detective work and the luck required. At about 4:56 P.M. C.S.T. a
brilliant detonating fireball soared over an area including Kansas,
Nebraska, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas, and left a large white cloud
that was visible for about an hour afterward. Newspapers publicized
the phenomenon as a flying saucer and a few excited witnesses agreed.
One man affirmed that shortly before the explosion the strange craft
hovered over his yard at eye level, belching fire and showering sparks,
then suddenly took off, climbing fast, and exploded.
Meteoriticists at once recognized the characteristic pattern of an
exploding meteor and determined to find the remains. From newspaper
reports and personal interviews with the witnesses, H. H. Nininger
of the American Meteorite Museum in Arizona plotted the path and
determined that the probable point of explosion was thirteen miles
west and three miles north of Norton, Kansas[V-16]. From similar
investigations, Lincoln La Paz of the Institute of Meteoritics in
New Mexico determined the probable place of impact as an area eight
miles long and four miles wide, about thirty-two square miles, on the
Kansas-Nebraska line.
During the Easter vacation a field-survey party from New Mexico
drove north into Kansas to hunt for the meteorite, but blizzards and
snow-blocked roads stopped the work. A second search, begun on April
27, suggested that the main mass of the meteorite must have fallen
somewhere in Furnas County, Nebraska. When persistent hunting failed to
reveal it, the searchers moved south into Kansas, where a farmer had
found a strange stone that smelled of sulphur and contained metallic
specks. Although many stony meteorites of various weights turned up in
this area, the main mass remained hidden until July 3 when a farmer
located it, by accident, in a field that the official party had already
examined and abandoned some three months earlier. This meteorite,
although it weighed more than a ton and had dug out a six-foot crater
in the ground, had eluded the hunters because “at the time of the fall
the only dwelling close to the point of impact was unoccupied and ...
the impact occurred in a field so overgrown with weeds and stubble that
even the large crater made by the record-breaking main mass of the fall
was finally located only when by chance a caterpillar tractor started
to fall into it.”[V-17]
To find these meteorites, several highly trained searchers had spent
days of effort, made a number of field surveys, driven more than 10,000
miles, and interviewed hundreds of persons who observed the flight
of the fireball. Even so, they counted themselves lucky because many
“meteorites of such composition and structure, although large enough to
produce spectacular light and sound effects in the intermediate layers
of the atmosphere, might disintegrate so completely during transit
through the denser lower atmosphere that only dust would survive to
reach the earth.”
The green fireballs of New Mexico were silent; they were probably icy
structures and hence produced no meteorites. Even if they had, locating
the place of fall would have been nearly impossible because the meteors
appeared at night in a sparsely populated area.
To summarize: Many meteors do not leave fragments. Even when they do,
finding the meteorite requires luck as well as hard work.
_Unusual Fireballs_
The officers and crewmen of a plane in flight have a front-row seat at
the drama of the heavens, where astronomical events seem doubly vivid
against the dark night sky. The pilot has been trained to recognize
the major constellations, the brightest stars, and ordinary phenomena
such as meteors and the Aurora Borealis. As a rule, however, he limits
his study to the needs of the job. The few who have an astronomer’s
intimate acquaintance with the heavens have often made valuable
contributions to our knowledge. Comet 1957d was first observed by
an airman and Comet 1948l was discovered by a pilot flying from the
Fiji Islands to Australia. Comet Wilson, discovered on July 23, 1961
(and reported to the Air Force by some persons as a UFO), was first
recognized by A. Stewart Wilson, navigator on a Pan American flight
over the Pacific. All members of the crew were skilled and experienced
fliers, but he alone was equipped to see the significance of the
intruder in the constellation Gemini[V-18].
One of the most fantastic apparitions to confront a pilot is a group of
luminous objects flaming through the air in more or less geometrical
formation. The objects often seem to be heading directly toward the
plane on a collision course but, as though under intelligent control,
seem to veer off at the last possible instant and then disappear
at incredible speed. The pilot usually recognizes this frightening
phenomenon as an exploding meteor or a cluster of fireballs.
Occasionally the sight is so extraordinary that he insists it could
not have been a mere meteor but must have been some weird spacecraft.
Airmen of unquestioned competence have made this mistake, sometimes
because they more than half believed in extraterrestrial visitors, but
more often because they knew less than they supposed about meteors.
In trying to identify the alarming objects approaching his plane, the
pilot often thinks first of a meteor, then rejects the idea with some
form of the remark, “Whatever it was, it was certainly not a meteor;
I’ve seen meteors and I can’t be fooled.” He usually adds that no
meteor could travel so fast (or so slowly) as the one he saw; so high
(or so low); could have such a color; steer so “obvious” a collision
course; fly as part of so orderly a group; move in so level (or so
steeply angled) a path; maintain so steady a course; change course so
abruptly; move so silently; or create so loud a detonation.
Such an incident occurred on a Pan American flight from New York to
San Juan early on the morning of March 9, 1957. At about 3:30 A.M.
when the plane was off Jacksonville, Florida, the pilot and the flight
engineer saw a burning, greenish-white, round object coming out of
nowhere, seemingly only a half mile away and headed across their nose
on a direct collision course[V-19]. In such a situation a plane’s
captain cannot waste time in analyzing what he sees, but must act. In
a violent evasive move he put the plane into a climb of about 1500
feet, during which several passengers were thrown out of their seats
and injured. At the same moment the crews of at least seven other
flights within an area of 300 miles were reporting the same object.
One witness saw it split in two and the fiery rear section drop away.
About an hour earlier, the pilot of another plane in the area had seen
the breakup of a similar meteor but had not reported it. In spite of
all the evidence that the unknown was a normal meteor, breaking apart
as many meteors do, the Pan American pilot, “having seen thousands of
meteors,” could not accept the object as a natural phenomenon although
he did realize, after he heard the other reports, that he had greatly
underestimated its distance. The object showed all the characteristics
of a typical fireball, but the flying-saucer cultists have still tried
to convert this undoubted meteor into an unknown object.
The number of meteors reported as flying saucers or spaceships has
diminished in the last few years, but the Air Force has continued to
investigate all doubtful or puzzling sightings to determine whether
they in any way represent a possible threat to the nation’s security.
Every sure identification of a UFO as merely a meteor, not a ballistic
missile, brings a certain amount of relief.
A typical case, successfully solved, is that of June 20, 1959. About
2:15 A.M. the pilot of a United Airlines flight over the Pacific
reported by radio to Flight Operations that he had observed an apparent
rocket firing about thirty-five miles west of the plane position; radar
detected the presence of a surface vessel at about the same position.
The pilot first noticed a flash of light, then the entire sky lighted
up and he saw four round, fiery globules, of an intense bluish-white
color, with no tails. Flying two by two in a straight line, they made
no sound and disappeared after about two seconds. The weather was clear
and calm, the visibility excellent. The copilot, sitting at the right,
saw only the first flash, but the pilot of another plane some 120 miles
to the west reported seeing the same objects at the same time[V-19].
Because this sighting occurred in a very sensitive area where military
officials were expecting a Russian test firing of an ICBM, the Air
Force made an exhaustive study of this report and identified the object
as a meteor. Their evaluation proceeded as follows:
The United Airlines pilot estimated the distance of the objects as
only about thirty miles and their rate of travel as about 15 degrees
in two seconds. These figures indicated a velocity of approximately
14,500 miles per hour, about the speed of a ballistic missile. But
the relatively low altitude, the flat trajectory, and the fact that a
visible “power plant” was apparently still operating at this stage of
flight ruled out the possibility of a missile. However, if the observer
had underestimated the distance and the objects were actually hundreds
of miles away, then the data would indicate a speed of about 50,000
miles an hour, in the range of meteor velocities. The descriptions
given closely matched that of the classic fireball, whose colors range
over white, blue, green, red, and yellow, and whose luminosity may be
as great as -3 magnitudes. The Air Force concluded that the object
sighted was, in all probability, a meteor.
A similar sighting, which saucer enthusiasts have publicized as a
brilliantly lighted UFO that appeared to hold a definite course,
occurred at 3:02 A.M. on July 11, 1959, also over the Pacific[V-19].
The pilot of a Pan American Airlines flight reported that a mysterious
bright object accompanied at its left by four smaller lights had
approached his plane at “inconceivable speed,” made a sharp right turn,
and then disappeared. The objects seemed to be flying evenly spaced in
formation, and the pilot, who had never seen anything like it in all
his years of flying, told the newspapers, “I’m a believer, now.”
The official investigation began immediately. Four other commercial
flights had reported seeing the object at the same time. In each
case, the pilot stated that the objects seemed to head straight at
his plane at high speed on a collision course, then made a 90-degree
turn and disappeared. The various reports, however, showed significant
disagreements. Some witnesses gave the color as white, some as
orange-yellow. Of the several pilots, each gave a different description
of the “formation”: a big light with four smaller lights flying at
the left; a big light surrounded by a cluster of six or seven smaller
lights; a big light followed by four smaller lights; a big light in the
center of a rectangle formed by four smaller lights. Of the five pilots
who made official reports, one said the phenomenon was definitely not a
meteor, two said it could have been a meteor, and two did not venture
an opinion. The pilots of several other flights stated, on landing,
that they too had seen the object but had not radioed a report because
they assumed it to be a meteor.
After mapping and correlating all the observations, ATIC completed
the analysis and released the result to the press on July 14, only
three days after the sighting, a remarkably efficient piece of work.
Conclusion: the object was a fireball[V-20].
The literature of flying saucers contains dozens of similar incidents
that fit perfectly into the meteor pattern. Pointing to this list of
“unidentified” flying objects, saucer addicts still abuse the Air Force
for concealing the “fact” that these UFOs are actually spaceships!
_Great Meteor Processions_
Even more dramatic than the ordinary exploding meteor whose fragments
naturally fall into a pattern around it, a cluster of fireballs or
a great procession of meteors occasionally startles the world. On
December 21, 1876, about 8:45 P.M. such a swarm of fireballs appeared
over Kansas and disappeared some three minutes later over Pennsylvania,
having traveled the thousand-mile distance at a velocity of 20,000
to 25,000 miles an hour. Hundreds of persons in Kansas, Missouri,
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania saw the display, which
included nearly 100 separate fireballs; the leader was more brilliant
than the full moon and many of the followers were brighter than Venus
or Jupiter. Perhaps fortunately for the nerves of the public, the most
recent such display occurred before the saucers began to fly (March 24,
1933). This cluster of fireballs was visible chiefly in the skies over
New Mexico and left a great cloud that was visible for at least three
hours.
The most spectacular of such formations was the great meteor procession
of February 9, 1913. At about 9:05 in the evening the leader or leaders
appeared in the sky over western Canada, their fiery red bodies
followed by long streaming tails. These immense fireballs showed no
tendency to fall toward the earth but, like the green fireballs of New
Mexico, “moved forward on a perfectly horizontal path with peculiar,
majestic, dignified deliberation,” and disappeared in the distance
to the southwest. No description can surpass that given by Professor
Chant[V-21] who spent two weeks in locating and interviewing many of
the witnesses.
“Before the astonishment aroused by this first meteor had subsided,
other bodies were seen coming from the northwest, emerging from
precisely the same place as the first one. Onward they moved, at the
same deliberate pace, in twos or threes or fours, with tails streaming
behind, though not so long nor so bright as in the first case. They
all traversed the same path and were headed for the same point in the
southeastern sky.
“Gradually the bodies became smaller, until the last ones were but
red sparks, some of which were snuffed out before they reached
their destination. Several report that near the middle of the great
procession was a fine large star without a tail, and that a similar
body brought up the rear.
“To most observers the outstanding feature of the phenomenon was the
slow, majestic motion of the bodies; and almost equally remarkable was
the perfect formation which they retained. Many compared them to a
fleet of airships, with lights on either side and forward and aft;...
Others, again, likened them to great battleships, attended by cruisers
or destroyers.”
No other recorded meteors have persisted for so great a distance.
Thousands of persons saw this great procession as it soared over
Saskatchewan, central Canada, Toronto and the Great Lakes region, New
York and Pennsylvania, the shipping lanes from New York to Bermuda, and
on over the South Atlantic, where before it vanished it was observed
by ships as far south as Brazil--a distance of some 5000 miles, one
fifth of the earth’s circumference. The descriptions do not vary
significantly and they all mention the slow, level flight, parallel to
the earth’s surface.
Some astronomers have suggested that these unusual meteors may
have been a group of natural satellites deflected by the earth’s
gravitation, slowing down and finally disintegrating as they made their
final revolution[V-14]. But if the UFO cult had existed in 1913, the
flying-saucer enthusiasts would probably have regarded the fireball
procession as a fleet of spaceships, and would have speculated on the
problem of what planet dispatched them and for what purpose.
_The Chiles-Whitted Sighting_
The Chiles-Whitted UFO, sighted on July 24, 1948, is one of the most
publicized of the classics. Although the object appeared, passed, and
vanished in an interval of roughly ten seconds, and the descriptions
given by the three witnesses differed on several vital points, Dr. J.
Allen Hynek, astronomer consultant to ATIC, in his report of April
30, 1949, identified it as an undoubted meteor. Nevertheless, not
until 1959 did the Air Force officially accept this solution, and the
literature of saucerdom still cites the incident as indisputable proof
of alien spaceships.
On the evening of July 23 an Eastern Airlines DC-3 took off from
Houston, Texas, en route for Boston, with an experienced pilot and
copilot in the cockpit. By 2:40 A.M. C.D.S.T. July 24 the plane was a
few miles southwest of Montgomery, Alabama, flying at an altitude of
5000 feet. The night was clear, and a bright moon just four days past
full shone through a layer of broken clouds about 1000 feet above the
plane. At 2:45 A.M. the pilot, Captain C. S. Chiles, noticed a dull
red glow some distance ahead, approaching from a little above and to
the right of the plane. He remarked to his copilot, Lieutenant J. B.
Whitted, “Look, here comes a new Army jet job.”[V-19] In the next few
seconds, however, he changed his mind about the identity of the object.
As both men watched, the brilliantly glowing unknown continued to
approach with incredible swiftness, apparently on a collision course;
it seemed to veer slightly, passed the plane on the right almost level
with and parallel to the flight path, then seemed to pull up sharply
and disappear into the clouds. Captain Chiles estimated that the object
was in sight for about ten seconds. The one passenger who was awake,
sitting at the right of the cabin, saw the light for only an instant as
it flashed by.
The brief impressions of these three witnesses were the sole foundation
for newspaper stories that the plane had narrowly escaped collision
with a spaceship.
In their official report both pilots agreed on the general appearance
of the UFO: it looked like a wingless aircraft with no fins or
protruding surfaces, was cigar-shaped, about 100 feet long, and about
twice the diameter of a B-29 superfortress. It seemed to have two rows
of windows through which glowed a very bright light, brilliant as a
magnesium flare. An intense dark-blue glow like a blue fluorescent
factory light shone at the bottom along the entire length, and
red-orange flames shot out from the rear to a distance of some fifty
feet. Neither man heard any sound and neither saw any occupants. In
their original report to ATIC both men agreed that “no disturbance was
felt from the air waves, nor was there any prop wash or mechanical
disturbance when the object passed.” The third witness, the passenger,
did not report any turbulence or rocking of the plane. Some of the
later versions of the incident gloss over these facts, however, and
thus exaggerate the startling nature of the sighting. One account
subtly implies the presence of a pilot in the UFO and several state
that, as the object passed, the plane hit turbulent air[V-7, p. 61]
or was “rocked” by the UFO[V-20, p. 21].
Like most eyewitness descriptions of a startling event, the testimony
of the three men differed. Chiles stated that at the front of the UFO
was a lighted pilot compartment or cockpit with a “snout” similar
to a radar pole, and that a kind of nozzle projected from the rear
from which the flames fanned out to a width of twenty or thirty feet.
Whitted did not see a cockpit, a snout, or a rear nozzle; he thought
the flames flared out from the entire rear and were never any wider
than the width of the UFO itself. The third witness, the passenger,
saw no shape or form, only an intensely brilliant streak of light
that appeared and vanished before he was able to focus his eyes. As
responsible officers, both pilots had obviously tried to separate the
observed phenomena from their interpretation. They differed widely
on the estimated distance of the UFO (the passenger did not offer an
estimate). Chiles thought it passed them with a margin of only about
700 feet, but Whitted believed the distance to be more than ten times
greater, about a mile and a half. However, when we remember that these
men had the UFO in sight for only a small fraction of a minute and that
their study of the side view (“windows,” “cockpit,” etc.) must have
been limited to the instant of passing, these disagreements are not
remarkable.
When Captain Chiles and Lieutenant Whitted reported their frightening
experience, the Air Force made a prompt investigation. Since Captain
Chiles explicitly stated his belief that the UFO was under intelligent
control, the case required careful consideration. A check of the air
traffic showed that no other planes had been in the area at the time,
so the object could not have been a normal aircraft. Furthermore, other
equally reliable witnesses reported seeing unusually bright meteors
in the Southeast that night. Since the bare physical description of
the UFO, apart from the inferences made, was identical with that of a
fireball, Dr. Hynek concluded that it was an unusually bright meteor.
But the climate at ATIC that summer was not friendly to a prosaic
explanation. Remembering the tragic death of Captain Mantell some
six months earlier while he was chasing a UFO, then unidentified (p.
33), some officials were more than half ready to believe in invading
space fleets as the answer to every puzzling phenomenon in the sky.
They rejected the fireball explanation. Instead of accepting the
Chiles-Whitted UFO as a meteor, they identified the other two meteors
seen that night as UFOs!
And yet the evidence is overwhelming that the UFO _was_ a fireball.
The major meteor showers that occur on schedule every year have
accounted for hundreds of alleged UFOs over the last fifteen years.
Several of these showers begin in mid-July; thus July 24 falls in a
period of greatly increased meteor activity, when the earth is moving
through the Aquarid streams and is encountering the forerunners of the
Perseids. All during the year, and particularly during these weeks
of shower meteors, amateur astronomers throughout the country spend
many evenings watching the sky, counting meteors, mapping their paths,
and reporting the data to various observatories. On an average night
outside the shower periods, if there are few clouds and no moon, an
experienced watcher may count about half a dozen meteors in an hour’s
time, but during a shower he usually sees many more. For the week of
July 23 to 30, 1948, the records of the American Meteor Society, the
Harvard College Observatory, and the Flower and Cook Observatory show
that, in spite of the interference of a bright moon, large numbers of
meteors were counted and the paths of many of them were mapped and
plotted.
The reports from the Southeast for that week have particular interest
for the Chiles-Whitted case. A regular observer in Alabama counted
fifteen meteors in one hour’s watching on the evening of July 24, and
twenty-one in two hours the following night[V-22]. On the evening of
July 26 he apparently took a holiday, but many other persons saw a huge
fireball that flashed over North Carolina and Tennessee at 9:36 P.M.
E.S.T.; its radiant (AMS 2322), plotted from many reports, showed it to
be a member of the Delta Aquarid stream, then approaching its maximum.
Early on the morning of July 27 another fireball soared over Tennessee
and apparently exploded[V-23]. On the night of July 28 the Alabama
watcher recorded fifteen meteors, from which he obtained the radiants
AMS 3269, 3270, and 3271[V-9, p. 521].