UFOs in the daily Press:

Newsmens, Pilots Report "Flying Saucers", Mystery Still Unsolved

Editors note: The following dispatch is by John C. Corlett, Idaho manager for United Press, a newspaperman of 15 years experience.

BY JOHN CORLETT

BOISE, Ida.-(UP)-Just before dusk Friday night, as my wife and I and two friends were relaxing after dinner, a tiny white disc-one of the mysterious "saucers"-suddenly across the sky at a terrific speed.

We were entertaining friends and were relaxing in the garden when my wife suddenly pointed skywards and cried, "Look!"

In just about the time it takes to turn your head, the silver object was nearly out of sight.

Both my wife and I, and our guests, Mr. and Mrs. V. H. Selby, caught a glimpse of the tiny object. Selby is a Boise artist.

During the last few days we had discussed the various news stories carried about the discs, many of which came from the Boise area, and, frankly, I had been a bit skeptical of them. But the disc was unmistakable, even in the three or four seconds time during which we had a chance to see it.

The disc travelled at a high rate of speed. It appeared first in the northwestern sky, apparently coming from the general direction of the Oregon-Washington line, and travelled southeast.

There was no noise - absolutely none that we could hear, either before or after the disc shot by.

The sky was clear, and we could not have mistaken a cloud for the disc we saw.

At one point in its progress the disc was almost directly overhead. It was flying fairly high, I'd judge at about 10,000 feet.

Until Friday night I didn't believe in them. But now I know that those "saucers" aren't just a myth, part of someone's imagination. It took seeing them with my own eyes to believe in it.

Editors note: The following is an eyewitness account by a United Airlines pilot, Captain E. J. Smith of Seattle, how he chased a strange group of objects sighted last night in the sky over Boise, Idaho.

BY CAPTAIN E. J. SMITH

SEATTLE. - (UP) - As our flight, number 105, took off from Boise, Ida., at 8:04 p.m. (PST) the tower, jokingly warned us to be on the lookout for "flying saucers."

My cousin, Ralph Stevens, also of Seattle, was in control shortly after we got into the air. Suddenly he switched on the landing lights.

He said he thought he saw an aircraft approaching us head-on.

I noticed the object - or objects - then for the first time.

We saw four or five "somehings." One was larger than the rest and, for the most part, kept off to the right of the other three or four similar, but smaller objects.

Since we were flying northwest-roughly nine to the sunset-we saw whatever they were in at least partial light. We saw them clearly, we followed them in a northwesterly direction for about 45 miles.

Then I called the attendant at the Ontario, Ore., radio tower, giving an approximate location and course for the objects. The attendant acknowledged our call, went outside to look, but was unable to see anything like what we described.

Finally the objects disappeared in a burst of speed. We were unable to tell whether they outsped us or disintegrated.

We never were able to catch them in our DC3. Our air speed at the time was 185 m. p. h. Through the Boise air tower we radioed another United plane to see if they had seen anything. That plane, flying eastbound into the night, had not sighted them.

Later Stevens and I called Miss (Marty) Morrow, our stewardess. She verified what we had seen.

Because we were following the objects at roughly the same altitude, we can't say anything about their shape except that they were thin and were smooth on the bottom and rough appearing on the top.

We can't say whether they were saucer-like, oval or anything else about their size.

But whatever they were, they were not another aircraft, nor were they smoke or clouds.

Our plane had eight passengers aboard, but because the objects were mostly dead ahead of us and off the bow, they were unable to see them.

SEATTLE, Wash.-(UP)-Coast Guardsman Frank Ryman, 27, had a picture Saturday snapped from the front porch of his home which authorities hoped would clear up the mystery of the flying saucers.

Ryman said an enlargement of the shot made with a speed graphic camera at 5:30 p. m. (PST) Friday at the north end of Lake Washington showed a "white saucer" that was neither an airplane, a cloud nor a silver balloon. The picture showed only two white spots, and apparently will solve nothing.

Authorities were still skeptical that the mystery missiles were any sort of new aircraft as they checked scores of reports of the fast-moving shiny disks zipping through the sky over a large area of the northwest Friday.