Within 1947 Flap
How Strong Was the Flight 105 Sighting?
Three airline crew members reported changing formations, but prior publicity and uncertain location complicate how much weight their account can bear.
On this page
- What the crew reported on 4 July
- Why professional witnesses matter
- Publicity, geography and unresolved doubts
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Introduction
The crew of United Airlines Flight 105 made one of the most influential aviation reports of the 1947 flying-saucer wave. On the evening of 4 July 1947, Captain Emil J. Smith, First Officer Ralph Stevens and stewardess Marty Morrow all reported seeing groups of unusual, disc-like objects while their DC-3 was flying west after departing Boise on its route towards Seattle. Because the witnesses were experienced airline professionals and because three crew members independently confirmed that something unusual had been seen, the case quickly became one of the strongest pilot reports associated with the Pacific Northwest’s early UFO history.[Project 1947]project1947.comProject 1947PROJECT 1947: UAL Flight 105, July 4, 1947 - Capt E. J. Smith…
At the same time, Flight 105 illustrates why even credible witnesses do not necessarily produce conclusive evidence. The crew’s observations were visual only, no photographs or radar data were available, estimates of distance and speed were uncertain, and the sighting occurred after more than a week of intense national publicity following Kenneth Arnold’s Mount Rainier report. Those strengths and limitations have remained central to historical assessments of the case.
What the crew reported on 4 July
United Airlines Flight 105 departed Boise, Idaho, shortly after 9 p.m. Mountain Time on 4 July 1947, heading towards Seattle. According to Captain Smith’s account, the crew first noticed a formation of five bright, wingless objects ahead of the aircraft. Smith described one object as slightly larger than the others. Co-pilot Ralph Stevens initially assumed they were conventional aircraft and briefly switched on the DC-3’s landing lights. The crew later said the objects appeared to react by spreading out from a tight cluster into a looser formation before repeatedly changing spacing.[Project 1947]project1947.comProject 1947PROJECT 1947: UAL Flight 105, July 4, 1947 - Capt E. J. Smith…
The first group eventually disappeared, after which the crew reported seeing a second formation of four similar objects travelling westward. Smith later said the objects appeared flat underneath and rounded above, without visible wings or tails. He also believed they moved much faster than aircraft known at the time, although he repeatedly acknowledged that neither their distance nor their true size could be determined with confidence.[Project 1947]project1947.comProject 1947PROJECT 1947: UAL Flight 105, July 4, 1947 - Capt E. J. Smith…
An important feature of the report is that stewardess Marty Morrow was called into the cockpit after the initial sighting rather than being the original observer. She nevertheless confirmed that she could also see unusual objects ahead of the aircraft. That independent confirmation strengthened the basic claim that more than one person observed something unusual, even if it did not resolve what the objects actually were.[NICAP]nicap.org470704emmett e470704e…
Why professional witnesses matter
Flight crews are often given greater weight than casual observers because they spend thousands of hours looking through changing weather and light conditions while distinguishing aircraft, stars, clouds and atmospheric effects. Captain Smith was an experienced United Air Lines pilot, and Stevens was likewise familiar with airborne traffic and visual navigation.
The report also gained attention because Smith had publicly dismissed earlier “flying saucer” stories before his own experience. Newspaper interviews from late June quoted him suggesting that Kenneth Arnold may simply have misidentified reflections or some ordinary phenomenon. According to later recollections, Smith jokingly remarked before departure on 4 July that he would believe in flying discs only when he saw them himself. After the flight, he said his opinion had changed because he believed he had witnessed something he could not identify.[Project 1947]project1947.comProject 1947PROJECT 1947: UAL Flight 105, July 4, 1947 - Capt E. J. Smith…
This apparent shift from scepticism to uncertainty made the story especially newsworthy. Contemporary newspapers treated it as evidence that trained aviation professionals were beginning to report similar experiences, helping transform the flying-saucer story from an isolated claim into a broader national discussion.[Project 1947]project1947.comProject 1947PROJECT 1947: UAL Flight 105, July 4, 1947 - Capt E. J. Smith…
Publicity, geography and unresolved doubts
The Flight 105 report is often linked with Washington because the aircraft was bound for Seattle and became part of the wider Pacific Northwest wave that followed Kenneth Arnold’s Mount Rainier sighting. However, the observation itself almost certainly occurred much earlier in the journey, shortly after departure from Boise and probably over south-western Idaho near Emmett, before the aircraft reached Oregon or Washington. That geographical distinction matters because the case belongs historically to the Washington-centred flying-saucer flap without actually being a Washington observation.[Project 1947]project1947.comProject 1947PROJECT 1947: UAL Flight 105, July 4, 1947 - Capt E. J. Smith…
Another important limitation is timing. By 4 July the phrase “flying saucer” had dominated newspapers for more than a week. Aircrew, airport staff and the general public were already discussing the reports, and Smith himself later recalled being teased by control tower personnel to watch out for flying saucers before take-off. Such publicity does not invalidate the sighting, but it raises the possibility that expectations influenced how unusual aerial objects were interpreted. Historians routinely note this as a factor when weighing reports from the height of the 1947 wave.[Project 1947]project1947.comProject 1947PROJECT 1947: UAL Flight 105, July 4, 1947 - Capt E. J. Smith…
The case also lacks the kinds of evidence that would allow modern investigators to test competing explanations. There were:
- no photographs;
- no radar confirmation;
- no recovered physical evidence;
- no precise measurements of distance, altitude or speed;
- no independent tracking from multiple locations that could reconstruct the objects’ paths.
Without those data, extraordinary estimates of speed remain dependent on assumptions about how far away the objects actually were. If their distance was overestimated, then their apparent velocity would also have been exaggerated.
How later investigators judged the case
Later UFO researchers generally continued to regard Flight 105 as one of the stronger pilot reports from 1947, largely because it involved multiple trained witnesses observing the objects for several minutes under apparently clear conditions. Physicist James E. McDonald, writing in the 1960s after interviewing Captain Smith, considered the report historically significant and accepted Smith as a reliable witness while carefully avoiding claims about the objects’ origin.[Project 1947]project1947.comProject 1947PROJECT 1947: UAL Flight 105, July 4, 1947 - Capt E. J. Smith…
Even McDonald’s favourable assessment illustrates the limits of the evidence. He argued that the sighting resisted an obvious conventional explanation, but he also acknowledged that the objects’ size, distance and exact nature could not be established. His conclusion was not that extraterrestrial craft had been demonstrated, but that the observation remained unidentified on the available evidence.[Project 1947]project1947.comProject 1947PROJECT 1947: UAL Flight 105, July 4, 1947 - Capt E. J. Smith…
That distinction reflects the broader pattern seen throughout the 1947 Washington flap. Reliable witnesses can establish that an unusual observation occurred without establishing exactly what was observed.
How strong was the Flight 105 sighting?
Flight 105 remains one of the most credible witness accounts connected with the Pacific Northwest’s formative UFO wave because it combines multiple observers, experienced aviation personnel and relatively detailed descriptions. Those factors make it stronger than many brief newspaper anecdotes from the same period.
Its evidential ceiling, however, is equally clear. The report depends entirely on human observation during an era of intense publicity, and the key quantities needed to identify the objects—distance, size and speed—were never independently measured. As a result, the case continues to occupy a middle ground within Washington’s UFO history: more persuasive than many contemporary reports, but far from proving the existence of extraordinary craft.
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Endnotes
1.
Source: project1947.com
Link:https://www.project1947.com/fig/ual105.htm
Source snippet
Project 1947PROJECT 1947: UAL Flight 105, July 4, 1947 - Capt E. J. Smith...
Published: July 4, 1947
2.
Source: nicap.org
Title: 470704emmett e
Link:https://www.nicap.org/reports/470704emmett_e.htm
Source snippet
470704e...
3.
Source: nicap.org
Link:https://www.nicap.org/chronos/1947fullrep.htm
4.
Source: nicap.org
Title: ReportUFOWave1947 SectionIII
Link:https://nicap.org/waves/Wave47Rpt/ReportUFOWave1947_SectionIII.htm
5.
Source: project1947.com
Link:https://www.project1947.com/fig/1948air.htm
6.
Source: nicap.org
Title: UF O Report
Link:https://www.nicap.org/Good_Cases/470704emmett_dir.htm
Additional References
7.
Source: youtube.com
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z25NfZ0Ea9c
Source snippet
First UFO Sighting In America Analysis provides a detailed look into pilot testimonies and the inherent visual limitations of the early 1...
8.
Source: ufoinsight.com
Title: Hawkins, witnessed two “circular objects” skimming the surface over th
Link:https://www.ufoinsight.com/ufos/sightings/1947-snake-river-canyon-ufo
Source snippet
The 1947 Snake River Canyon UFO Incident - UFO InsightApril 15, 2019 — “…THERE’S SOMETHING IN THE AIR!” Earlier the same morning, at arou...
Published: April 15, 2019
9.
Source: thedebrief.org
Title: Smith, took off from Boise, Idaho, at just after 9:00 pm
Link:https://thedebrief.org/summer-of-the-saucers/
Source snippet
Summer of the Saucers - The DebriefJune 21, 2022 — UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 105 On July 4th, just eleven days after Kenneth Arnold’s sighti...
Published: June 21, 2022
10.
Source: gutenberg.org
Title: The World of Flying Saucers, by Donald H
Link:https://www.gutenberg.org/files/66639/old/66639-h/66639-h.htm
Source snippet
Menzel and Lyle G. Boyd—A Project Gutenberg eBookOctober 31, 2021 — CHAPTER II LO! The overture to the Flying Saucer opera took place in...
Published: October 31, 2021
11.
Source: airandspace.si.edu
Title: reports ufos 1947 roswell incident
Link:https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/reports-ufos-1947-roswell-incident
Source snippet
of UFOs: 1947 Roswell Incident | National Air and Space MuseumOctober 20, 2016 — REPORTS OF UFOS: 1947 ROSWELL INCIDENT Oct 20, 2016 Ask...
Published: October 20, 2016
12.
Source: militarytimes.com
Title: was flying, and could use that
Link:https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2017/06/25/flying-saucers-still-evasive-70-years-after-pilot-s-report/
Source snippet
Flying saucers still evasive 70 years after pilot's reportJune 25, 2017 — She said the only reason her father said anything about the sig...
Published: June 25, 2017
13.
Source: youtube.com
Title: The First UFO Sighting In America | UFOs: The Lost Evidence
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJp-YR34XBs
Source snippet
Ep. 2 | Flying Saucer UFOs | Roswell, Kenneth Arnold, McMinnville, Rex Heflin | The Basement Office...
14.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Kenneth Arnold UFO Sighting The First UFOs
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLuHgsXGpqc
Source snippet
1947: The Kenneth Arnold Sighting | Weird History Ep. #5...
15.
Source: airandspace.si.edu
Title: 1947 year flying saucer
Link:https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/1947-year-flying-saucer
Source snippet
National Air and Space Museum1947: Year of the Flying Saucer | National Air and Space Museum...
16.
Source: youtube.com
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01sVLTO8xmo
Source snippet
The First UFO Sighting In America | UFOs: The Lost Evidence...
Published: June 1947