The UFO Phenomenon

Kenneth Arnold 'flying saucer' sighting turns 75

By T.K. Randall
June 28, 2022

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) Just a couple of weeks before the Roswell incident, a pilot from Minnesota reported an encounter that would go on to be cited as the first widely reported modern UFO sighting in the United States.

Arnold had been flying his plane (a CallAir A-2) from Chehalis, Washington to Yakima, Washington on June 24, 1947 when he decided to make a quick detour in an attempt to track down the wreckage of a missing military plane which had crashed somewhere near Mount Rainier.

Failing to locate it, he had resumed his flight eastward when he witnessed what appeared to be a formation of nine highly reflective objects flying in the sky.

The mysterious aircraft were stretched out across an area of around five miles in what he described as "a diagonally stepped-down, echelon formation".He quickly realized that he was not looking at any conventional aircraft. Assuming them to be some type of prototypes being tested by the military, Arnold estimated that they were traveling at speeds of up to 1,700mph, far faster than any known aircraft of the time.

Upon landing, he told some of his pilot friends about what he had seen and by the next day he was being interviewed by reporters.

His description of the objects would lead to the coining of the term "flying saucer".

Even 75 years later, no definitive explanation for what he witnessed that day has ever been found.


Source: Idaho Statesman

Tags: Kenneth Arnold, UFO