Balboa Basin, Canal Zone, February 1959February 1959

Insufficient Data

Summary

On February 4, 1959, a civilian at Balboa Basin in the Canal Zone reported a bright object in the night sky. The sighting was about 5:20 a.m. local time (1020Z) and lasted about 12 seconds. The witness was a Panama Canal pilot.

He described one quite large, cone shaped object that was brilliant, with a blend of three colors: white in front, yellow in the middle, and blue at the tail. The colors gave it an iridescent, fluorescent look. It had a blue tail like aircraft exhaust but more fan shaped. There was no sound. The object approached from the east, traveled in nearly level flight to the west with a slight decline, then continued west.

The Air Force concluded the object was astronomical. The record card said the object was probably a meteor.

Reported location

Balboa Basin, Canal Zone, February 1959

Date of incident

February 1959

State / country

? / XX

Page count

4 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 35

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 4

View transcribed text

CHEE ha PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD : ‘
I. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
O Was Balloon
4 Feb 5¢ Balboa Basin, Canal Zone Q Probably Balloon |
3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION ossioly Balloon |
O Was Aircraft
| gw —— KXBround-Visval O Ground-Radar Q Probably Aireroft
oMT__OL/10202 10202 O Air Visuol O Air-Intercopt Radar |D Possibly Aireraft
S. PHOTO SOURCE OC Wes Astronomicol leteor
O Yes O Probably Astronomicel
ONe Vivilien O Possibly Astronomicel
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE 8 PMc yressnp——
- + soso Dote for Eveluation|
12 Sec one E tow _—
D. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 1. COMMENTS /
Quite large, cone shaped obj, The obj was probably a meteor.
: brilliant with combination o three colors-
white, yellow and blue, all well blended :
which gave it an iridescent and flourescent
appearance, Had blue tall similar to a/c
exhaust, but more fan shaped. Ilo sound,
~ ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)
/
.
.

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28981823