Document · 4 July 1947
Project Blue Book case file: Portland, Oregon, and the Northwest, July 1947 (incidents of 4 July)
A Project Blue Book case file, catalogued by the National Archives as “July 1947, Incident Number 12”, that gathers the reports of 4 July 1947 from Portland, Oregon, and nearby, with the Air Force's evaluations of them and of the United Air Lines crew's sighting near Boise, Idaho, the same evening. Our copy is the 59 page images from the NARA catalog, OCR'd for search.
It includes press clippings from the Oregon Journal of 5 July 1947, the reports of Portland policemen, harbor patrolmen and Vancouver deputies, and an analyst's note that found no astronomical explanation. Names of witnesses are blacked out in the sanitized copy.
Source: U.S. National Archives, Project Blue Book (local copy)
Facts and claims
- documented The file's analysis of the Portland reports states: “There is no astronomical explanation for this incident; nor for numerous others… which occurred in and near Portland on the Fourth of July, 1947”, noting their round shape, rapid speed, abrupt tactics and quick disappearances. As “only as a possibility”, the investigator suggests pieces of aluminium foil dropped from a plane during Independence Day celebrations, adding it is “not to be regarded as a very likely explanation”. Source: doc-bluebook-portland-1947.pdf
- documented The file reproduces the Oregon Journal of 5 July 1947, which reports that eight Portland area policemen and deputy sheriffs, private citizens, the crew of a United Air Lines plane over Boise and a Seattle coastguardsman reported disks on 4 July. Source: doc-bluebook-portland-1947.pdf
- documented Its summary of “Incident No. 10”, Boise, Idaho: an airline pilot and crew watched two groups of objects (5 and 4) “described as thin and smooth on the bottom and rough on top”, silhouetted against the sunset, and followed them for 45 miles. The Air Materiel Command's opinion: at sunset “the objects could have been ordinary aircraft, balloons, birds, or pure illusion. Insufficient information.” Source: doc-bluebook-portland-1947.pdf
Connected files
Programs
- Project Blue Book (case file of)
Incidents
- Portland police and harbor patrol disk sightings (documents)
- United Air Lines Flight 105 sighting near Emmett, Idaho (documents)
Mentioned in this file
- National Archives and Records Administration (Organization)
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