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Union, Oregon, USA, on July 29, 1947:

Case number:

ACUFO-1947-07-29-UNION-1

Summary:

The observation report by businessman - pilot Kenneth Arnold on June 24, 1947, had a huge echo at the time and is often considered as the "first" sighting of "flying saucers".

It is not as widely known that Arnold reported a second sighting, as he did not report it in the Press but in his 1952 book "The Coming of the Saucers". He told:

It was on the morning of July 29, 1947 that I took off from a private cow pasture near my home. It was about 5:30 a.m. I never told anyone of my plans as to when I was going to leave Boise or at what date I would arrive in Tacoma, though a number of my friends did know of my proposed trip. That day no one but my wife knew I had gone and I took off so early in the morning that I was quite sure no one else knew or made any special note of my leaving. I mention this here, and further stress another important point. I rarely file a flight plan. I do not recall a flight I made in the entire year of 1947 where I did file a flight plan. My plane at that time was not equipped with a radio, only a small receiver to obtain weather reports.

It was a beautiful summer morning the day I left Boise and I promptly climbed my aircraft to an altitude of 7,000 feet, flying the airway route to Pendleton, Oregon. I had only about half a tank of gasoline when I left and planned on stopping at La Grande, Oregon for refueling. A refuel at la Grande would carry me through to Tacoma. I stored no gasoline in the cow pasture that I had been using as a landing field and 5:30 in the morning was too early to obtain gas in Boise.

It was a perfect day to fly. The air was sharp, moist, clear as crystal and smooth as silk. There is something of a real thrill in flying on a day like that, with the endless drone of your motor telling you that everything is working perfectly. Within an hour I was over Baker, Oregon. I can recall how the city sparkled in the sunlight as it lay below me, nestled in between two huge ranges of mountains. I began to let down over North Powder, Oregon in preparation to land at La Grande when I noticed above me and about ten miles to the right the Empire Airlines' old Boeing, also coming into land at La Grande. There is something about having company in the air that always seems pleasant and friendly. I rocked my wings at him in a gesture of hello and continued my let down until I was directly over Union, Oregon at 5,000 feet.

I recall looking at my instrument clock which read about five minutes of seven. As I looked up from my instrument panel and straight ahead over the La Grande valley I saw a cluster of about twenty to twenty-five brass-colored objects that looked like ducks. they were coming at me head on and at what seemed a terrific rate of speed. I grabbed my camera and started rolling out film. Even though I thought they were ducks when I first saw them, I wasn't taking any chances.

The sun was at my back and to my right. These objects were coming into the sun. I wasn't sighting through the viewfinder on my camera but was sighting along the side of it. As this group of objects came within 400 yards of me they veered sharply away from me and to their right, gaining altitude as they did so and fluttering and flashing a dull amber color. I was a little bit shocked and excited when I realized they had the same flight characteristics of the large objects that I had observed on June 24. These appeared to be round, rather rough on top, and to have a dark or a light spot on top of each one. I couldn't be absolutely positive of this because it all happened so suddenly. I attempted to make a turn and follow them but they disappeared to the east at a speed far in excess of my airplane. I knew they were not ducks because ducks don't fly that fast.

After a few minutes I gave up the chase and continued to let down at La Grande. I phoned Dave Johnson from there and related my experience but told him not to print it. I knew he had more than a newsworthy interest now in flying disks. I questioned the whole crew of the Empire Airlines ship to see if they had seen this cluster of objects, too. If they had seen them, they would not admit it, but there is a good possibility they did not see them. they were on almost their final approach at the La Grande airfield, their plane being much faster than mine, and this cluster of objects at the time would have been seven to nine hundred feet above them.

I heard later that several farmers in the vicinity of Union had observed what they thought a peculiar cluster of birds that same morning. I did not know this until much later. actually, they flew in a cluster more like blackbirds than ducks but each one was larger than a duck, I should judge some twenty-four to thirty inches in diameter. they rather wheeled on edge, flipping as they went as efficiently as when they were flat in reference to the surface of the ground. That morning I was pretty disappointed that no one around the airfield had seen them, to my knowledge.

I am fully familiar with La Grande valley, the reservoirs, streams and lakes that are all over this area in the summer and you can be sure, on the conservative side, that I felt positive these things were not birds. I was curious as to what my movie film had recorded. Later, after it was developed, I found that my movie try was not very successful. Only one or two of these objects could be found on my film and you could see them only under a jeweler's glass.

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. kad1:] KENNETH ARNOLD:

[Ref. tbr1:] TED BLOECHER:

Ted Bloecher indicated that on July 29, 1947, while flying en route to Tacoma to investigate the Maury Island "mystery", Kenneth Arnold was approaching the airport at La Grande, Oregon, for a refueling stopover. He began his let-down over North Powder, about 20 miles southeast of La Grande. He was directly over Union, at an altitude of 5,000 feet, when he looked down at the clock on his instrument panel. It was 6:55 a.m. MST.

Bloecher quotes Arnold:

"As I looked up from my instrument panel and straight ahead over the La Grande Valley, I saw a cluster of about twenty-five brass-colored objects that looked like ducks. They were coming at me head on and at what seemed a terrific rate of speed. I grabbed my camera and started rolling out film. Even though I thought they were ducks when I first saw them, I wasn't taking any chances."

"The sun was at my back and to my right. These objects were coming into the sun. I wasn't sighting through the viewfinder on my camera, but was sighting along the side of it."

"As this group of objects came within 400 yards of me they veered sharply away from me and to their right, gaining altitude as they did so and fluttering and flashing a dull amber color. I was a little bit shocked and excited when I realized they had the same flight characteristics of the large objects I had observed on June 24."

"These appeared to be round, rather rough on top, and to have a dark or a light spot on the top of each one. I couldn't be absolutely positive of this because it all happened so suddenly. I attempted to make a turn and follow them but they disappeared to the east at a speed far in excess of my airplane. I know they were not ducks because ducks don't fly that fast."

Arnold described the formation as a "cluster more like blackbirds than ducks," but each object was larger than a duck, about 24 to 30 inches in diameter. He said "they rather wheeled on edge, flipping as they went as efficiently as when they were flat in reference to the surface of the ground." He made a few inquiries around the field while his plane was being refueled at La Grande, but no one there had seen the objects.

He learned later, however, that "several farmers in the vicinity of Union had observed what they thought was a peculiar cluster of birds that morning."

Understandably, Arnold did not report this sighting to the newspapers, nor to the Air Force, but he told pilot Dave Johnson about it. The first published account appeared in "The Coming of the Saucers".

[Ref. rdn1:] RICHARD DOLAN:

This author indicated that on Tuesday, July 29, 1947, Kenneth Arnold took off from a private cow pasture in Boise, headed for Tacoma; with only his wife knowing of his exact plans. A few of his friends knew he was going but not when, and he did not file a flight plan.

En route, he had another, lesser known, UFO sighting, of about twenty small objects moving at a "terrific rate of speed." He took movie pictures of them, which turned out poorly, then landed at La Grande Airfield, Oregon, where he phoned aviation editor Dave Johnson about the sighting, and mentioned it to some Eastern Air Lines crew members.

[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH:

[Ref. dwn1:] DOMINIQUE WEINSTEIN:

French ufologist Dominique Weinstein compiled a catalog of the cases of UFOs observed from aircraft. This case appears in the February 2001 (6th edition) of his catalogue appears as:

The source "365" is referenced at the end of the catalog as:

[Ref. jck1:] JEROME CLARK:

This ufologist reported that on July 29, 1947, Kenneth Arnold took off at 5:30 a.m. from a pasture near his home and heading out through a clear, calm sky in the direction of Tacoma, with a planned refueling stop at La Grande, Oregon.

Over North Powder, Oregon, he began a gentle descent for landing, while above him and 10 miles to his right an Empire Airlines plane did the same.

At 6:55, as he was at 5,000 feet over the La Grande Valley, 20 to 25 "brass-colored objects that looked like ducks" approached him head-on. He thought they were really ducks, but he wanted to be sure of that and grabbed a camera and proceeded to film the procession, which turned sharply at about 400 yards from him. He recalled:

"I was a little bit shocked and excited, when I realized they had the same flight characteristics of the large objects that I had observed on June 24. These appeared to be round, rather rough on top, and to have a dark or a light spot on top of each one. I couldn't be absolutely positive of this because it all happened so suddenly."

Arnold attempted to follow them but the objects outdistanced him.

After landing at La Grande, he asked members of the airline crew if they had seen the objectsbut they said they saw nothing out of the ordinary.

The objects, whatever they were, they were quite small, at maximum 30 inches in diameter. When developed, the film shed no light on the matter. Only one or two of the objects had been captured, and the images were so tiny as to be meaningless.

[Ref. get1:] GEORGE M. EBERHART:

Aircraft information:

Kenneth Arnold flew a two-seater Callair A-2 plane, a more powerful version of the Callair A.

It was built by Call Aircraft Company in 1946. It had a Lycoming O-290 de 125 HP, a maximum speed of 173 km/h. engine. About 15 of them were built, 12 of them were still flying in the USA in 2006.

Below: Kenneth Arnold and Mrs Arnold, and Arnold's plane:

Discussion:

I guess some "skeptical" ufologists would say that Kenneth Arnold's second sighting is explained just like the first by birds.

However, just like in the first sighting, it does not convince me.

Arnold said clearly that he attempted to pursue the putative birds: "I attempted to make a turn and follow them but they disappeared to the east at a speed far in excess of my airplane. I knew they were not ducks because ducks don't fly that fast."

He also said: "After a few minutes I gave up the chase..." The notion that he would have been unable to catch up with a flock of birds in a few minutes is irrelevant to me. His plane was simply slower that the supposed "birds", and this is impossible.

Evaluation:

Possible extraterrestrial craft.

Sources references:

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

• [kad1] * "The Coming of the Saucers", book by Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer, Owner Clark publication, USA, pp 24-26, 1952.
• [tbr1] * "Report on the UFO Wave of 1947", compiled by Ted Bloecher, USA, 1967, updated 2005 by NICAP.
• [rdn1] * "UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Coverup, 1941-1973", book by Richard Dolan, Hampton Roads publishers, USA, 2002.
• [lhh1] * "*U* Computer Database", ufology database by Larry Hatch, USA, circa 2002.
• [dwn1] * "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena - Eighty years of pilot sightings - Catalog of Military, Airliner, Private Pilots' Sightings from 1916 to 2000", catalog compiled by Dominique F. Weinstein, NARCAP International Technical Advisor, France, 6th edition, February 2001.
• [jck1] * "Strange Skies - Pilot Encounters with UFOs", book by Jerome Clark, Citadel Press publishers, USA, pp 42-43, 2003.
• [get1] * "UFOs and Intelligence: A Timeline", electronic document by George M. Eberhart, May 31, 2022.

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This page was last updated on July 5, 2026.