Private pilot who reported the first major modern UFO sighting in 1947, leading to the term “flying saucer”.
Kenneth Arnold was an American private pilot and businessman who became famous for reporting one of the first widely publicized UFO sightings in modern history. On June 24, 1947, while flying near Mount Rainier in Washington, Arnold claimed to have seen nine mysterious objects flying in formation at high speeds.
His description of their movement as “like a saucer if you skip it across the water” led to the popularization of the term “flying saucer.” Arnold’s sighting marked the beginning of a wave of UFO reports in the United States and helped launch the modern era of UFO phenomena, sparking both public fascination and government interest in the subject.
