Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Flying saucer" in English language version.
Arnold described the shiny objects as 'something like a pie plate that was cut in half with a sort of a convex triangle in the rear' and that they flew 'like a saucer if you skipped it across the water.' The term 'flying saucer' made it into a newspaper headline and the rest, as they say, is history.
He told his story to reporters Bill Bequette and Nolan Skiff of the East Oregonian newspaper the day after his sighting. Skiff used the words 'saucer-like aircraft' when he published a short print article that same day. After suggesting to Arnold that a wire story might generate comments from the military on flights of experimental aircraft that could explain Arnold's sighting, Bequette published a brief story picked up by the Associated Press wire service, using the words 'nine bright saucer-like objects' to describe what Arnold said he saw.
