50 Mi South Of Bakersfield, CaliforniaApril 1956

Unidentified

Summary

On an April morning in 1956, a driver heading north on a highway fifty miles south of Bakersfield, California spotted a bright red-orange light in the sky slightly to the east of directly overhead. The object appeared around 10:00 a.m. local time and remained visible for fifteen to thirty seconds. It was brighter than the surrounding sky and had no visible tail, exhaust, or sound. The witness watched as the object faded away piece by piece, disappearing behind the mountains to the east. The driver tried to pull the car off the road to get a better look, but by the time the vehicle had stopped, the object was gone. A passenger in the car also observed the sighting while the driver was focused on stopping.

The U.S. Air Force investigated the case but found insufficient data to reach a firm conclusion. The OCR quality of the investigation file is too degraded to extract specific details about how the Air Force pursued its inquiry or what explanations it considered beyond the case summary. The Air Force's final evaluation listed the sighting as unidentified, though the case record form also noted the possibility that it could have been a balloon.

The full case file, consisting of eight pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

50 Mi South Of Bakersfield, California

Date of incident

April 1956

State / country

CA / US

Page count

8 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 25

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 8

View transcribed text

Rr a ; TPE rey — i
: ia PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD Ca Na
1. CATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
50 Mi South of 0D Was Balloon
April 1956 | Bakersfield, California O Probably Balloon
3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION B: Eassikty adlloon
Locot 1000 PST KGround- Visual 0 Ground-Raodar a 4 nl A En
: oMT_____/1800Z ~~ 0 Air Visual 0 Air-Intercept Radar DO Possibly Aircraft
5. PHOTOS : | « SOURCE DO Was Astronomical
D Yes O Probably Astronomical
XX No Civilian D Possibly Astronomical
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION Heald 9. COURSE RT SE
2X Xnsufficient Data for Evaluation
J 15-30 seconds one east sii
| 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS : |
Bright object slightly E of overhead Insufficient Data.
3 in view for 15-30 seconds. Appeared
as a red-orange light brighter than
the sky. Disappeared by being reduced
| \ in size piece by piece. Disappeared
i over mountains. No sound,tail,exhaust
| Appeared in front of mountains & dis-
§ | appeared over them. Obsvation fm car
Lo driving N, Driver attempted to pull
i || car off road & when he had stopped
* | the object had disappeared. Under obgvation
d by companion while witness who rptd ¢bj was driving the car,
] " ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 82)
of
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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28965277