Brookley AFB, AlabamaJanuary 1953

On the night of January 1, 1953, a senior Air Force pilot watched a bluish-white light move across the sky near Brookley Air Force Base in Alabama. The pilot was sitting at a drive-in movie theater when he spotted the object around 2015 to 2030 hours (8:15 to 8:30 p.m.). He estimated it was traveling north, roughly one mile away, at an altitude between 2,000 and 3,000 feet.

The object appeared to be one to two feet in diameter and moved at a constant speed of 250 to 300 knots (roughly 290 to 345 miles per hour). It had a small exhaust trail behind it and looked to the witness like the afterburner flame from an F-94 jet fighter. The most striking feature was how quickly it vanished: the light traveled through about 600 degrees of arc in just 30 seconds, then seemed to begin a climbing turn and disappeared completely, "just as though someone had turned off a light switch." The pilot heard no sound, even though his car windows were up and the drive-in loudspeaker was on.

The Air Force investigated by contacting Brookley Base Operations and nearby Bates Field (a commercial airport). Both reported no jet aircraft flying at the time. An F-84 landed at Brookley after the sighting, and no other nearby airfields had jet capabilities. The weather station at Bates Field had released a weather balloon at 2100 hours (9 p.m.), but this occurred after the observation. Weather conditions at the time were clear with good visibility. The investigating officer rated the pilot's reliability as excellent, noting his ten years of flying experience and knowledge of meteorology and navigation.

The initial Air Force evaluation listed the sighting as "probably aircraft," with a note that it was "possibly a/c." Because the report did not reach Base Intelligence until twelve hours after the sighting, no interception was attempted. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spanning 9 pages.