UFO Diary 01: Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of nine flying vessels which he called alien saucers

As space agencies like NASA and ESA are trying to discover alien existence in the universe, conspiracy theorists strongly believe that extraterrestrials are real, and they claim that these advanced beings have already visited the earth. 

Amid the rumors surrounding UFOs and aliens, everyone should understand that the history of unidentified flying object sightings dates back to the pre-historic era. There are several written and non-documented accountings of UFO sightings, and there are even ancient rock paintings that show flying saucers. 

International Business Times, India, in our ‘UFO Diary’ segment, presents you with a daily dose of UFO sightings that happened in the modern era, and it begins with the revelation of a private pilot named Kenneth Arnold in 1947. 

UFO sighting that sparked the name ‘Flying Saucers’ 

On June 24, 1947, private pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed that he saw a string of nine, shiny unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier. He also added that these flying vessels were flying at a speed of 2,000 kilometers per hour. 

The revelation made by Arnold soon became the hottest debating point in the United States, and it is now widely called the first UFO sighting in the modern era. Soon after Arnold’s revelation, several other people also claimed to have witnessed UFOs in the skies. 

Arnold’s description of those flying objects also made the press quickly coining the name ‘flying saucers’. 

Several top reporters interviewed Arnold, and his testimonial made them believe that the pilot was saying what he saw. 

“This whole thing has gotten out of hand. I want to talk to the FBI or someone. Half the people look at me as a combination of Einstein, Flash Gordon and screwball. I wonder what my wife back in Idaho thinks,” Arnold told Associated Press at that time. 

Alien origin

As the news went viral, heated discussions happened regarding the origin of these UFOs. Arnold himself, in some interviews, said that these flying objects could be of alien origin. 

Some of his pilot friends told Arnold that these objects could be sometimes secretive flying vessels developed by the United States Air Force (USAF). 

Meanwhile, several skeptics dismissed the claims made by Arnold. Donald Howard Menzel, an astronomer claimed that Arnold had seen clouds of snow blown from the mountains south of Mount Rainier. In another incident, Menzel suggested that the objects Arnold saw could be spots of water on his airplane’s windows.

Amid these explanations from skeptics, Kenneth Arnold’s UFO sighting still remains one of the most mysterious events in history, and several people consider it irrefutable proof of alien existence.