"Impact" Rating = 13
"Credibility" Rating = 12
"Expert" Rating = 10
"Strangeness" Rating = 5
The Pan American Airways UFO sighting involving Captain William B Nash and Second Officer William H Fortenberry occurred on 14 July 1952 above
This incident is Case 44 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article, since it was referred to in 57 of the books covered by that article.
This incident featured in a list of the ten “best” case published by Ronald Story in his book “UFOs and the Limits of Science” (1981).
This incident featured in the results of a survey in 1965 by Jacques Vallee of the opinion of various UFO groups as to the most significant UFO sightings. As part of the same survey, NICAP included this case in a list of 5 cases which it nominated as being the best.
This was Project Blue Book Case Number 1444.
Isaac Koi’s “ICES” Rating for this sighting = 7,800 (out of a potential score of 14*14*14*14 i.e. 38,416)
(1) “Impact” Rating of 13 (out of a potential score of 14), because it is Case 44 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article.
(2) “Credibility” Rating of 12 (out of a potential score of 14) because this sighting was by several credible witnesses. The debate regarding this incident has focused on what caused the sighting, rather than suggesting a hoax.
(2) “Expert” Rating of 10 (out of a potential score of 14). It is given this above average rating because (at the time of writing) it has been included in a small nubmer of the short lists of the best cases produced by various UFO researchers that have been compiled by Isaac Koi (see the “Best UFO Cases" article at PART 3: Existing lists by various individuals).
(4)“Strangeness” Rating of 5 (out of a potential score of 14). The sighting has a below average strangeness rating since several authors (particularly Philip Klass) have suggested plausible mundane causes for the sighting, particularly a meteor.
Sections below:
Web Resources
For relevant articles and documents online, see:
http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case92.htm
There is a rapid turnover of UFO material on the Internet. Many links to material on UFO websites quickly become out of date. Therefore, instead of giving many links to specific webpages I have instead included below a search box which can be used to search various leading UFO websites at the same time. You can then click on tabs at the top of the search results to list only results from forums, only results from websites I have labelled as "skeptical" etc. I have included tabs for a couple of specific websites that I find particularly useful, including the valuable archives of the UFO UpDates email discussion List. The relevant websites are all listed in the discussion of the "UFO Searchillion" search engine in Section 2.4 of the "Free UFO Researcher Starter Pack" and continues to evolve...
The relevant search box is one of the two main tools on this website which are intended to help reduce the amount of reinvention of the wheel within UFOlogy. The other main tool is the collection of tables of references to discussion of UFO incidents, personalities and other matters in various books. Those tables can be sorted by author, length and date. I hope these tools are useful.
Book References
The table below includes references to relevant discussions in UFO/SETI books noted by Isaac Koi during a review of approximately 963 UFO/SETI books during the period 2003-2006 (with a few later additions). The table can be sorted by author, date and length of discussion by clicking on the relevant word in the top line of the table.
Many of the tables of references on this website are considerably longer than the references to books found on most other UFO websites. Indeed, some are probably the longest that have been collated in relation to some events and personalities. Together with the "UFO Searchillion" search box, I hope that these tables are found to be a useful contribution to UFOlogy.
For discussion of the Nash/Fortenberry sighting see the following:
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Discussion by:
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No. of Pages |
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Beckley, Timothy Green in his “MJ-12 and the Riddle of Hangar |
2 |
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Bennett, Colin in his “An American Demonology : Captain Edward J Ruppelt and the official UFO investigation of the United States Air Force” (2005) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 115 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “A Dance”) of the Headpress softcover edition. |
1 |
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Binder, Otto in his “What we really know about Flying Saucers” (1967) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 33 (in Chapter 3) of the Fawcett paperback edition. |
1 |
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Blundell, Nigel in his “World’s Most Amazing UFO Visits” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 32 of the Select softcover edition. |
1 |
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Campbell, Steuart in his “The UFO Mystery Solved” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 70-71 (in Chapter 4) of the Explicit Books softcover edition. |
2 |
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Chambers, Howard in his “UFOs for the millions” (1967) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 28-30 (in Chapter 3), 86 (in Chapter 7) of the |
4 |
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Clark, Jerome in “The Roswell Report : A Historical Perspective” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) (edited by Eberhart, George) at page 95 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Crashed saucers in the 1950s”) of the CUFOS paperback edition. |
1 |
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Clark, Jerome in his “Strange Skies: Pilot Encounters with UFOs” (2003) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 90-95 (in Chapter 5), 226-227 (in the Notes) of the Citadel softcover edition. |
8 |
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Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 409-410 (in an entry entitled “Nash-Fortenberry Sighting”) of the Visible Ink Press softcover edition. |
2 |
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Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Encyclopedia: 1st edition: Volume 2 – Emergence of a Phenomenon” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 258-259 (in an entry entitled “Nash-Fortenberry Sighting”) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition. |
2 |
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Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning - 2nd edition : Volume 2:L-Z” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 667 (in an entry entitled “Nash-Fortenberry Sighting”) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition. |
1 |
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Clark, Jerome in his “UFO Encounters” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 107, 110 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “The Ultimate Secret”) of the Publications International hardback edition. |
2 |
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Condon Report (“Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects”, Edward U Condon (Director) and Daniel S Gillmor (Editor) (1969)) as Case Number 14-N at pages 189-192 (in Section 3, Chapter 5 “Optical and Radar Analyses of Field Cases”, by Gordon D Thayer) of the uncorrected version submitted to the Air Force (with the same page numbering in the 3 volume paperbound edition distributed by the National Technical Information Service, US Department of Commerce) at pages 127-129 of the Vision hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Bantam paperback edition). The first of these editions has the same page numbering as the edition available free online at the following links: |
4 |
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Davenport, Marc in his “Visitors from Time” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 98 (in Chapter 8) of the 1994 revised Greenleaf softcover edition. |
1 |
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Druffel, Ann in her “Firestorm : Dr James E McDonald's Fight for UFO Science” (2003) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 18-19 (in Chapter 2) of the Wild Flower Press softcover edition. |
2 |
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Emmons, Charles F in his “At The Threshold: UFOs, Science and the New Age” (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 86 (in Chapter 5) of the Wild Flower Press softcover edition. |
1 |
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Evans, Hilary in his “The Evidence for UFOs” (1983) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 110-112 (in Chapter 6, case 65), 150 (in Chapter 8) of the Aquarian softcover edition. |
4 |
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Flammonde, Paris in his “Ufo Exist!” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 318-323 (in Chapter 16) of the Ballantine Books paperback edition. |
6 |
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Good, Timothy in his “Above Top Secret” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 261-262 (in Chapter 11) of the Sidgwick & Jackson hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Guild Publishing hardback edition and the Grafton paperback edition). |
2 |
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Good, Timothy in his “Beyond Top Secret” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 333-334 (in Chapter 14) of the Sidgwick & Jackson hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Pan paperback edition). |
2 |
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Hall, Michael David and Connors, Wendy Ann in their “Captain Edward J Ruppelt : Summer of the Saucers - 1952” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 135-136 (in Chapter 5) of the Rose Press softcover edition. |
2 |
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Hall, Michael David in his “UFOs : A Century of Sightings” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 181 (in Chapter 4) of the Galde Press softcover edition. |
1 |
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Hall, Richard in “The Encyclopedia of UFOs” (1980) edited by Ronald Story (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 243-244 (in an entry entitled “Nash-Fortenberry sighting”) of the NEL hardback edition. |
2 |
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Jackson, Robert in his “UFOs” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 12 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Where it all started”) of the Smithmark hardback edition. |
1 |
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Kanon, Gregory M in his “The Great UFO Hoax” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 132 (in Chapter 9) of the Galde Press softcover edition. |
1 |
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Keyhoe, Donald E in his “Flying Saucers from Outer Space” (1953) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 57-58 (in Chapter 4) and 124-126 (in Chapter 7) of the Henry Holt hardback edition, pages 62 and 125-127 of the Tandem paperback edition. |
5 |
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Keyhoe, Donald E in his “Flying Saucers: Top Secret” (1960) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 87-88 (in Chapter 6) of the G P Putnam hardback edition. |
2 |
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Lore, Gordon and Deneault, Harold in their “Mysteries of the Skies” (1968) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 155-156 (in Chapter 10) of the Prentice-Hall hardback edition. |
2 |
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Lorenzen, Coral and Lorenzen, Jim in their “UFOs: The Whole Story” (1969) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 44-45 (in Chapter 1) of the Signet paperback edition. |
2 |
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Lorenzen, Coral E in her “The Great Flying Saucer Hoax” (1962) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 12 (in Chapter 1), 29-30 (in Chapter 4) of the APRO hardback edition. |
3 |
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Lorenzen, Coral in “Flying Saucers : the Startling Evidence of the Invasion from Outer Space” (1966) (an enlarged version of her “The Great Flying Saucer Hoax” (1962)) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 37 (in Chapter 4), 24 (in Chapter 1) of the Signet paperback edition. |
2 |
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Maney, Charles And Hall, Richard in their “Challenge of Unidentified Flying Objects” (1961) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 18 (in Part 1, Chapter |
3 |
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McDonald, James E in his prepared statement to the Roush Hearing (the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Astronautics "Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects" on 1968.0729) as Case 8 at page 47 of the transcript of the Ninetieth Congress, Second Session, Number 7. Complete transcript available free online at the following links: |
1 |
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Menzel, Donald and Lyle Boyd in their “The World of Flying Saucers” (1963) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 256-265 (Chapter 12) of the Doubleday hardback edition. |
10 |
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Moseley, James and Pflock, Karl in their “Shockingly Close to the Truth!” (2002) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 101 (in Chapter 4) of the Prometheus hardback edition. |
1 |
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Nash and Fortenberry in their article in a special issue of True magazine, entitled “The True Report on Flying Saucers” in 1967. Available on-line at: http://users.ev1.net/~seektress/above.htm |
1 |
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NICAP in its “The UFO Evidence” (1964) (edited by Richard Hall) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 13 (in Section 2) and 38-39 (in Section 5, “Pilots & Aviation Experts”) of the privately published paperbound edition, with the same page numbering in the 1997 Barnes & Noble paperbound reprint. Available free online at: |
3 |
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Olsen, Thomas M in his “The Reference for Outstanding UFO Sighting Reports” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 3_11 - 3_12 (in Chapter 3) of the UFOIRC spiral-bound edition. |
2 |
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Peters, Ted in his “UFOs-God's Chariots?: Flying Saucers in Politics, Science & Religion” (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 26-27 (in Chapter 2) of the John Knox hardback edition. |
2 |
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Randles, Jenny and Hough, Peter in their “The Complete Book of UFOs” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 123 (in Chapter 9) of the Piatkus softcover edition. |
1 |
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Randles, Jenny in her “Something in the Air” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 45 (in Chapter 4) of the Hale hardback edition. |
1 |
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Rehn, K Gosta in his “UFOs Here and Now” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 62-63 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Fresh Contributions from Scientists”) of the Abelard-Schuman hardback edition. |
2 |
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Ritchie, David in his “UFO : The Definitive Guide” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 145-146 (in an entry entitled “Nash-Fortenberry incident”) of the MJF hardback edition. |
2 |
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Ruppelt, Edward J in his “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects” (1956) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 157 (in Chapter 12) of the original 17 chapter Doubleday hardback edition, at page 210 of the Gollancz hardback edition, at page 208 of the Ace paperback edition, at page 157 of the 1959 revised Doubleday 20 chapter hardback edition, at page 111 of the reprinted Source Books softcover edition. The first of these editions (i.e. the original 17 chapter hardback edition) has the same page numbering as the version available free online at: http://www.nicap.org/rufo/contents2.htm |
1 |
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Sachs, Margaret and Jahn, Ernest in their “Celestial Passengers – UFOs & Space Travel” (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 123-126 (Chapter 19 generally) of the Penguin paperback edition. |
4 |
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Sachs, Margaret in her “The UFO Encyclopedia“ (1980 (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 218-219 (in an entry entitled “Newport News, Virginia”), also included in a list entitled “Chronological list of UFO sightings” at page viii of the Corgi softback edition. |
2 |
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Salisbury, Frank B in “The Official Guide to UFOs” (1968) (edited by the editors of Science & Mechanics) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 59-60 (in unnumbered chapter entitled “The Scientist and the UFO”) of the Ace paperback edition. |
2 |
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Salisbury, Frank in “The Total UFO Story” (1979) (edited by Milt Machlin) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 76-77 (in Chapter 4) of the Dale paperback edition. |
2 |
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Salisbury, Frank in his written statement to the Roush Hearing (the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Astronautics "Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects" on 1968.0729) at page 242 of the transcript of the Ninetieth Congress, Second Session, Number 7. Complete transcript available free online at the following links: |
1 |
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Shawcross, Tim in his “The Roswell File” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 204-205 (in Chapter 14) of the |
2 |
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Sparks, Brad in version 1.7 of his “Comprehensive Catalog of 1,500 Project |
1 |
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Spencer, John in his “The UFO Encyclopedia” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 222 (in an entry entitled “Nash, First Officer W B”) of the Guild hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Avon softcover edition) at pages 260-261 of the Headline paperback edition. |
1 |
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Story, Ronald in his “UFOs and the Limits of Science” (1981) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 118-123 (Chapter 5 generally ), 21-22 (included in a list of ten “best” cases offered by Ronald Story) of the NEL Hardback edition. |
7 |
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Thompson, Keith in his “Angels and Aliens: UFOs and the Mythic Imagination” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 22 (in Chapter 3), 37 (in Chapter 4) of the Fawcett softcover edition. |
2 |
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Time-Life (Editors of) in “The UFO phenomenon: Mysteries of the Unknown” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 52-53 (in Chapter 2) of the Time-Life Book hardback edition. |
2 |
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Vesco, Renato and Childress, David Hatcher in their “Man Made UFOs 1944-1994 – 50 Years of Suppression” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 56-57 (in Chapter 3) of the AUP softcover edition. |
2 |
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Vesco, Renato in his “Intercept Ufo” (Formerly published as “Intercept - But Don't Shoot”) (1971) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 56-57 (in Chapter 3) of the Zebra paperback edition. |
2 |
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Von Buttlar, Johannes in his “The UFO Phenomenon” (1980) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 75-76 (in Chapter 7) of the Book Club Associates hardback edition. |
2 |
Other Material
Listed as Project Blue Book Case Number 1444 on the redacted US National Archives and Records Administration (“NARA”) microfilm records of Project Blue Book, released to the National Archives in 1975 – see National Archives Microfilm Publication T1206 roll number 1. An image of the relevant index page has been given the unique Page ID (“PID”) of NARA-PBB1-58 (page 58 of 1014) at the link below.
Listed (without a Project Blue Book Case Number) on the unredacted Maxwell Air Force Base (“Maxwell”) microfilm records of Project Blue Book – see Maxwell microfilm roll number 30,363. An image of the relevant index page has been given the unique Page ID (“PID”) of MAXW-PBB2-291 (page 291 of 1352) at the link below.
Please use the comments section below to share references to any particularly interesting relevant articles.