Category 11 Case Directory
  SIGHTINGS FROM AIRCRAFT 
 
  Preliminary
Rating: 5  

                                   
     

AVCAT is a special project being conducted by NICAP, with the help and cooperation of the original compiler of AIRCAT, Dr. Richard Haines, and other sources, to create a comprehensive listing of sightings from aircraft with detailed documentation from these sources, including Projects SIGN, GRUDGE & BLUE BOOK.

Chiles-Whitted Case
July 24, 1948
Montgomery, Alabama


2:35 a.m. local
Duration 5-10 secs
DC-3 aircraft
United States
Civilian
2 observer
No EMI
No radar contact

Brad Sparks:
July 24, 1948, Montgomery, Alabama
2:35 a.m.  Eastern Airlines pilots, Captain C.S. Chiles and First Officer J.B. Whitted, reported that a cigar-shaped object with lights like portholes approached head-on, accelerated, climbed away. [Battelle Unknown No. 5] 5-10 secs)

Captain Edward J. Ruppelt:

"At about 2:45 A.M., when the flight was 20 miles southwest of Montgomery, the captain, Chiles, saw a light dead ahead and closing fast. His first reaction, he later reported to an ATIC investigation team, was that it was a jet, but in an instant he realized that even a jet couldn't close as fast as this light was closing. Chiles said he reached over, gave Whitted, the other pilot, a quick tap on the arm, and pointed. The UFO was now almost on top of them. Chiles racked the DC-3 into a tight left turn. Just as the UFO flashed by about 700 feet to the right, the DC-3 hit turbulent air. Whitted looked back just as the UFO pulled up in a steep climb. Both the pilots had gotten a good look at the UFO and were able to give a good description to the Air Force intelligence people. It was a B-29 fuselage. The underside had a "deep blue glow." There were "two rows of windows from which bright lights glowed," and a "bright trail of orange red flame" shot out the back."

"In intelligence, if you have something to say about some vital problem you write a report that is known as an "Estimate of the Situation." A few days after the DC-3 was buzzed, the people at ATIC decided that the time had arrived to make an estimate of the Situation. The situation was the UFO's; the estimate was that they were interplanetary!"

Fran Ridge:
One of our researchers went through all the news and official accounts about this case that he could find, specifically looking at the issue of noise and jetwash. Without exception, Chiles and Whitted told reporters that they had felt the blast, but when official interviewers, like Loedding and OSI agents asked them they insisted that they heard no noise and felt no wake. In some cases the "no" is underlined in the interviews. We don't understand this discrepancy, but consider the pilots reliable.  

Detailed reports and documents
Chiles-Whitted Case  (NARCAP)
reports/480724montgomery_shough.pdf (Martin Shough) *
Drawing from page 48 (The UFO Evidence, 1964)
Chiles-Whited Case Report (Edward Ruppelt)
The Chiles-Whitted Case (Dr. James E. McDonald)
Memorandum To The Press (Project Saucer Report, April 27, 1949)
Air Brief - Special Study (April 27, 1949)
Air Intelligence Report transcript of Report 100-203-79 [April 28, 1949] (Project 1947)
Top Secret Air Intelligence Report No. 100-203-79 [ordered destroyed, full 19 pages in pdf] (AIIR)
Watershed: The Chiles-Whitted "rocketship" Sighting (Joel Carpenter/Project 1947)
Chiles-Whitted Sighting - Brad Sparks (UFO Updates, Sept. 20, 2004)

Blue Book Documents
MAXW-PBB4 4-23 - Chiles-Whitted Case (Dan Wilson)
MAXW-PBB4 33-37 - Statement by Pilots (Dan Wilson)
NARA-PBB2-1418-1448 - 30 more documents (Dan Wilson)
MAXW-PBB4 46-51, 153-154 - Report by Project Officer Sneider (Dan Wilson)
MAXW-PBB4 52-54 - Chiles-Whitted / TRUE UNKNOWN (Dan Wilson)
NARA-PBB2 1414-1417 - 24 July 1948 Sightings Analysis (Dan Wilson)
MAXW-PBB4 144 - Loedding Requests Information from Eastern Airlines (Dan Wilson)
Other sightings
MAXW-PBB4 119-124 - July 23, 1948, Robins AFB, GA Sighting (Dan Wilson)

NICAP Home Page