THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP & ENTITY ENCOUNTER REPORT

1951: A driver’s engine and lights die at Union Bridge, Pine Bluff, Arkansas

One night in March 1951, a 48-year-old man driving north across the Union Bridge at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, at about 45 miles an hour with a passenger, saw a craft with lights of different colors close in on his car. When it came within about 40 feet, he said, it cut off his headlights and then his engine, and set down in a field east of the road.

He stopped at the end of the bridge and got out. He later wrote that he saw “something” run around the craft, get in, and that the object then left very fast. He did not report it at the time for fear of ridicule, and set it down on an Air Force questionnaire years afterward.

Date: March 1951 (day not recorded)

Sighting Time: About 10:30 p.m. (night)

Day/Night: Night

Location: Union Bridge, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States

Urban or Rural: Open countryside beside a bridge on the edge of town

No. of Entity(‘s): 1

Entity Type: Unidentified; described only as “something”

Entity Description: Witness wrote that he saw “something” run around the craft and get in. No height, build or features recorded.

Hynek Classification: CE-III (Close Encounter of the Third Kind)

Duration: Ten minutes or less

No. of Object(s): 1

Description of the Object(s): A round craft with lights of different colors that made a sound like an electric motor.

Shape of Object(s): Round

Size of Object(s): About 30 feet long and 7.5 feet high (witness estimate)

Color of Object(s): Lights of different colors; body color not recorded

Distance to Object(s): About 40 feet at closest

Height & Speed: Landed in a field east of the road; the witness did not estimate its speed but wrote that it could sit still in the air and left very fast

Number of Witnesses: 2 (the driver and a passenger; the passenger’s name is redacted and the passenger’s account is not in the file)

Special Features/Characteristics: Car headlights went out at about 40 feet, then the engine stopped; object landed; an entity was seen moving around it and entering; object left very fast; electric-motor sound

Case Status: Written on an Air Force UFO questionnaire long after the event; no 1951 report; no Blue Book evaluation is shown

Source: Witness’s handwritten Air Force UFO questionnaire in the Project Blue Book files

Summary/Description: A driver crossing the Union Bridge at Pine Bluff on a March 1951 night wrote that a craft with colored lights cut his headlights and engine at about 40 feet, landed in a field, and that something ran around it and got in before it left very fast. The account was recorded decades later, with no contemporary report.

Related Cases: March 1951 UFO sightings archive

Detailed Report

The only record is a witness-completed Air Force UFO questionnaire in the Project Blue Book files, filled in by hand on a later edition of the form. The released copy has the witness’s identifying details and the passenger’s name blacked out. Clifford W. Bowman, named on his own form, gives his age at the time as 48.

He describes driving north at 45 miles an hour or less across the Union Bridge at Pine Bluff, in open countryside, at about 10:30 at night. He saw the object first from inside the car. On the form he writes that it came to right about 40 feet when it cut his motor off, and that the lights had gone off sooner. He stopped the car at the end of the bridge and got out, then watched from outside.

His sketch shows the bridge, the car, the object stopping in the air, then landing in a field to the east, and a fast departure. He annotates the compass drawing with “cut lights off car,” “40 feet,” “cut motor and stopped,” and “landed in field.” On the speed question he answers that he could not estimate it, “but it had plenty and could sit still in air.” He gives the object’s size as about 30 feet long and 7.5 feet high, round, with lights of different colors and a sound like an electric motor. The encounter lasted ten minutes or less.

Bowman states that he saw “something” run around the craft, get in, and that it left very fast. The form gives no description of the figure. He says he did not report the event in 1951 for fear of ridicule.

The Hynek classification is CE-III because the witness reports an entity near a landed craft, with an apparent electromagnetic effect on the car. The record has no contemporary corroboration.

Researcher’s Notes

Decades Later: What a Retrospective Form Can and Cannot Show

Classification: CE-III on the strength of one phrase, “something” running around the craft. It is the thinnest possible entity description, and the witness never calls it a being or a person.
Retrospective Record: The form was filled in years afterward, and the released copy does not say when. There is no 1951 report, no investigator and no Blue Book evaluation in the file.
Vehicle Effect: Headlights out first, then the engine, at about 40 feet, matches the car-interference pattern recorded in many later close-encounter reports. That pattern was not widely published in 1951, but the file cannot show whether the witness had read later accounts when he wrote.
The Passenger: A passenger is mentioned, but the name is redacted and the file contains no statement from that person.
Documentation: A handwritten questionnaire with a sketch and a compass diagram. No physical trace, photograph or second account.
Official Status: No Blue Book evaluation is shown in the released pages.

The Pine Bluff report is a close encounter written down years afterward by the only named witness, with a vehicle effect and a single glimpse of something moving beside the craft. It belongs in the archive as a retrospective account, clearly dated by its own form, rather than as a documented 1951 case.