Topic
Civilian, police and airline reports, from single witnesses to mass sightings seen by thousands. 305 events, newest first.
Sightings27 Oct 1954
Play stopped during a Fiorentina-Pistoiese match when about 10,000 spectators and players watched objects cross the sky and a filmy 'angel hair' fall. A University of Florence lab reported boron, silicon, calcium and magnesium in samples; skeptics suggest migrating spider silk.
SightingsJun 1954
The captain and copilot of a BOAC Stratocruiser flying from New York to London reported one large dark object and six smaller ones pacing the airliner toward Goose Bay. The Condon study judged a mirage of distant terrain the likely cause, though one aspect stayed unexplained.
Photo: RuthAS, CC BY 3.0
Sightings15 Feb 1954
Thirteen-year-old Stephen Darbishire took two blurry photos of a disc near the Old Man of Coniston that were reproduced widely. He later said at various times that the picture was genuine and that it was a hoax, and it is generally treated as a fake.
Photo: Strider52, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings31 Jul 1952
Photos of a domed disc said to be taken in Passaic, New Jersey were widely printed. Air Force intelligence (ATIC) found no independent witnesses and judged the pictures suspicious and easily faked, though it said they were never proven a hoax.
Sightings14 Jul 1952
The crew of a Pan American airliner flying from New York to Miami reported eight UFOs near Newport News, Virginia. Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt lists it among the July 1952 reports leading up to the Washington radar sightings later that month.
SightingsJul 1952
1952 brought the Air Force more UFO reports than any year before, about eight times the totals for each of the previous two years per the Condon Report. Project Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt dated the 'Big Flap' from about June 1, with reports peaking in July, including the Washington radar cases.
Photo: Associated Press, Public domain
Sightings25 Aug 1951
Texas Tech professors reported formations of soft glowing lights over Lubbock, and student Carl Hart Jr. photographed a formation days later. Blue Book's Edward Ruppelt investigated; birds reflecting new streetlights was the main lead, but he reached no firm conclusion on the photos.
Sightings15 Mar 1951
A chief aircraft engineer at the Delhi Flying Club and about 20 others reported a long, bullet-shaped object trailing a white cloud that looped over the field and left at high speed. The case is in the Project Blue Book files, and NICAP says Blue Book listed it as unidentified.
Photo: Ashish Bhatnagar, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings20 Jan 1951
After Sioux City tower controllers reported a bright light, the pilots of a Mid-Continent Airlines DC-3 said a large wing-shaped object passed their nose and flew beside them briefly. The Air Force blamed a B-36; Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt later wrote that no B-36 could have done it.
Photo: Project Blue Book, Public domain
Sightings16 Jan 1951
Two General Mills balloon staff and four local residents watching a Skyhook balloon from the Artesia airport reported two round, dull white objects that flew in, circled the balloon once, and left to the northwest. Edward Ruppelt cited the case after interviewing the General Mills team.
Photo: Office of Naval Research [2] (archive.org), Public domain
Sightings15 Aug 1950
Baseball manager Nick Mariana filmed two bright lights crossing the sky over Great Falls on 16mm film. The 1953 Robertson Panel attributed them to sunlight off two Air Force interceptors; the 1969 Condon study left the case unexplained, though it said aircraft could not be ruled out.
Photo: parkerdonaldmusic, Public domain
Sightings20 May 1950
Astronomer Seymour Hess said that while walking the Lowell Observatory grounds at lunch he followed a small round gray object with a 4-power telescope as it passed in front of a cloud, traveling at right angles to the wind. Asked by reporters, Williams Air Force Base said it knew of nothing like it.
Photo: Mukhtiaraliunar, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sightings11 May 1950
Paul Trent took two photos of a disc-shaped object his wife Evelyn saw over their farm near McMinnville; a local paper and then Life ran them. A Condon study analyst found them consistent with a real distant object but could not rule out fabrication; skeptics call them a hoax.
Photo: Paul Trent, Public domain
SightingsApr 1950
In spring 1950 the crew and passengers of a TWA DC-3 night flight over northern Indiana reported a large orange-red object. Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt later wrote that the official answer was blast-furnace light reflecting off haze, an explanation the pilots rejected.
Sightings17 Mar 1950
Many residents of Farmington reported large numbers of fast, darting objects on St. Patrick's Day 1950, after scattered reports on the two previous days. Blue Book chief Edward Ruppelt later suggested fragments of a burst Skyhook balloon as the likeliest cause.
Photo: Christopher Nicol, CC BY-SA 3.0
SightingsMar 1950
Capt. Jack Adams and First Officer G. W. Anderson, flying a Chicago and Southern DC-3 from Memphis to Little Rock, reported a fast object with a row of glowing ports near Stuttgart, Arkansas. They told United Press they believed it was a secret aircraft; the Air Force reached no firm answer.
Photo: RuthAS, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings24 May 1949
A group fishing near the mouth of the Rogue River, including employees of a NACA aeronautical laboratory, reported a round silver object, watched through binoculars, on May 24, 1949. An Air Force OSI report could not rule out an aircraft; the case was later listed in Blue Book Special Report 14.
Photo: Yurivict at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
Sightings24 Jul 1948
Eastern Air Lines pilots Clarence Chiles and John Whitted reported a glowing, wingless, cigar-shaped object with rows of lit windows passing their DC-3 near Montgomery at about 2:45 a.m. Ruppelt said it prompted the Air Force's 1948 'Estimate of the Situation'; the case was later relabeled a meteor.
Photo: Lestocq, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sightings30 Jan 1948
British South American Airways Tudor IV Star Tiger disappeared with 31 people aboard on its flight from the Azores to Bermuda. A UK public inquiry could not determine the cause, and the unexplained loss was later folded into Bermuda Triangle lore.
Photo: RuthAS, CC BY 3.0
Sightings4 Jul 1947
Shortly after leaving Boise, the crew of a United Air Lines flight reported five flat-bottomed objects silhouetted against the sunset and followed them for about 45 miles. Ten days after Kenneth Arnold's report, it was one of the first airline crew sightings and is cited in a 1952 CIA briefing.
Photo: Crookall, James, Public domain
