Exeter, Rhode Island: Two Navy Banshee jets collide; pilots had reported flying objects
On the night of 24 June 1953, two US Navy F2H Banshee jets from NAS Quonset Point collided at 19,000 feet over the Exeter/West Greenwich town lines in Rhode Island; an emergency cable to Air Force intelligence said the pilots had seen "flying objects" before the accident.
Background
A flight of US Navy F2H Banshee jets out of NAS Quonset Point (now Quonset Point Air National Guard Station) was on a night training mission over southern Rhode Island when two aircraft in the formation collided in mid-air. The crash occurred at 19,000 feet near or over the Exeter/West Greenwich town lines, and debris was scattered for several miles. The pilot of one Banshee, Lt. jg. Jack Oliver Snipes, was killed. An emergency cable sent to the Director of Air Force Intelligence in the Pentagon indicated that "flying objects" were seen by the pilots prior to the accident; its distribution list included the newly founded National Security Agency. The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.