Monday, June 14, 2021

Air Force Reveals Pilot’s Story Flying Disk Buzzed Japan F-84



Wednesday, January 28, 1953

Associated Press

A UNITED STATES AIR BASE IN NORTHERN JAPAN, Wednesday, Jan. 28.—An American pilot saw at close range a mysterious flying disk make a pass at an F-84 Thunderjet over central Japan and then speed away, the Air Force reported Tuesday.

The hitherto secret report from intelligence files said the disk was seen at 6,000 feet on a bright, cloudless day, just before noon March 29, 1952, by Lt. David C. Brigham, of Rockford, Ill.  He said the disk was about eight inches in diameter and that it closed to within twenty feet of the Thunderjet before shooting up out of sight.

It was the second disclosure in recent days of mysterious objects zooming through the skies over Japan, near Russian-held territory.  On Jan. 21, the Air Force made public Intelligence reports of “rotating clusters of red, white and green lights,” sighted Dec. 29 by American airmen.

The Air Force issued the two reports without comment.

Lt. Brigham was flying a reconnaissance plane when a Thunderjet pulled alongside.  The incident occurred soon afterward.  Lt. Brigham estimated that he watched the disk for about ten seconds from a distance of thirty to fifty feet at the closest point.  The Thunderjet pilot, who was not identified, did not see the disk.

Lt. Brigham described the disk as “about eight inches in diameter very thin, round, and as shiny as polished chromium, had no apparent projectors (sic) and left no exhaust trails or vapor trails.”

He said there were no markings on the disk but there was a “ripple in the metal skin.”  He estimated it was flying at about 200 miles an hour

Lt. Brigham’s report to Intelligence said the disk made a pass on the Thunderjet, closing from slightly above him.

“It closed rapidly, and just before flying into his fuselage it decelerated to his air speed almost instantaneously,” he reported.  “In doing so it flipped up on its edge at approximately a 90-degree bank.  Then it fluttered within twenty feet of his fuselage for perhaps two or three seconds, pulled away and around his starboard wing, appearing to flip over as it hit the slipstream behind his wing tip fuel tank

“Then it passed him, crossed in front of him and pulled up abruptly, appearing to accelerate and shot out of sight in a steep, almost vertical climb.”

Sightings of the light clusters were made at several points over northern Japan on Dec. 29.  On Jan. 9 a rotating cluster was tracked by radar from two F-94 jet interceptors.  The radar actually “locked” on the cluster and steered the jets toward it.

[In Washington, a spokesman at Air Force headquarters said the technical intelligence officer of the Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Base, Ohio, which usually gets reports on flying saucers, had received none of this incident.  It was indicated there probably would not be a request sent to the Far East for such a report.]

Source:
Project 1947

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