Belmont, OhioSeptember 1961

Unidentified

Summary

On the evening of September 13, 1961, a woman in Belmont, Ohio called the local Air Force office to report that she had seen a light high in the sky. The witness said she observed the object for about two minutes and described it as appearing to the south of her position.

An Air Force captain who took the initial call was busy at the time and did not gather detailed information from the witness. He told her that someone would contact her the next day, but the case file shows that the follow-up investigation yielded very little additional detail. The witness filled out a standard questionnaire, but most of her answers remain unclear or incomplete in the available records.

The Air Force listed this case as having insufficient data for evaluation. In their comments, investigators noted that the object could possibly have been the planet Venus, which was visible at that time of evening. However, they also noted that the witness reported seeing the object for only two minutes, which seemed too short a duration to confidently identify it as a planet. As a result, no definitive conclusion about what the object was could be reached.

The full case file, consisting of 9 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

Belmont, Ohio

Date of incident

September 1961

State / country

OH / US

Page count

9 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 43

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 9

View transcribed text

gr bis MT Wi 4 » Wey FLEA ie (ls Mean TE NPR OT— 2 he , : a }
WER PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD rion. 1 |
: I. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
| 13 Sep 61 Belmont, Ohio O Probably Bellon
. |3" DATE-TINE GROUP 4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION ABI feo |
i ¥ O Was Aircraft
RAR callie I<Ground- Visual QO Ground-Redor a Probably Ai —-—
GMT L/02] Air Viel 0 Air-Intercept Radar 0 Possibly Aircraft
5. PHOTOS . SOU 0 Was Astronomical | |
Q Yes mms Probably Astronomical
ONe Civilian 0 Possibly Astronomical
| 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE i OM isis | |
Insufficient Data for Evaluation
a! O Unknown |
2 min 1 3S |
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING Witness reporting sight-|1l. COMMENTS It is possible that witness was
ing was unable to furnish more than a limited |observing Venus at time reported, however |
amount of info. About only thing she was sure [duration of observation was only 2 min far, |
of was that she waw a light to S of her positiod. and no valid conclusion can be reached. |. | |
~ |case is listed as insufficient data. : | |
g ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP $2)
1 ' ‘ Bi) ; \ s,
E le LB 350 ta 5 BA A Se 5 aE ey TENE is

/ 9

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28994572