January 1947 — three cases: RAF's "Operation Charlie" radar pursuit over the North Sea, continued Lincolnshire radar tracking the next day, and William Ferguson's trance-state Mars contact claim in Chicago. thinkaboutitdocs.com.
1947: January UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
This page required a heavier correction pass than most. Two entries checked out as fabricated: a “Pendleton/La Grande, Oregon, January 1947” pre-Arnold sighting cited two source links that, on inspection, are both about Kenneth Arnold’s actual June 24, 1947 sighting — no January event exists at either link. And a “Denison, Texas, January 22, 1947” farmer sighting turned out to be a genuine historical case — but from January 2, 1878, not 1947, misdated by 69 years and duplicating a page this site already has correctly dated elsewhere. Both are removed below, with the reasoning documented rather than silently deleted. What remains is a month that opens strong regardless: the well-documented “Operation Charlie” RAF radar pursuits over the North Sea, and a link to this archive’s existing Yokohama, Japan full report.
Date: January 1947
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Time: Evening
Summary: A witness named Massinger reported a close-range observation of a metallic, disc-shaped object that appeared to follow his vehicle for several miles before accelerating vertically at high speed.
Source: George M. Eberhart, A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies, Greenwood Press, Westport, 1980, ISBN 0-313-21337-2 Source Status: UNVERIFIED — cited to a real published bibliography, but this archive could not independently confirm the entry’s content against that source; retained with caution given other confirmed fabrications on this page.
Date: January 1947
Location: Little Rock, Arkansas
Time: Night
Summary: Witnesses reported strange blue lights performing erratic maneuvers over the city.
Source: “UFO Sightings in Arkansas,” onlyinark.com Source Status: INSUFFICIENT DATA — a general-interest blog roundup, not a primary or specialist source; no named witness or independent corroboration located.
Date: January 1947
Location: England
Time: Midnight
Summary: One of the first major post-WWII radar-visual cases in the UK: an object’s ability to “zoom” at 400 mph — faster than most contemporary fighter jets — and its repeated appearances led to the first permanent RAF radar watch for unidentified targets.
Source: Loren E. Gross, UFOs: A History — 1947, Jan-Jun, p. 6
Date: January 7, 1947
Location: Rural New Mexico
Time: Unknown
Summary: A Texas man reportedly found an egg-shaped craft in a remote arroyo, with three small, large-headed beings inside, matching what later became the archetypal “Grey” alien description.
Source: Attributed to H.E. Puthoff Source Status: DISPUTED — H.E. Puthoff is a real physicist known for parapsychology and remote-viewing research (Stanford Research Institute), not for UFO crash-retrieval case investigation; this archive could not locate any publication by Puthoff describing this case, and the attribution should be treated with significant caution pending verification.
Date: January 12, 1947
Location: Chicago, Illinois (witness in a trance/meditative state)
Time: Evening
Summary: While in an out-of-body state, William Ferguson reported traveling at the speed of light and finding himself on the planet Mars, where he met “Khauga,” a red-haired, red-complexioned Martian with broad features and the ability to float in mid-air.
Source: Jerome Clark, Extraordinary Encounters Source Status: CONTACTEE/CHANNELING — a documented claim from a real, credentialed UFO encyclopedia, but categorically a subjective trance experience rather than a physical sighting; retained as a documented contactee-era claim, not as an established event.
Date: January 15, 1947: Yokohama, Japan Sighting
Date: January 16, 1947
Location: North Sea, 50 miles from Holland
Time: 22:30 GMT
Case Status: Unexplained
Summary: An RAF Mosquito pilot pursued an unidentified radar target showing efficient, controlled evasive action at 22,000 feet, at a speed equal to or greater than the Mosquito, heading west toward Norfolk. The incident was linked to another “X-raid” tracked by radar earlier the same day. An FBI document from July 1947 quoted the Air Ministry case summary stating “no explanation has been forthcoming, nor has it been repeated” — inaccurate, since a very similar incident occurred just 24 hours later. As a direct result, Fighter Command extended its night radar watch. This case, known in Air Ministry files as “Operation Charlie,” is one of the best-documented British radar-visual cases of the immediate postwar period.
Source: Declassified UK Air Ministry files (FOIA release); David Clarke and Andy Roberts, UFO researchers, drawing on National Archives (Kew) documents Source Status: VERIFIED — corroborated by declassified official RAF/Air Ministry documentation.
Date: January 17, 1947
Location: North Sea (tracked from Lincolnshire radar stations)
Time: Afternoon, continuing to 19:45
Summary: Two Chain Home Low radar stations in Lincolnshire (Skendleby and Humberstone) tracked what was described as “an exceptionally good track,” designated U294, at 10,000 feet above the North Sea. With Eastern Sector on alert, Meteor jets of 245 Squadron were placed on standby to scramble if the target — nicknamed “Charlie” — came within range, but the plot faded before interception. At 19:45, the Humberstone station, near Grimsby, again tracked an unidentified target over the sea for 30 minutes at a speed exceeding 200 mph.
Source: RAF Intelligence / declassified FOIA documents Source Status: VERIFIED — corroborated by declassified official RAF documentation, continuing the same “Operation Charlie” investigation as the January 16 entry.
EDITOR’S CHANGE LOG — THIS REVISION
Removed — “Pendleton, Oregon & La Grande, Oregon, January 1947”: This entry claimed pre-Arnold “silver, disc-like object” sightings in the same region where Kenneth Arnold would later have his famous June 24, 1947 encounter, and cited two links as sources. Both cited links, on direct inspection, are articles specifically about Arnold’s actual June sighting — neither describes any January event. No independent source for a January 1947 Pendleton/La Grande sighting was located. This entry appears to have been fabricated by pattern-matching the real Kenneth Arnold story onto an invented earlier date. There is a genuine, separate “pre-Arnold” Oregon sighting on record (a witness named Webb, reported shortly before Arnold’s June 24 story broke) — but it is dated to June 1947, not January, and belongs on this archive’s June page if not already present there.
Removed — “Denison, Texas, January 22, 1947” (farmer John Martin): This is a genuine, well-documented historical UFO case — but it occurred on January 2, 1878 (reported in the Denison Daily News on January 25, 1878), not 1947. The quote used in this archive’s entry (“a gentleman of undoubted veracity”) is drawn word-for-word from the 1878 newspaper account. This site already has a correctly dated page for this case at thinkaboutitdocs.com/1878-denison-texas-daylight-ufo/. The 69-year misdating here appears to be a fabrication error, not a legitimate alternate dating.
Removed — “Richmond, Virginia, January 1947” (Weather Bureau meteorologist): This entry’s own body text states the sighting “began as early as April 1947,” directly contradicting its own January dateline. A U.S. Weather Bureau meteorologist observing a flat-bottomed ellipsoid over Richmond is a real, often-cited April 1947 case; it does not belong on this page and should be verified and placed on this archive’s April 1947 page instead.
Removed — “Fort Worth, Texas, January 1947”: No named witness, no source, and speculative framing (“often linked to,” “suggested an intelligence behind the flight path”) with no underlying case description. This entry could not be verified as describing any specific documented event and has been removed pending a located primary source.
