Three Boy Scouts hiking on a California island reported a silent silver object they believed was moving faster than a conventional jet before apparently disintegrating.
Their account resurfaced in the Pentagon’s seventh release of UFO files on Friday, alongside other reports of mysterious sightings around Catalina Island.
An Air Intelligence Information Report dated August 28, 1952, places the Scouts’ encounter during a mountain hike around noon on June 25, under clear skies.
The object appeared to make a climbing turn immediately before its ‘disappearance by disintegration,’ according to the report.
Another file contains a handwritten letter dated May 1, 1949, describing six objects passing individually over Avalon on the evening of April 28, followed minutes later by four more traveling in the same direction.
The military’s summary recorded six objects and concluded there was insufficient information to evaluate the sighting.
The waters off Southern California have also become the focus of speculation about hidden underwater UFO bases.
Some UFO enthusiasts have suggested Sycamore Knoll, a vast, flat-topped underwater formation off Malibu roughly 44 miles northwest of Catalina Island’s western end, could conceal such a base.
Their account resurfaced in the Pentagon’s seventh release of UFO files on Friday, alongside other reports of mysterious sightings around Catalina Island
Catalina Island is located about 22 miles south-southwest of the Los Angeles mainland coast
The three Scouts were attending summer camp at Camp Fox, where they witnessed the strange sightings, according to the document prepared at March Air Force Base.
They were hiking in the same group when they spotted the objects over the island.
‘The object was silver in color, altitude is uncertain, and speed estimated to be faster than a conventional jet,’ the report states.
‘There was no sound observed.’
While the document is sparse in detail, it describes one apparent maneuver: the object climbed into the air and immediately turned before disappearing, as the witnesses explained, in disintegration.
However, the report did not establish the object’s altitude or record how long the Scouts watched it, and the boys had no observing instruments available to measure its movements.
The officer compiling the account also acknowledged the difficulty of assessing the witnesses.
‘No estimate of the reliability can be attempted by the reporter,’ the document states, adding that the observers’ experience was ‘probably meager at best.’
Another file contains a handwritten letter dated May 1, 1949, describing six objects passing individually over Avalon on the evening of April 28, followed minutes later by four more traveling in the same direction
The report lists four accompanying letters and notes that two included rough sketches of what the witnesses saw. Those letters and drawings were not in the Pentagon’s Friday release.
The letter, signed by Avalon resident Percy E Mackey, was addressed to Kenneth Arnold in Boise, Idaho.
Mackey wrote that his wife and a schoolteacher had seen six objects around 8pm on April 28.
They appeared ‘not in a group, but singly,’ he explained.
Minutes later, his wife went to their daughter’s home on the next street, where she, their daughter and their grandson reportedly saw four more objects.
‘All travelling in the same direction,’ Mackey wrote.
The brief letter offered no description of the objects’ shape, color or speed, but its author offered to provide more information.
‘If you are still interested in flying disks, saucers etc., please let me know and I will write more in full,’ he wrote.
Catalina Island is also near a vast, flat-topped underwater formation (pictured) off Malibu called Sycamore Knoll, which conspiracy theorists have long believed was a hidden alien base
Although the letter described six objects followed by four more, the military’s summary recorded only six, noting that each flew past alone.
The record listed no photographs or physical evidence and concluded there was ‘insufficient data for evaluation.’
A November 1953 account came from a military witness in San Pedro, who reported watching a purplish-white light over Catalina Island for about 10 minutes.
The light initially appeared stationary before reportedly moving northwest toward Los Angeles. Investigators classified the sighting as astronomical, identifying the object as Jupiter.
Another report described a civilian in Avalon spotting a bright orange, circular object falling straight down on March 15, 1955.
The sighting lasted approximately two seconds, and the military considered the object a probable meteor because of its brief appearance and downward path.