"I again approached the object but not so closely this time when it departed on a course of about 245 degrees climbing at about 18 to 20 degrees above the horizon. It went completely out of sight in about 2 or 3 seconds… I can keep our fastest jets in sight for several minutes, so you can see that this object was moving rather rapidly.
"All of the time I was observing the object, after getting visual confirmation from the ground, I was describing what I had seen on radio unicom frequency. I was answering questions from the ground both from Utah Central, and Provo. The voice at Provo said that they could not see the object, but at least 8 or 10 people did see it from the ground at Utah Central Airport…
"I was returning to the field after it had departed when I was asked over the radio if I still could see the object, and I reported that I could not. They said they had it in sight again. I turned back and saw it at much greater distance only for about a second or two when it completely vanished. The guys on the ground said it went straight up as it finally left, but I didn't see that departure."
Harris wasn't, of course, the only witness to the sighting. Air Force Project Blue Book files show that Douglas M. Crouch at Hill Air Force Base, who a year later would investigate the first part of the case of an object that flashed over central Utah to explode east of Las Vegas, reported, in accordance with AFR 200-2, what he learned. On October 9, he wrote, "At 1916Z [Greenwich Mean Time] on 2 October 1961 a report of a UFO sighting was received from civilian sources at Utah Valley Airport, Salt Lake City, Utah, via Flight Operations Division, Hill AFB, Utah, and the Salt Lake City Utah Air National Guard Control Tower. Six of the eight persons [identified as Mr. and Mrs. Jay Galbraith, Clyde Card, Duane Sinclair, Robert Butler, and Russ Woods] who reported seeing the object were available and interviewed at the Central Valley Airport and tape recorded statements obtained. All six of the persons agreed that the object had no similarity to manned aircraft, either in configuration, speed, or maneuverability. The sixth person attempted to make an interception of the object and stated he flew within three to five miles of the object before it rose rapidly, started off in an upward southerly direction, paused and then disappeared to the west at a speed believed in excess of 1,000 miles per hour. Federal Aeronautics and Utah National Guard personnel at the Salt Lake Municipal Airport were contacted and reported no radar contacts had been made with the object. Wind velocities at various altitudes in the area discounted the possibility that the object could have been a weather balloon moved rapidly at times by the wind, and no balloons released during the period locally had assumed such a direction or path. No unusual meteorological or astronomical conditions were present which might account for the sighting."
By examining all of the report made by Crouch, we can find some interesting facts. On page three of his report, in an interview with Russ Woods, it was reported that the object "Had an oval shape when sun was shining on object. When it disappeared to those watching it without binoculars, it looked to him like it was dark and more or less cigar shaped. That the oval shape was like a football."
Although Harris reported the object moving, it seems some of those on the ground did not see it move. Instead, they observed it in different positions. Typical of that are the responses to Crouch's questions about flight path and maneuvers. One observer said, "I saw it in one position low on the horizon, and a second time it was to the right and higher, maybe eight to ten thousand feet variation. It was approximately five minutes between the two sightings."
But another of the ground observers, Jay Galbraith, told Crouch, "It was climbing and changing altitude. It seemed to go to the east for some time and hover in one position, then the last he remembered it was going west, climbing and going west. Some of the maneuvers were at rapid speed, and some were slow. At one time it climbed quite fast, with abrupt changes of direction."
In his assessment of that witness, Crouch wrote, "… appears to be a logical, mature person in his early fifties, and has been a private pilot for approximately twenty years, with approximately 2,000 hours flying time. His report of the sighting was very coherent."
Still another of the observers, Robert Butler, reported "Noticed a flight path of straight up and also to the west. Flight upward was at a rapid speed, the flight to the west was fairly slow. No abrupt change in flight."
Of this man, Crouch wrote, "…appears to be a mature, reliable person in his early thirties, and has been working around airports for some time. He has a student pilot's license, with fifty-five flying hours, and appeared very proficient in the identification of conventional type aircraft."
Another witness told Crouch about additional maneuvers. Crouch wrote, "It was climbing and changing altitude. It seemed to go to the east for some time and hover in one position, then the last he remembered it was going west, climbing and going west. Some of the maneuvers were at rapid speed, and some were slow. At one time it climbed quite fast, with abrupt changes of directions."
Of Harris, the private pilot who had attempted the airborne intercept, Crouch wrote, "Harris appears to be an emotionally stable person in his late forties, and gave a consistent and coherent account of his sightings. He holds a private pilot's license and has approximately six hundred hours flying time. Fellow pilots at the airport described HARRIS as reliable and very truthful."
Crouch completed his investigation and submitted his final report to Project Blue Book. He wrote, "Preliminary analysis indicates that each of the six observers interviewed were logical, mature persons, five of whom had some connection with aviation, and that each person was convinced that he had observed some tangible object not identifiable as a balloon or conventional type aircraft. The observer who attempted interception [Harris] and reported closing within three to five miles of the object and within one thousand feet of its altitude gave a definite and coherent description of the size and shape of the reported object, and emphatically and consistently described the maneuvers and flight path of the object. No leads or clues were developed which would lead to the identity of the object or explain the sighting… With the completion of this initial investigation, it is believed that all local efforts to explain the sighting and identify the object have been exhausted."
Crouch, a security specialist and a GS-9, signed the report. Charles W. Brion, an Air Force major, and the Chief, Security and Law Enforcement Division, approved it before it was sent on to Blue Book headquarters.
Within two days of Crouch's report arriving at Blue Book, unnamed "Air Force officers at the Pentagon" found a solution for the sighting. According to them, Harris and the others had seen Venus… or a research balloon.
Harris responded, telling reporters, "If the Pentagon thinks I have eyes good enough to see Venus at high noon, they are really off the beam. The object I saw was saucer shaped, had a gray color, and moved under intelligent control. I got within three miles of it, and that is a lot closer than Venus is. I have seen a lot of balloons too, and this was no balloon. It just doesn't make sense for the Pentagon to make such statements."
What is interesting here is that Crouch, during his investigation, checked into the possibility of balloons being responsible for the sighting. He found no evidence of balloon launches that would place one in a location to be seen. The Air Force spokesman seemed to have overlooked the fact that the object was observed by witnesses on the ground who used binoculars. All of these facts rule out the conventional balloons and the old standby of Venus. This is just another example of the Air Force reaching into the grab bag and pulling out an answer. That it didn't fit the facts, as discovered by their own investigators, seems to be irrelevant to them. They can announce a solution and get back to their "real" work.