Inside Bluebook — The Chiles-Whitted Case: A Close Encounter of the Second Kind in Montgomery, Alabama
In the early hours of the morning of July 24, 1952, two airline pilots, Clarence S. Chiles and John B. Whitted, reported an encounter with a strange object while flying over Montgomery, Alabama. Their experience is often cited as one of the classic cases of UFO sightings in the United States.
Chiles and Whitted were flying an Eastern Airlines Douglas DC-3 on a routine flight from Houston to Atlanta. At around 2:45 a.m., while cruising at an altitude of 5,000 feet, they suddenly noticed a bright light in the distance. The light appeared to be coming straight at their plane at high speed, and the pilots assumed it was a military jet on a collision course.
However, as the object got closer, they realized it was not a plane at all. Instead, it was a large, cigar-shaped craft with a row of windows along its side. The object passed within a few hundred feet of their plane, and they could see that it was emitting a blue-white glow and had flames shooting out of the rear end.
Chiles and Whitted were so startled by the encounter that they immediately reported it to air traffic control in Montgomery. The controller confirmed that there were no other aircraft in the area at the time, ruling out the possibility of a mistaken identity. The pilots also reported that the object made a sudden, steep climb and disappeared into the night sky.
The Chiles-Whitted case is notable for several reasons. First, the pilots were experienced and reliable, and their accounts were consistent with each other. Second, their encounter was classified as a "close encounter of the second kind," meaning they saw physical evidence of the object and its effects, such as the flames and the blue-white glow. Finally, the case was investigated by the Air Force’s Project Blue Book, which concluded that the pilots' report was "of good quality and deserving of detailed analysis."
Despite the investigation, no conclusive explanation for the Chiles-Whitted case has ever been found. Some have suggested that the object was a secret military aircraft, while others have proposed that it was a spacecraft from another planet. Still others have speculated that the object was a meteor or a meteorite.
Regardless of what the object was, the Chiles-Whitted case remains one of the most compelling and well-documented UFO sightings in history. It has been the subject of numerous books, documentaries, and articles, and it continues to capture the imaginations of UFO enthusiasts and skeptics alike.
