UFO News Article: “Brilliant Object Sighted Near California Airliner”

6 October 1950

(Eugene Register-Guard, Oregon)

The whole article:

“A mysterious, brilliantly-lighted object that dived at an airline plane near Burbank, Calif., had aeronautical authorities digging out their ‘flying saucer’ data again Friday.

Capt. Cecil Hardin, captain of California Central Airlines flight No. 71, radioed Lockheed Airport at Burbank, Calif., Thursday night that the mystery object dived on him at 7:32 p.m. between Van Nuys and San Fernando.

Lockheed operations called Van Nuys which reported no aircraft in flight, and reports from air controlling points in the region failed to show any aircraft in the area.

The object, which looked like a flying wing without a fuselage, loomed straight ahead of the plane and then did a half-roll and went under the left wing, Hardin said.

‘We were climbing from the airport. I looked up and there came six or eight brilliant lights. I started to pull up and it went under the wing. We didn’t feel any prop wash.’

‘I couldn’t tell whether it came within 100 feet or 500 feet of us.

Hardin said his co-pilot, Jack Conroy of Glendale, also saw the object. An unidentified woman passenger told him later she saw lights flash by, but paid no attention as her baby started to cry at the time.

Hardin, a former Army transport pilot, guessed the speed of the object was at least equal to that of a jet plane.

He described the object as being ‘about as long as a DC-3’ (about 85 feet) and said the lights must have been on top as he could still see them after the object went under the wing.”

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19501006&id=RZMVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vAsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4930,4634200

Satellite photo of San Fernando, California (tageo.com)

(tageo.com photo)