The article below was published in the daily newspaper The Daily Mail, Hagerstown, Maryland, USA, page 1, on July 5, 1947.
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Pilot And Others, Heretofore Skeptical, Watch The Discs Hurtling By For Ten To Fifteen Minutes.
Boise, Idaho, July 5 (AP) - The entire crew of a west-bound Boise-to-Seattle United Air Lines plane late last night reported they had seen nine flying discs near the airline's route over Emmett, Idaho.
Capt. E. J. Smith of UAL trip 105 which left Boise at 3:04 p. m. said that his co-pilot, First Officer Ralph Stevens, blinked the transport's landing lights in the belief the discs were other aircraft.
Blinking landing lights during a night flight is a pilot's signal of warning to other aircraft that a plane is flying in the same area.
Smith said it was eight minutes after takeoff from Boise that Stevens and himself saw five discs, flying what appeared to be a "loose formation."
They called Marty Morrow, stewardess, to the cockpit to verify that they were actually seeing the discs, said Smith, and she agreed they saw them.
Then they saw four more of the discs, three clustered together, and a fourth flying "by itself, way off in the distance."
The plane was flying into the dim twilight sky when the objects were first sighted. Smith told the Idaho Daily Statesman by telephone from Pendleton, where the transport first landed after leaving Boise.
Flying discs have been reported over the northwest for the past two weeks.
Smith and Stevens said that as the landing lights were blinked, they could see no responding lights on the objects.
"The discs were flat and roundish," they said. "They definitely were not aircraft. But they were bigger than aircraft."
Following their first sight of the (Continued on Page 2)
Skeptical Pilots Add Their Statements To Many
Portland, Ore., July 5 (AP)—The "flying saucer" mystery reached fever pitch today, after "I saw them myself" statements from a veteran United Air Lines crew, scores of Portland residents, and 60 picnickers at Twin Falls Park in Idaho.
The UAL pilot, co-pilot, and stewardess, who had scoffed consistently at "flying saucer" tales, said they saw such objects last night while flying a passenger plane from Boise, Idaho, to Portland.
Their statements followed a day during which the "saucers" were reported seen in many parts of the nation.
Many Portlanders—including police, experienced fliers, and three newspapermen—declared they saw silvery discs undulating over Portland.
In New Orleans, Miss Lillian Lawless said she saw an object, shining like silver or chromium, flying at a great height and at a terrific speed in a northeasterly direction over Lake Pontchartrain. Describing what they saw as flat, translucent plates 12 to 15 inches in diameter, several Port Huron, Mich., residents reported seeing the "saucers."
Capt. E. J. Smith, Seattle, a veteran of 14 years with United Air Lines, said he observed the round flat objects—"like a pancake standing on end"—for about 12 minutes while flying from Emmett, Idaho, to a point southeast of Ontario, Ore.
He radioed the Ontario Airport but airport officials saw nothing.
Sixty persons picnicking at Twin Falls Park, near Twin Falls, Idaho, said they saw the discs yesterday afternoon. A party of seven first saw some and ten minutes later, a crowd of 20 or 30 people saw another batch of nine or ten. Word passed around, and soon the waiting crowd saw another batch circling and climbing.
At Seattle, Frank Ryman, Coast Guard yeoman, said he took a picture of what some residents north of Seattle thought was a flying disc. The photograph showed a pinhead-size light spot against the dark evening sky.
The Oregonian dispatched a plane to hunt Portland's saucers. It found nothing but empty sky.
