7 Mi N Of Dover, DelawareApril 1960

On the night of April 10, 1960, two men in a car on a road seven miles north of Dover, Delaware, saw what they described as a cluster of three bright yellow lights moving across the sky. An Air Force airman spotted the objects first through the windshield at about thirty degrees elevation (roughly one third of the way up from the horizon) as the car made a slow right turn. The lead light appeared large and bright, while two smaller lights trailed behind it. The men heard a faint whistle lasting about one second, though the car's windows were closed and it was turning at the time, making the sound difficult to verify. The entire cluster looked roughly the size of a quarter held at arm's length. The objects descended toward the horizon and disappeared from view, though the two witnesses disagreed slightly on whether the descent was straight down or angled somewhat to the left.

The Air Force interviewed both men separately over the following week. One was an Air Force airman serving as a fighter interceptor. The other was a civilian whose reliability was marked as unknown. The airman was able to provide more consistent details, having spotted the objects first while oriented outside the car. The civilian, who was driving and concentrating on a ninety-degree turn, got only a brief look at the lights.

The case file notes that the airman rejected the meteor explanation, saying the objects moved too slowly, were too intense, and disappeared below the horizon rather than burning up. Weather conditions at the time were clear with light northwest winds. The Air Force concluded that the witnesses had probably seen the beginning of a meteor breaking apart as it entered Earth's atmosphere. The case was categorized as a probable meteor, though it remains officially unknown. The full case file, comprising nine pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.