Project Blue Book Case File
56 degrees 10' N-117 degrees 30' W Canada, November 1948 - Incident Number: 203November 1948
Summary
On November 17, 1948, a bright orange object shaped like an egg with a pointed tail was spotted near Peace River, Alberta, Canada, about 250 miles northwest of Edmonton. The sighting lasted only a few moments.
First Lieutenant James Toomey and Staff Sergeant Onno C. Blink, a radio operator, were flying at 7,000 feet above a layer of broken clouds on their way from Edmonton to Kittgazuit, in the Northwest Territories. They were above an overcast sky with clouds at roughly 12,000 feet when they noticed the object at an estimated altitude of around 15,000 feet. The object appeared to be diving slightly. According to their report, the object was bright flaming orange in color, roughly 50 feet tall, and seemed to taper to a point at the tail. There was no sound. As the object passed the aircraft, it momentarily illuminated the sky behind it. Its speed and direction of travel were unknown.
The Air Force examined whether the sighting could be explained by weather balloons released by the Air Force, Navy, or Weather Bureau in the area. According to a memo from the Air Weather Service dated November 19, 1948, the last scheduled weather balloon had been released more than five hours before the sighting. The memo noted that the only remote possibility would be a lighted balloon falling in flames from extremely high altitude, but called this "definitely unlikely."
In the file index, this case appears under the heading of astronomical explanations with "high probability," though the specific reasoning is not detailed in the OCR'd text. The full case file, held by the National Archives, spans 9 pages as microfilmed on T1206, Roll 3.
Reported location
56 degrees 10' N-117 degrees 30' W Canada, November 1948 - Incident Number: 203
Date of incident
November 1948
State / country
? / XX
Page count
9 scanned pages
USAF evaluation
unknown
Microfilm
T1206, Roll 3