Dept. of DefenseUnresolvedAmbiguous
Unidentified flying objects over Spokane, Washington — formation sighting
~Jul 20, 1949Spokane, Washington14,000 ft
Analysis — our summary
A July 1949 report (Maxwell Flight Service Center) documents an unidentified flying objects sighting over Spokane, Washington. Witnesses R.W. Miller, R.W. Graham, and others observed five objects in what appears to be a formation. Altitude estimated at approximately 14,000 feet. Details are significantly degraded in OCR.
As reported — verbatim from the document
“[Partial OCR] ...Witnesses: R.W. Miller, R.W. Graham, Spokane... [Shape:] disc... [Altitude:] fourteen thousand feet.”
Analyst notes — caveats & confidence
OCR quality is very poor for this sub-document. Most fields are garbled or missing. Date is inferred from context (July 1949 routing). Witness names partially legible. This is one of multiple flight service center reports compiled in this file. Confidence very low.
Provenance
Source document342_HS1-416511228_box186_319.1-Flying-Discs-1949.pdf
Document typeadministrative correspondence
Reporting agencyDept. of Defense
Source pages143
DeclassifiedFirst public at this release (2026)
Held classified~77 years (≥, to this release)
Extraction confidence LowHow cleanly this record could be parsed from the source — driven by legibility & redaction. It is not a measure of how credible or anomalous the sighting is.