Mt. Hood, OregonJuly 1949

Unidentified

Summary

On the evening of July 30, 1949, multiple airline pilots and air traffic controllers near Portland, Oregon reported seeing an unidentified object displaying two red lights and one white light. The sighting began around 9:00 p.m. when Portland Tower reported the object hovering south of the Columbia River, near where the Bonneville Power Lines cross the water. The object appeared to drop two white flares and moved closer to Portland.

Captain of Northwest Airlines first spotted the object while approaching Portland from the east at 2,110 p.m., flying at six thousand feet about five miles west of Stevenson, Washington. The object remained behind and slightly to his left, maintaining that position until he reached the Troutdale area. When Captain heard Portland Tower warn other aircraft about an unidentified flying object dropping flares, he turned 180 degrees and tried to intercept it. The object then turned southeast and pulled away from his aircraft despite his airspeed of 210 miles per hour. Another pilot in the area reported seeing the object at an estimated distance of twenty miles to the east, appearing to hover about five hundred to eight hundred feet above his position.

The object maneuvered and hovered in the vicinity of Portland and Troutdale for approximately thirty minutes before disappearing to the east. The Air Force checked an B-29 bomber that was over Portland at the time, but the pilot confirmed he did not drop any flares, did not circle over the area, and saw nothing unusual. The object's shape and size could not be determined. No photographs or sketches were available, and no sound or exhaust trail was reported.

The U.S. Air Force classified this incident as unidentified in its official evaluation. The full case file consists of 12 pages as reproduced below from the National Archives.

Reported location

Mt. Hood, Oregon

Date of incident

July 1949

State / country

OR / US

Page count

12 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 6

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