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The Pacific, on 1939:

Case number:

ACUFO-1939-00-00-PACIFIC-1

Summary:

In 2005, Jeff Challender had a section of his Website, now gone, where he published about UFOs he spotted on TV shows. In 2005, he published about a new occurrence he found.

Watching a Speedvision TV historical documentary on the development of the great flying boats of the past, he noticed an anomalous object that seemed to be following one of the early model Boeing 314s “as it flew over the ocean”, in an extremely rare color footage of the plane. He determined that the footage must have been filmed in 1938 or 1939, before these seaplanes were repainted with a giant American flag on the nose when the War started.

Using the technology available at the time, he managed to grab the 19 frames of interest on his VHS recording of the show, and put them together as an animated GIF, recrreating the 3 seconds video at normal speed:

In this file, I sho that the plane was the “Honolulu Clipper”, and that it was flying across the Pacific from March 16, 1939, to the beginning of 1940. I also propose a possible ordinary explanation for the UFO.

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[Ref. jcr1:] JEFF CHALLENDER:

Jeff Challender had a section of his Website where he published about UFOs he spotted on TV shows. In 2005, he published about a new occurrence he found.

He explained that in the late 1930s and into the mid-1940s, before World War II, the Boeing 314 flying boat operated a luxurious commercial overseas passenger service flying for Pan-American Airways, crossing the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans in speed, style and comfort.

He explained that watching a Speedvision TV historical documentary on the development of the great flying boats of the past, he noticed an anomalous object following one of the early model Boeing 314s as it flew over the ocean, in an extremely rare color footage of the plane. He determined that the footage must have been filmed in 1938 or 1939, before the outbreak of war in Europe in September 1939, because after the beginning of war, these seaplanes were repainted with a giant American flag on the nose, to denote them as Neutrals in the European war zone.

He showed a photo almost certainly taken at Treasure Island Seaplane Terminal between late 1939 and late 1941, when the Boeing 314's had the “Stars & Stripes” painted on each side of the nose.

He explains that the time frame for the 3 seconds film clip with the UFO makes it absolutely the earliest UFO he has ever come across, predating the famous Foo Fighters reported in the Second World War.

He explains that the anomalous object was very bright, appears to be trailing the Boeing, skimming above the clouds as it flew along. He provided a couple of still frames, and still frames mounted as animated GIF sequences.

He showed on a still frame the object of interest, in the yellow circle just “above” the tail of the Boeing flying boat.

He showed an animation is composed of 19 frames he captured from the original VHS recording, amounting to 7 frames per second, presented at near normal speed:

He showed a version zoomed in 200% with the frame rate slowed to about half normal speed:

He also show the same animation with colors reversed, and with an embossed for a 3D effect.

Aircraft information:

The Boeing 314 “Clipper” was an American long-range flying boat produced by Boeing from 1938 to 1941. One of the largest aircraft of its time, it had anough range to cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Twelve Clippers were built, nine of which served with Pan Am.

The first 314 flight on the San Francisco-Hong Kong route left Alameda on February 23, 1939, with regular passenger and Foreign Air Mail Route #14 service beginning on March 29. A one-way trip on this route took over six days to complete. Commercial passenger service ended before the United States entered World War II in December 1941.

One Pan Am Boeing 314 only was operating transpacific flights: the “Honolulu Clipper”, registration NC18601, between 1939 and 1941. It did not fly in the Pacific before 1939. The plane's first trans-Pacific flight as NC18601 began on March 16, 1939. It set a record by carrying 45 persons, including 30 paying passengers, on the final leg of the trip from Manila to Hong Kong.

Pan American Airways previously made the Pacific route with “Hawaii Clipper”, but it was a Martin M-130 seaplane.

It is correct that a U.S. flag was painted on the Boeing 314's when WW II started in Europe. A color film shows U.S. Navy men boarding “Honolulu Clipper” in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in early 1940 (images below).

Discussion:

From the Aircraft Information above, I conclude that the date of the footage with the UFO is 1939 at the earliest and the beginning of 1940 at the latest.

Jeff Challender used the animated GIF solution to show his VHS video grab; one has to remember that in 2005, it was not really possible to host a video file on one's own website, and animated GIFs were usually the solution.

The quite low resolution of the images matches the resolution of VHS tapes at the time, 360 * 220 pixels.

So far I failed to find the footage in higher resolution.

The UFO

Because the plane is moving, because the camera is moving, because the clouds seem to be moving, the impression is created that the UFO is also moving - i.e., changing position relative to the plane, as if it maneuvered behind the plane.

This is probably just an illusion. This means that it is quite possible that the UFO is not moving.

The distances between the UFO and the plane, between the UFO and the camera, cannot be assessed.

This means that although one would like to “see” the UFO just behind the plane, it may have been far, far away.

Thus, a possible explanation is that the UFO was actually a boat on the ocean below.

Because it is likely that the cameraman was filming the departure of “Honolulu Clipper” from Alameda, on board another plane, and that this other plane would certainly not follow “Honolulu Clipper” all the way to Hawaii but rather turn back to coast soon, it is not astonishing that a boat would be there.

Evaluation:

Possible boat.

Sources references:

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

• [jcr1] * "The Massive Boeing 314 And An U.F.O.!", web page by Jeff Challender, on his ufology Website Project Prove, USA, 2005, was at http://www.projectprove.com/Arts/314/314.php

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