Clarence Chiles

Airline Captain

Clarence Shipe Chiles was the captain and primary pilot witness in the 1948 Chiles–Whitted encounter. He is particularly important to the case because he was an experienced commercial and military aviator—not simply a casual observer—and he was the first person in the cockpit to notice the approaching object.

Clarence S. Chiles at the time of the encounter
Name: Clarence Shipe Chiles
Age: 31 in July 1948
Occupation: Captain with Eastern Air Lines
Military background: Former U.

S. Army Air Forces pilot during World War II
Wartime service: Reportedly served in the Air Transport Command and held the rank of lieutenant colonel; he was also serving in the Air Force Reserve.
Flying experience: Approximately 8,500 flight hours at the time of the sighting.

That level of experience is one reason the case received serious attention from military investigators.

His role in the encounter

In the early morning of July 24, 1948, Chiles was commanding Eastern Air Lines Flight 576, a Douglas DC-3 flying toward Atlanta at approximately 5,000 feet. At about 2:45 a.m., southwest of Montgomery, Alabama, Chiles noticed a dull red light ahead and above the aircraft.

His initial reaction was reportedly that it might be an experimental military jet. He alerted First Officer John B. Whitted, who then also saw the object. Chiles later explained that almost immediately he realized it was approaching too rapidly to fit his initial assumption.

Both pilots subsequently described an object that appeared:

Wingless and cigar-shaped
Roughly 100 feet long
With no obvious fins or external protrusions
With intensely illuminated openings or “windows”
With a bright glow underneath
With a substantial flame or exhaust-like trail from the rear

The object passed the aircraft on the right and then climbed sharply into the clouds. Chiles and Whitted's observations lasted only seconds, but their independently recorded descriptions were substantially similar