Kenneth Arnold
Kenneth Arnold was an American businessman and private pilot whose June 1947 sighting is considered the starting point of the modern flying saucer phenomenon and led to the spread of the term "flying saucer."
Kenneth Arnold (1915–1984) was a businessman and private pilot from Idaho. On June 24, 1947, while flying over the Cascade Range in Washington State, he saw objects that, according to him, were moving extremely fast and that he could not identify as conventional aircraft. The case is one of the best-known starting points of the modern UFO phenomenon.
What he claims
According to Arnold's account, he saw nine bright, flat objects near Mount Rainier, moving in a chain-like, irregular formation. By his estimate, the objects' speed far exceeded that of the aircraft of the era. He described the objects' motion as being like a saucer skipping across the surface of water. From this, the press coined the term "flying saucer," although Arnold did not necessarily describe the objects' shape as disk-like.
Soon after the sighting, a series of similar reports came in from across the country, and the subject became the focus of public attention.
Official and skeptical positions
Later investigations by the US Air Force found no evidence that the objects were vehicles of alien origin. According to skeptical researchers, Arnold probably saw a natural phenomenon or a known atmospheric or optical effect, such as meteors, reflected light, or an error in distance estimation that could also have distorted his speed estimate. According to others, the sighting remained unidentified because the available data are not sufficient for a precise explanation.
Arnold maintained later on as well that he had seen real objects that were unknown to him.