We left Boise, Idaho, at 2004 Pacific Standard Time. At approximately 2015, the co-pilot, Ralph Stevens, called my attention to the first object [seen? Not clear]. We were then in the vicinity of Emmet, Idaho, our altitude was approximately 6500, and we were climbing to our proposed cruising altitude of [not clear] from there to Pendleton, Oregon. The heading of the plane at that time was 300 degrees Magnetic North, and the object (one) was sighted at approximately 290 degrees, or ten degrees to our left. Then an additional four objects appeared to the left of the main, or first, object. These four objects appeared slightly smaller than the first object sighted, but all of the objects appeared on the same plane. I estimated the altitude of the objects to be about 8500. They were within our sight for approximately [not clear] minutes, then they disappeared.

Shortly after the first group disappeared, probably one or two minutes later, the second group appeared about 310 degrees, or to the right of the plane. Their altitude was the same as the first group. Three of the objects appeared to be on the same plane, and one object appeared slightly higher and to the right of the others. The second group stayed within our sight twelve to fifteen minutes, then disappeared. We had levelled off by the time the second group disappeared.

The objects were flat on the base, the top slightly rough in contour. The dimensions appeared the same as a DC-3 approximately five miles from us. In other words, it could have been ninety miles away if it would be possible for an object as large as that would have to be flying, but since we didn't know what we were looking at or how large it was, we decided that if it were the size of a DC-3 wing span (90 feet), it was about five miles distant. Actually, we have no idea just how large it was since we could not determine its distance from us. When we first sighted the objects, we decided they were either going away from us or coming towards us. After a short while, however, we knew they couldn't be coming towards us, because we never approached them. I don't believe they could have been going a reat rate of speed and still stayed in sight for as long as they did. I would judge they might have been travelling about 300 miles per hour.

My personal opinion regarding the objects are - that their speed varied, was not constant. When first sighted, they were going slow and stayed within sight for quite some time. However, when we lost sight of them, they seemed to disappear practically immediately. I think they either put on a tremendous burst of speed and disappeared from sight, or else they dissipated. Also, it appeared that only one object, the large one, was controlled, and it in turn controlled the other objects, and I think they were ground controlled.

In both instances, the co-pilot sighted the objects first and called my attention to them. The weather was clear and unlimited, with not a cloud in the sky. We checked the wind, and it was 230-10, or out of the Southwest at ten miles per hour. The air speed of the ship was about 185 MPH. The sun was below the horizon and the objects were silhouetted against the sky, hence we could distinguish no color or reflection.

I was flying the plane when I spotted the first object at 2012 on the 4th of July, eight minutes after departure from Boise, Idaho. I thought it was an oncoming aircraft similar to ours (DC-3) about five miles away, so turned on our landing lights, which is the usual signal to another plane to let it know you're in the vicinity. I mentioned this fact to Smith, and he watched the object also. While we were both watching, four more objects appeared at the same altitude as the first. They seemed to be at the same altitude as our plane, about 6,000 feet. They were heading about 290 degree magnetic North, so I turned to follow them. We watched them for four or five minutes, then they all merged as one and disappeared. I don't know whether they merged in line of flight or not, nor do I know whether they went beyond our vision or whether they dissipated.

Two minutes later, the large object reappeared with three smaller ones on its left and one smaller one a great distance to the right. We had the second group in sight for about twelve minutes. The last time seen, they were still in that formation and disappeared into the sunset. Also, when we last saw them, they seemed to have continued climbing after we levelled off and were about nine or ten thousand feet.

At the time we saw the objects, the sun was below the horizon, but there was quite a bright red glow above the horizon from the sunset. I couldn't really say what distance they were from us, not knowing what they were or how large they were. However, while we were watching them we radioed ahead to Ontario, Oregon, about thirty miles distant, to the weather station there, and told them what we were seeing and asked them to go outside and see if they could see them. They radioed back and said they could see nothing, so the objects could have been beyond Ontario, since we had told them that they were between our plane and Ontario. It should also be [said? Not clear] that the personnel at Ontario would be looking at a dark sky and not be likely to be able to see them anyway.

I can't say whether are man-made disks or not, whether they are radio controlled or not, or anything about them. They did not maneuver much at all, except when the first group merged. All I can say is that they were going our direction and were climbing. I don't think they were clouds, as there hadn't been a cloud in the sky, and it would have been quite a phenomenon as it was like nothing I had ever seen before. There was a big difference in the size of the objects. The smaller ones were hard to distinguish as to shape, they were not shiny, nor did they "flip". I couldn't swear on a [bible? Not clear] they were not clouds, but I think it impossible. Had they been clouds, they wouldn't have appeared and disappeared so suddenly, and we [could? Not clear] have approached them.

As we were taxiing out to take off from Boise, the tower called us and asked us if we had seen any disks lately. As a consequence, we were and had been talking about the flying disks when we sighted them. I don't believe, however, that it was a figment of the imagination, as Smith and I were seeing the same things, even the object far off to the right in the second group. We also called the stewardess, who had not been in on the conversation, and without mentioning "disks" asked her what she saw. She stated that she saw the same things we did, which seemed to prove to us that it was not our imagination.

August 31, 1956. J. Gordon Campbell, president of a machine-tool company of Edina, Minnesota, was flying with his family in their private plane near Billings, Montana, at about 8 p.m., on their way to Lewiston, Montana, for the weekend. They were flying northwest at a ground altitude of 4000 feet (8000 feet above sea level) when they noticed what they thought at first was another plane. Actually, the object, which was coming toward them at a terrific speed, turned out to be a huge "dog-boned shaped" UFO. All black in color, it had knobs on either end "just like a cartoonist's version of a dog-bone" (see illustration, from a cut-out model made by Campbell). "It was awfully hard to tell how close we were. It seemed to be a quarter-mile away and about 150 feet long" (if his estimate is accurate, the object was 13 times the apparent size of the full moon - Eds). "During the time it seemed to hover close to us, we had a true air speed of close to 180 miles an hour, and it was right with us - between us and where the sun had gone down".

As soon as the Campbells were certain that the object was not a plane, they called the Billings control tower and asked if there was any trace of the object on their radar. There wasn't. Immediately after this the object disappeared to the northwest - in a matter of three seconds it was out of view. Almost immediately four more objects came into view, hovered, and then sped away after the Billings radar operators had reported inability to "get" them.

As soon as the Campbells landed at Billings, they reported their observations. "Another one came over while we were on the ground. There were two or three who saw it, besides us". Later, they discovered from clippings that a number of other people had reported seeing "things following much the same description" at the same time.

Approximately 6.30 p.m. on the 27th January, 1959 while bailing a boat out at Green Head anchorage (132 sea miles north of Perth, Western Australia) an object was noticed in the sky over the sea in a S.W. direction and was immediately taken without doubt to be al large aircraft directly approaching. No more notice was taken for a few minutes, but on looking up again the presumed aircraft had come much closer and was stationary, its appearance now was not that of an aircraft but a very large oval shaped object, dark grey to black in colour and while looking, six much smaller objects appeared to the right of it. These objects were not so defined in shape but gave the appearance of a burst of shell fire. All these objects stayed visible for at least five minutes, the largest being last to disappear in the direction it came from.

On going ashore a few minutes later, it was told to a crayfisherman and his wife (...) and on pointing out the direction a small object was again sighted looking like an aircraft a long way off; this gradually came towards us and then stopped, distance would be hard to estimate but would say 5 to 10 miles away and possibly 20,000 ft. high. While looking at this again more objects like aircraft in the distance were noticed. They increased in size and when on a level with the larger object they stopped coming. All these objects stayed for at least 5 minutes then gradually went back into the distance, the larger object being the last to fade away. While discussing this sighting, 5 to 10 minutes later on an object was again noticed in the distance and coming towards us, this sighting was as before with the smaller objects appearing soon after. On each of the three sightings the six smaller objects were in different formation. The three sightings were made over a period of approximately 30 minutes.

Objects as seen on each occasion at nearest point and approximate comparison in sizes [from : Australian Flying Saucer Review 10th Anniversary Edition].

My own feelings were that the large object had it been close overhead would have been very large.

These objects appeared as if they were observing the coast and left one with a feeling of fright. There was no noise, light or smoke from any of the objects.

You might be interested in a most unusual sighting that occurred in your area during the late afternoon of October 25, 1963, during the course of a VFR flight plan filed by Bonanza ------- between St. Louis and Mitchell.

The aircraft was cruising at a true air speed of 170 MPH at an altitude of 6500 feet on a heading of 310 magnetic. The sky condition was clear with winds from the southwest at approximately 15 knots. At approximately 1845, what appeared to be an unusual object was sighted bearing south. This object seemed to be somewhere north of the Tyndall intersection.

It first was noticed as a dark, sharply defined mass, which appeared to be slightly above our altitude. At first study it was judged to be a large tanker making drogue contact since there was a small object behind it. It appeared to be paralleling our course. It then began to grow larger. Although the outlines were extremely sharp and concise, it did not have an identifiable aircraft shape.

We turned towards the object. A lack of relative movement indicated it was not an aircraft, probably a cloud. However the small, adjacent speck began to grow larger and the main object began to shrink in size and the whole mass appeared to recede. At this point we turned back to our original course toward Mitchell. At that time the single remaining mass disintegrated into approximately 10-20 small objects and the whole group disappeared with the exception of one pronounced dot, which looked very much like an aircraft from the rear. This dot became progressively smaller and we discontinued our watch.

At approximately 1900 we discovered that the shape was returning and we immediately turned towards it on a heading of 180. At this time the sun was over the horizon but there was considerable light in the sky and the object was clearly back-lighted and thus sharply etched against the sky.

At that time the range was impossible to assume. The object looked like a 707 might appear at a distance of two miles head on. At that distance the increase in size stopped. A small dot appeared to the east side of the mass. The dot began to grow in size and the main mass began to shrink. Finally the two objects had completely changed positions, the dot was as large as the original mass and the original mass was gone. We continued on this heading towards the object until 1915. Since the range appeared to be opening and it was fast becoming dark, we discontinued the chase and returned to Mitchell, landing at approximately 1940.

My own experience as a military reserve jet pilot and that of the pilot ---------, left us with no conclusions. It was quite obviously no aircraft, since aircraft do not change shape and size. Further, the relative movement did not fit an aircraft's course. Although it resembled a cloud of smoke that could have been caused by altitude gunnery, the rapid change of size, disappearance and reappearance and our inability to close the range consistently would seem to rule out any condensation. An extremely dense cloud of birds could have accounted for the unusual movements of the shapes, but at our speed we would have closed on such a flock.

After a great deal of discussion, we were forced to conclude that it was simply a U.F.O.

Captain Walter Gardin and myself were returning from Adelaide to Perth on a Charter Flight. The aircraft was an 8 place Piper Navajo, registration VH-RTO, returning empty from Adelaide. At first sighting I was asleep in the cabin, Walter was at the controls. We were cruising at 8,000 feet with a true airspeed of 190-195 knots and tracking 270' Magnetic.

At 0940 G.M.T. (1740 W.S.T.) Walter abruptly wakened me in great excitement and asked me to come into the cockpit quickly. I did so, and he asked me if I could see what he was looking at. At first I didn't, because I was still suffering from the effect of sleep. However, after about thirty seconds I could seen what he was excited about.

Some distance ahead at the same level, and about 50° to my right (I was in the right seat), I saw a formation of aircraft. In the middle was a larger aircraft, and formatted to the right and left and above were four or five smaller aircraft. We were on a track of 270° Magnetic and these aircraft appeared to be maintaining station with us.

As we had not been notified of this traffic, I radioed Kalgoorlie D.C.A. communications centre asking them what traffic they or RAAF had in our area. The answer was none. So I then notified Kalgoorlie that we had this formation in sight and they, in turn, notified some eastbound traffic of the danger of unidentified traffic 130 NM east of Kalgoorlie.

At about this time we lost communications with Kalgoorlie on all frequencies. We were receiving Kalgoorlie carrier wave with no voice propagation, only a hash and static. In the next ten minutes I transmitted about seven times and I believe Walter did about five times with no results.

Also at about this time we noticed that the main ship split into two sections still maintaining the same level, and the smaller aircraft then flew out left and right but staying at the same level and coming back to the two main halves of the bigger ship. At this time there appeared to be about six smaller aircraft taking turns of going out and coming back and formating on the two halves.

Sometimes the two halves joined and split, and the whole cycle continued for ten minutes.

The shape of the main ship seemed to have the ability to change, not drastically, but a change from, say, spheroid to a slightly elongated form with the colour maintaining a constant dark grey to black.

However, the smaller craft had a constant cigar shape and were of a very dark colour. Their travel out and back had a peculiarity not associated with normal aircraft in that they appeared to travel out and come back without actually turning like a normal aeroplane would have to.

At 0950 G.M.T. the whole formation joined together as if at a single command, then departed at a tremendous speed. It did not disappear as, say, gas would but it departed in about three or four seconds, diminishing in size till out of sight.

The weather at the time of the sighting was fine, with no haze above 5,000 feet and about 2/8 alto stratus cloud to the south of us and the other aircraft.

NOTES ON UFOS:

1. The distance from our aircraft to the UFOs would be impossible to gauge because the prerequisite to establishing distance is to know size and the size of these objects is unknown. However, for comparative size, the main ship compared with a Boeing 707 as seen from about ten miles away.

2. Immediately after the departure of the UFOs radio communications were restored.

3. Neither Walter nor myself had the presence of mind to check if any deviation existed in our magnetic compass or Automatic Direction Finding equipment whilst in the proximity of the UFOs.

4. The whole formation maintained the same distance and bearing from our aircraft for the entire duration of the sighting.

Captain Gardin and myself discussed the sighting at length during and after the event and came to these conclusions as to whether the UFOs were (a) Balloons, (b) Gases, (c) Tricks of Light, (d) Aircraft.

a) If the sighting were balloons we considered it impossible to see these balloons from thirty miles. This would have been the distance covered by the aircraft from the first sighting to the disappearance.

The UFOs maintained the same distance throughout whereas a free balloon would have a closure rate with us of 195 knots (our true airspeed) and would have at least passed us.

b) The same arguments as above.

c) If it were a trick of light, the colour of the UFOs should have changed at some time or another because the sun had had a considerable traverse, coupled with our westward travel during this time. Also due to the last two facts, any refracted light would have changed form drastically whereas the UFOs had very little change of shape or colour.

d) We conclude that the UFOs were in fact aircraft with th solidity of aircraft, except perhaps for the fact of the ability of the larger UFO to split and change shape slightly.

We were about 40 miles south of Lisbon when Lisbon Control [Air Traffic] called up a 'TriStar' that was above us and said: "We have reports of a UFO. Could you confirm the sighting?". We looked up and there, sure enough at 90°, was this very bright light, the sun had just set, there was no cloud, and we could still see the ground. The crescent moon could be seen, but it was daylight to all intents and purposes at 29,000 feet.

[As] we looked up, there was this brilliantly white, incredibly bright object. Relative to us, it was at 90° and looked about 30° in elevation. It was an incredible thing to see just sitting there, so I said [to his crew], I think we will just tell the passengers, so I made a cabin address and said: "If you look on the starboard side, you will see what we believe to be a UFO".

Then as we were looking, a long cigar-shaped, or sausage-shaped brown affair appeared below it and to the starboard side of it. It just materialised, just appeared there, and then another one appeared next to it. Certainly, I saw this very bright light which Lisbon had asked me to confirm and the 'TriStar' had already said: "Yes, we have this UFO in sight". I confirmed that [to Control] and I said: "There is no way that this is a star or planet". This is all on tape.

We saw the bright one for eight minutes, but [as for] the other two, I think the first one appeared two minutes later and the third one at the same time. It was then that I thought I was looking at something very unreal. I think the bright light was fascinating, but the other things were also extraordinary, and something I cannot possibly explain. It certainly was not natural. If natural is what I have been accustomed to for the past twenty years, then this was not natural and the other members of the crew agreed with me.

Apart from ourselves and the 'TriStar', there was also a T.A.P. [Portuguese State Airline] '727'. I had been speaking to the 'TriStar' Captain, and then the T.A.P. pilot started speaking to Lisbon and it was then that they said they were going to "scramble" some fighters. Whether they did so or not I don't know, but they were getting excited about it and completely blocked the "air" [radio band]. This was difficult as we wanted descent clearance. Finally we were able to clear with Faro [airport].

The first officer, C.T., who has been flying for 20 years, including 12 years as a Royal Air Force fighter pilot, recorded his version of the events, and his impressions:

The 'Trident 2' aircraft [C-AVFG] flying from London to Faro on Friday July 30, 1976, was in a position 08°30' W., 38° S., just South East of Lisbon at 29,000 ft., heading 195°. The speed was 500 knots, the time 2000 GMT.

It was a beautiful clear sky, a newish moon had appeared and the sun was setting. A very bright light appeared, well above the horizon, bearing 30° from our position. The light was really incredibly bright; dazzling and very large indeed. Its shape was very difficult to discern. Rather like an enormous headlamp in the sky. It was not a star, planet or satellite.

Whilst watching this light an incredible occurrence was witnessed. At a much lower level, a large rectangular object suddenly materialised. It had the appearance of a thick, foreshortened condensation trail. The periphery was of a vapourish appearance and coloured, probably by the setting sun. The centre was very dark, solid looking, somewhat cigar-like and appeared stationary.

Approximately 30 seconds later another of these objects suddenly appeared just behind the first. I watched the objects continuously for some five minutes: they appeared to be stationary although the shape did alter slightly, probably due to our own Southward progress. They were not aircraft condensation trails: vapour was present, but it was all embracing the dark centres. I was under the impression that a third one appeared underneath the second but couldn't swear to it.

Sketch made by the Captain of the Trident during the course of his sighting.

Another light then appeared at "seven o'clock" [relative position] to the headlamp, but was lower on the horizon, not so intense, and maybe unrelated to this situation.

The sighting was also observed by a British Airways 'TriStar' en-route to Faro, and by Portuguese Airlines. The Portuguese controller became very excited and talked about sending up fighters to have a look. Whether they did or not I don't know.

I have been flying at high altitude now for 20 years, 12 of them in the R.A.F, and have never witnessed the like of this before".

The first we saw of the object was when "Air Traffic" called up to the 'TriStar' that was right above us and said that they had a "contact" at about 3 o'clock [area of the sky]`and was there anything there? So we turned around [in our seats] and had a look. There, at 3 o'clock or slightly higher, was this bright light. It was daylight and the sun was setting, and it certainly appeared to have form rather than being a point source. It was far too bright to be a star, or anything explainable, no matter what effects the atmosphere may have had.

We watched this thing for a while and then, below it to the right, a fat sausage shape appeared, then behind that another one appeared. I am not sure about those, the thing that was totally unexplained was the light. The sausage shape could at a stretch of the imagination have been contrails caused by an aircraft, but they were too short and besides that they could only have been made by a very large aircraft, or whatever, and in any case the atmosphere was very dry and there were no contrails being produced by any aircraft, so it it very unlikely that it was a contrail.

Really that is all there was. This thing, the light, was stationary but I wouldn't like to say what happened to the brown things as they were getting further away all the time behind us.

We carried on down over the coast, turned in to descend and could still see the light in the distance.

The thing that interested me was the light, for it was totally inexplicable. I have a Physics degree, so I am not completely "lay" about it.

Anyway we came back to London Airport and reported it to "Air Traffic" and filled out a report on the UFO forms.

The light was of several orders of magnitude brighter than any star. As far as I am concerned it wasn't any star; it was a very bright white light.

The crew questioned the passengers at Faro Airport after the landing. Nobody had had a camera available, but one witness had binocular, and had viewed the bright light. He described seeing an object like "crinkled silver paper" in the middle of the light.

After the initial contact made on the flight from London to Faro (Portugal) at 2000 GMT on July 30, 1976, the aircraft landed, refuelled and took off for the return flight to London, the crew decided to switch on the radar and scan the area where the initial contact had been made.