Kenneth Arnold UFO Sighting, Chehalis, Washington (June 24th, 1947)
A first saucer wave case from Chehalis, Washington. While searching for a missing marine transport near Mt.
Background
On June 24th, 1947, in Chehalis, Washington, U.S. government investigators recorded an unidentified-object incident later released to the public on May 8, 2026 as part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). The incident is one of the first wave of “flying saucer” reports that swept the United States after the Kenneth Arnold sighting of June 1947 and the Roswell incident of July 1947. The case was filed with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, whose Knoxville, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, and other field offices routed UFO reports to headquarters under the Bureau’s standing protocols for the protection of vital installations.
What the document records
While searching for a missing marine transport near Mt. Rainier, the witness observed nine unusual objects flying in formation. He initially thought they were jet planes, but noted the lack of visible tails. He estimated their speed and direction, observing them against the backdrop of the mountain.
The number of witnesses is not specified in the released document.
Verbatim from the file
“I observed a chain of nine peculiar looking aircraft flying from north to south at approximately 9,500 feet elevation and going, seemingly, in a definite direction of about 170 degrees.”. “I thought it was very peculiar that I couldn’t find their tails but assumed they were some type of jet plane.”. “I remember distinctly thet my sweep second hand on my eight day clock…read one minute to 3 P.M. as the first object of this formation passed the southern edge of Mt. Rainier.”
Type of case
The case is a visual sighting reported by ground or air observers.
Status
All records released under the PURSUE program are designated unresolved by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) by default. The federal government has not concluded that the events were anomalous, has not concluded that they were conventional, and has not ruled out either possibility. Conventional candidates for sightings of this period include experimental aircraft, weather balloons (especially the Project Mogul series in the late 1940s), atmospheric optical phenomena such as sundogs and lenticular clouds, and astronomical objects including Venus, the Moon, and meteors near the horizon.