Pope AFB, North CarolinaOctober 1950

# Pope Air Force Base UFO Sighting, October 1950

In October 1950, a commercial airline pilot reported an unusual encounter near Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina. Captain George A. Woodward of Miami Airlines was flying a Douglas DC-4 from Raleigh to Miami on October 16 when he and copilot Williams Bradsley spotted four shiny objects in the sky. The objects were roughly 100 feet in diameter, shaped like two saucers fitted together, and appeared to be made of aluminum or chrome. Woodward described them as arranged in a line, spaced about 25 feet apart and flying approximately five miles away. When the pilots tried to move closer, the objects descended slowly before accelerating rapidly away. Woodward had logged 12 years of flying experience and was confident these were neither conventional aircraft nor balloons. He reported the sighting to Civil Aeronautics Administration offices in Lumberton and Florence, North Carolina.

An Air Force intelligence officer stationed near the area filed a separate report the same day, describing a single object that moved across his line of sight while he was observing a jet aircraft. That officer estimated the object was traveling at roughly 1,200 miles per hour, based on the distance it appeared to cover in a short time. The officer acknowledged that such calculations were speculative but noted the timing and distance aligned reasonably well with Woodward's sighting if both observers had witnessed the same or related phenomena.

The file also includes other sightings from the region reported in newspapers during the same period in October 1950, including reports from Louisiana and eastern North Carolina. Some witnesses reported circular lights, others described dirigible or saucer-like shapes, and speeds and altitudes varied widely. The Air Force evaluated the main Pope AFB case as unidentified.

The full case file, consisting of 20 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.