Crescent City Light Station UAP Sighting, 1948 (#200)

Sheet 200a of the USAAF file places the fisherman Andrew N. Siler at the Crescent City Light Station on 17 October 1948. He is one of four people whose reports were filed together under Incident 200.

The file holds four separate sheets for the same afternoon, numbered 200, 200a, 200b and 200c. All four give the date as 17 October 1948 and a time of about 1610, and all four describe a single silver object that moved south. None of them records figures, beings or any contact. Earlier versions of these pages said otherwise, and those statements are not in the document.

Incident 200: Edgar W. Allen

Sheet 200 names Edgar W. Allen of 3rd and Lauf Avenue, Crescent City, a barber. His attention was drawn by a glint of light. He saw one silver, egg-shaped object about 25 feet long with fins, which he put at roughly 10,000 feet and 300 mph. It was in view for two to four minutes, made one short bank, then resumed course southward and faded from view. The sheet adds “solid construction - like nickel plated” and “shaped like bullet - no wings being noticeable.” The attached summary says no wings were noticeable but that a tail structure was visible. The summary describes Allen as aged 45 to 50, of good reputation and average intelligence. It also says local flight schedules showed no known flights and no test vehicles had been released nearby.

Incident 200a: Andrew N. Siler

Sheet 200a names Andrew N. Siler of Grants Pass, Oregon, a fisherman, and gives the place as the Crescent City Light Station. A Piper Cub type plane drew his attention by its sound. He saw a silver, egg-shaped object like a small blimp moving south at about 300 mph, with no wings, tail, smoke or noise. Visibility was 20 miles. He did not see where it went.

Incident 200b: Ernest Haley

Sheet 200b names Ernest Haley, a dry cleaner of Crescent City. A glint of light caught his eye. He saw one object like a small plane, between 20,000 and 25,000 feet, in view for four to five minutes. It made a 45 degree turn and bank to the right, then a sharp turn south and gradually disappeared. The summary says a bright flash came from it as the sun hit its top side, and describes Haley, about 47, as reliable. The place is given as southeast of Battery Point.

Incident 200c: Mrs Elise Henggi

Sheet 200c names Mrs Elise Henggi, a housewife, who was talking with Haley on Battery Point. She saw a small, silver, elliptical object that flashed like sunlight on a mirror and moved very fast to the south. The summary says it was in view about two minutes, about 5,000 feet higher than a plane flying north, and that it banked about 45 degrees and went out to sea. She is described as 70 years old, of Swiss extraction, a long-time resident of good reputation.

Assessment

Three sheets share the time, the south heading, the silver colour and a banking turn, and Haley and Henggi were standing together. That makes this a multiple-witness sighting of a single object, not a series of unrelated reports. The record gives no explanation. Sunlight flashing from a high aircraft would fit the glints, the brightness and the banking turn, and the Piper Cub nearby could be the plane noted by two witnesses. The altitudes and speeds are visual estimates and differ widely. The summaries do not say whether anyone followed up beyond checking flight schedules. All PURSUE records are listed by AARO as unresolved, which is not a finding that they were anomalous. This is a different case from Incident 199.

Sources

• Original release on war.gov - the scanned Incident Summary Sheets, Box 7, incidents 173 to 233
• Department of War UFO Disclosure Portal
• AARO (All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office)