Baxley, GeorgiaJanuary 1958

On the evening of January 3, 1958, a man in Houston, Texas, and his wife saw a star-like object slowly descending near the star Deneb in the northwestern sky. The object had the brightness of a first-magnitude star. It faded as it sank lower, becoming barely visible before it disappeared behind some trees. The man did not think it was a weather balloon or a meteor.

Nine days later, on the afternoon of January 12, the same observer was scanning the western sky looking for the planet Mercury when he noticed a brilliant orange object that at first looked like a large airplane lit by the setting sun. It appeared stationary, though it seemed to drift downward very slowly. He went inside, got his binoculars, and called his wife and daughter outside to look. Several neighbors also came to watch. Through the binoculars, they all saw flames rising from the object, higher on the left side than the right. The object gradually grew dimmer and sank out of sight after about six or seven minutes. Based on its apparent size, the man estimated it was ten to twenty miles away.

Two days later, on January 14 at 10:50 p.m., the observer was in his backyard looking through a four-inch telescope when he saw four oval-shaped objects flying in perfect formation, one behind the other. They were very low, perhaps under 150 feet in altitude. The objects were grayish in color and made no sound. They flew at a steady, uniform speed of less than 200 miles per hour and disappeared in less than one minute. Each oval appeared to be about 30 to 40 feet across. The observer speculated that the four objects might be attached to a single large object painted black, invisible against the night sky, like gondolas hanging beneath a dirigible.

The Air Force investigated all three sightings and offered explanations. For the January 3 event, investigators believed the object was a bolide, a type of bright meteor that was being reported in the area at that time. For January 12, the Air Force noted that no local police or fire department had received any reports of a burning object, and questioned why the observer had not contacted them instead of writing to TIME Magazine. They suggested no burning plane was missing from the region. For January 14, the Air Force concluded the objects were likely jet aircraft at high altitude, which often appear as the observer described. The file indicates no definitive identification was made, though the Air Force said the data would contribute to its ongoing study of aerial phenomena. This case file consists of 10 pages held by the National Archives.