Flying Saucer Review June 1982 [antikvár]

tions." We should not overlook the fact, therefore, that the pilot of the F-94 and his companion were bound hand and foot by the official constraints that followed the sitting, and deliberations, of the Robertson Commission of January 1953. So it is conceivable that even if they had had the images of the UFOs on their radar scope, they would in no way have made that information public.The official constraint is a very real thing as far as both civil and military pilots are concerned. Your Editor has given talks to womens' clubs where the mem-bers' husbands have come along as guests very knowledgeable husbands who have taken the speaker aside after the talk and have confided over a beer that they were airline pilots, that they were with him 100% but would go in fear of their jobs if they spoke about their experiences.To conclude, the New England-Labrador BOAC incident should, we feel, still go on record in view of the "hold" instruction from Boston Traffic Control ~ as a multi-witness/probable radar case.THE B.O.A.C. LABRADOR SIGHTING OF 1954The pilot recalls the remarkable events of 28 years ago!James HowardI was in command of BOAC Stratocruiser G-ALSC, operating flight No. 510-196 from New York to London, on June 29, 1954. I had elected to make a refuelling stop at Goose Bay, Labrador a routine procedure.We departed New York at 2103 GMT (5.03p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). About 30 mins later, when nearing the boundary between New York Air Traffic Centre and Boston Air Traffic Centre, Boston told me to hold at a position somewhere near the coast of Rhode Island (I've forgotten the exact place). No reason given, but I assumed that there was conflicting traffic ahead. I might say that it was, and is, very unusual to be "held" when outbound from a busy area.After perhaps 10-12 minutes I pointed out to Boston that my fuel reserves were not limitless, and requested onward clearance. Control then said that I could proceed if I would accept a detour via Cape God, rejoining the original track well north of Boston. I accepted this and we proceeded on our way.About 3 hours later we were crossing the St Lawrence estuary near Seven Islands, Quebec. We were flying at 19,000ft., above broken cloud at possibly 14,000ft., with the coastline clearly visible through gaps in the cloud.I then saw these objects for the first time. They were moving at about the same speed as we were (230 knots approx) on a parallel course, maybe 3 or 4 miles to the north west of us (we were heading N.E.). They were below the cloud at this time, at a guess at 8,000ft. Soon after crossing the coast into Labrador, the cloud layer was left behind and the objects were now clearly in view, seeming to have climbed more nearly to our altitude. At this time the sun was low to the north-Our reader H. S. Taylor (see "Mail Bag") draws our attention to discrepancies between the details of the famous 1954 incident, given in our editorial leader in Volume 27, No. 3, and a version published in Fate magazine "a few months after the incident." We have been fortunate enough to locate Captain Howard now retired and he, having read Mr. Taylor's letter has recorded for us the details, as he recalls them, of the event of more than a quarter of a centui7 ago. Readers should also refer to our editorial leader on page 1 of this issue. EDITORwest, sky clear, visibility unlimited. There was a small amount of low cloud, near the groundThe crew and I had ample time to study and sketch these "things" as they flew with us for some 20 minutes in all. The passengers, I found out later, had also seen them and were staring out of the windows on the port side.There was one large object and six small globular things. The small ones were strung out in a line, sometimes 3 ahead and 3 behind the large one, sometimes 2 ahead and 4 behind, and so on, but always at the same level. The large object was continually, slowly, changing shape, in the way that a swarm of bees might alter its appearance. They appeared to be opaque and hard-edged, grey in colour, no lights or flames visible.After watching these things for 10 minutes or so I judged that we were now within VHF radio range of Goose Bay, and could talk to them. I asked Lee Boyd,