Agoura, Calif, December 1953December 1953

On the evening of December 16, 1953, multiple Lockheed Aircraft Corporation employees in the Agoura, California area reported seeing an unusual object in the sky. Two separate sightings occurred around the same time, one from the ground and another from an aircraft.

A Lockheed engineer and his wife observed the object from their ranch three miles west of Agoura. At approximately 5 o'clock p.m., the engineer noticed what he initially thought was a black cloud above a fountain to the west. The setting sun had created a gold and red sky, and the object stood out as unusually dark. After studying it for three minutes without any movement, he retrieved binoculars for a closer look. Once outside with the glasses, he saw the object begin to move rapidly heading west on a bearing between 240 and 260 degrees. Within 60 seconds, it disappeared completely in a long, shallow climb. To the unaided eye, the object always appeared as an ellipse with a length-to-width ratio of roughly 7 or 10 to 1.

Nearly simultaneously, a Navy Super Constellation aircraft was conducting a test flight in the same area. The pilot and crew were climbing through 17,000 to 18,000 feet when one crew member spotted the object and alerted the others. The pilot altered course to pursue it, maintaining his heading toward the object for roughly five minutes while all crew members observed it. They initially thought it might be a cloud, but its sharp, distinct edges and unchanging appearance ruled that out. It resembled, to them, a large flying wing aircraft. Despite maintaining a speed of approximately 295 miles per hour, they did not appear to close the distance to the object. After several minutes, it seemed to recede into the distance, shrinking to a speck before vanishing entirely in a westward direction within about one minute.

A third account comes from another Lockheed employee who was aboard the same Navy aircraft. This observer noted the object's appearance as a large object without visible wings, thicker in the middle and tapering toward either end. It seemed stationary for several minutes, then moved away from the aircraft and disappeared after roughly five minutes of observation.

The Air Force evaluation for this case was recorded as unknown. The full case file, consisting of 12 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.