Editing UFOs An International Scientific Problem (section)

=== Case 1. BOAC Stratocruiser, Seven Islands, Quebec, June 29, 1954 ===

A famous case in UFO annals that has an appropriately international
flavor occurred near sunset on June 29, 1954, over eastern Canada, when crew
and passengers of a British Overseas Airways Corp. Stratocruiser, outbound
from New York to London, observed, for a total period of 18 minutes (about
90 miles of flight path) one large object and five or six smaller objects
somewhat north of Seven Islands. The UFOs were sighted just aft of the port
wing, at a very roughly estimated distance of 5-6 miles, maneuvering in uncon-
ventional manner. Capt. James Howard, the pilot, stated, after landing in
London9, "...they were obviously not aircraft as we know them. All appeared
black and I will swear they were solid... There was a big central object that
appeared to keep changing shape...The six smaller objects dodged about either
in front or behind." When interviewed by USAF intelligence personnel at
Goose Bay, Labrador, it was established that all of the crew had participated
in the sighting, as did a number of passengers, a total of over 20 witnesses.
A fighter plane scrambled from Goose Bay at Howard's request. Just before it
reached their area, the UFOs rapidly moved out of sight towards the northwest.

The group of UFOs maintained relatively constant position, relative to
the airliner, until their departure, and lay approximately five degrees to
left of the just-setting sun. No meteorological-optical phenomenon(assuredly
not a sundog) could reasonably account for the reported phenomena. The Strato-
cruiser was cruising at about 240 knots at 19,000 ft on the southwest edge of
a high-pressure center over Labrador, scarcely meteorological conditions
favorable to ball lightning or any other electrical disturbances; and visi-
bility was described by Capt. Howard as "perfect." To suggest that a natural
plasmoid of any sort could keep pace with an aircraft at 240 kts for 18 minutes
and 90 miles seems entirely unreasonable on a number of grounds. The speed and
motions categorically rule out meteors. The peculiar maneuvering of the
smaller objects and the curious shape-changes of the larger object suggest no
conventional explanation. It was First Officer Lee Boyd's impression that the
smaller ones merged into the larger prior to departure, again defying obvious
explanation.

At that time, Howard had 7500 flying hours; he is still flying with BOAC.
In a recent interview, he corroborated details of the 1954 press accounts and
even added interesting additional points. The distance of the objects pre-
cluded seeing any structural details, if any had been present; it is the per-
formance characteristics and the pronounced shape-changes that mark this well-
authenticated sighting as a puzzling UFO case for which no adequate explanation
has ever been proposed, to my knowledge.