Special to The Star
OHIOWA. Neb.— More eyewitness reports on the "flying discs" in Nebraska came from here Saturday.
L. Kaderabek said on the night of June 23 he and his family "saw objects in the western sky that seemed like rockets shooting from among the clouds at about 15 or 20 seconds apart." The discs were traveling at a very rapid speed, Kaderabek reported.
Tho Ohiowa observers watched the spectacle for approximately an hour.
Omaha and Scottsbluff residents previously reported seeing the discs.
Veteran Pilot, Other Crew Member of Airliner
Dumbfounded crewmen of a United Airlines plane flying from Boise to Portland Friday evening joined a horde of Portland-Vancouver area residents in describing "flying discs" seen Friday.
Discs also were reported in many other regions of the West, but the carefully qualified statements of Capt. E. J. Smith, First Officer Ralph Stevens and Stewardess Marty Morrow remained a new high in observations.
In an interview at Portland before taking off for Seattle, Captain Smith, a veteran of 14 years with United Air Lines said an object at first believed to be an approaching aircraft was sighted by Stevens, who was at the controls eight minutes after take-off from Boise at 9:04 P.M.
Landing Lights Flashed
Stevens flashed his landing lights as a signal there was another aircraft in the area. There was no response.
"What the devil is that?" Stevens demanded. Captain Smith said he looked and made out not only the "disc" Stevens had mistaken for a plane, but four others, about evenly spaced in a line to the south of it.
Smith estimated their distance at "about 30 miles," but said they were clearly visible against the afterglow of the setting sun.
They radioed a report to the Boise CAA tower, then called Stewardess Morrow to the flight deck to verify what they saw.
Shortly afterward, the five discs disappeared, then three more appeared in front of them, with a fourth flying "by itself, way off to the right," Smith said.
He radioed the Ontario, Ore., CAA communications tower and told the operator:
"Step outside and look to the southwest about 15 miles and see what you can find".
Ground View Lacking
The operator reported he could see nothing, which Smith said meant the discs were farther away than he had previously estimated since they were not visible to the tower operator.
He was some 30 miles from Ontario at the time, he said.
The airliner was at 10,500 feet when he saw the first disc, Stevens reported. The discs seemed to be flying in about the same direction and to be climbing about at the same rate as the airliner. However, when the plane reached a height of 8000 feet, the discs still were in sight and somewhat higher.
The first group veered to the left of the airliner before disappearing, then the second group in "loose formation,"appeared. The objects finally "merged, then disappeared, then came back in sight and finally vanished, again in the northwest," Smith said. "When they did finally disappear, they went fast."
"You can see a big plane at a great distance for a long time before it disappears. But no object I know of could disappear so quickly as these things."
Both Smith and Stevens, who had been joking about sighting "flying discs" before taking off from Boise, were obviously embarrassed but earnest when telling of the strange objects. Stevens has been flying for United three years.
(More can be read about UAL Flight 105 here.)
Other reports from the Portland-Vancouver and other areas of the west included: Other Reports Listed
Thomas Berry, 915 N. E. Killingsworth street, his wife and a friend, saw what they thought was a star traveling to a northeasterly direction over Troutdale. They examined it through binoculars and glimpsed it flashing in the sun.
It appeared to be V-shaped and was flying level, although dipping a bit, they reported.
M. A. Deaton, 2578 N. E. 32d avenue, saw a disc going due east and described it as "fast traveling, faster than an airplane."
International News Service reported discs seen from windows of the bureau's office in the Journal building. "At first they appeared to be high flying birds as the motion undulated and it appeared some kind of wings propelled them," INS reported. Objects Resemble Birds
"They banked sharply and without apparent system of direction. Two objects were so high that reports of their disc-like appearance could not be verified, but they seemed to move with high speed. They were last seen heading south after circling sharply over the west side area."
A possible explanation was seen by Burl Noflsch, 6604 N. Burrage street, who witnessed a plane going east about 1 P.M. He said he saw foil or aluminum pieces nearby, swirling away on air currents, and it appeared they had been thrown from the plane.
First Specimen Found
Sherman Cook, 2000 N. E. 65th avenue and neighbors did better. They "captured" a "disc" which fluttered down from an estimated altitude of more than 4000 feet to land on the Rose City golf course.
Cook and his next-door neighbor, Bud Bankhead, rushed to the scene and found a 3x2 foot piece of white paper, of cheap quality, slightly yellowed around the edges. It was turned over to The Oregonian for scientific examination.
However, Portland police asked Oregon national guard flying units to look into the reports.
At Eugene, E. F. Smith, an assistant cashier from the Southern Pacific railroad, said he saw silvered discs, which seemed to be tied together, being dropped from a light plane. He was driving his car at the time and did not see them land.
A private pilot at near-by Springfield said he had dropped yellow advertising leaflets from his light plane recently, but was not in the air Friday.
Meantime Alturas and San Diego, Cal., Omaha, Neb., Grand Junction. Colo., and Boise, Idaho, reported visitations of "flying saucers," first reported a week ago by Kenneth Arnold, Boise pilot, who said he saw nine traveling 1200 miles an hour. They have since been reported over most of the West.
At Alturas, Modoc county's district attorney Charles Lederer and Dale Williams, secretary of the Alturas Chamber of Commerce, reported seeing seven while driving through the Warner mountains near the Oregon border. They estimated the discs were 2000 feet in the air and traveling at a tremendous speed.
Two navy chief petty officers at San Diego, Robert L. Jackson and William Baker, said they saw three discs traveling about 400 miles an hour, coming in from the west, circling and heading back to sea.
Plates Glow Like Moon
Mrs. Fred C. Nelson said she saw three, two round and the other oval-shaped as if tilted, in the northern sky at Omaha early Thursday. They glowed like a full moon, she asserted.
From Grand Junction came a report that H. E. Soule, Appleton, Col., saw a disc swoop down from the Northwest at an altitudeof about 200 feet, narrowly miss his house, and then soar to greater heights and disappear southeast. The disc appeared about two feet in diameter, traveled at amazing speed, and had no motor sound or vapor trail, he said. This occurred last Saturday.
John Corlett, United Press correspondent at Boise, reported he, V. H. Selby, Boise artist, and their wives saw a disc while having a garden dinner. The disc moved from the northwest to southeast and took about three seconds to disappear from view, Mrs. Corlett, who saw it first, reported. It was noiseless and traveled at high speed.
Telling of Sighting Mysterious Discs
Reports of the unexplained "flying discs" came from all points of the continent Saturday. Here are typical dispatches.
PHILADELPHIA, July 5 (AP) -- An astral phenomenon was being investigated here Saturday to determine whether Philadelphians had seen mysterious "flying discs" in the sky.Dr. M. K. Leisy, a junior interne at the Pennsylvania hospital for mental diseases, and other persons in the western section of the city reported seeing strange craft in the skies Friday night.
It was something round with a luminous halo about it, Dr. Leisy declared. It was not shiny itself, but dark in color and seemed to be propelled by whirling wings.
Contrary to previous reports from other parts of the country on the high speed of the flying discs, Dr. Leisy said the object he saw was moving at approximately the speed of the wind, below the clouds. It eventually vanished in the clouds, he added.
AKRON, O., July 5 (AP) -- "Flying saucers" made their appearance here Friday night.
Dr. Forrest Shaver said the silvery disc he saw "looked like a balloon with a light inside."
Harry E. Hoertz described it as "a light with a propelling device." Both men said they saw the "saucers" about 8:30 P.M. while driving near Akron.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill., July 5 (INS) -- A group of motorists reported Saturday they had glimpsed the mysterious "flying saucers" which had been puzzling army officials and meteorologists.
One of them, Claude Price, superintendent of concessions at the Illinois state fair, said the group stopped their cars on a road two miles west of Decatur and watched the discs shoot across the sky.
LOS ANGELES, July 5 (AP) -- Pilot Dan J. Whelan and a flying companion, Duncan Underhill, reported they were "scared silly" when they saw what they believed was a "living saucer" about 25 miles south of here Friday.
"The saucer was above us, traveling at what we'd estimate was 450 to 500 miles an hour," said Whelan. "It was at 7000 feet, about 2000 feet above me. It was not spinning, but looked exactly like a skeet (a disc used in target practice).
"We checked its direction -- north by northwest -- and we'd say it was 40 to 50 feet in diameter."
AUGUSTA, ME., July 5 (AP) -- The civil aeronautics administration office said it had received a report that a dozen of the mysterious sky discs had been seen over this city.
The CAA said Dr. Kelly, program director at radio station WRDO here, advised that he saw about 12 objects believed to be discs.
Kelly said the objects were traveling northerly "very fast."
ROGERS, ARK. July 5 (AP) -- J. P. Crumpler, a Rogers real estate dealer, said Saturday he saw one of the "flying saucers" Monday night during a windstorm. He was watching the approach of a storm cloud from the porch of his home when the disc appeared out of the northwest and vanished rapidly into the southwest, he said.
SAN JOSE, CAL., July 5 (AP) -- Sgt. Charles R. Sigala of the army air forces said he and three others saw a silvery, flying disc over his home at near-by Mountain View Saturday at 11 A. M.
Sigala, who is on leave from Hamilton Field, said the object was clearly visible to him, his wife, mother-in-law, and a neighbor. It circled around over the mountain at about 5000 feet, dipped several times and then headed toward the sea, he said.
He estimated the object was as big as an automobile.
SUMMERSIDE, Canada, July 5 (AP) -- Farmers in this Prince Edward Island region claim to have seen more of the mysterious disc-like missiles reported flying through northern skies earlier this week.
James Harris, farmer at Sherbrooke, one mile north of here, and his hired man, Herman Linkletter, said they saw one of the objects last night traveling from the northwest toward the southeast.
At about the same time Brenton Clark at Augustine Cove, about 18 miles from Sherbrooke, said he saw a bright object traveling north to south at medium height.
NEW ORLEANS, July 5 (INS) -- The "flying disc" mystery spread to the deep South Saturday.
Miss Lillian Lawless of New Orleans said she saw a saucer-like "pure silver" object hurtling over Lake Pontchartrain at New Orleans. The disc, she said, was flying in a northeasterly direction "with terrific speed."
AUGUSTA, Ga., July 5 (INS) -- An Augusta physician said he was certain Saturday that he saw the "flying saucers."
Dr. Colden R. Battey claims he spotted the peculiar soaring discs six weeks ago in the middle of the day while fishing in St. Helena sound near Beaufort, S. C. This was four weeks before the first published reports of the discs.
He said that when he saw the four discs at 11 A. M., they were traveling at an altitude of more than 20,000 feet and at a high rate of speed.
He described them as silver.
PORT HURON, Mich., July 5 (INS) -- The mysterious "flying saucers" which have been sighted in several states across the country Saturday were reported over Port Huron, Mich.
Mrs. John R. Warner, a 34-year-old housewife, told International News Service that she and several neighbors witnessed the fast-moving objects criss-crossing across the sky last night.
WALTER, Okla., July 5 (AP) -- Two "flying saucers" which "were flying in the air -- passing each other and going back and forth" were reported Saturday by C. E. Holman, 67-year-old Walter gardener.
Holman said he saw the discs about 10 P.M. the night of June 25, and that after watching them "flying around each other" for about 30 minutes he went to bed.
"I thought about waking up some of my neighbors but decided if it meant the end of the world they would be just about as happy sleeping when the world ended," he said.
LOS ANGELES, July 5 (INS) -- Leo Bentz, once a noted builder of auto racing cars, produced a possible new theory Saturday on the enigma of the "flying saucers."
Bentz, now an automobile dealer in suburban Whitter, told of a confidential demonstration of a saucer-like flying model in Los Angeles' Griffith park back in 1928.
He said the inventor's name was George de Bay, a native of France.
He quoted the inventor as saying:
"It's like a saucer -- an oblong saucer -- or meat plate."
Bentz said they went out to Griffith park where de Bay flipped a disc-like model of the device into the air with rubber bands and demonstrated its feasibility.
SEATTLE, July 5 (INS) -- Another flying disc was reported seen over Seattle Saturday by a woman and her four-year-old son.
Mrs. Florence Frye, a librarian at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, said her son, Carl, first spotted the object and pointed it out to her. She described it as:
"Brilliant -- so brilliant in fact that it hurt my eyes to watch and I had to blink and turn away."
Viva Anderson, Portland attorney reported she and a friend, Betty MacManneman, also an attorney, saw a group of objects from in front of her home at Melcrest Court apartments, 711 S.E. 11th Ave.
"They looked like half-inflated footballs and appeared to be faceted on top like rough cut diamonds," Miss Anderson said. She said that the main group of objects flashed like tinfoil, but that one which dropped much lower than the rest appeared to be "slightly brown."
States where the discs have been reported: Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, Michigan, Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, Maine, Florida, Utah, Maryland, Iowa, Kansas and the District of Columbia.
Hundreds, in 28 States
Science Fails to Give Facts
Government Men Ask to See Sample
(AP) -- The nation was baffled Saturday by the "flying saucers" reported seen in 28 states by hundreds of persons while conjectures on their meaning flew as furiously as the reported speed of the silvery discs.Official government sources took a "let's see one" stand on the phenomenon, and so scientists preferred a detailed explanation.
Near unanimity was recorded on some of the discs' characteristics -- terrific speed, bright reflections, round or oval in shape, flat, and flying with a peculiar undulating motion. Size was moot and expressed by Captain Smith of United Air Lines as "hard to judge" without knowing the distance from the observer to the objects.
An army air forces spokesman in Washington on July 3 said there was not enough fact to "warrant further investigation," but the air materiel command at Wright field, Dayton, Ohio, said it was making a study. Saturday at Washington an army researcher admitted "we're mystified" and the navy said it had no theories.
Meanwhile Kenneth Arnold, the man who first reported them, could recall his insistence when his report was widely questioned, that "I don't believe it, either -- but I saw it." Astronomers Doubt Meteors
Two Chicago astronomers said the discs probably are "manmade." The undulating, flashing objects "couldn't be meteors," said Dr. Gerard Kluper, director of the University of Chicago's Yerkes observatory at Williams Bay, Wis.
"We realize," said Dr. Oliver Lee, director of Northwestern University's Dearborn observatory, "that the army and navy are working on all sorts of things we know nothing about."
Officials of the atomic energy commission in Washington said it had no experiments involving "flying saucers" underway, and one official added, "All we know is what we read in the papers."
An army air force official in Washington said the AAF was "completely mystified" by the saucer reports.
Although no general alert had been sent out for radar scanning of the heavens, he said: "Reports of the interception of any suspicious object or ground radar screens will be carefully evaluated." Hanford Role Denied
Col. F. J. Clarke commanding officer of the Hanford engineering works in the Pacific coastal area, where the largest saucer influx was reported, said the saucers were not coming from the atomic plant there.
"I have been waiting for someone to tie the discs to the Hanford atomic plant," he said. But he declared that as far as he knew no experiments were under way there that would solve the mystery.
Credence in the saucers -- widely laughed off at their first reported appearance June 25 -- grew as hundreds of observers, many of them trained fliers, reported seeing them.
A crowd of 200 observed a disc at Hauser Lake, Idaho, on the Fourth of July. A group of 60 picnickers saw them at Twin Falls, Idaho. Portland Reports Fly
And in Portland so many residents witnessed them that same day that the police department sent out an all cars broadcast.
The discs were seen Saturday in California, Oregon, Washington, Iowa, and South Carolina.
Two persons in different sections of Charleston, S. C. -- one of them a newspaper reporter -- said a flying saucer passed over Charleston heading east at 6:20 P.M. (EST) Saturday.
J.E. Jonston, Waterloo, Ia., said he saw one Saturday, too. His description -- about the size of a dinner plate and only some 25 feet above ground -- was at odds with most reporters which have said the saucers were big and flying at great heights.
