◆ CASE FILEThe facts, corroborated
The Sioux City Airliner Encounter
On the evening of 20 January 1951 control-tower operators at Sioux City, Iowa, asked the crew of a departing Mid-Continent Airlines flight to look at a light, and the pilots saw a cigar-shaped, straight-winged body larger than a B-29 cross their nose and appear instantly on their other side. The Air Force's Special Report No. 14 kept it among its twelve best-described unknowns; Blue Book's own card evaluates it as a B-36. This is the record of what was reported, not a verdict on what was in the sky.
◆ THE SHORT VERSION
- The Sioux City Airliner Encounter is a reported UAP case in Sioux City Municipal Airport, Sioux City, Iowa, United States, 20 January 1951, 20:20-20:26 CST.
- Airline pilots sent by the Sioux City tower to check a light said a cigar-shaped body with straight wings crossed their nose and instantly appeared on their other side.
- The pilots described it as somewhat larger than a B-29, with no engine nacelles, and said it blinked lights like running lights.
- The Air Force's Special Report No. 14 kept the case among its best-described unknowns, and an Air Force memo judged it an aircraft unlike any known type.
- Blue Book's card evaluates it as a B-36, an answer its later chief Edward Ruppelt rejected.
- For this case Fractured Realities holds 1 distinct source and 1 corroborating primary document.
- The archive grades it L0 · SINGLE ACCOUNT — the archive holds one account of it, from a single source.
Counts are resolved totals of what sources say, computed 2026-10-03; the reported details above are claims in the record, not findings. A record of reports, not a verdict on what happened.
EVENT DATE
20 January 1951, 20:20-20:26 CST
LOCATION
Sioux City Municipal Airport, Sioux City, Iowa · United States
COORDS
42.40°N 96.38°W
INDEPENDENCE
L0 · SINGLE ACCOUNT
SOURCES
1 distinct
CLAIMANTS
0
STATUS
Known from released government records
NUMBERS COMPUTED 2026-10-03 · RESOLVED COUNTS, NOT A VERDICT
