Paris, IL abduction report — March 9, 1955

At approximately 5:50 p.m. on March 9, 1955, observers near Paris, Illinois, reported a silver, bell-shaped object in the vicinity of a jet aircraft. The account said that the aircraft appeared to enter, or be swallowed by, the larger object. The surviving catalogue lists at least two observers but does not identify everyone present or supply their separate statements. Leonard Stringfield received the aircraft-capture story from Eugene Metcalfe of Paris. In the preserved source qualification, Stringfield said that he could not identify a bomber missing on that date. No account from anyone aboard the aircraft accompanies the report, and the catalogue does not describe a later return of the plane or its crew. The episode became known through Stringfield’s correspondence with Metcalfe rather than testimony from anyone aboard the aircraft. The available account does not identify the plane, its crew or their subsequent whereabouts.