Bradenton, FloridaJanuary 1955

Unidentified

Summary

On January 6, 1955, at about 9:00 p.m., three military airmen near Bradenton, Florida, reported a sighting. The men were driving on a highway two or three miles south of Bradenton when one airman noticed a light from a dark object. The object was at an estimated altitude of 800 to 1,000 feet, about 1,500 feet west of the highway. The observation lasted about ten seconds.

The object was described as black. During the sighting, two other blinding flashes of light were emitted from it. The witnesses said the object was intensely bright, lighting up the entire area, the road, and the highway. They compared it to a photoflash bulb or a short circuit on high tension lines. The men said the sky was clear and stars were visible, and that the object was not a star and was not the moon.

The Air Force record, filed under Project 10073, the Air Force's official record for unidentified flying object reports, listed the conclusion as a possible meteor. The report was forwarded by district officers of the Office of Special Investigations.

Reported location

Bradenton, Florida

Date of incident

January 1955

State / country

FL / US

Page count

4 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 22

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 4

View transcribed text

3 : id PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD |
; ole fc tars A rg 35 om sims Ses
] 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
4 a a 3 0 Was Bolloon
] | 6 January 1955 | Bradenton, Florida QO Probably Balloon
[ 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION TTY Passing Qeltden
3 9200 am 2 tH iad ; 3 0 Was Aircraft
| andl a RAL RR Xk Ground- Visual 0 Ground-Radar 0 Probably Aircraft
E Cr Ne ARI is BD Air-Visual 0 Air-Intercept Radar 0 Possibly Aircraft
5. PHOTOS 6. SOURCE 0 Was Astronomical Meleoor :
( 0 Yes 0 Probably Astronomical
X Military (3) LX Possibly Astronomicol
1 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION "18. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE Va ee
0 Insufficient Data for Evaluation
4 0 Unknown
SERRE | a 0] RR Ne | | SR, [Cees WER MIRI St) he A
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS
J .
Light emitted from dark object at Possible meteor,
| approximately 800-100 feet altitude.
| During 10 second observation two
other blinding flashes were emitted
from bbject. Object was intesnsly
| bright.
ATIC FORM 329 (REV 25 SEP 52)

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28960827