Case File · FBI · First Saucer Wave (1947-1952) Declassified May 8, 2026 · PURSUE Release 01

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware UFO Sighting (June 2) — FBI Files

UFO Pilot / Aviation Sighting

A first saucer wave case from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. While flying at 1,490 feet, pilot Forrest Wenyon saw another "jar"-shaped object.

June 2
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
Source document: 65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_2
Source document: 65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_2 · Source: declassified document

Background

On June 2, in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, 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 flying at 1,490 feet, pilot Forrest Wenyon saw another “jar”-shaped object. He reported the sighting to the FBI, Eastern Airlines, and the Civil Aeronautics Authority, but received no response. He theorized the objects may be responsible for a plane crash.

The number of witnesses is not specified in the released document.

Type of case

The case is a pilot or aircrew sighting, observed from the cockpit during flight.

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.

Sources