Altadena, CaliforniaOctober 1962

Insufficient Data

Summary

On October 29, 1962, around 1:20 p.m. Pacific time, four people standing outside the Sheriff's Building in Altadena, California, reported a bright object in the sky. The group included a deputy, a sergeant, and two others. The report was filed under Project 10073, the Air Force's official record system for unidentified flying object reports.

The object was round, shiny white or aluminum in color, and about the size of a basketball held at arm's length. It moved from south-southeast to north-northwest at an estimated altitude of about 10,000 feet. At first it seemed to move slowly, then it appeared to speed up as it passed overhead before it was lost behind the building. Witnesses noticed no tail, trail, exhaust, or sound. The total sighting lasted about a minute and a half.

Air Force investigators found that a weather balloon, white and five to six feet across, was released from Santa Monica Airport about 18 miles away earlier that morning. They concluded the light winds could have carried it inland, and that updrafts from the nearby mountains could explain the sudden increase in speed. The case was evaluated as a weather balloon.

Reported location

Altadena, California

Date of incident

October 1962

State / country

CA / US

Page count

6 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 47

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 6

View transcribed text

[ atin PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD :
| TE LGC TON 12. CONCLUSIONS |
gE : 4 Was Balloon. |
4 29 October 1962 Altadena, California 0 Probably Balloon
- 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION I RL
4 Leo cali meri ria: Sealants oo R Ground- Visual O Ground-Radar B Probably Alveraf
i GMT 29/24002 O Air Visual 0 Air-Intercept Radar D Possibly Aircroft
1 5. PHOTOS 8. SOURCE 0: Wis Astianembeol
: 0 Yes O Probobly Astronomical
ld Eo Civilian D Possibly Astronomical {
i 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE BOR a
E O Insufficient Date for Evaluation
- 1 1/2 minutes one ESE Th LRAT |
: 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS
E Shiny white or aluminum colored Weather balloon released at |
8 obj observed to rise rapidly. Santa Monica at 0900 would
E have been in position. Alta-
E dena is at the foothills of
E mountain range rising to more
E than 5,000 ft. This updraft
bE would cause the balloon to
E rise rapidly. Case evaluated
E | as a balloon sightigg.
a ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)
. : gi v
3 / :
E \
i .
l

/ 6

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

Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28999660