civilian-claim1948· Near Montgomery, Alabama

On July 24, 1948, Eastern Airlines captains Clarence Chiles and John Whitted reported that a wingless, cigar-shaped craft roughly 100 feet long passed within 700 feet of their DC-3 near Montgomery, Alabama, at 5,000 feet altitude, with an exhaust flame visible from the rear, a sighting that convinced Project Sign analysts UFOs were interplanetary.

Both pilots had thousands of flight hours and submitted independent, consistent reports to the Air Force. Project Sign's 'Estimate of the Situation,' drafted partly in response to this case, concluded the objects were extraterrestrial, a conclusion Air Force Chief of Staff Vandenberg rejected and ordered destroyed.

Citations

Chiles-Whitted UFO encounter· Wikipedia, 2024
Two Pilots Saw a UFO. Why Did the Air Force Destroy the Report?· HISTORY, 2023
Project Blue Book: The Chiles-Whitted UFO Encounter· The Black Vault, 2020

Connected

Throughout spring and summer 1968, U.S. Marine Corps forward observers, Navy patrol crews, and intelligence officers rep…
A senior U.S. intelligence official (WITNESS 1) documented a multi-hour UAP encounter in late 2025 involving orange orbs…
On November 11, 1979, Iberia/TAE Flight JK-297 made an emergency landing at Manises Airport near Valencia, Spain, the fi…
Spain began declassifying Air Force UFO files in 1992 and completed a staged public release through 1997, depositing phy…
On the night of July 31, 1995, Aerolíneas Argentinas captain Jorge Polanco and his crew, approaching Bariloche Airport w…
On the night of May 19, 1986, Brazilian Air Defense radar tracked 21 unidentified objects moving at estimated Mach 15 ac…
On December 21 and 30–31, 1978, pilots and a Channel 0 television crew filmed luminous objects tracking their cargo airc…
In December 1947, the U.S. Air Force launched Project Sign, its first formal UFO investigation, tasked with determining …
On November 17, 1986, Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1628 crew reported that two small craft and then a massive walnut-sha…
On June 24, 1947, private pilot Kenneth Arnold reported nine crescent-shaped objects flying at roughly 1,200 mph near Mo…
On January 7, 1948, Kentucky Air National Guard Captain Thomas Mantell died when his P-51 Mustang crashed near Franklin,…
On November 7, 2006, at least twelve United Airlines employees, including pilots, mechanics, and supervisors, observed a…