN PINCHER. Mr. Pincher’s theory is that the “flying saucers” seen by the crew of the Centaurus were nothing more than a reflection of the aircraft itself from a wavy layer of air. “Could a layer of air in which there was no cloud act as a mirror in this way?” he writes. He thinks that it could, especially as the Stratocruiser is an exceptionally shiny plane.
“At various levels in the atmosphere,” his article goes on, “there are regions called ‘inversions’ where the air temperature changes. Boundaries between layers of warm and cold air are such good mirrors that they cause mirages in the desert. Because of the turbulence of the atmosphere, the boundary is sometimes rippled and breaks up an image into several parts which, after reflection, can be seen at eye-level.
“If my theory is right, the saucers could have been seen only in the direction of the sun’s rays — through the port-side windows of the aircraft which was travelling northeast while the sun was setting in the northwest.”
Chapman Pincher discussed his theory with Captain Howard who knows all about ‘inversions.’ The latter agreed that it was a possibility but thought “that the saucers looked too solid.”
Discussing the fact that the objects followed the plane for 80 miles and then disappeared just as a fighter was coming up to investigate, Mr. Pincher states: “Inversions sometimes stretch for hundreds of miles, so the reflection would seem to travel with the plane. The disappearance of the saucers may have been due to a change of light — remember the sun was setting — or the ‘inversion’ may have petered out.”
Despite Chapman Pincher’s discussion of his theory with Captain Howard, the pilot strongly disagreed with the former’s article — so much so that on July 5 a letter headed I CHALLENGE PINCHER was featured on the center page of the Daily Express and signed by the pilot who started it all. The Captain’s letter says: “I am the pilot concerned in the recent sighting of sky objects over Labrador, and I challenge Mr. Chapman Pincher’s explanation that this could have been merely the reflection of my own aircraft.
An ‘inversion’ can act as a mirror and reflect, or sometimes refract, distant objects — true. But not in the way illustrated by Mr. Pincher. Had an inversion existed above us at the time (highly unlikely with the high temperature), we might have seen a reflection of the sunset, nothing more; certainly not six small black dots and one large variable shaped thing.
“Was it a shadow that we saw? Plausible, maybe, but shadows are thrown away from the light source, not towards it.”
In the three sketches made by Captain Howard at the time of the sighting it will be noticed that the objects appear between the plane and the setting sun but not directly in opposition. The sun had actually disappeared below the horizon before the objects vanished.
Capt. James Howard records the story of his unusual UFO sighting for a British
Broadcasting Co. representative as his wife looks on. Capt. Howard was
in command of the BOAC airliner from which sighting was made
Interviewed on July 3 by BBC commentator John Ellison for the popular Saturday night radio and TV program “In Town Tonight” Captain Howard said: “At first my co-pilot, Lee Boyd — a Canadian of immense experience as a pilot — and I thought the big machine might be a delta- or swept-wing bomber, but it changed shape several times. I'm quite sure that it was a three-dimensional object and not a mirage. I'm still skeptical of the flying saucer theory, or piloted aircraft from other planets, and all the other tales. All I am willing to believe is what I saw and what my crew saw. Whether these objects were piloted craft or what they were I cannot speculate.”
BOAC’s London Press Relations office were extremely cooperative in my investigations of this mysterious sighting. One of their officers, however, pointed out to me that “never at any time have we called the things ‘saucers’ — we prefer the word ‘objects’ or ‘unidentified flying objects’. Everyone has been most intrigued by this phenomena but we know nothing further about it than what you have already been told.” This statement is verified by the fact that there are no rumors among the staff and personnel of No. 3 Line Operations Office at London Airport, the section responsible for the flight of the Centaurus.
Scientist Arthur C. Clarke, author of “The Exploration Of Space” (Harper 1952), who has been investigating a number of US sightings this year, flew over a parallel course to that of the Centaurus only 10 hours after the objects were seen. This was purely coincidental as he was on his way to Hudson Bay from New York to photograph the eclipse of the sun.
Interviewed on his return to London on July 13 he said to me: “This is undoubtedly one of the finest sightings ever recorded from the he viewpoint of the authenticity of the witnesses. However, the objects were obviously not solid bodies and there are so many various types of mirages that speculation is fruitless. If the true explanation of this sighting could be established it would probably clear up much of the ‘flying saucer’ mystery.” He went on to explain that many of the eclipse photographs he took were “cluttered up with ‘flying saucers’ due to multiple light refraction in the camera lenses” — an obvious explanation of many of the so-called authenticated photographs of ‘saucers.'
See also Martin Shough's analysis of this event: The BOAC Labrador sighting of June 29, 1954,
and Phillip Robertson's letter to Dr Willy Smith, Some considerations on the Seven Isles, Quebec, Canada case of June 29, 1954
Appendices: Caelestia (Martin Slough)
Here is Capt. HOWARD's first-person account from the December 11, 1954, edition of the British magazine Everybody's Weekly:
WE WERE SHADOWED FROM OUTER SPACE
Maybe it wasn't exactly a flying saucer. What I saw, on a recent New York to London flight, was more of a flying arrow, I guess you'd have called it at one stage. It seemed to keep changing its shape as it flew beside me, very much like a jellyfish assumes varying patterns as it swims through the water. Or maybe the apparent changes in shape were due to the different angles we viewed it from as it banked and turned about five miles off.
Whatever it was - a giant flying wing, jellyfish or saucer - of these things I'm quite certain: It wasn't a trick of light or a figment of the imagination. It wasn't any sort of electrical, magnetic or natural phenomenon. And it certainly wasn't a mirage.
No, it was something real and substantial; something that kept station with me for eighty miles and only sheered off when I got a radio call from the Sabre-jet fighter which had been sent up from Goose Bay to intercept the thing. It was something - the idea gives me slight goose-pimples when I think of it - which was keeping my Boeing Stratocruiser, Centaurus, under observation.
The date was June 29 this year. Just before sunset. Over Labrador. The sky was crystal-clear.
I had taken off from Idlewild airfield at five o'clock, New York time, on what we British Overseas Airways Corporation pilots have nicknamed the "champagne and caviar" run - the North Atlantic crossing from New York to London. It's a luxury flight used by film stars, stage personalities, diplomats and not-so-tired businessmen who can chalk it up to the expenses account.
Normally, we do the trip non-stop, but on this occasion there wasn't very much of a tail-wind and I had a pretty heavy load aboard - fifty-one passengers and a deal of freight - which meant a touchdown some place for refuelling.
The Great Circle Route which we follow takes us roughly midway between Gander airfield in Newfoundland and Goose Bay in Labrador. Gander, this time, was out as a refuelling base on account of foggy weather. But Goose Bay was wide open. So I was headed north-east across the St. Lawrence River. Dinner had been served on board about an hour earlier, and some of the passengers had already taken to their sleeping berths.
We crossed the St. Lawrence and flew over Seven Islands, the small settlement rapidly becoming a latter-day boom town on account of the new railway being constructed from there to the mining centres of Labrador. There was low cloud at about 5,000 feet, but up where we were at 19,000 feet, cruising along at about 270 miles per hour, it was perfectly clear. The sun was just beginning to set, away to the left. At that height there is very little coloured tint on account of the rarefied atmosphere. The sky was almost silver in its clearness - perfect visibility.
It was 9.05 p.m. Labrador time and we were about twenty minutes' flying time north-east of Seven Islands when I first sighted the thing.
At first it looked like no more than an indeterminate dark blob in the distance, with several smaller blobs dancing attendance on it. The whole set-up looked, at first glance, like a cluster of flak-bursts such as I had encountered several times over Europe during World War II while bombing invasion barges lined up along the Dutch and Belgian coasts.
But the biggest blob was much bigger than any flak-burst I had ever encountered, and in some strange way it seemed to have definite shape. It didn't look, somehow, as though it was going to disintegrate into thin air, the way flak-burst does. As near as I can describe it, it was something like an inverted pear suspended in the sky.
I was on the port side of the control cockpit, looking out of the window nearest the thing. Beside me was my co-pilot, First Officer Lee Boyd, a 33-years-old Canadian from Saskatchewan who flew with the famous Pathfinder Force during Wold War II. I gave Lee a nudge.
"What do you make of that?" I asked. "I just noticed it", he said. "What in tarnation is it?".
As near as I could judge, the group of things was about five miles off, stretched out in a line parallel with our own line of flight. The big one was roughly centre of the group, with the smaller ones extended fore and aft like a destroyer screen convoying a battleship.
Watching puzzled - the Stratocruiser was flying by auto-pilot at the time - I realised something else, too.
"The damn things are moving", I said.
Even as we watched, the big central thing began to change shape - or maybe it altered its angle of flight, giving the appearance of changing shape. I wouldn't know. What I do know is that during the entire eighteen minutes it flew along with us it changed shape continually while the smaller attendant things switched position around it.
This is something lots of people are going to want to know a deal about later, I told myself. There's going to be a lot of questions fired at me once I make my report. I'd better know some of the answers. How many small ones, for instance.
I counted, re-counted, counted again. Six. Always six. Sometimes there were three stretched out in front of the main thing and three behind. Sometimes five stretched out in line ahead and only one behind. I had the impression that just before I got round to counting them there were more than six, which ties in with Lee Boyd's idea that they were flying in and out of the large central object like aircraft entering and leaving a flight hangar.
Lee said, as though he didn't believe it himself: "There's a lot of Air Force traffic in and out of Goose Bay some days. Maybe it's a formation of fighters way out in the distance. Want me to call up Goose and check?".
It didn't look like any formation of fighters I'd ever seen, but I told him to go ahead.
He called up Approach Control at Goose Bay - told them what was going on.
"Hold it a moment and we'll check", they said. A minute later they reported back. "No other traffic in your area?". "Well, there are a number of very strange objects flying parallel with us some distance off", Lee said. "There's one large one and about six smaller ones". "Can you identify them?". "No". "Okay. We'll send a fighter up to take a look-see".
Now, from the inverted pear-shape the big thing had looked when I first saw it, it turned into what looked like a flying arrow - an enormous delta-wing plane turning in to close with us.
There was a nasty moment as we watched the thing seeming to grow larger as though drawing closer.
"It's coming towards us", I said.
But it wasn't. We watched, tense expectant, but it didn't come any closer. Suddenly the delta-wing appearance started to flatten down, stretching out, until it was now like a giant telephone receiver lying on its back in the sky, still with the smaller objects changing formation around it. Stretched out like that, assuming it was about five miles off, it looked about the size of an ocean liner.
I grabbed paper and began to sketch. My memory might play tricks with me later about this.
The four other members of the crew in the cockpit with us had got the gist of what was going on, had caught something of our own expectancy and tenseness. They crowded forward now to look out of the windows with us: George Allen, navigating officer; Doug Cox, radio officer, Dan Godfrey, engineering officer and a grizzled old veteran flyer; and Bill Stewart, the other engineering officer.
They all saw it. So did the steward and Daphne Webster, the stewardess, a twenty-seven-years-old Londoner. They both popped their heads inside the cockpit to tell us that some of the passengers had seen it too and wanted to know what it was.
Their guess was as good as mine.
The objects were still parallel with us, still keeping station with us at the same altitude. George Allen, angling himself so that he could line them up with the window-frame, said that at one time they went a little ahead of us and then dropped back exactly parallel again.
I was tempted to change course and take a closer look at the things, but I didn't. After all, I didn't know what the blazes they were and I had fifty-one passengers to consider. I also had a hunch that the things might sheer off if we showed too much interest, and, with a fighter coming up to intercept them, I wanted to be in the audience to see what happened.
Soon the pilot of the intercepting fighter came through on the radio: "Those things still with you?".
I said they were.
"Okay. I'm about twenty miles off, heading towards you at a slightly higher altitude".
I looked out of the cockpit window again. The things were still there.
"How do they look now?" the fighter pilot radioed.
Even as he said it, I realised that the things were no longer there - not all of them. The half-dozen attendant things had suddenly vanished.
"What happened to the smaller ones?" I asked.
George Allen, who had had his eyes on them the whole time, said: "It looked to me as though they went inside the big one". At that moment the big one itself began to get rapidly smaller as though it was sheering away from us at terrific speed.
"They're getting smaller", I told the fighter pilot over the radio.
I looked out again. The big central thing was streaking away into the distance - getting smaller and smaller. In a matter of seconds it was no more than a pinhead. Then it was gone altogether.
And that was that.
What was it? Search me. It wasn't anything natural, I know that. And we had the whole group clearly in view for a full eighteen minutes - entered in the navigation log as appearing at 0105 Greenwich Mean Time and disappearing again at 0123, a flying distance of eighty miles - the strangest eighty-mile journey of my life.
Twenty minutes later we landed at Goose Bay where a U.S.A.F. Intelligence Officer interviewed Lee Boyd, George Allen and myself. We told him what I have told you here.
Below are extracts from two of Capt. James HOWARD's eye-witness statements, one made in 1954, the other in 1967.
(i) From the "Captain's Voyage Report"*, completed by James HOWARD en route from Goose Bay to London on June 30, 1954:
At 0105 G.M.T. today (June 30) about 150 nautical miles southwest of Goose Bay, height 19,000 feet, flying in clear weather above a layer of low stratus cloud, I noticed on our port beam a number of dark objects at approximately the same altitude as our aircraft. I drew the attention of the First Officer (Lee Boyd), to them. He said he had just noticed them also. I jokingly said they reminded me of flak bursts. He agreed (Sketch 1)
It then became apparent that they were moving along on a track roughly parallel to ours and keeping station with is. The First Officer then called Goose approach to ask if there were any aircraft in out area (0107 G.M.T.) They said No. During this time the shape of the large object changed slightly - also the positions of the smaller ones relative to the big one. Some moved ahead, some behind. The First Officer then told Goose what we were watching and they said they would send a fighter to investigate. At this time the objects resembled Sketch 2.
The shape of the large one continually changed but its position relative to us did not - always about 90 degrees to port. The distance from us appeared not less than five miles, possibly very much more. During this time both engineers, both navigators, the radio officer, two stewards and the stewardess watched it and all of us agreed on its shape. The number of small objects accompanied it (usually six were visible) and all were agreed that we had never seen anything like it before. At about 0120 the fighter reported that he was approaching us. The objects immediately began to grow indistinct until only one was visible. This grew smaller and finally disappeared (0123 G.M.T.) still at the same bearing to us. I reported to the fighter which direction to head for and then commenced descent to Goose, landing at 0145 G.M.T. As we taxied in another fighter was dispatched to take over from the first.
A US Air Force Intelligence Officer met us and we gave him the story. I spoke to Fighter Control and he said he picked us up at 0113 G.M.T. (when we had the object in sight), but had nothing else on his screen but us.
All who watched the objects are sure that the large one at any rate was no sort of winged aircraft. The small ones were just dots. They left no vapour trails. No lights were seen, just black silhouettes. The visibility at this altitude was unlimited with no cloud other than low overcast. The sun had just set. A large flock of birds might explain it if they were birds that could fly at a true airspeed of 238 knots at 19,000 feet formating on a Boeing for about 80 miles.
* Quoted in: Carnell, 1954.
(ii) From University of Colorado UFO Project Sighting Report Form**, signed by Capt. James R. HOWARD, December 1, 1967:
I was in command of a BOAC Boeing Stratocruiser en route from New York to London via Goose Bay, Labrador (refuelling stop). Soon after crossing overhead Seven Islands at 19,000 feet, True Airspeed 230 KTS, both my copilot and I became aware of soimething moving along off our port beam at a lower altitude at a distance of maybe five miles, in and out of a broken layer of Strato Cumulus cloud. As we watched, these objects climbed above the cloud and we could now clearly see one large object and six small. As we flew on towards Goose Bay the large object began to change shape and the smaller to move relative to the larger.
We informed Goose Bay that we had something odd in sight and they made arrangements to vector a fighter (F-94?) on to us. Later I changed radio frequency to contact this fighter; the pilot told me he had me in sight on radar closing me head-on at 20 miles. At that the small objects seemed to enter the larger, and then the big one shrank. I gave a description if this to the fighter and a bearing of the objects from me. I then had to change back to the Goose freq for descent clearance. I don't know if the fighter saw anything as he hadn't landed when I left Goose for London. We were interviewed by USAF Intelligence at Goose, who seemed quite accustomed to such sightings in that area . . .
One object much larger than other six. All opaque, sharp-edged in silhouette. Position of small objects always in line with large one but moved about so that sometimes three either side, sometimes 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 ahead, rest behind. Never more than seven total. Shape of small ones always globular but larger constantly, slowly changing shape. No colours or lights seen. . . . [Appeared] either solid or thick opaque gas.
When first sighted (my aircraft was at 19,000 ft which I maintained) the objects were approx. on my port beam but perhaps 10,000 ft lower. Maintaining their position laterally they climbed until they appeared to be at our altitude. Later, I think they climbed slightly before disappearing. When first seen the background was part cloud (3/8ths St.Cu) which they appeared to be moving through. Later the background was bright sky just before and after sunset.
[Speed of objects] 230 KTS (...) Same speed as airplane.
Small objects appeared to enter larger, then larger dwindled away to a pinpoint and disappeared.
** Files of the University of Colorado UFO Project, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.
Other possibly interesting sources: http://ufos.about.com/od/bestufocasefiles/p/1954boac.htm
0316C-1956 - Alberta - Childerhose
0316C-1956 - Alberta - Childerhose
RCAF pilot Childerhose Canada 1956 UFO Photo over the Canadian Rockies near Ft. MacCleod, Alberta, by Canadian Air Force pilot R. J. Childerhose
A Royal Canadian Air Force pilot while flying in a 4 plane formation at an altitude of about 11 km on 27-Aug-1958, saw and photographed a bright disc, that was remaining stationary between the clouds.
From a letter to Philip Klass: "I had the object in good view for upwards of 45 seconds. It was stationary, with sharply defined edges. Looked like a shiny silver dollar sitting horizontal. The light emitted was much brighter than the existing sunlight and overexposed the film causing blurred edges in the picture... It neither moved nor changed shape while I had it in sight."
Related: There are many reports of brightly luminous UFOs in flight appearing as "blobs of light" in photos, due to camera film over-exposure, e.g. USCG 1952, Zurich Airport and San Jacinto 1988. Also, the World War II "foo fighters" more were luminous objects that would pace aircraft over battle-zones. Considering this, one can imagine why the vast majority of UFO reports are of strange "lights in the sky", moving erratically zig-zagging etc.The following statement by pilot Robert J. Childerhose was published by Flying Saucer Review in October, 1958. It was written in the late spring of 1958, roughly 1 3/4 years after the event. Note that the date given here was not recalled correctly. During the 1968 investigation of this sighting by Dr. James McDonald, Mr. Childerhose referred to his log book and found the correct date, August 27, which was two days before he and another Sabre jet pilot set a speed record flying east over Canada. The time, 1820 hours, is also incorrect. In other correspondence Mr. Childerhose stated that he landed in Vancouver at about 7:20 PDT which corresponds to 8:20 MDT. He estimated that the sighting took place about an hour before the landing, which would be at 7:20 MDT. The one hour estimate is based on the calculated flight time from a location near Ft. MacCleod to Vancouver (445 miles, 450 miles per hour estimated ground speed).
“On the afternoon of 23 August 1956 the writer was flying #2 position in a four plane formation of Sabre 6 (F-86) aircraft from Gimli, Manitoba, to Vancouver, B.C. Our flight altitude was 37,000 feet, weather was good with cumulus and cumulonimbus cloud formations forming an intermittently broken undercast beneath us. Visibility was unlimited.
At about 1820 hours (local time) and at a point roughly over the foothills of the Rocky Mountains along a direct path between
Gimli and Vancouver, we encountered a larger-than-usual thunderstorm. The leader of the formation elected to climb over the
storm and called for climb power. The writer, who was shooting 35 mm color pics, decided to get a shot of the dark purple areas
beneath the CB (cumulonimbus).
On looking down, he saw a bright light which was sharply defined and disc-shaped. (Like a silver dollar lying on its side.)
The light being emitted from this source was considerably brighter than the sunlight which was beginning to set (sic). The sunlight was reflecting on the tops of cumulus formations, and was coming from our 10 o’clock position. (This is relative to the aircraft’s heading. ) The white disc was at 1 o’clock.
The writer called the attention of the formation to the light, asking for an opinion. The leader, F/L Ralph Annis, commented at
that time: “Maybe it’s a shaft of reflected sunlight.”
(Note: Speaking to F/L Annis in May 1958, writer asked if he recalled the incident. F/L Annis said that he didn’t. )
The writer took a photo of the disc, thinking only that it was a peculiar phenomena (sic). The idea of it being ‘reflected
sunlight’ did not sound plausible then, or since.
The disc of light appeared to be at a distance 3 miles from our position and at an altitude of about 20,000 feet. However, since the size of the object is unknown, the range quoted above is strictly a fighter pilot’s guess.
On landing at Vancouver a short while later, the members of the section discussed the light briefly. Everyone agreed that it was an unusual sight. Nobody had even encountered a similar orb of light ; nobody had any reasonable explanation to offer; nobody suggested that it might have been a ‘Flying Saucer.’”
In correspondence dated ten or more years after the above written testimony (and 12 or more years after the event) Childerhose stated that he had made an error in the above testimony: the object was at 10 o’clock and the sun was at 1 o’clock. Moreover, he claimed he rolled his aircraft to the left in order to take the picture. He said that he doubted that he rolled his aircraft to the right since that would have taken him toward the other planes, an action which “frightened him.” In other correspondence (see below) he indicated considerable confusion over his recollection of the direction to object from the aircraft. On the other hand, he also recalled (see below) that the flight leader wanted the jets to turn to the right while climbing to avoid the anvil of the thunderhead, so perhaps he took the picture as he began his right turn at a time when the other aircraft were also turning to the right. He may have confused the avoidance maneuvers with his maneuver to photograph the object. Whatever may be the explanation for his confusion, the fact is that the original slide photograph shows light coming from the left (west) which means the sighting line to the object was toward the northwest. The photo format (50 mm focal length, 35 mm film) and the image location in the picture can be used to determine the angle between the image and the left edge of the film. That angle is about 28 degress. Therefore the sighting line to the object must have been greater than about 28 degrees to the right (north) of the sun, or greater than 304 deg. azimuth. The lighting on the clouds, as shown in the original slide photograph, is consistent with this.
In his later correspondence he was more specific with details about the object and the sighting. From a letter to Philip Klass, September, 1966: “I had the object in good view for upwards of 45 seconds. It was stationary, with sharply defined edges. Looked like a shiny silver dollar sitting horizontal. The light emitted was much brighter than the existing sunlight and overexposed the film causing blurred edges in the picture....... It neither moved nor changed shape while I had it in sight..... I remember looking down at the object from 38,000 ft and thinking that it was close to about 12,000 feet since it appeared to be close to the scattered layer of fluffy cumulus which I recollected was forecast to be between 10 and 12,000. (Pretty standard.)”
From a letter to Dr.James McDonald, June 12, 1968: “I don’t know whether I mentioned this to you but the photo of the bright object doesn’t represent quite what appeared to the naked eye. When I first saw the object it appeared as a very bright, clearly defined discoid, like a silver dollar lying on its side. The photo makes it look like a blob of light, the result of light intensity. It appeared much brighter than that (sic) of the sun which, of course was setting behind the clouds up ahead. What appears in the Kodachrome slide is a disappointment, really.”
From a letter to Jim McDonald, March 22, 1969: “It was in good view for some minutes because I looked at it trying to figure out what I was seeing and I called the attention of the formation to it before remembering that I had a camera in my leg pocket.”
From a letter to this author, September 19, 1984: “The object remained perfectly stationary throughout the period that I witnessed it. I recall the formation turned starboard and began climbing. The UFO, now at 8 o’clock low position relative to me was lost to view behind a cloud. This could have been the low cumulus near the UFO or in the mists of the scud roll of cloud which we climbed through to reach our (final altitude).”
From a letter to Dr. James McDonald: "...the photo of the bright object doesn't represent quite what appeared to the naked eye. When I first saw the object it appeared as a very bright, clearly defined discoid, like a silver dollar lying on its side. The photo makes it look like a blob of light, the result of light intensity. It appeared much brighter than that (sic) of the sun which, of course, was setting behind the clouds up ahead. What appears in the Kodachrome slide is a disappointment, really." "It was in good view for some minutes because I looked at it trying to figure out what I was seeing and I called the attention of the formation to it before remembering that I had a camera in my leg pocket."
0316C-1961 - Canadian Pacific Airlines
0316C-1961 - Canadian Pacific Airlines
Canadian Pacific Airlines UFO
Fate - May - 1960's
Aliens and Ufology Index
Canadian Pacific Airlines pilots have described one of the best UFO sightings of the winter. The report was not publicized until January but the sighting took place about 1:00 a.m. December 30, during a flight from Lima, Peru, to Mexico City.
Capt. Robert Millbank and his DC-8 jet crew of four other officers were at 35,000 feet off the coast of Peru over the Pacific Ocean. Millbank was the first to see two strange lights ahead and slightly to the left of the airplane. "They were twinkling with the refraction of the atmosphere and at first I thought they might be stars," he told The Columbian.
"Then I could see they were getting farther apart and moving toward us."
Flying copilot with Millbank was John Dennis Dahl, second officer. "Millbank hit my arm and said 'there's something out there,' " Dahl explained. "I looked, and there were two lights, about 60 degrees to the left of our nose and a little bit higher than we were." "They were beams - different from anything I've ever seen, and hard to explain. I thought they looked like beams of energy but I can't say that either. They pulsed, changed colors and changed intensity."
"They came down and into us and kept pace with us for a few minutes, just as though they were having a look at us," Dahl continued. "Then we could see a line of other smaller lights between the bigger ones, in a slight curve." "There was a shape between the big lights and it was unfortunate that it wasn't daylight so we could define it. There would be sparks from one of the large lights and it would get brighter and when this happened we thought we could see a change of direction."
"At the height we were flying, the air is clear - there is no water vapor or dust to reflect a beam of light. And those beams weren't like a searchlight anyway - they were different." "They changed angles. When they were coming closer they were parallel to the ground and when they were keeping pace with us they angled down. They were a sort of bluish grey but they change colors and I can't describe the colors. They were just different."
Millbank explained that if the object had been an airplane the lights would have been red and green. And if it had been a satellite the sighting wouldn't have lasted so long. There was a quarter-moon at the time but it was not possible to judge the distance of the lights or the size of the objects. Dahl said: "If we assume a distance of about 500 feet off our wing tip, it would have been just a little smaller than our aircraft."
After keeping pace for several minutes the lights dropped behind to about 120 degrees and then climbed. During the entire sighting the five members of the crew were on the flight deck looking out at the strange lights from several windows. The passengers were all asleep in the cabin and were not awakened. "We moved around from one window to another," said Dahl, "and the beams always looked the same, so it wasn't refraction or reflections we were seeing."
At one time Captain Millbank took the plane of automatic pilot because it looked as if the object "might come right in and intercept us." He filed a report of the sighting on landing in Mexico City.
Dahl, who was with the Royal Canadian Air Force for eight and one-half years, attached to an interceptor squadron, said the lights "were foreign to us." Asked, "Do you think they were foreign to this planet?" he replied, "Yes - I'm convinced."
Sources and Credits:
Project Red Book by Richard Meyer (New York)
Newspaper Cutting Source: Fate - May - 1960's
Article by Curtis Fuller
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