20 mi S of Battle Creek, MichiganJune 1960

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the evening of June 26, 1960, near Turtle Lake in Michigan about 20 miles south of Battle Creek, two people in a boat spotted three unusual objects in the sky. The witnesses described them as box-shaped with no sharp corners, silvery in color, and arranged in a line formation roughly two miles apart. The objects moved slowly in a straight, level path at a very low speed and remained visible for about five minutes before disappearing from sight.

One witness used an 8mm movie camera to film the objects. The camera was a Revere Eyematic with a 5mm telephoto lens, and the witness pointed it eastward at approximately 50 degrees elevation. The resulting film showed only small orange blurred images that could not be clearly identified even when enlarged, making detailed analysis impossible.

The Air Force investigated by checking with military radar operators, fighter squadrons, and air defense control centers in the area. All inquiries came back negative. No aircraft were confirmed in the area at the time of the sighting. Radar tapes from the period could not be recovered because they had been erased before the report was filed.

One of the witnesses identified the objects as helicopters. Based on this identification and the available evidence, the Air Force investigator concluded that the objects were probably helicopters, although the inability to confirm helicopter operations in the area and the lack of any noise reported by the witnesses left room for doubt. The full case file, consisting of 18 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.

Reported location

20 mi S of Battle Creek, Michigan

Date of incident

June 1960

State / country

MI / US

Page count

18 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 38

EER pen Spay PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD et gh pl | oom 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS | 26 Jun 60° 20 mi S of Battle Creek, MichiganQ Was Balloon O Probably Balloon 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION BY MAY | TT RR 0 Ground- Visual 0 Ground-Radar - Prohaly Revs : GMT 26 21302 0 AirVisval O Air-Intercept Radar O Possibly Aircraft S. PHOTOS FAR . R - a ing Civilian 8 Flea erred | 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE OB OW iiss 0 Insufficient Date for Evaluation 5 min three S 0 Unknown 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS | | Three box-like objects without sharp corners, | One witness identified the objects as | silvery reflecting the sunlight, evenly spaced |helicopters. The images on the film could | in line aprox two miles apart. Objects moved not be identified, and efforts to deter- | straight and level at a very slow rate of speed mine if helicopters were in the area met | until out of sight. with failure. However, based on the information provided, the objects of a | this sighting were probably helicopters. | ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 32) | : x ; | re : / . : 5 .