JANAP 146(C)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 6
| Date | 10 March 1954 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Military encounters (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | Donald Keyhoe |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 50 |
| Year | 1954 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1954 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 11 |
JANAP 146(C), "Communication Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings" (CIRVIS), was a joint U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force directive dated 10 March 1954 that told military and civilian pilots how to report sightings of unidentified flying objects and other vital intelligence directly to military commands. Its warning about unauthorised disclosure was widely read as gagging airline pilots.[1][2]
Provisions
The directive covered sightings of hostile or unidentified aircraft, missiles, ships and unidentified flying objects, which pilots — including commercial airline crews — were to radio immediately to military commands for air defence purposes. It warned that passing such reports to unauthorised people could violate the Espionage Act and other laws.[1][2][3]
Controversy
The secrecy provision applied to the content of reports while they were being transmitted, but it was widely read at the time as forbidding pilots from talking about UFOs. Donald Keyhoe and NICAP argued that it effectively muzzled airline pilots, and some pilots said they understood it that way. Under the 1969 recommendation to end Project Blue Book, UFO reports that could affect national security were to continue to be made under JANAP 146 or Air Force Manual 55-11, outside Blue Book.[2][4]
Later history
JANAP 146 was revised several times, and similar CIRVIS reporting procedures still exist. Copies have been released by the National Security Agency and other agencies. The question of whether pilots were discouraged from reporting UFOs returned in the 2020s, when Congress pushed for ways for pilots to report UAP without stigma.[3][5]
People and topics
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- U.S. Navy — The U.S. naval service, whose pilots reported the UAP encounters revealed in 2017.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Donald Keyhoe — Retired Marine officer, author and director of NICAP who campaigned against UFO secrecy.
- NICAP — The leading U.S. civilian UFO group of the 1950s and 1960s.
- National Security Agency — The U.S. signals intelligence agency, which holds UFO-related intercepts.
On the Timeline
- SOM1-01 Special Operations Manual (1954) — Engineer Bob Wood reportedly suspects the 'SOM1-01' manual was created as Cold War disinformation.
- Roswell-area helicopter crash claim (1954) (12 April 1954) — An Air Force helicopter trainee says he was sent to a desert crash near Roswell in 1954.
See every 1954 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- JANAP 146 (PDF), National Security Agency · nsa.gov · archived copy
- "UFO reporting procedures and regulations", The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Patrick Gross, "Military UFO reporting directives", UFOs at close sight · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- "The Bolender Draft (Not Memo), Oct 20, 1969", NICAP · nicap.org · archived copy
- "Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena", ODNI (25 Jun 2021) · archive.dni.gov · archived copy
- JANAP 146(C), 10 March 1954 — Scribd copy · es.scribd.com · archived copy
- CIA document describing JANAP-146 · cia.gov · archived copy
- Pilot UFO reporting provisions (FOI request) · whatdotheyknow.com · archived copy
- cufon.org · cufon.org · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
- waterufo.net · waterufo.net · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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