FBIUnknown

Pan Am Captain Alpheus Powell — orange cylinder sighting near Boston — August 1947

Aug 4, 1947Near Boston, Massachusetts (Gander to LaGuardia route) (approx.)8,000 ft50s

⟳ 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

Pan American Airlines Captain Alpheus Powell and navigator Walter I. White reported an aerial object during a flight from Gander, Newfoundland to LaGuardia Airport on August 4, 1947. At 8,000 feet altitude near Boston, Powell observed an orange cylinder-shaped object moving at approximately 160 mph for about 50 seconds. Navigator White independently observed an elliptical gold object during the same encounter. The incident was documented by Air Defense Command intelligence and included in a collection of 1947 sighting reports forwarded to Army Air Forces headquarters.

As reported — verbatim from the document

“Captain Powell reported an orange cylinder-shaped object; navigator White reported an elliptical gold object during the same encounter.”

Analyst notes — caveats & confidence

Credible source: airline pilot and navigator with professional aviation experience. Two witnesses with independent descriptions (cylinder vs. elliptical gold) suggesting possible perceptual variation of the same object. OCR quality is moderate.

Provenance

Source document65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_130.pdf

Document typeintelligence report collection

Reporting agencyFBI

Source pages126

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.