Great Falls footage

From TinWiki.org

The Great Falls, Montana movie was taken by Nicholas Mariana, the manager of the Great Falls baseball team at 11.25am on either 5 or 15 August 1950. (The latter date is usually given, but there is reason to doubt those suggestions). Marian’s secretary, Virginia Raunig, was also a witness.

Contents 1 The Great Falls, Montana film (August 1950) 1.1 Sample Frame from the Great Falls film 2 Claims to fame 3 The Skeptics 3.1 United States Air Force 3.2 The CIA’s Robertson Panel 3.3 Klass 3.4 Condon Report 4 References to discussions in books 5 External links 6 Relevant Discussion Threads on ATS

The Great Falls, Montana film (August 1950)

The Great Falls footage showed two large bright lights flying across the blue sky in an echelon formation. The lights are seen to pass behind a water tower.

Edward J Ruppelt reports in his book “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects” (1956) that Mariana had sent his movie to the Air Force in 1950 “but in 1950 there was no interest in the UFO so, after a quick viewing, Project Grudge had written them off as ‘the reflections from two F-94 jet fighters that were in the area’.”

• “The intelligence officer at Great Falls had dug through huge stacks of files and found that only two airplanes, two F-94's, were near the city during the sighting and that they had landed about two minutes afterwards. Both Mariana and his secretary, who had also seen the UFO's, had said that the two jets had appeared in another part of the sky only a minute or two after the two UFO's had disappeared in the southeast. This in itself would eliminate the jets as candidates for the UFO's, but we wanted to double check. The two circular lights didn't look like F-94's, but anyone who has done any flying can tell you that an airplane so far away that it can't be seen can suddenly catch the sun's rays and make a brilliant flash.”

• “First we studied the flight paths of the two F-94's. We knew the landing pattern that was being used on the day of the sighting, and we knew when the two F-94's landed. The two jets just weren't anywhere close to where the two UFO's had been. Next we studied each individual light and both appeared to be too steady to be reflections.”

• “We drew a blank on the Montana Movie - it was an unknown.”

Sample Frame from the Great Falls film

Sample Frame from the Great Falls film

Claims to fame

In his book “UFOs Explained” (1974), Philip J Klass referred to the Great Falls footage as “the most impressive and famous UFO movie”. In his book “Scientific Ufology” (1999), Kevin D Randle wrote that the Great Falls footage “would become one of the best, and, therefore most controversial pieces of physical evidence available”.

During 2003-2007, Isaac Koi reviewed a sample of 963 UFO and SETI books and noted the frequency with which various UFO cases were discussed. The Great Falls film featured in a list of the top 10 photographic cases (in terms of frequency of discussion). This incident was the fifth most frequently discussed UFO photographic case in the study, with 58 discussions being noted.

Mariana sent his footage to the Air Force. When the footage was returned, Mariana claimed that the best bits had been removed, including frames which “showed larger images of the UFOs with a notch or band at one point by which they could be seen to rotate in unison”. Barry Greenwood has published a review of relevant evidence regarding this allegation (including testimony from Mariana’s lawyer and the managing editor of the Great Falls Tribune that they thought they had seen a longer version than that returned by the Air Force). Greenwood concluded: “In spite of the Air Force's claims to the contrary, there is strong evidence that the film sequence was clipped after it had been sent to the Air Force in 1950. Witness statements and Air Force documents allude to a longer sequence than currently exists.”

The Great Falls film was one of two motion pictures of UFO sightings considered by the Robertson Panel, organized by the CIA, in January 1953.

The Skeptics

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force included these photographs in Project Blue Book as Case Number 792. Its evaluation of them was: “A/C”, i.e. aircraft.

The CIA’s Robertson Panel

The Robertson Panel, organized by the CIA, considered the Great Falls footage. The Panel members accepted the explanation that the footage showed aircraft.

Klass

In his book “UFOs Explained” (1974), Philip J Klass referred to Project Blue Book’s case file on the Great Falls footage. He stated that the case file “contained convincing evidence that there had indeed been two F-94s in the vicinity at the time of filming”. One landed at the Great Falls Air Force Base at 11:30am and one at 11:33am, several minutes after Mariana had shot his film.

Klass suggests that:

• it is possible Mariana knew the footage showed sunlight reflections off two jet aircraft, and had intended to use the incident and film “only as a means of getting a little local publicity for himself and the ball team”.
• alternatively, the identity of the two F-94s was obscured by an unusual atmospheric effect.

Condon Report

There are 18 pages of discussion of these photographs in the Condon Report (“Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects”, Edward U Condon (Director) and Daniel S Gillmor (Editor) (1969)).

It is designated as Condon Case Number 47. The main discussion was written by William K Hartmann.

The Condon Report raised doubts about Mariana’s statement that he filmed the footage on 15 August 1950. The Report notes that Mariana had stated that the film was taken at the local stadium, and that his purpose for being there “was to check the direction of the wind in preparation for the afternoon's game”. The Report also notes that Dr. Roy Craig determined by checking Great Falls newspaper records that no home game was scheduled for 15 August, and, in fact, the witness' team played that evening in Twin Falls, Idaho. The Report concludes “The 15 August sighting date is therefore certainly open to question”.

After reviewing the evidence, Hartmann concluded as follows (at page 635):

• “The data at hand indicate that while it strains credibility to suppose that these were airplanes, the possibility nonetheless cannot be entirely ruled out.”

• “There are several independent arguments against airplane reflections.”

• “(1) Short-term variations in image size (correlated with brightness), time scale ca. 1 sec., are typically not more than ± 5%. A priori considerations of aircraft stability and empirical observations by Baker indicate that it is very unlikely that two aircraft could maintain such constant reflections over not only the 16 sec. and the 20° azimuth arc photographed but also the minimum of 50 sec. visually observed. I have confirmed this by studying aircraft visually in the vicinity of Tucson airports; in at least a dozen cases none has been seen to maintain a constant or unidentifiable reflection as long as 16 sec”.

• “(2) Assuming that 15 August was the correct date, Air Force investigators found that there were two F-94 jets in the vicinity and that they landed only minutes after the sighting, which could well have put them in circling path around Malstrom AFB, only three miles ESE of the baseball park. However, Witness I reported seeing two planes coming in for a landing behind him immediately following the filming (3), thereby accounting for those aircraft.”

Hartmann summarized his view as follows (at page 626): “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”.

References to discussions in books

• R M L Baker in “UFO’s: A Scientific Debate” (1972) (edited by Carl Sagan and Thornton Page) at pages 191-198 (in Chapter 8) of the Barnes and Noble hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Norton paperback edition. [8 page discussion]

• Roy Craig in his “UFOs – An Insider’s View” (1995) at pages 132-133 (in Chapter 8), 158, 160-161, 162 (in Chapter 10), 230-231 (in Chapter 14) of the UNT softback edition. [8 page discussion]

• Philip J Klass in his “UFOs Explained” (1974) at pages 152-166 (in Chapter 16, “The Great Falls UFO Movies”) of the Random House hardback edition / pages 180-196 of Random House paperback edition. [15 page discussion]

• Kevin D Randle in his “Scientific Ufology” (1999) at pages 75-91, 125 (in Chapter 4), 211-212, 216 (in Chapter 8) of the Avon softcover edition. [21 page discussion]

• Edward J Ruppelt in his “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects” (1956) at pages 219-220, 224 (in Chapter 16) of the original 17 chapter Doubleday hardback edition, at pages 286-288, 292 of the Gollancz hardback edition, at pages 287-289, 293-294 of the Ace paperback edition, at pages 219-220, 224 of the 1959 revised Doubleday 20 chapter hardback edition, at pages 157-158, 160 of the reprinted Source Books softcover edition. [3 page discussion]

• David R Saunders and R Roger Harkins in their “UFOs? Yes!” (1968) at page 83-92 (in Chapter 8), 93-102, 103-104, 107-108 (Chapter 9 generally) of the Signet paperback edition. [24 page discussion]

For further references, see the entry dated 1950.0815 in Isaac Koi’s Core Chronology (“KCC”).

External links

• Sample colour frame available in various sizes
  

• Great Falls film discussed on page 7 of the “Durant Report” (a memo dated 16th February 1953 from F C Durant to the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence relating to the Robertson Panel)

• Relevant pages of the Condon Report

• Sample frame included as Plate 27 in the Condon Report

• Relevant page of Project Blue Book’s index of files
  

• Links to various relevant documents and articles on the NICAP website
  

• Links to various relevant documents and articles on the Ufologie website of Patrick Gross
  

• Relevant extract of Robert Baker’s written statement to the “Roush Hearing”
  

• Article by Barry Greenwood entitled “On The Question of Tampering With the 1950 Great Falls UFO Film”

Relevant Discussion Threads on ATS

• Great Falls footage discussed as part of this thread