FBIUnresolvedAmbiguous
Flying wing object heading NW toward Nome — Bethel, Alaska, October 18, 1947 (detail account)
Oct 18, 1947Bethel, Alaska1,000 ft
⟳ Deeper read pending. This record is from the FBI 62-HQ-83894 flying-disc file, whose cursive, clippings and faint scans are under-read by automated OCR. It is flagged for a vision-transcription pass and likely undercounts what the source contains — see the documents collection note.
Analysis — our summary
Section 2 includes an additional detailed account of the Bethel, Alaska flying wing sighting attributed to pilot PECK (October 18, 1947). This is the same incident referenced in Section 1 (logged under August 1947), with the October 18 date appearing in Section 2's version. The object was a C-54-sized flying wing at 1,000 ft altitude traveling northwest at approximately 300 mph with no propeller or exhaust.
As reported — verbatim from the document
“PECK sighting: 'flying wing, C-54 size, 1,000 ft altitude, 300 mph, heading NW toward Nome, no propeller, no exhaust, dark but definite shape.'”
Analyst notes — caveats & confidence
Date discrepancy between Sections 1 and 2 (August 1947 vs. October 18, 1947) — may represent two separate reports by the same pilot, or a date recording error in one section. Both entries are included. File was truncated at 1,206 of 4,052 lines.
Provenance
Source document65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_2.pdf
Document typecase file compilation
Reporting agencyFBI
Source pages194
DeclassifiedFirst public at this release (2026)
Held classified~79 years (≥, to this release)
Extraction confidence ModerateHow cleanly this record could be parsed from the source — driven by legibility & redaction. It is not a measure of how credible or anomalous the sighting is.