PENDLETON, June 27 (AP) ? Kenneth Arnold, a veteran pilot and fire control engineer, Thursday clung stoutly to his story that he saw nine shiny crescent-shaped planes or pilotless missiles flying in formation at a speed of at least 1,200 miles per hour over the Mt. Rainier region.
It's God's truth ? I will swear it on a Bible. I saw them and I clocked them. They traveled 48 to 50 miles in 1
minute and 42 seconds.
(A plane traveling 48 miles in 1 minute and 42 seconds would be moving at a speed of 1,692 miles per hour.)
Arnold said he saw the objects flying in weaving formation
in a line at 10,000 feet as he piloted his own small private plane over Mineral, Wash. He said he flew at a right
angle to the line of flashing objects.
When he landed at Pendleton, in route to Boise Idaho, Arnold told his story and stuck to it.
Some of the pilots thought it over and said it was possible. Some of them guessed that I had seen some secret
guided missiles. People began asking me if I thought they were missiles sent over the North Pole. I don't know what
they were, but I know this ? I saw them.
Arnold, general manager and owner of the Great Western Fire Control Company, said he first saw the objects when they flashed in the sun low over the slopes of Mt. Rainier.
Then I saw them, weaving and ducking in and out as they came south not more than 500 feet over the plateau. They
looked like they were rocking. I looked for the tails but suddenly realized they didn't have any. They were half-moon
shaped, oval in front and convex in the rear. I was in a beautiful position to watch them. I thought they might be jet
planes, and I clocked them. Then when I saw they had no tails and I realized how fast they were going, I knew they
were like nothing I had ever heard of before. There were no bulges or cowlings; they looked like a big flat disk. They
were larger than the ordinary jet plane but slightly smaller than a DC4, if you don't count the rear fuselage.
Arnold said that the objects waived like the tail of a Chinese kite.
They hugged the horseback between Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams, and the flashing they made in the sun reminded me of
the reflection of a great mirror.