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MISC-AFOSR4-102
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Page 102 of 619
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AFOSR NICAP/CSI Roll 4
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N/A
MISC-AFOSR4-100
MISC-AFOSR4-101
MISC-AFOSR4-102
MISC-AFOSR4-103
MISC-AFOSR4-104
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'' (.'' .//, U<( TheRcview.publishesfor the first time in its columns two sightings from the past. They will probably be new to many of our readers, but our purpose in reprinting these accounts from the Australian Flying Saucer Magazine of May, 1953, is to correct an impression gained by the general public that sightings today are caused by misinterpretations of sputniks, satellites . and what are now regarded as conventional spacecraft manufactured by one or other of the powers on earth. The first Russian sputnik, it must be borne in mind, was launched''in 1957.. Neither Russia nor America had penetrated outer space before that year. '' The Mount Kilimanjaro Enigma FEBHUAUV 19. 1951. dawned bright and clear at Nairobi. Kenya Colony. Fast Africa. ..At Nairobi /West Airport, the regular Mon- day morning Uodestar was readied as usual for its morning flight to Mntnhasa, and soon pas- sengers filed aboard, little dreaming, any of them, of what was to meet their astounded eyes barely 20 minutes later. At 7 a.m. exactly, with nine, 1 passengers and a crew of two aboard, the Lode- star took off. " . . ''AH went well until 7.20 a.m... when suddenly the radio officer drew the attention of his superior. Captain J. Bick''nell, to a bright object like -a white star,: apparently hanging''motionless easily 10,000 ft., above. Mount Kilimanjaro. C''aji- . tain BickneHs first reaction, he said later, was to .say nothing. The two watched the .strange object for three minutes'', then, as it showed no signs of . vanishing, informed the passengers. Oiie began: promptlystudying the oddity, amazedly. through a powerful pair of field-glasses, whilst the radio : i(nicer flashed an excited call to Eastlcigh, nearby, giving an account and description of the thing. Eastleigh''s suggestion flashed in return was that the object might be a drifting meteoro- logical balloon, but checking on that, possibility, after inspecting tiro enigmatic object .for-several minutes,''Captain Bicknell found that the more ;. he examined''it. the less iLeould ''possibly be mis- , taken for a balloon. It wasa dull silver colour and marked at regnlaf.; intervals along ..the fuselage with vcrticalcla''rk''.bands. The entire, out- line, he found, was uriiriistakeably distinct: .nor, though it appeared to ,be incredibly distant, was ''. its sharp outline obscured in..the .least- d.etail by intervening''haze. '' . :. '' . : ;'' '' ''; Captain Bicknell estimated the thing was over . 200 ft. long, bullef-shapecl, and apparently con- structed of metal which shone brightly. On first sighting it, the Lodestar was heading roughly to: wards it and, watching it closely as they\'' approached. Captain Bicknell perceived another detail. The thing possessed, a ''square-cut Vertical fin at one end. There were no signs of movement; '' it was absolutely stationary. .So it remained for". 17 minutes. . . . Passengers of the Lodestar, were now taking., turns wiili the field-glasses, and two of them had commenced taking (photographs, wheu''suddenly the mormons thing-began to move eastwards/.- slowly- at first, and rising as it did so. Before it reached 10,000 ft., at which''point it was iilli''. iiKdelv lost sight of- the sides of 11 _. Awesome, whale-like object were seen clearly to be without n break i\\ their smoothness; no windows or port- hole-, relieved the harsh purity of line, no engine, mounts or jel pods marred the perfectly stream- lined bull. " . '' _ .The day being exceptionally clear, there were no cloud''Intimations in evidence- anywhere.- and Captain Bicknell calculated .that ,in the three minutes of visible .movement the bullet-shaped object covered fi() miles; that, in other words, its speed could have been .nothing short of1 1,000'' .in.p.h. during theperiod of observed flight. It left behind no vapour.trarl and. to all who saw it. :had no visible means''of propulsion. l)uring an interview some days later,,Captain Bicknell said ...that his impression was that the unidentified ..thing u;as some, kind of flying machine,'' and with this his radio officer, a Mr. D. -\V. Mcrrifield, unhesitatingly, agreed, A "mirage " Was suggested as the possible cause, but the r:\dio officer discounted it. " Mirages are rarely seen without cloud," he stated, " nor would that explain the object''s movement." He com- Tell your friends about mented that if lite, object was a Hying machine "it. was 500 years''ahead of anything we have today." . ; Nairobi Sunday I''nsl the following Sunday'' said: "If this report had come froth''a few iso- lated individuals it would soon be discounted, but it came from responsible airline ollicials and nine ordinary travellers." It, too.dismi.ssed both the balloon andjnirage theories, and concluded that hopes of a " natural " explanation had begun to fade. Other theories ranged from Martian visitors to radio-controlled weapons. Fragmentary evidence accrued since (hen in- crease the sum total of knowledge but little. AJS. Life magazine early in 1952 published a sketch of (he object, which showed it to closely resemble an ordinary lipstick tube lying on its side.. Later, in connection with learning, the whereabouts of the photographs taken from Captain Bicknell''s plane, the Australian Flying Saucer Bureau learnt that " the only known pub- lic photograph of the object shows a blurred spot on the film.'' A motion-picture film taken by another passenger was " quite clear,", but the same reliable source stated, either laconically or I ominously, it is hard to tell which, that " the man J with the film is supposed to have disappeared."!
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