ACUFO:

ACUFO is my comprehensive catalog of cases of encounters between aircraft and UFOs, whether they are “explained” or “unexplained”.

The ACUFO catalog is made of case files with a case number, summary, quantitative information (date, location, number of witnesses...), classifications, all sources mentioning the case with their references, a discussion of the case in order to evaluate its causes, and a history of the changes made to the file.

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Stulpicani, Romania, on July 22, 1938:

Case number:

ACUFO-1938-06-22-STULPICANI-1

Summary:

On July 22, 1938, a Lockheed 14H Super Electra airliner of the Polish airline company LOT was flying on the Warsaw-Lviv-Czernowitz-Bucharest-Thessaloniki route, when around 5:40 p.m. it crashed after being struck by lightning near Stulpicani, Suceava County, Romania.

In 1965, the author of the book on UFOs and other mysteries Vincent H. Gaddis made this accident a mysterious occurrence, claiming that the accident had been estimated to be “inexplicable” and that the plane had hit something “invisible”. Gaddis described the incident as an example of what he believed to be “flames in the sky” causing planes to come down.

In 1984, Dr. Louis Winkler compiled an observation catalog for the “Fund for UFO Research” (FUFOR), including a section about aircraft and UFO encounters. He mentioned the affair, referring to Gaddis, speaking of a “crash in flight between a plane and a luminous object” on the Polish border on July 24, 1938.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date:	July 22, 1938
Time:	05:40 p.m.
Duration:	N/A.
First known report date:	July 22, 1938
Reporting delay:	Hour, hours.

Geographical data:

Country:	Romania
State/Department:	Suceava
City or place:	Stulpicani

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses:	N/A.
Number of known witnesses:	N/A.
Number of named witnesses:	N/A.

Ufology data:

Reporting channel:	UFO book Vincent Gaddis.
Visibility conditions:	Day, storm.
UFO observed:	No.
UFO arrival observed:	N/A.
UFO departure observed:	N/A.
UFO action:	N/A.
Witnesses action:
Photographs:	No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es):	No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es):	No.
Witness(es) feelings:
Witnesses interpretation:	N/A.

Classifications:

Sensors:	[ ] Visual: [ ] Airborne radar: N/A. [ ] Directional ground radar: N/A. [ ] Height finder ground radar: N/A. [ ] Photo: [ ] Film/video: [ ] EM Effects: [ ] Failures: [ ] Damages:
Hynek:	N/A.
Armed / unarmed:	Unarmed.
Reliability 1-3:	2
Strangeness 1-3:	1
ACUFO:	Plane crash, no UFO.

Sources:

[Ref. vgs1:] VINCENT GADDIS:

On July 24, 1938, Peter Lloyd (Budapest) reported the crash of a Polish airliner near the Romano-Polish border that killed fourteen persons, including the Japanese military attache in Warsaw. The report stated that the crash was “inexplicable” and that the plane appeared to collide in the air with something that was invisible.

[Ref. lwr1:] DR. LOUIS WINKLER:

1938 Jun/Delaware, Illinois/Gaddis

A midair crash between an airplane and a luminous object was preceded by a flash and then followed by a blaze and explosion. Nine on board the airplane were killed. A similar event occurred on Jul 24, 1938, on the Polish border.

Aircraft information:

The Lockheed L-14 “Super Electra” (photo below) was a 1930s airliner, which made its first flight on July 29, 1937, and started service in 1937.

Discussion:

Vincent Hayes Gaddis (1913-1997) was American writer interested in mysterious phenomena such as UFO and the Bermuda triangle. His two books dealing with UFOs were “Invisible Horizons: True Mysteries of the Sea”, 1965, and “Mysterious Fires and Lights”, 1967.

In his “Invisible Horizons”, this “case” appeared in a chapter about “flames in the sky”; Gaddis claimed that there were “flames” appearing in the skies and causing aircraft loss.

As in the other case mentioned here, this crash was not caused by a UFO or any other “invisible” thing or “flame in the sky”.

On July 22, 1938 (not July 24, 1938; which was the date the crash appeared in the US Press), a Lockheed 14H Super Electra airliner of the Polish LOT airline company was flying on the Warsaw-Lwow-Czernowitz-Bucharest-Thessaloniki route. At approximately 05:40 p.m., it crashed after being struck by lightning near Stulpicani, Suceava county, Romania.

There were 14 people on board, all killed. Crew members were pilot Wladyslaw Kotarba, radio operator Zygmunt Zarzycki and flight engineer Franciszek Panek. On board were also two military pilots - Capt. Gnys and Capt Waliszewski; aviator Olimpiusz Nartowski; Polish diplomat Edward Gozdowski and Japanese military attache Col. Masakatsu Waka. Other passengers were Dr. Lemuel Caro (Goldstein) from New York and Bulgarian diplomat Radi Radev. In Czernowitz, the flight was boarded by boarded Dr. Isidor Bodea, director of the children's hospital in Czernowitz; Dr. Karl Nussenbaum; Capt. Gheorghe Ionescu and Romanian composer and aviator Ionel Fernic.

The crash was told about in many Romanian and foreign newspapers, such as the New York Times for July 24. 1938.

Evaluation:

Plane crash, no UFO.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

[vgs1] * "Invisible Horizons: True Mysteries of the Sea", book by Vincent H. Gaddis, Chilton publishers, USA, page 216, 1965.
[lwr1] * "Catalog/database, and analysis, of pre-1947 'UFO-like phenomena'", report by Dr Louis Winkler, astronomer, Pennsylvania State University, for the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR), USA, page 59, 1982-1984.

File history:

Authoring:

Main author:	Patrick Gross
Contributors:	None
Reviewers:	None
Editor:	Patrick Gross

Changes history:

Version:	Create/changed by:	Date:	Description:
0.1	Patrick Gross	May 13, 2024	Creation, [vgs1], [lwr1].
1.0	Patrick Gross	May 13, 2024	First published.

This page was last updated on May 13, 2024.