October 9, 1951 — nr. Terre Haute, IN
1:42 p.m. A fast-moving, silvery UFO shaped like a “flattened tennis ball” is sighted by a Civil Aviation Administration Chief Aircraft Communicator Roy Messmore at Hulman Municipal Airport [now Terre Haute Regional Airport], five miles east of Terre Haute, Indiana. At 1:45 p.m., private pilot Charles Warren, flying at 5,000 feet east of Paris, Illinois, sees a silvery “flattened orange” object that appears stationary to his left rear. It picks up speed and heads to the northeast. Project Blue Book plots the sighting and concludes that both cases involve the same object. [Eberhart]
Spot Intelligence Report:
Sources:
Project Grudge Report No. 1, Appendix VIII, IX;
Richard Hall, The UFO Evidence, pp. 44, 149;
Edward Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, pp. 112-113;
Brad Sparks, Blue Books Unknowns Catalogue, Case 480, p. 114;
Michael Swords and Robert Powell, UFOs and Government, p. 129;
NICAP, “October 9, 1951, Hulman CAA / Pilot Case”;
NICAP, “Pilot Radios Terre Haute: Observes ‘Flattened Orange’”;