Arlington Heights, IllinoisDecember 1960

Unidentified

Summary

On December 25, 1960, a civilian in Arlington Heights, Illinois reported seeing an unidentified object at 5:15 p.m. local time. The object was oval to round in shape, approximately the size of a large automobile, and gray slate colored with a glow. It had lights that glowed and appeared to fall to earth straight down before disappearing 15 degrees elevation northeast of the observer. The object remained in view for 1 to 2 minutes over a highly populated area. Only one person observed it. Light air traffic was in the area under a 9,000-foot ceiling with complete overcast. The Air Force noted that the object might have been an aircraft in the region but concluded there was insufficient corroborating data to reach a conclusion.

Reported location

Arlington Heights, Illinois

Date of incident

December 1960

State / country

IL / US

Page count

3 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 41

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
   25 Dec 60                        Arlington Heights, Illinois          [] Was Balloon
                                                                          [] Probably Balloon
3. DATE-TIME GROUP                4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION             [] Possibly Balloon
   Local     1715                   [X] Ground-Visual    [] Ground-Radar
   GMT      25/2345Z               [] Air-Visual        [] Air-Intercept Radar
5. PHOTOS                                                             [] Was Aircraft
   [] Yes                        6. SOURCE                           [] Probably Aircraft
   [X] No                           Civilian                          [] Possibly Aircraft
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION                                             [] Was Astronomical
   1-2 min                       8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS    9. COURSE   [] Probably Astronomical
                                   one                   descending  [] Possibly Astronomical
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING                                        [] Other
                                11. COMMENTS                         [] Insufficient Data for Evaluation
Oval to round, approx size of large automobile,     Object was in view for 1-2 min over a [] Unknown
gray slate colored glow. Seemed to have lights     highly populated area, but was apparently
that glowed. Fall to earth straight down.          observed by only one person. There was
Appeared and disappeared 15° elevation NE of       light air traffic in the area. There was
observer.                                          a 9000' ceiling with complete overcast.
                                                   It is possible that the object observed
~                                                   was one of the a/c in the area, but due
                                                   to the lack of corroborating witnesses,
                                                   there is insufficient data, precluding
                                                   a conclusion.

ATIG FORM 329 (REV 24 SEP 52)

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28990678