19 DEG 00'N - 164 DEG 05'E Wake Island, May 1948 - Incident Number: 167May 1948

On May 6, 1948, Captain Floyd Barnes was piloting an aircraft between Kwajalein Island in the Marshall Islands and Hickam Field in Hawaii when he spotted something unusual. Flying at 9,000 feet on a northward heading, Barnes saw a large white ball of fire four to five miles ahead of his plane and slightly above it. The object appeared for only a split second, resembling the explosion of a shell. Unlike meteors or distress signals, it had no streamers or tails.

As the aircraft approached the location where the ball of fire had appeared, Barnes observed a single white light on the water surface below. That light disappeared within seconds due to cloud cover in the area. Moments later, Barnes and his crew noticed more lights on the water surface about ten miles north of their flight path. Based on these additional lights, Barnes believed he had spotted a surface vessel. About ten minutes after seeing the water lights, another aircraft came into view, flying on a reciprocal course at roughly 1,000 feet below his plane. Barnes tried repeatedly to contact the other aircraft on his radio channels, but received no response.

An Air Transport Command investigation quickly followed. The military found that the USS Boxer was conducting tactical training operations in the vicinity at the time of the sighting, which likely accounted for the vessel and aircraft the pilot had observed. The initial analysis in the case file suggested the ball of fire was probably an exploding shell, and noted that partial cloud cover could easily explain why no debris or fragments were spotted on the water. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, consisting of 10 pages.