Witnesses You Haven't Heard About: Kenneth Arnold's UFO Encounter

Multiple witnesses, a clear day, and corroborating sightings: Why the events of that day demand a closer look.

Kenneth Arnold describing his UFOs - courtesy The Seattle Times

If you're at all curious about UFOs, you've probably heard or read about the famous Kenneth Arnold sighting. Recall he's the person who reportedly coined the phrase "flying saucers" while describing his sighting to the press. There's actually more to this story than is generally publicly known, and what you'll read here for the first time adds greatly to the credibility of his sighting!

What Kenneth saw

Kenneth Arnold was a 32-year-old private pilot from Boise, Idaho, where he owned a fire control equipment company. On the day of his sighting, Arnold was flying his CallAir A-2 airplane from Chehalis, Washington, to Yakima, Washington. His primary purpose was to assist in the search for a missing C-46 Marine Corps transport plane that had crashed near Mount Rainier. Arnold was an experienced pilot with over 9,000 flying hours.

Courtesy of EJ Thornton and Books To Believe In

At about 3:00 PM, Arnold was flying near Mount Rainier in Washington state, at about 9,200 feet. Visibility was excellent as the skies were clear. He witnessed nine brightly glinting, metallic, crescent shaped objects flying in a chain-like formation. By timing their flight time between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams, a distance of almost 50 miles, Arnold was able to calculate their approximate speed at 1,700 miles per hour.

Arnold described the motion of each object as "like a saucer skipping across water". They moved in unison, but occasionally tilted or flipped erratically, glinting very brightly in the sunlight. They emitted no exhaust and created no noise that Arnold could detect.

Upon landing in Yakima, Arnold shared his sighting with fellow pilots and later reported it to the East Oregonian newspaper. The story was quickly picked up by national media, and Arnold found himself at the center of a media frenzy. His credibility as a reliable pilot and observer lent weight to the report.

Military response

Project Blue Book was initiated the same year, under the original title of Project Sign, but Kenneth's famous sighting was never investigated as part of that program. However, Arnold's report was taken seriously by the U.S. military. Intelligence officers from Wright Field (now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) interviewed him. These authorities publicly stated for the media that Kenneth had likely been watching either mirages, meteors, lenticular clouds, or possibly a flock of pelicans or other birds reflecting sunlight.

But wait, there's more!

Now we get to the good parts that you probably have not heard about. When there are multiple witnesses providing corroborating testimony to a UFO sighting event, this adds powerful credibility. There were several other witnesses to UFO events on the same day, in the same region of the country, and describing very similar objects. Almost no media coverage of these sightings happened, but we do have some details. Let's dive in.

Another pilot

On June 24, 1947, approximately 30 minutes before Arnold's sighting, L. G. Bernier, a private pilot, was flying near Vancouver, British Columbia. He reported seeing three strange objects flying "almost edgewise" toward Mount Rainier. From his own plane he noted their high speed, comparing it to that of a P-38 aircraft, but faster. Bernier speculated that these could be visitors from another planet.

Fred Johnson

Even though Kenneth Arnold's sighting didn't make it into the Project Blue Book case files, another sighting 30 minutes earlier, and very close to the same area, did. Fred Johnson's sighting on June 24, 1947, is documented in Project Blue Book as Case #12. According to the records, Johnson was a prospector working near Mount Adams, Washington, at an elevation of approximately 5,000 feet above sea level when he observed five or six disc-shaped objects passing overhead. During this observation, he noted unusual behavior in his compass needle, which oscillated erratically, suggesting a possible magnetic influence from the objects.

Yakima sighting

About the same time of day as Arnold's sighting, Ethel Wheelhouse in Yakima, Washington, reported observing several flying discs moving at fantastic speeds.

Fire watch tower witness

A member of the Washington State forest service, stationed at a fire watch tower in Diamond Gap, about 20 miles south of Yakima, reported seeing "flashes" at 3:00 p.m. over Mount Rainier, moving in a straight line.

Sidney B. Gallagher

On June 24, right at 3:00 PM, Sidney B. Gallagher in Washington state reported seeing nine shiny discs flash by to the north.

Seattle and Bremerton sightings

On June 24, there were additional reports of flashing, rapidly moving unknown objects over Seattle and Bremerton, Washington, both in the morning and at night.

Summary

Information about these other sightings is light, as these events didn't make it into the public media frenzy as did Kenneth Arnold's famous sighting. However, the odds that all these corroborating witnesses saw something mundane, like clouds or birds, on the same date and in the same approximate locality, is extremely low. Each of these sightings on their own is not that impressive, but taken as an integrated whole they lend a lot of validity to the strange events of June 24, 1947.

For more about "Case 12" in Project Blue Book, please see this Youtube video: https://ufo.openinapp.co/case-12

Thank you for reading - if the subject of UFOs and Citizen-led Disclosure truly fascinates you - here are some more ways you can connect with other like-minded beings.