Part 11 (2/2)

As they watched the UFO, it passed across the nose of their DC-3 and they got a fairly good look at it Neither the pilot nor the copilot was positive of the object's shape because it was ”shadowy” but they assue froht that seemed to come from the inside of whatever it was that they saw The UFO also had a blinking white light on top, a fact that led many people to speculate that this UFO was another airliner But this idea was quashed when it was announced that there were no other airliners in the area The crew of the DC-3, when questioned on this possibility, were definite in their answers If it had been another airplane, they could have read the nuers, and darn near reached out and slugged the pilot for getting so close to them

About a month later, over northern Indiana, TWA treated all the passengers of one of their DC-3 nights to a view of a UFO that looked like a ”big glob of molten metal”

The official answer for this incident is that the huge orange-red UFO was nothing ht fro a haze layer Could be, but the pilots say no

There were sis in North Korea two years later--and FEAF Boe of blast furnaces in North Korea

UFO sightings by airline pilots always interested eneral should be coe part of their lives looking around the sky And pilots do look; one of the first things an aviation cadet is taught is to ”Keep your head on a swivel”; in other words, keep looking around the sky Of all the pilots, the airline pilots are the creaood observers Possibly so school could be confused by sohts, a meteor, or a star, but airline pilots have flown thousands of hours or they wouldn't be sitting in the left seat of an airliner, and they should be fahts

One afternoon in February 1953 I had an opportunity to further s by airline pilots I had been out at Air Defense Co back East on a United Airlines DC-6 There weren't ers on the airplane that afternoon but, as usual, the captain caot to me he sat down in the next seat We talked a fewsaucers He sort of laughed and said that a dozen people a week asked that question, but when I told hied He said that he'd never seen a UFO but he knew a lot of pilots on United who had One o He'd reported it but he had been sloughed off like the rest But he was so convinced that he'd seen soht a Leica camera with a 105-mm telephoto lens, learned how to use it, and now he carried it religiously during his flights

There was a lull in the conversation, then the captain said, ”Do you really want to get an opinion about flying saucers?”

I said I did

”OK,” I re, ”how o?”

I had about two hours

”All right, as soon as we get to Chicago I'll meet you at Caffarello's, across the street fro I'll see who else is in and I'll bring the”

I thanked him and he went back up front

I waited around the bar at Caffarello's for an hour I'd just about decided that he wasn't going to ht to Dayton when he and three other pilots ca booth in the coffee shop because he'd called threeover too I don't remember any of the men's names because I didn't make any attempt to This was just an inforation, but I really got the scoop on what airline pilots think about UFO's

First of all they didn't pull any punches about what they thought about the Air Force and its investigation of UFO reports One of thesaucer flying wing-tip for--even if ers saw it--I wouldn't report it to the Air Force”

AnotherJack Adams said he san by Memphis?”

I said I did

”He reported that to the Air Force and some red-hot character met him in Memphis on his next trip He talked to Adams a few minutes and then told him that he'd seen a meteor Adams felt like a fool hell, I know Jack Adauy I know If he said he saw so portholes--and it wasn't a h I didn't reet their comments They didn't like the way the Air Force had handled UFO reports and I was the Air Force's ”Mr Flying Saucer” As quickly as one of the pilots would set rabbed me off the floor and took his turn But I couldn't coroup of seven pilots pretty s of a lot of the airline pilots

They weren't wide-eyed space fans, but they and their fellow pilots had seen so and whatever they'd seen weren't hallucinations, mass hysteria, balloons, or meteors

Three of the men at the Caffarello conference had seen UFO's or, to use their ter they couldn't identify as a known object Two of thesetheir airplanes at night Both had checked and double- checked with CAA, but no other aircraft was in the area Both adh to class what they'd seen as good UFO sighting But the third man had a lulu

If I recall correctly, this pilot was flying for TWA One day in March 1952 he, his copilot, and a third person as either a pilot deadheading ho a C-54 cargo airplane froo to Kansas City At about 2:30PM the pilot was checking in with the CAA radio at Kirksville, Missouri, flying 500 feet on top of a solid overcast While he was talking he glanced out at his No 2 engine, which had been losing oil Directly in line with it, and a few degrees above, he saw a silvery, disk-shaped object It was too far out to get a really good look at it, yet it was close enough to be able definitely to make out the shape

The UFO held its relative position with the C-54 for five or six minutes; then the pilot decided to do a little on-the-spot investigating hiradual turn toward the UFO and for about thirty seconds he was getting closer, but then the UFO began to make a left turn It had apparently slowed down because they were still closing on it

About this time the copilot decided that the UFO was a balloon; it just looked as if the UFO was turning The pilot agreed halfway--and since the coot back on their course to Kansas City They flew on for a few ” still off to their left If it was a balloon, they should be leaving it behind, the pilot recalled thinking to hiht turn, the ”balloon” shouldn't stay off the left wing; it should drop 'way behind So they h the ”balloon” dropped back a little bit, it didn't drop back far enough to be a balloon It seemed to put on speed to try to make a turn outside of the C-54's turn The pilot continued on around until he'd ree turn, and the UFO had followed, staying outside They could not judge its speed, not knowing how far away it was, but to follow even a C-54 around in a 360-degree turn and to stay outside all of the tihty speedy object