June 29, 1954 — Seven Islands, Quebec
5:03 p.m. A BOAC Stratocruiser leaves New York City bound for London, England. 30 minutes later, Capt. James R. Howard receives directions from Boston Air Traffic Center to hold his position over the Rhode Island coast. Howard circles for 10–12 minutes, after which Boston tells him to detour over Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Around 11:30 p.m. while crossing at 19,000 feet near Sept-Îles, Quebec, Howard, his copilot Lee Boyd, and navigator H. McDonnell see a large cigar-shaped object and six smaller black ovals moving the same speed as his airliner, 265 mph, on a parallel course. The small objects are strung out in a line, changing relative positions but always at the same level. The large object slowly and continually changes shape, “in a way that a swarm of bees might alter its appearance.” They appear opaque, hard-edged, gray in color, with no lights or flames visible. Goose Bay AFB [now CFB Goose Bay], Labrador, orders an F-94 to vector toward the location. Just as Howard is giving the pilot his position, the small objects disappear. McDonnell says they enter the large object. As the F- 94 approaches, the large object dwindles in size and disappears. Howard lands at Goose Bay and is questioned by RCAF and USAF officials (McConnell says they take the flight logs); when he lands in London, the Air Ministry does the same, telling the pilots they viewed a solar eclipse (which took place at 7:00 a.m. on June 30). Howard later hears that there are UFO sightings in Massachusetts while he is in a holding pattern, and he contests in the December 11 issue of Everybody’s Magazine that what he saw was solid, not a mirage. Gordon Thayer of the Colorado project identifies the objects as superior mirages, reflections of the “dark terrain below seen against the bright, ‘silvery’ sky to the left of the setting sun,” a “phenomenon so rare that it apparently has never been reported before or since.” James McDonald disagrees. In 2010, ufologist Martin Shough reexamines the case and concludes that the object might well have been an unusual mirage. [Eberhart]
Sketches/Illustrations:
Record Card:
Misc. Blue Book Documents (Joint Message Form, Case Summary, Notecard, Planet Mars explanation, Telex):
Blue Book Newsclips:
Sources:
“Flying Saucer, 6 Butter Chips Chase British Airliner near U.S.,” Long Beach (Calif.) Independent, July 2, 1954, p. 8;
Flying Saucer News, No. 6 (Summer 1954): 5-6;
John Carnell, “BOAC’s Flying Jellyfish,” Fate 7, no. 11 (November 1954): 16–23;
Brad Sparks, Blue Book Unknown Catalogue, Case 1049, p. 216;
Richard Hall, The UFO Evidence, p. 5, 126;
Leonard Cramp, “Mystery over Labrador,” Flying Saucer Review 1, no. 1 (Spring 1955): 6–8;
Edward Condon, Final report of the scientific study of unidentified flying objects conducted by the University of Colorado, pp. 139–140;
“Are They “Projections”?,” Flying Saucer Review 27, no. 3 (November 1981): 1-2;
“A Record Put Straight,” Flying Saucer Review 27, no. 6 (June 1982): 1-2;
James Howard, “The BOAC Labrador Sighting of 1954,” Flying Saucer Review 27, no. 6 (June 1982): 2-3;
Timothy Good, Above Top Secret, pp. 189–191;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 3rd Ed., p. 195;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 4th Ed., pp. 230–231;
Lacatski, James T., Colm A. Kelleher, and George Knapp. Inside the U.S. Government Covert UFO Program: Initial Revelations. RTMA, 2023, pp. 54–55;
Patrick Huyghe and Dennis Stacy, The Field Guide to UFOs, pp. 128-129;
NICAP, “BOAC Stratocruiser Case”;
James Howard, “We Were Shadowed from Outer Space,” Everybody’s Weekly, December 11, 1954;
James E. McDonald, “Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects,” in Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings, US House Committee on Science and Astronautics, 90th Cong., 2nd Sess., July 29, 1968, p. 46;
Phillip Robertson, “Some Considerations on the Seven Isles, Quebec, Canada, Case of June 29, 1954,” May 31, 1991;
“Captain James Howard Reflects on His Sighting of 1954 (BOAC),” nutsandbolts ufo YouTube channel, March 7, 2009;
Martin Shough, “Study of an Unusual Phenomenon Observed by BOAC Aircrew over Labrador, Newfoundland, June 29, 1954,” September 2009;
http://www.martinshough.com/aerialphenomena/BOAC%20aircrew%20sighting.pdf
Martin Shough, “The BOAC Labrador Sighting of June 29, 1954,” Caelestia, October 31, 2018;
Kevin D. Randle, “Coast to Coast AM: The Labrador Sighting from 1954,” A Different Perspective, March 31, 2023;
“BOAC Pilot Case of 7-2-1954 – Capt. James Howard,” Ufology: A Primer in Audio, 1938–1959, November 21, 2013;
“BOAC Pilot Case of 7-2-1954 – Stewardess Daphne Webster,” Ufology: A Primer in Audio, 1938–1959, November 21, 2013;