Somewhere in the Skies - Bite-Sized UFOs | UFOs over Portland

Starting point is 00:00:02 Welcome to bite-sized UFOs, a show where we break down lesser-known UFO cases in 20 minutes or less. And now here's your host, Graham Rendell. Welcome to this first episode of bite-sized UFOs. I'm the author of several UFO-themed books, including Dawn of the Flying Sources, which covers the year the following case occurred in. Let's go back over 75 years to 30th July, 1949, and learn about what happened late that evening around the 6th,000. of Portland, Oregon. The sighting involved the flight deck crew of a Northwest Airlines

Starting point is 00:00:49 Martin 202 airliner, a local civilian flight instructor, several deputies from across the Portland area, residents from local communities, and staff at Portland Airport Tower. Believing the lights were from an aircraft that was in distress, staff at Portland Tower began to stack inbound traffic. Four incoming airliners were affected, and each of their flight deck crews witnessed the lights. From records created by Project Grudge, the second official US Air Force UFO investigation program, we can see what information was passed on by local authorities and agencies.

Starting point is 00:01:30 At around 2,100 hours on 30 July 1949, Portland Tower reported to McCord Flight Service Centre that something carrying two red lights and one white light was hovering just south of the Columbia River, where power lines crossed the river at Bonneville. It seemed to be dropping what looked like flares, and then moved closer to pork. Light-sized UFOs is where the facts tell the story.

Starting point is 00:02:03 The lights were observed hovering for around 30 minutes before disappearing to the east. Captain Paul Thrush, piloting in Northwest Airlines Martin 202, was flying at 6,000 feet just west of Stephen's, Washington State, so about 25 miles east of Portland Airport. This was close to Bonneville. At this point the lights were behind him and to the left.

Starting point is 00:02:28 They stayed in that position until he reached Troutdale on the eastern outskirts of Portland. Captain Thrush then heard Portland Tower issuing instructions to stack in bounds, so turned 180 degrees and began to close in on the lights. Once he started to close in on these under-identified lights, he saw that they turned to a south-easterly heading and then began to pull away from him. Thrush's aircraft was flying at 210 miles per hour. Another witness was a civilian flight instructor from Western Skyways,

Starting point is 00:03:02 which was based at Troutdale Airport. Mr N. W. Penhalligan also saw the strange lights while he was flying in the circuit at Troutdale. Penn Halligan was only at 1,300 feet, but believed the lights were only 5 to 600 feet above his altitude and some 20 miles away. Several deputies across Clark County had also reported seeing the strange lights, as had a patrolman on Hayden Island. Police officers in Camas and St. Johns also saw them, as did numerous residents of local communities. Naturally, the US Air Force was asked if they had any aircraft operating in the Portland area at the time of the sighting. They did. A single B-29 Superfortress bomber.

Starting point is 00:03:48 Call sign Air Force 7758. This would have been B-2944-8-8-8-7-58. The bomber's pilot confirmed he was flying northbound over the Portland area at 7,500 feet at 2130 hours, but his crew did not drop flares and they reported nothing unusual. However, this was sometime after Captain Thrush had watched the lights recede into the distance. Bight-sized UFOs, where the facts tell the story. Press reporting of the incident mentioned flares and an unidentified aircraft. In its first August 1949 edition, the Oregon statesman said it had received confirmation from the McCord

Starting point is 00:04:38 flight service centre, the local air defence network reporting centre, the subject had been classified as a security matter. In the following day's newspaper, the chairman of an American Legion climbing group said his members had set off various coloured flares, and these were what the pilots and tower personnel had witnessed. Yet Captain Thrush said the lights had turned and then pulled away from his aircraft. Surely flares couldn't do that. Twenty-fifth Air Defence Division sent a report to regarding the incident to Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, Project Grudge was under Air Materiel Command Control, and its technical report, over 400 pages long, was released in August 1949, although it remained secret until August 1952.

Starting point is 00:05:25 However, the Air Division, part of Air Defense Command, must not have received the memo saying that Project Sign, the first U.S. Air Force UFO investigation program, had been renamed Grudge at the end of 19, Although this did not take effect until February 1949. According to the message, its subject was still listed as Project Sign. Bight-sized UFOs looks at obscure cases from the last eight decades of the modern-day phenomenon. We deal with facts, not conjecture or theories. Find us where you get your podcasts or on YouTube. Bernhard Bassford, who was the duty air traffic controller at Portland that evening,

Starting point is 00:06:08 saw the lights and, thinking it was a helicopter coming into our... land, switched on the spotlight mounted on the tower and turned it to face the lights to guide, as he believed, the pilot in for a safe landing. When Baskford managed to get the beam of light focused correctly and in the right direction, the light suddenly shot away at high speed and disappeared. A second controller, Robert Henry, also witnessed the lights from the building. The claim that fireworks were to blame for the sighting was echoed by other local newspapers. The Capital Journal, in their first August 1949 edition mentioned that an American Legion-sponsored climbing group had let off various fireworks, plus a rocket, and a few light bombs. However, such devices

Starting point is 00:06:50 couldn't have remained visible for around 30 minutes, as mentioned by the staff at Portland Tower. Whilst plausible to the man in the street, an examination of the testimony from airport personnel and flight crews does not support the idea that pirate techniques caused the sightings. No official determination could be made regarding the identity. of the lights, Project Grudges classification was unidentified. This incident and others like it from the same time period are described in more detail in my book Dawn of the Flying Sources, which is available from Amazon. I hope you have enjoyed listening to this first episode of bite-sized UFOs.

Starting point is 00:07:28 Until next time, remember, this channel is all about the facts. This has been bite-sized UFOs with your host, Graham Rendell. Be sure to rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. For a full video version of this episode, subscribe to the bite-sized UFO's YouTube channel. Thank you for listening. You're great at protecting your data, but lots of places could still expose you to identity theft.

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Somewhere in the Skies - Bite-Sized UFOs | UFOs over Portland

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