Astoria, Long Island, New YorkJune 1949

On the evening of June 24, 1949, a Astoria resident named Mrs. Scaife looked out her kitchen window while preparing dinner around 1830 to 1845 hours (6:30 to 6:45 p.m.) and spotted two unusual objects in the sky. She described them as round, roughly 1.5 to 2 feet in diameter, gray in color, and surrounded by a yellow glow. The objects were traveling from west to east at an altitude she estimated to be between 100 and 150 feet, though the investigator noted that estimating altitude without clear reference points is difficult for untrained observers. The entire sighting lasted about three seconds. During that time, the objects flew level for about two seconds, then climbed slightly before disappearing into a haze.

Mrs. Scaife was a stable, reliable witness. She had worked as a clerk-bookkeeper at Corn Products Refining Company for 30 years and was not known to exaggerate. She wrote a brief account of what she saw within two hours of the sighting, and investigators later interviewed her at her home. She mentioned that a single-engine fighter-type airplane appeared from the south about a minute after the objects vanished, circled the area, and departed southward at an estimated altitude of 1,000 feet.

The Air Force investigated the incident thoroughly. Investigators checked weather records from La Guardia Airport, which showed clear skies, 10-mile visibility, and winds from the south-southeast at 18 miles per hour at the time of the sighting. They also noted that any balloon released from La Guardia would have drifted away from Astoria with the prevailing wind, not toward it as Mrs. Scaife reported the objects were traveling. No unusual activity was reported at nearby airports. However, one page in the file identifies the object as a weather balloon used for cosmic ray research, though this identification appears disconnected from the details of Mrs. Scaife's account and may refer to a separate incident.

The full case file, comprised of 19 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.