March 9, 1957; 350 miles NE of Jacksonville, Florida (BB)

At 4:33 a.m. AST, Captain Matthew Van Winkle piloting a Pan American World Airways DC-6A airliner at a point approximately 350 miles NE of Jacksonville, Florida, observed a "burning greenish white round object" to the right of the aircraft that appeared to be on a collision course. Van Winkle then pulled the plane upward in a climb to avoid the object. This sudden maneuver caused some of the passengers to be thrown out of their seats resulting in some injuries. Co-pilot Dion W. Taylor and flight engineer John Washuta had observed the object also. The object according to the flight engineer, was a high intensity light to the right of the aircraft which appeared to stand still for approximately four seconds until it was lost to sight during the evasive action. (BB files)

Something surely happened here. This incident was covered briefly in "UFOs and Government", pp.245-6. The "joker" in this situation is the possibility of an off-course missile test combined with a slightly off-course Pilot Van Winkle. Note that in the USAF docs that they are concerned about this too. And note the ominous word "classified" applied despite trying to wave this off as a fireball. Original source: NICAP UFOE, V, over a hundred documents (111 to be exact) were located by Dan Wilson and made into two pdf files by Bill Schroeder. When the DC-6A took evasive action, that alone terminated what could have been a longer experience.