Disclosed

38_143685_box_Incident_Summaries_101-172

Date
1945 to 1948
Place
United States and abroad (multiple incidents, numbered approx. 101-172)
Record
Pentagon file
Assessment
Not assessed
Evidence strength
467 case pages by decade; this one falls in 1940s with 30 othersAll cases

What was reported

Continuation of the same Air Materiel Command 'CHECK-LIST - UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS' case file series, Incidents roughly #101-#172. Sampled cases include a 1945 Kansas fireball later recovered as a meteorite (with a witness statement describing a close, physical encounter with a low, hovering object that is filed alongside it), a two-decade telescoping of incident numbers into 1948 events near The Hague and near a farm (a silver sphere that 'unraveled' material and disintegrated), and two 1948 foreign-press cases (Turkey, USSR) relayed via U.S. military attaches, one of which the source itself resolves as a rocket.

What officials concluded

Tentative explanation

Incident #170 (Turkey): the reported 'flying disc' was a rocket that exploded in the air; Incident #171 (near Moscow): an intelligence comment suggests a conventional aircraft under unusual light conditions, without ruling out a dirigible.

Agency
Department of War
Released in

Evidence profile

Sensors3 of 9
  • Visual
  • Infrared
  • Radar
  • Video
  • Photo
  • Film
  • Audio
  • Night vision
  • Other sensor
Witnessescount not stated
  • Civilian
  • Military aircrew
  • Military ground
  • Airline crew
  • Sensor operator
  • Law enforcement
  • Scientist
  • Astronaut
  • Intelligence official
  • Other
ShapeOrb or sphere
  • Light only
  • Orb or sphere
  • Disc
  • Triangle
  • Cylinder
  • Cube
  • Other shape
Effects1 reported
  • Physiological
  • Physical trace
  • Electromagnetic
  • Sound
  • Silent

Why this rating Almost entirely single-witness, visual-only accounts; the strongest physical-trace case (Incident #101) is explicitly resolved as a meteor with a recovered meteorite, though the same folder pairs it with an unrelated close-encounter witness statement (Leland Sammons) whose connection to Incident #101 is unclear from the sampled text. No radar or multi-instrument corroboration in any sampled case.

As described in the file

Witnesses
Civilians (a newspaper editor, a farm witness, a court-of-damage investigator in the Netherlands) and foreign press relayed by attaches
Sensors
Visual, film (one case: an amateur photograph of a meteor's vapor trail)
Shape
Mushroom-shaped smoke trail (Incident #101, meteor), wingless two-deck aircraft shape (Incident #168), sphere (Incident #169), unstated (#170, #171)
Lights and colour
Varies: bluish-white smoke, silver
Motion
Varies: disintegration in flight, unraveling material while floating, high-speed intermittent sighting through clouds
Duration
Seconds to unspecified
Altitude or range
Varies, one case estimated at 30-45 miles (almost certainly a garbled or exaggerated meteor altitude estimate)
Effects
Physical trace claimed in one case (a ~109-lb stony achondrite meteorite recovered and described as connected to Incident #101's fireball)

Pentagon files

1

What the file claims

3
  • Unverified

    A meteorite of roughly 109 lb was recovered near Norton, Kansas and linked to the fireball recorded as Incident #101 (18 February 1945).

  • Unverified

    A farmer near Stockton, Kansas described a close encounter with a hovering, funnel-shaped object that 'belched fire' about six feet from his face before departing at speed, filed in the same folder as the Kansas meteor case.

  • Unverified

    A witness described a large silver sphere that floated across a farm, unraveled a silver substance in flight, and disintegrated in mid-air, judged sincere by the investigating officer.

On the map

39.80° N, 98.60° W, plotted at the centre of the country

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