8-10 Mi N of Pageland and Shaw AFB, S.C., February 1959February 1959

On the night of February 11, 1959, an airman at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina saw a bright object streaking across the sky. The object appeared as a round ball with a tail, about the size of a grapefruit held at arm's length. The ball was white, and the tail was blue-red, similar in color to an F-101 fighter jet with its afterburner engaged. The airman, Gerald Schutz, an aircraft mechanic with the 4502nd Support Squadron, watched the object for between five and ten seconds as it moved in a southwest direction at high speed. The object was extremely bright and illuminated the entire surrounding area. No sound accompanied the sighting.

Schutz first noticed the object by its tail and observed it at an angle of about forty degrees above the horizon both when it appeared and when it disappeared. The object appeared to fly in a straight, level path with no unusual maneuvers. Schutz had regular exposure to modern jet aircraft including F-101s and B-66s, and investigators noted he did not appear to be publicity-seeking. The clear night sky and light winds aloft provided excellent conditions for observation.

The sighting was reported from six sources in the same general area around Shaw Air Force Base and 8 to 10 miles north of Pageland, South Carolina. An intelligence officer with the Ninth Air Force who interviewed Schutz concluded the object was most likely a meteor or other natural phenomenon. The officer noted that the night was quiet at the time of the sighting, and had the object been an aircraft with an operating afterburner, it would have produced a sound audible over considerable distance. A radar report from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base described a bright white light with a green ring around it, ascending vertically at high speed and then leveling off to proceed east to west at high speed.

The Air Force's evaluation listed the sighting as "unknown," though the file indicates officers believed a meteor was the probable explanation. The complete case file, consisting of 15 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.