65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_002

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jONFI)?E~'Tii~L
BY KENNETH ARNpLD
•
The following st ory of what I observed over the Cascade mountains ,
as impossibl e as it may seem, is positivel y true .
I never a sked nor wanted
any notoriety for just accidently being in the r ight spot at the r ight time
to observe what I did .
I reported something that I know any pil ot would
have r epor ted .
I don't think that in any way my obserTation was due to any
sensivity of eye sight or judgment than what is considered normal for any pi lot.
On June 24th, Tuesday, 1947 , I had finished my work for the Centr al Air
Service at Chehalis, Washington , and at about two o' cl ock I -took off from
Chehal is, Washington, airpor t with the intention of going to Yakima , Wash.
!fy trip was delayed for an hour to search for a large marine transport that
supposedly went down near or around the southwest side of Mt . Rninier in the
state of Washington and to date has neTer been found.
I f l ew directl y toward Mt . Rainier after reaching an altitude of about
9, 500 f eet, which is the approximate elevation of the high plateau f r om which
Mt . Rainier r ises .
I had made one sweep of this high plateau to the westward~
sear ching al l of the various ridges for this marine ship and flew to the west
down and near the ridge side of the canyon wher e Ashford, Washington, is l ocated .
Unable to see anything that looked like the lost ship, I ma.de a 360 degr ee
turn to the r ight and above the little city of Mineral, starting again towar d
Mt . Rainier .
I cl imbed back u~ to an altit ude of appr oximately 9, 200 feet.
The ai r was so smooth that day that it was a r eal pl easure flying and
as most pilots do when the air is smooth and they ar e f l ying at a higher
1
al titude , I t r immed out my a i r pl ane in the dir ecti on of Yakima , Washington,
which was al most dir ectly east of my position and simply sat in my pl ane ob­
serving the sky and the terr ain .
Ther e was a DC- 4 t o the left and to the rear of me approximatel y
fift een mi les distance, and I should judge, at 14,000 foot elevation.
The sky and air was as clear as crystal .
I hadn ' t f l own more than
two or three minut es on my course when a bright flash reflected on my
airplane.
It startled me as I thought I was too close to some other air­
craft.
I looked every pl ace in the sky and couldn ' t find wher e the r efl ec­
t i on had come from until I l ooked to the left and the nor th of Mt . Rainier
wher e I observed a chain of nine peculiar looking air craft f l ying f r om north
to south at approximatel y 9, 500 feet eleTation and going, seemingl y , i n a
definite dir ect i on of about 170 degr ees .
They wer e appr oaching Mt . Rainier very r apidly, and I merely assumed
they were jet pl anes.
Anyhow, I discovered that this was where the refl ec­
tion had come from, as two or three of them ever y few seconds woul d di p or
change their cour se slightly, just enough for the sun to str ike them at an
angl e that r eflected brightly on my plane.
These objects being quite far away, I was unabl e for a few seconds t o
make out their shape or their formation .
Ver y shortly they appr oached Mt .
Rainier, and I observed their outline against the snow quite pl ai nl y .
I thought it was ver y peculiar that I couldn ' t find their tail s but
assumed they wer e some type of jet plane .
I was determi ned to clock their
speed, as I had two definite points I could cl ock them by; the air was so
clear that it was very easy to see objects and deter mine their approximate
shape and size at almost fifty miles that day.
I remember distinctly that my sweep second hand on my eight day clock,
which is locat ed on my instrument panel , read one minute to 3 P.M. as the
fir st object of this formation passed the souther n edge of Mt . Rainier .
I watched these objects with great inter est as I had never befor e obee rved