On June 24, 1947, Boise, Idaho businessman and pilot Kenneth Arnold
had just finished an equipment instal-lation job for Chehalis, Washington's
Central Air Service when he learned that a lost C-46 Marine transport plane
was believed to have crashed in the vicinity of nearby Mt. Rainier. A $5,000
reward was being offered to any person who could locate the wreckage. An
experience rough-terrain pilot and Idaho Search and Rescue Mercy Flyer,
Arnold decided to delay his scheduled return to Yakima by an hour in order
to spend some search time over the mountain. He completed a meticulous
ground inspection of his own vehicle, then took to the air.
While making a 180 degree turn over Mineral, Washington, a bright,
blue-white flash lit the surface of his airplane. For a moment he believed
he had nearly collided with another craft, but the only other plane he
could spot was a large DC-4 far off to his left and rear,
far too distant to have caused the strange effect.
The flash came again, and this time he was able to determine its direction
of origin and follow the flash back to its source. A formation of shining
objects were chasing one another over the mountaintops to his left and
north, flying very close to the rocky surface in tight formation, traveling
at tremendous speed.
They approached rapidly, passing almost in front of Arnold's plane.
He counted nine of the objects, crescent-shaped and tailless, as they rocketed
along in a peculiar reverse echelon formation, the first craft flying higher
than the last. Their erratic flight reminded him of speed boats chopping
along on rough water, or the bouncing tail of a Chinese kite. As the formation
passed before him flying from north to south, he determined to clock their
speed.
The bright flashes continued as the unknown objects rolled and fluttered,
tipping their wings toward the sun. They swerved as one in and out of the
high peaks between Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams in a wild game of "follow
the leader" before finally vanishing from view.
FLYING SAUCERS
Arnold landed his small plane in Yakima at four o'clock that afternoon.
Al Baxter, general manager of Central Aircraft, listened to his story with
interest. An eavesdropping helicopter pilot suggested that Arnold had likely
witnessed a flight of guided missiles launched from the nearby Moses Lake
installation.
In the air again, on his way to finish his flying run in Pendleton,
Oregon, Arnold worked to remember more details about the sighting. He attempted
to calculate the speed of the objects, but, trying to fly and add at the
same time, he came up with such a ridiculously high number that he doubted
his own math and decided to wait until he landed to draw any conclusions.
On the ground in Pendleton, he told his story to a group of pilots
and curious bystanders, including news-man Bill Bequette, to whom he described
the motion of the objects with the now-immortal phrase, "They flew like
a saucer would if you skipped it across water." Bequette put the
words flying and saucer together for the first time, and within hours the
wire service had taken the news of the Flying Saucers to the world.
DISTURBING QUESTIONS
The pilots went eagerly to work comparing Arnold's measurements with
the positions and distances of known landmarks, and set the flight speed
of the objects at between 1,350 and 1,700 miles per hour – a speed at least
twice that of the fastest planes then known. Recognizing that no
human pilot could withstand the G-forces of such acceleration, Arnold accepted
the notion that what he had seen must necessarily have been either guided
missiles, as the Yakima helicopter pilot had suggested, or else some new
remote controlled military project.
However, once he returned to his Boise, Idaho home, he received a visit
from a concerned Dave Johnson, Aviation editor for The Idaho Statesman,
who made it clear that, if the objects Arnold had seen in fact looked and
behaved as he had described them, then they were positively not of American
origin. Johnson introduced a new element of skepticism about the
sighting, and about Arnold's qualifications as an observer. Had he
really seen what he thought he had seen? Were his measurements accurate?
Was it possible that he had imagined the whole event?
CONFIRMATION!
On July 5, 1947, Arnold was elated to learn of a saucer sighting by
United Airlines DC-3 pilot Captain E. J. Smith that seemed to directly
confirm the reality of his own encounter. Shortly after take-off from Boise
Municipal Airport, Smith and co-pilot Ralph Stevens watched five discs
flying in loose formation. They called in a stewardess, Martie Morrow,
and, without instructing her what to expect, directed her attention toward
the objects. "Why there's a formation of those flying discs!" she exclaimed.
Another formation appeared, then all the discs fired off toward the Blue
Mountains near Pendleton.
This report from so respected an airman as E. J. Smith lent strength
to Arnold's testimony, and went a long way toward convincing the world
that the flying disc phenomenon was real, and not to be ignored.
Soon the whole country was seeing flying saucers. Arnold received hundreds
of reports of similar sightings, and letters of support. He was asked to
submit a detailed report of his encounter to the commander of Wright-Patterson
Field. A visit from Lieutenant Frank M. Brown and Captain William Davidson
from A-2 Military Intelligence of the Fourth Air Force brought the startling
revaluation that the US Government was as mystified as everyone else as
to the nature and origin of the discs.
In the months to come, Kenneth Arnold would become even more deeply
involved in the unfolding saucer drama, capturing several discs on film,
and personally investigating the famous Maury Island case. With the help
of publisher Ray Palmer, Arnold wrote and released The Coming of the Saucers,
a first-person narrative of his many experiences at the dawn of the modern
UFO era.