Bet. Pope AFB and Bolling Fld., January 1950January 1950

On January 24, 1950, three Air Force officers flying a C-45 transport aircraft from Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina to Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., spotted an unusual object in the sky. Captain Theron C. Fehrevach, the co-pilot, noticed it first at roughly 1645 hours (4:45 p.m.), about forty minutes into the flight. The object appeared to the left of their course and about 2,000 feet above them, at a distance of 5 to 10 miles, hovering around 7,000 feet altitude just above a thin cloud layer.

The object's behavior was striking. It moved smoothly and horizontally between two large cloud banks two miles apart, then reversed direction with no visible turn or banking motion. When the pilots altered their course to match it and climbed to the same altitude, they tried to close the distance at 160 miles per hour. The object stayed between 5 to 10 miles ahead of them the entire time, never getting closer. After about two minutes, it appeared to speed up and vanish in front of them. A minute and a half later, it reappeared to the right of their flight path, oscillating slightly side to side before disappearing again by accelerating. The entire encounter lasted approximately fifteen minutes.

All three observers described the object's appearance similarly. To the pilots, it resembled an oversized parachute with a large black object hanging below it. The object appeared roughly 200 to 250 feet in diameter and somewhat spherical or hemispherical in shape. A black trail three to four times as long as the object's width trailed behind it, with precipitation visible at the end. The passenger, 1st Lieutenant John H. Van Santen, described it as a dark sphere with no visible wings or support structures. All three officers stated they could not have been mistaken for a cloud, meteor, celestial planet, or simple wind-drifting object, given the object's smooth flight control and speed capability. They were unanimous that they could not have been flying in optimal conditions to see clouds, and they estimated the object moved at variable speeds ranging from near zero to more than 300 miles per hour.

The Air Force investigators who interviewed the officers on January 30 and 31, 1950, assessed all three witnesses as credible. Captain Fehrevach and Captain Edwards were experienced combat pilots in good physical condition with no signs of fatigue at the time of the sighting. Lieutenant Van Santen was described as sincere, conscientious, and observing. The investigators noted that all three officers were reluctant to report the incident initially, likely due to recent public controversy surrounding UFO reports in newspapers and magazines. When asked whether they had been influenced by a recent article in True Magazine from December 1949, all three denied having read it or being influenced by public opinion on the subject. The investigators found no evidence that any of the officers were seeking publicity or acting as opportunists.

The file contains no final Air Force conclusion about what the object was. The scanned case file reproduced below as held by the National Archives comprises 7 pages.