U.S. Air Force Analysis of Flying Objects in the United States, 1-100
- Date
- Date unknown
- Place
- United States (multiple states) and some foreign reports
- Record
- Pentagon file
- Assessment
- Not assessed
- Evidence strength
What was reported
A 253-page compendium of numbered 'Check-List - Unidentified Flying Objects' case forms, incident summaries and cover correspondence, apparently covering Air Force UFO cases numbered roughly through the 90s-100s in the 1947-1949 period (the title says 1-100). Most of the OCR text is unusable line noise from a poor microfilm scan, but the last several pages (Incidents 94-97) are legible: a United Airlines pilot and separate ground witnesses roughly 200 miles apart independently reported a bright flash/explosion in the sky on 30 December 1947 at nearly the same time, and a Finland sighting was relayed via a U.S. military attache from the Helsinki press. No overall conclusion or 'Case No. 1-100' index page was located in the sampled ranges.
What officials concluded
No conclusion stated
The file gives no official explanation.
- Agency
- Department of War
- Released in
- 123456
Evidence profile
- Yes: Visual
- No: Infrared
- No: Radar
- No: Video
- No: Photo
- No: Film
- No: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- Yes: Civilian
- No: Military aircrew
- No: Military ground
- Yes: Airline crew
- No: Sensor operator
- No: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- No: Other
- Yes: Light only
- No: Orb or sphere
- No: Disc
- No: Triangle
- No: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- No: Other shape
- No: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- No: Sound
- No: Silent
Why this rating Almost all pages are OCR-illegible, so the great majority of the ~90-100 cataloged incidents could not be individually assessed. The one fully legible cluster (Incidents 94-97) describes a brief, high-altitude flash independently corroborated from two widely separated vantage points, which is consistent with a bright meteor/bolide; no conventional-explanation statement appears in the sampled text, but nothing in it rules one out either.
As described in the file
- Witnesses
- A United Airlines Flight 191 pilot; a motorist on U.S. Highway 40 near Lovelock, Nevada; Fairfield and Oakland airport control towers (relaying reports); many other named/unnamed civilian and military observers across the unread portions
- Sensors
- Visual
- Shape
- Varies by incident; 'flash/explosion' in the readable cluster
- Duration
- Readable flash event: seconds
- Altitude or range
- Flash observed at an estimated 1,200-1,300 feet
Pentagon files
DOW-UAP-D087, U.S. Air Force Analysis of Flying Objects in the United States, 1-100
Open the original on war.gov
What the file claims
- Unverified
A United Airlines pilot and a motorist roughly 200 miles apart independently reported a bright flash or explosion in the sky within minutes of each other on 30 December 1947, logged as connected Incidents 94-97.
- Unverified
A Finland sighting of a 'brightly shining object with a long tail' moving west to east for about 30 seconds near Vaasa on 3 January [1948] was relayed to U.S. authorities via the Helsinki press and the U.S. military attache.
On the map
39.80° N, 98.60° W, plotted at the centre of the country
Show on the map