Harmon Field, Newfoundland Woodruff/Leidy sighting

A Pan American Airways mechanic, John E. Woodruff, reported a trail across the sky near Harmon Field, Newfoundland, on 10 July 1947. The Final Report of Sighting by the 1388th AAF Base Unit gave the time as 2000Z and the place as about six miles SSW of the field. The Air Force check-list gave 1700 and listed one object. Woodruff, John Merriman (spelled Merhman and Mehrman in the file) of TWA and Robert W. Leidy of PAA were driving back from a fishing trip.

Captain William H. Smith, the base intelligence officer, took statements from the three men on 16 July. In his sworn interrogation Woodruff described a translucent disk like a wheel, about the size of a C-54 or Constellation. He said it left a dark bluish trail 15 to 20 miles long. He did not think it was a meteor. Merriman said he saw only the trail, a bluish black line with feathered edges in scattered clouds. Leidy said he did not see the object. He said he took two Kodachrome pictures of the trail with an Argus camera. The unit's final report said the film was sent for processing. A priority message of 15 July said the photographs were being developed in the United States.

The accounts differed on the trail's shape. The final report recorded Merriman and Woodruff as describing a straight, horizontal course and Leidy as describing a great curve. Leidy's check-list entry put the time between 3:00 and 5:00 PM.

A later tabulation in the FBI file listed the incident as report 15, at 1600. It summarised the object as having cut clouds open as it passed through, with the trail like a beam seen after a landing light is switched off. The 1948 Air Intelligence Division Study No. 203 said two other persons also saw the trail, which remained for about an hour and was photographed by another PAA employee. It said the photographs supported Woodruff's observation as far as the sky cleavage was concerned. The 1949 copy repeated this. An Air Materiel Command document listed the sighting among typical disc reports. The documents give no explanation for the event.