The Chiles-Whitted Encounter – UFO Sighting by Commercial Pilots

In this episode of Mysteries of UFOs, we revisit the Chiles-Whitted Encounter, one of the earliest and most influential UFO sightings of the modern era. On July 24, 1948, two Eastern Air Lines pilots—Captain Clarence Chiles and First Officer John Whitted—witnessed a glowing, cigar-shaped object streaking toward their DC-3 passenger plane near Montgomery, Alabama. The craft, estimated to be about 100 feet long, featured a row of illuminated windows, emitted an intense bluish-white light, and then shot upward into the clouds with incredible speed. The sighting, also confirmed by another ground-based witness, became one of the first major cases investigated by the U.S. Air Force's Project Sign. Initially considered possible evidence of an "interplanetary craft," it was later downplayed as a meteor, though the structured shape, windows, and controlled ascent defied that explanation. For UFO researchers, the Chiles-Whitted encounter remains a landmark case of credible, professional eyewitnesses reporting a structured, metallic object—helping to legitimize the study of UFOs in aviation and military circles.