Airline Pilots Spot Cigar Shaped UFO Over Georgia in 1948

On the night of July 24 1948 Captain Clarence Chiles and First Officer John Whitted were flying Eastern Air Lines Flight 576 a Douglas DC-3 from Houston Texas to Atlanta Georgia.

Around 245 AM while near Montgomery Alabama close to the Georgia state line the two experienced pilots observed a brilliant cigar shaped object approaching from ahead.

The craft appeared metallic with a row of brightly lit windows along its side and emitted a glowing exhaust.

It passed within a few hundred feet of their aircraft before abruptly climbing away at high speed.

Both men provided detailed statements to Air Force investigators describing the object as approximately one hundred feet long.

The sighting became one of the key cases examined by Project Sign the first official US Air Force UFO study program.

No conventional explanation such as a meteor or known aircraft was accepted by the pilots or the initial investigators.

The incident remains a landmark report in aviation UFO history due to the credibility of the witnesses and the official documentation generated.