Document · 1967 – March 1968
341st Strategic Missile Wing histories, January 1967 – March 1968 (Echo Flight incident), FOIA release
Five quarterly histories of the 341st Strategic Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, covering January 1967 to March 1968, released under the Freedom of Information Act to researcher John Greenewald in 2001. They document the investigation of the 16 March 1967 Echo Flight shutdown, in which all ten Minuteman I missiles lost strategic alert within seconds of each other, and the engineering tests that followed. Our copy is the FOIA release as published by The Black Vault; the scans are partly legible and the OCR text is imperfect.
Sources: 341st Strategic Missile Wing histories (FOIA release, 2001)
Facts and claims
- documented The wing history records that on 16 March 1967 at 0845 all sites in Echo Flight, Malmstrom AFB, shut down with No-Go indications on channels 9 and 12, all launch facilities losing strategic alert nearly simultaneously, and that no other wing configuration lost alert at that time. All ten sites were returned to alert without replacing launch-facility equipment. Source: doc-341smw-history-1967.pdf
- documented It states: "Rumors of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) around the area of Echo Flight during the time of fault were disproven." A mobile strike team that had checked all of November Flight's launch facilities that morning stated that no unusual activity or sightings were observed, and the 801st Radar Squadron reported no radar or atmospheric interference related to Echo Flight. Source: doc-341smw-history-1967.pdf
- documented The investigation teams at Malmstrom were initially "unable to determine a logical cause for the incident". Later quarters record Boeing and Ogden Air Materiel Area testing: the C-53P logic coupler was found to be the receiver of the noise pulse, tests reproduced the Echo Flight responses most of the time, and the problem was judged peculiar to the Minuteman I (Wing I) system and of electromagnetic-pulse or electrostatic nature. Source: doc-341smw-history-1967.pdf
- documented The histories concern Echo Flight. They contain no account of an object over a launch facility or of a separate Oscar Flight shutdown. Source: doc-341smw-history-1967.pdf
Connected files
Claims
- A UFO shut down nuclear missiles at Malmstrom Air Force Base in March 1967 (evidence against claim) — The wing history records the Echo Flight shutdown and says rumours of UFOs there “were disproven”
Incidents
- Malmstrom AFB missile shutdown (documents)
Organizations
- Department of War (Department of Defense) (released by)
People
- Robert Salas (cited in) — Salas says a FOIA request led the Air Force to declassify the Echo Flight records; the wing history says UFO rumours there “were disproven”
Videos
- UFOs and Nukes press conference, National Press Club (27 September 2010) (discussed in)
- Citizen Hearing 2013: Nuclear Tampering, Part 1 (discussed in)
- Congressional hearings on military reports of Unexplained Aerial Phenomena (UAP) - May 17th, 2022 (discussed in)
- Disclosure Project press conference, National Press Club (May 9, 2001), full event (discussed in)
- “This UFO Shut Down 10 Nukes!” - Air Force Officer Robert Salas (discussed in)
More documents
- Project Blue Book case file: Minot AFB, North Dakota, October 1968
- Halt memo: Unexplained Lights
- Luke AFB FOIA reply on the Phoenix Lights (1 May 1997)
- GAO report on the Roswell crash records (B-262046, July 28, 1995)
- Brazilian Air Defence Command report on the events of 19–20 May 1986 ("Official UFO Night")
- Spanish Air Force file 791111/791117/791128: unusual phenomena in Valencia, Motril and Madrid, November 1979 (the Manises case)