Category 11 Case Directory
  SIGHTINGS FROM AIRCRAFT 
 
  Preliminary
Rating: 0  

                                   
     

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.

F-94C Disappears During UFO Intercept Mission ? No!
June 1953
Otis AFB, Cape Cod, Massechusetts

Just after dark
Duration ???
aircraft F-94
United States
Military
? observers
No EMI
Radar contact

Fran Ridge:
This incident is being recorded here for-the-record. A search (*) conducted in the Blue Book sighting listings for June lists 1) case 2601, June 22, at Goose AFB, Labrador, with pilot and radar operator and 2) case 2608, which occurred in New London, Connecticut and involved a civil airlines crash in the air. Further searches will be conducted. According to research by Barry Greenwood this is a non-case. *

Ray Fowler:
It involved the disappearance of a jet fighter and its radar officer during a UFO intercept mission originating from Otis Air Force Base in June of 1953.  I have personal knowledge of the circumstances because I was directly involved in the resultant investigation. . . . This happened at Otis Air Force Base ... on Cape Cod about 12 miles east of Buzzards Bay at the edge of old Camp Edwards. Just after dark an F-94C with classified electronic gear aboard took off in a westerly direction. The crew consisted of the pilot, Captain Suggs, and the radar officer [R/O], Lt. Barkoff. According to the pilot's sworn testimony, shortly after breaking ground ­at an altitude of 1500 feet over the Base Rifle Range­the engine quit functioning and the entire electrical system failed. As the aircraft's nose dropped towards the ground at an ever-increasing angle, the pilot stopcocked the throttle and yelled to the R/O to bad out. (See detailed report below)

Dan Wilson:
One of the mysteries of this case is what caused the failure of the engine and the electrical systems. These aircraft are designed to have separate power sources for all the aircraft's systems so if one power source fails the others are not affected. "Pilots generally liked the aircraft (the F-94C), commenting that the J48-P-5 engine wheezed, coughed, spurted, and blurped at altitude; but it never quit running." The F-94C entered operational service with the 437th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS) at Otis AFB on March 7, 1953 and reached operational capability in June 1953. (Marcelle S. Knaack, Encyclopedia of U.S. Aircraft and Missile Systems, page 109).

Detailed reports and documents
reports/5306XXotisafb_report.htm (Ray Fowler)
1953_06_00_US_MA_Otis_AFB_UHR_08_Feb_2001.pdf (Barry Greenwood)
bb/NARA-PBB1-99.jpg (Fran Ridge) *


NICAP Home Page