Azores, [ILLEGIBLE] - Incident Number: 201Date unknown

On October 31, 1947, at approximately 2:30 a.m., three enlisted men stationed at Lagens, Terceira in the Azores watched an unidentified object move rapidly through the air. The object was round and yellow-orange in color, noticeably larger than a star. It moved upward and forward in a northerly direction, starting from an estimated altitude of between two and three thousand feet. The witnesses observed it for about five minutes before it disappeared from view. They heard no sound and saw no vapor trails accompanying the object.

The Air Force investigation that followed included weather data and interviews with witnesses. An Air Weather Service official noted that the object's description matched that of a pilot balloon, or weather balloon used to measure atmospheric conditions. There was one significant detail: the reported speed of the object ranged from 25 to 60 miles per hour. An officer from the Army Air Forces commented that if the lower speed estimate was correct, the object could "almost certainly be assumed to be a weather balloon." The Air Force also found supporting evidence in weather squadron records, which showed that a weather balloon had been released from the Azores station at 2:45 a.m. on October 31, 1947, just 15 minutes after the sighting began. An authoritative source concluded the object was likely a weather balloon with an attached light that swung from it as the balloon rose.

The file also shows that staff officers at Air Weather Service headquarters in Washington requested clarification on how future sightings should be investigated and reported, so that essential details about direction of flight and radar observations would be more consistently recorded.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 17 pages.