Flight 105 UFO sighting

Original saucer witness Kenneth Arnold (left) "comparing notes" with Flight 105's Captain Emil J. Smith (center) and co-pilot Ralph Stephens, in a photograph published on July 8, 1947, by newspapers across the United States.

The Flight 105 UFO sighting occurred on July 4, 1947, when three crew members aboard a United Airlines flight reported seeing multiple unidentified flying objects in the skies over the Pacific Northwest. The incident was among at least 800 similar sightings in the United States within a few weeks in the summer of 1947, but the first report by professional pilots. The U.S. military ultimately attributed what the crew members saw to "ordinary aircraft, balloons, birds, or pure illusion".