Beaufort, South CarolinaMay 1963

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the evening of May 15, 1963, a resident of Beaufort, South Carolina reported seeing an unusual light in the night sky. The witness, who was aboard a boat on Battery Creek just south of the city around 9 p.m., observed an elliptical glowing area positioned about 30 degrees above the western horizon, in a west-southwest direction. The witness and a companion watched through binoculars and saw several distinct points of light within the area, as well as a cloudlike trail extending from the side or bottom of the main object.

The sighting lasted between 12 and 15 minutes. During this time, the object remained at roughly the same elevation while gradually fading and changing its appearance, eventually taking on what looked like a meteor shape before it disappeared toward the southwest. The witnesses ruled out the Echo 1 satellite, which had been visible in the area, based on the object's direction and the pattern of lights they observed.

The witnesses wrote to Air Force headquarters requesting identification of what they had seen. They noted that while they were reasonably well acquainted with the night sky, the object remained unidentifiable to them. The Air Force response initially suggested the sighting was probably aircraft contrails (the long thin clouds left by high-flying planes) with sunlight reflecting off them at dusk. However, investigators expressed frustration with the lack of detailed follow-up information. The evaluation concluded the object was most likely a misidentified aircraft, though the case file notes that the single witness and sparse corroborating details made it difficult to rank as a solid identification either way.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spanning 13 pages of declassified records from microfilm T1206, Roll 47.

Reported location

Beaufort, South Carolina

Date of incident

May 1963

State / country

SC / US

Page count

13 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 47

£ er : Hl & NE : : PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD Zu ————————— | 4 1. DATE : 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS 3 : : 0 Was Balloon i 15 May 1963 Bosiifolit: South carolina 1D Brolably Belin & a. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION ossibly Balloon Bx 3100 ‘ ’ ; t P ; RNA (DLO eS CG SA X<Ground- Visual O Ground-Radar = yo Salre al erate 5 GMT 16/02007 0 Air Visual O Air-Intercept Radar 0 Possibly Aircraft 2 5. PHOTOS 6. SQURCE O Was Astronomical E : O Yes O Probably Astronomical “0 No Civilian O Possibly Astronomical ' g 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 3. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE O,Other— ——— ————— | 0 Insufficient Data for Evaluation - i ; i ; | HG O Unknown \ : = 12-19 vinutes one WoW E ho. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING I: COMMENTS i Eliptical glowing light at 30 dgr principal witness conta tad i slevat lid in WSW yhserved in clou j 1 23.3 jo) [5/6 Friend on Tt alephone.’ E : Fa LE ev thru 7 X 50 BX, Cloudii 7 Positive identification of : | trail coming fm side or bottom, Io ohiact not possible; however, : | . sight for 12-15 minutes fading wlth belief is that objects were - F | the goner: 1 appearance 1o ine SW, | a/c. No information ybtained E : { \ppareit : ph o Sears G07 nospher son HESS hr ond that wonld antlSet-epith cazc BE | than Sirius, Mass had 2-4 lights, | nalvsis. No reason to believe EE | Size about 1 dgr of arc, Disappear zd | +hat this was other than norma 4 by fading. | a/c misinterpretatlol,. 4 3 E | i ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) E | |