WASHINGTON, July 30. — The Air Force is checking the authenticity of a photograph which purports to show five flying sacuers in formation over Salem, Mass.
The picture was taken by Coast Guardsmen at Salem last Thursday about 10 a.m. It was flown to Coast Guard headquarters in Washington and then turned over to the Air Force. It is now at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, where flying saucer reports are investigated and evaluated. I saw it yesterday in the Pentagon.
Capt. E. J. Ruppelt, the Air Force's flying saucer expert, had it in his briefcase —unmentioned— through a press conference in which Maj. Gen. John A. Samford, Air Force intelligence chief, discounted recent saucer sightings over Washington. Capt. Ruppelt still had it in his briefcase when he took a plane for Dayton an hour later.
Won't Get Frantic
Gen. Samford said he is "convinced in my own mind" that the saucers picked up by radar over Washington are the result of sudden changes in temperature. He said they are not secret weapons or machines produced in this country. He was equally sure they were not coming from another country. He discounted the idea they came from another planet.
Gen. Samford conceded that a number of "credible observers" have reported "same relatively incredible things." He said the Air Force will continue to give flying saucer reports "adequate but not frantic attention."
Believes What's Proved
In the Salem picture, the flying saucers—if that's what they are—appear egg-shaped white objects with wavy edges suspended in air. If the photograph can be accepted at face value, it is the first daylight picture of flying saucers. Although several photographs of what purports to be flying saucers have been taken, all were snapped at night. The Air Force invariably has explained them away as meteors, rockets or bursting fireballs.
Although the sky is light in the photo, the white objects which may be flying are easily distinguishable. They somewhat ressemble, but could not be confused with clouds. They are several buildings in the foreground.
Capt. Ruppelt, who was spent several years checking and plotting flying saucer reports, said he is skeptical. Attempts have been made to hoodwink him in the past and he believes nothing which cannot be proved.
He points out that a single photograph was submitted. There was no negative. That invariably happens, he said. The Air Force has yet to get hold of a negative of a flying saucer picture.
Wants to See Negative
Capt. Ruppelt said he has asked Coast Guard to obtain the negative and forward it to him.
Without questioning anyone's integrity, Capt. Ruppelt said his first impression was that the picture is a fake. He said the alleged saucers appear to have been painted in. Their somewhat irregular, wavy edges indicate as much, he said.
I wouldn't know. Capt. Ruppelt is a trained observer, who makes it his business to look for such things. I could easily be fooled by a composite picture.