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◆ CASE FILEThe facts, corroborated

United Flight 105 and the Nine Discs over Emmett

Eight minutes out of Boise on the evening of 4 July 1947, the crew of a United Air Lines flight to Seattle saw nine flat discs against the sunset over Emmett, Idaho, and called the stewardess forward to see them too. The Air Force's incident list rates it a "corroborated report by a UAL pilot" and states no conclusion. This is the record of what the crew reported, not a verdict on what flew ahead of them.

◆ THE SHORT VERSION

  • United Flight 105 and the Nine Discs over Emmett is a reported UAP case in Airborne over Emmett, Idaho, on the Boise–Seattle route, USA, 4 July 1947, about 20:04-20:12 (eight minutes after leaving Boise).
  • On 4 July 1947 the crew of a United Air Lines flight out of Boise reported nine discs over Emmett, Idaho, that looked thin and smooth on the bottom and rough on top against the sunset.
  • Co-pilot Ralph Stevens said four objects "merged as one and disappeared", and a large object then returned with smaller ones beside it.
  • Captain E. J. Smith's crew called stewardess Marty Morrow to the cockpit, and she saw the objects too.
  • The Air Force's incident list grades it a "corroborated report by a UAL pilot", and the FBI's flying-disc file holds Stevens' statement; neither states a conclusion.
  • For this case Fractured Realities holds 2 distinct sources, 2 corroborating primary documents and 3 distinct claimants on its resolved list.
  • The archive grades it L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD — a released government record names who saw it, the top of our scale, though no independent testimony sits beside that record.

Counts are resolved totals of what sources say, computed 2026-10-12; the reported details above are claims in the record, not findings. A record of reports, not a verdict on what happened.

United Flight 105 and the Nine Discs over Emmett
A United Air Lines DC-3 Mainliner, the type of Flight 105, photographed in 1937 · photo: Crookall, James · via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) · Public domain ↗
EVENT DATE
4 July 1947, about 20:04-20:12 (eight minutes after leaving Boise)
LOCATION
Airborne over Emmett, Idaho, on the Boise–Seattle route · USA
COORDS
43.87°N 116.50°W
INDEPENDENCE
L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD
SOURCES
2 distinct
CLAIMANTS
3
STATUS
Known from released government records
NUMBERS COMPUTED 2026-10-12 · RESOLVED COUNTS, NOT A VERDICT
VIEW ON ATLAS →

Co-pilot Ralph Stevens saw the first one at 20:12, eight minutes after the United Air Lines flight left Boise for Seattle. He took it for an oncoming aircraft and flashed the landing lights. Four more objects appeared at about 6,000 feet. In his words they "merged as one and disappeared". Two minutes later a large object came back with three smaller ones on its left and one far out to the right. The crew called stewardess Marty Morrow up to the cockpit to check what the pilots were seeing, and she saw them as well. Silhouetted against the sunset the discs looked thin and smooth on the bottom and rough on top. The crew kept them in sight for about twelve minutes and followed them north-west for some 45 miles until the sunset swallowed them. They radioed the weather station at Ontario, Oregon, and asked it to look.

What is on the record

Two released files carry the flight. The Air Force's list of early incident summaries, released by the Department of War in 2026, logs it as Incident 10: Captain E. J. Smith's crew "over Emmett, Ida." It counts five discs in "loose formation" and then four more, three together and one off on its own. It grades the sighting a "corroborated report by a UAL pilot". The FBI's flying-disc file 62-HQ-83894 holds Stevens' own statement in serial 130, and its summary list names Smith and Stevens as the observers.

The papers differ on the clock. The incident check-list starts the sighting at 8:04 PM and Stevens puts his first sighting at 20:12. The Eberhart catalogue gives 9:12 p.m. A time-zone difference may explain the spread. Stevens gives the height as about 6,000 feet at first and about 9,000 to 10,000 later. Neither file states a conclusion. NICAP lists the flight as Blue Book case 34, and it has entries in the Hatch and Eberhart catalogues.

Why it sits where it does

L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD: released government records name who saw it. Smith, Stevens and Morrow appear in the files of two agencies, and nothing in the archive tells the story independently of those files. The grade rates where an account comes from, not whether it is true. What flew ahead of Flight 105 is not resolved here.

◆ CORROBORATION
✓38_143685_box7_Incident_Summaries_1-100 (government primary)
✓65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_130 (government primary)
✓3 resolved claimants
◆ SOURCES

Everything this file draws on, in the open — reports, not reality. Check us.

Documents & published sources

Government records, papers and journalism the archive links to this case.

government records · 2
DoW UAP Release · 2
38_143685_box7_Incident_Summaries_1-100corroboration
65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_130corroboration
PILOT ENCOUNTERGOVERNMENT RECORD1947USA

CASE FILES STATE THE RECORD AS OUR ARCHIVE HOLDS IT — FACTS, NOT OPINION. REPORTS, NOT REALITY.

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United Flight 105 and the Nine Discs over Emmett — Case File · Fractured Realities