DOW-UAP-D181, Unresolved UAP Report, Catalina Island, 1949
- Date
- April 28, 1949, about 8 p.m. (letter dated May 1, 1949)
- Location
- Avalon, Catalina Island, California
- Agency
- Department of War
- Release
- Release 07 (Oct. 23, 2026)
- Type
- document
Summary
A handwritten letter dated May 1, 1949, from Percy E. Mackey of Avalon, Calif., to Kenneth Arnold of Boise, Idaho, says that about 8 p.m. on April 28 his wife and a school teacher saw six objects in the sky, "not in a group, but singly," and that a few minutes later his wife, daughter and grandson saw four more, "all traveling in the same direction." An Air Force Project 10073 record card logs the sighting (civilian source, six objects) with the conclusion "Insufficient Data for Evaluation," and a routing slip shows the file forwarded from the 17th District at Kirtland Field on May 20, 1949. Margin notes on the letter read "Insufficient Data" and that MCIAXS did not acknowledge the letter.
Note
A private letter to Kenneth Arnold that ended up in Air Force files, which closed it for lack of data.