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BOOTH SAYS FLYING SAUCER WAS NOT A NAVY BLIMPConwav. S. C.—Feb. 17 — The Horrv County farmer who on January 21) became the only man in the world to shoot a flying saucer today debunked a CAA suggestionthat he might actually have••wounded a Navy blimp.Lloyd C. Booth. 29. said: I have seen many blimps and I've even been in one. I'd certainly know a blimp when I saw one 80 feet over my head.That was the height of the unidentified object which floated slowly over Booth's farm on the eventful night and which soared away after he shot at it with a .22 pistol. Booth sighted the object after n commotion among his livestock sent him in search of a possible prowler.The hi imp suggestion came vcs-torday from C\ W. Hall of the CAA control tower at Bluethentha! Filed. Wilmington. N. C. Hall said throe Nnvy blimps were on route from Glynco. G;i„ to Weeksvillc. N. on Januai 29 and that one of them could easily have passed over Horry County at midnight when Booth was patrolling his farm.High headwinds kept the blimps low. Hall said, which was why Booth spotted one just ten feet above the pine? on his land.Booth rejected the blimp possibility on the basis of his past experience with tin craft. He added:I was with an anti-aircraft unit for 22 months during the war and I was trained to IndentIfy planes On sight. If the object I saw and shot was a planr or a blimp. I surely would have known. I watched the thing for almost 30 minutes.Booth described the craft as being circular, with the contour of an egg sliced from end to endHe viewed it from directly below and from both sides, but was unable to detect any identifying marks or means of propulsion. He saw dim lights emanating from what might have been a cabin on the forward topside and near the underside tail.While cruising from east to west over him. the craft gave off a low hum. like a distant auto. Booth was able to keep pace with the vessel at an average walking speed. It was almost dircrtly above him when he fired at it; h.s bullet struck with a metallic sound The craft shot up and away instantly and was beyond range when Booth fired a second time.It took off at a speed I d estimate at 700 miles an hour. Booth said today. I never heard of a blimp going that fast.CAA-mnn Hall opined that an investigation of the biirnps now at Weeksvillc would reveal a .lent in the bottom of one of them where Booth shot it. The Nav has not announced any such damage or indicated any association with the shooting since the event was reported.Reports of flying saucers have been frequent in this area during the pav-t few weeks One u is seen near Myrtle Bench a week before the Booth shooting A Marine Corps jet pilot pursued and lost a strange craft along the Carolina* const. Last Friday, another was seen by four people at Mvrtle Beach, heard by another, then seen by six others a few minutes later over Marion. S. C.Latest reports were marie last night when three Myrtle Beach residents saw an unidentifiable Object fly inland at approximately 1000-foot altitude.
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Tabor City Tribune
Tabor City, North Carolina, US
Wed, Feb 18, 1953
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CA 31 Dec 2021
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