60nm S of Louisville, KentuckyJuly 1961

Insufficient Data

Summary

On July 22, 1961, at 7:15 p.m., a pilot and crew of a DC-8 aircraft observed a white, possibly reddish object 60 nautical miles south of Louisville, Kentucky. The object appeared small, about star-sized, with the approximate intensity of a star. The pilot was sitting in the cockpit en route to O'Hare Airport at 20,200 feet. The object was in the 1 o'clock position and moved in a west to east direction at a fast pace before fading after ten minutes. No radar contact was made. The Air Force investigation noted that a check with the CHADS weather station revealed numerous balloons were released at 6:02 a.m. by Springfield, Peoria, St. Louis, Terre Haute, Dayton, and other weather agencies in the Louisville area. A strong possibility exists that the sighting could have been a weather balloon released from a station west of Louisville, positioned by westerly air flow. The evaluation was unknown.

Reported location

60nm S of Louisville, Kentucky

Date of incident

July 1961

State / country

KY / US

Page count

3 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 43

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 3

View transcribed text

PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD

1. DATE                          2. LOCATION                           12. CONCLUSIONS
22 JUL 61                        60nm S of Louisville, Ken        [X] Was Balloon
                                                                    [ ] Probably Balloon
3. DATE-TIME GROUP              4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION              [ ] Possibly Balloon
Local: 1915                      [ ] Ground-Visual                   [ ] Was Aircraft
GMT: 2300152                     [X] Air-Visual                      [ ] Probably Aircraft
                                 [ ] Ground-Radar                    [ ] Possibly Aircraft
5. PHOTOS                       [ ] Air-Intercept Radar
[ ] Yes                         6. SOURCE                           [ ] Was Astronomical
[X] No                          Civilian                            [ ] Probably Astronomical
                                                                    [ ] Possibly Astronomical
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION        8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS  9. COURSE   [ ] Insufficient Data for Evaluation
10 min                          1                      W-E         [X] Unknown

10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING: White-reddish object, size of                11. COMMENTS: Witnesses stated that object was
a star. Object observed by pilot and crew. Object observed at                small white star. 50,000 altitude, but did not state
W-E direction at fast pace. Faded in ten minutes.                           how this estimation was made. It is particularly impossible for anyone to estimate altitude of an object in any night without knowing its true size. Probable sighting of haze I. Two to direct flight path, duration, size, and color.

ATIC FORM 329 (REV 25 SEP 52)

/ 3

Use ← → keys to navigate · scans hosted by the U.S. National Archives

Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28993562