What happened
Checking the wind before an afternoon game at Great Falls' empty Legion Stadium, baseball manager Nick Mariana saw a flash and then two bright, silvery objects moving slowly across a clear sky. He ran to his car for his 16 mm colour movie camera and filmed them for about sixteen seconds as they crossed behind a water tower and faded to the southeast; his secretary Virginia Raunig also watched. The Air Force's Project Grudge borrowed the film in 1950, decided after a quick look that it showed sunlight glinting off two F-94 jets known to be nearby, and returned it. Mariana complained that the first thirty-odd frames, which he said showed spinning discs, were missing; the Air Force said only one damaged frame had been removed. Project Blue Book re-examined the film in 1952, it was shown to the CIA's Robertson Panel in 1953, and it remains one of the earliest motion pictures of a reported UFO.
The original account
Witness I, general manager of a Great Falls baseball team, and Witness II, his secretary, observed two white lights moving slowly across the sky. Witness I made 16mm. motion pictures of the lights. Both individuals have recently reaffirmed the observation, and there is little reason to question its validity. The case remains unexplained. Analysis indicates that the images on the film are difficult to reconcile with aircraft or other known phenomena, although aircraft cannot be entirely ruled out.
Condon Report (Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects, 1969), Case 47 abstract, a US Air Force-funded study (public domain)
The official explanation
The prevailing conventional explanation is sunlight reflecting off the fuselages of two F-94 interceptors that landed at nearby Great Falls AFB (now Malmstrom) within minutes of the filming. The CIA's Robertson Panel endorsed that reading in 1953, judging the lights to be reflections of aircraft known to be in the area. Condon investigator Roy Craig, after interviewing the witnesses, was skeptical and noted a remark that Mariana was a promoter.
The anomalous case
Edward Ruppelt, who reopened the case at Pentagon request, wrote that the Wright Field photo lab ruled out birds, balloons and meteors, that the two F-94s were nowhere near the objects' track, and that the lights were too steady to be reflections: the film was an unknown. Douglas Aircraft engineer Robert Baker spent some 18 months on the film and told Congress in 1968 that neither birds nor aircraft reflections had merit. Mariana and Raunig both said they saw the two jets in a different part of the sky moments after the objects left. William Hartmann's Condon analysis concluded it strained credibility to suppose the images were airplanes, while conceding that could not be entirely ruled out, and the case is listed in the Condon Report as unexplained.
The strongest argument that this was something genuinely unknown or classified, with each claim attributed to the person who made it.
Documents
- Condon Report, Case 47: Great Falls Movie Film report, files.ncas.org
- Robertson Panel report, January 1953 (Condon Report Appendix U) official, files.ncas.org
- Project BLUE BOOK records (National Archives, microfilm T-1206) official, archives.gov
Sources
- Condon Report (1969), Case 47: Great Falls Movie Film National Capital Area Skeptics (online edition of the Condon Report)
- Mariana UFO film Wikipedia
- The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (Edward J. Ruppelt, 1956) Project Gutenberg
Witness reports elsewhere
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