30 December 1947 Western US flame/fireball sightings

Four reports tied to the evening of 30 December 1947 appear as Incidents 94 to 97 in two compilations of Air Force incident summaries. The check-lists give times of 1925 or 1926 PST. Incident 94 in the box 7 summaries lists Lt Col W.W. Jones and Maj A. A. Andrae, USAF pilots with the Eastern Pacific Wing of ATC, as observers.

The narrative says the two were flying from Great Falls, Montana, to Fairfield-Suisun at 13,000 feet. They recorded a possible rocket sighting of an object trailing green and blue flames for 2 seconds. It descended vertically at very high speed and seemed to slow near the ground. The other compilation's narrative page is truncated.

Incident 95 concerned a Sacramento Air Depot C-47 near Rosedale, California. The box 7 summary records several colors of flame with red and green predominating and a disappearance eastward toward hills. The pilot later reported a small fire that grew larger. A second C-47 was asked to check for a possible aircraft accident. The summary states the fire went out at 2155. The D087 version gives different coordinates, a southward heading, a C-47 number of 7468, a search for possible survivors, a fire in sumac, and an end time of 2100.

Incident 96 was a motorist on U.S. Highway 40, 30 miles west of Lovelock, Nevada, who reported an object that exploded in the air at 1200 to 1300 feet. Incident 97 was a United Airlines pilot between Medford, Oregon, and Mt Shasta, who saw a flash at 1925 PST. The check-list says the flash was presumably an explosion. The Fairfield tower note on Incident 96 says it would appear to be connected with Incidents 94, 95 and 97. In the box 7 set, the Incident 96 and 97 forms carry a handwritten note that they were filed under Incident #94. The pages give no final conclusion.