Barbados, B.W.I., April 1958April 1958

Insufficient Data

Summary

On a Sunday evening in April 1958, a man in Barbados saw something unusual in the sky. He was closing his front door around 2030 (8:30 p.m.) when he noticed a strange glistening blue light to the north. Moving onto his verandah for a better look, he saw what he described as an aluminum ball, slightly smaller than the full moon, traveling south and slightly east across the sky. Behind it came about twenty smaller objects that looked like red balls with cone-shaped tails attached.

The main object and its followers appeared to be no more than 14 to 16 miles away and flying at about 1,000 to 1,500 feet high. From the leading object to the last follower stretched about 60 to 70 feet across the sky. The leading object appeared to be "winking" as it passed overhead. The witness noted that the smaller objects had no set order or arrangement, and the entire formation glowed with a bright blue light. The whole sighting lasted no more than one and a half to two minutes. He estimated the objects were moving much faster than a plane but could see them descending slightly. The witness drew a diagram of what he had observed and described the sight as very pretty but also frightening.

The sighting was reported to the U.S. Department of Defense in May 1958 by a family member living in Brooklyn. The letter suggested the objects might be related to Sputnik 2, the Soviet satellite launched the previous November. The Department of Defense forwarded the report to the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Intelligence for evaluation. In their response to the witness, the Navy thanked him for his report but provided no conclusion. The Air Force's evaluation form marked the case as "Probably Balloon," though the comments section suggested it might be a missile observation, noting the objects' characteristics and their direction from Cape Canaveral's firing area, despite no confirmed launch schedule for that date.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, consisting of 8 pages.

Reported location

Barbados, B.W.I., April 1958

Date of incident

April 1958

State / country

? / XX

Page count

8 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 32

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 8

View transcribed text

1 PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD
i 1. DATE I LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS

| rl J - a Pl 3

f 4 3 5) : J : ; [5] VE ve L 1 Yas Balloon i
i 8 Apr O03 Barpados, Deas 0 Probably Balloon

j 3. DATE-TIME GROUP [4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION {0 Possibly Balloon

;

i L ' owns FAVA oG d-Ra 0 Was Aircraft

: ocal Pe RE A El oie Sround- Visual round-Radar C1 Probably Aircraft

i Your dat BS ay ; sil i

(8 GMT. MI/ ) 1507 geen | 0 Air Visual 0 Air-Intercept Radar 0 Possibly Aircreft

i 5. PHOTOS 8. SOURCE 0 Woes Astronomical

If C Yes 0 Probably Astronomical

E s5No Civilian 00 Possibly Astronomical

3 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 3. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE BK Other Prob Missile

iE 0 Insufficient Data for Evaluation

3 0 Unknown

I 2 mins 20 SE

E! 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS i a ;

E Glistening blue obj notced in the General appearance, direction

t 4 North moving SE. Looked like an alyu-| of flicht duration of sighting

ji $ Rea) Ac TR eT pol Pet POST EEL ET BB 1 i mas! es pvt i Ne rs BRT +1
3 num 5a = JE ns 0Dj approacnae b) about an location on “he do yn range Mls 1d
§ 20 smaller red objs w/flare like tailBfiring area fm Cape Canaveral
1 looking like cones attached to balls | indicate a possible missile obser
E ver + 4 Fe y + > 30) 1 y iy 3 zr . - ~ 0 . .

a2 ea noticed trailing he ball, vation. No firing schadule avail-

4 i + Ne (palpi Ris YO \ 500 £4 x r i >

i 4 LL i Liild wed at 1,000-1,000 1%, abde for this date, however Case

: oncth of obi estimated + 70 f+ A 2K J : i

RC ie Ps OHg. "ee timate d at 70 1t. is considered as a missile sight-

- Aneood Factor n a ‘ > Avimanranece ~ fF e A ¢ g Riis :

i ok or fached Lhey 8/C, rADDoRTabSs Cr ing in view of thse above characicy-
p "winking" as obj traversed sky. istics, |
fe ee ee eC

4 ATIC FORM 329 (RTV 25 SEP 52)

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28977708