Brookville, Pa., January 1959January 1959

On the evening of January 8, 1959, two Air Force pilots flying a C-45 aircraft from Phillipsburg to Brookville, Pennsylvania, spotted something unusual in the night sky. At 6:14 p.m., at an altitude of 8,000 feet, they saw a brilliantly glowing object colored bluish-green and shaped roughly like a teardrop. The object appeared to be about 200 feet in diameter, made no sound, and seemed to be headed straight for their plane less than a mile away. The pilot, startled, yanked the controls in an attempt to dodge, but the object vanished almost immediately, visible for only about three seconds.

The two pilots disagreed sharply on what they had seen. In his official report, the pilot estimated the object was the size of a pool ball held at arm's length and no more than a mile away. The copilot, a man with special training in the study of UFOs, saw things differently. He estimated the object was the size of a pin held at arm's length and at least 300 miles distant. The copilot believed the extreme brightness against the night sky had created an illusion of size and closeness. He concluded the unknown was actually a fireball at least fifty miles high that burned out as they watched. His analysis was supported by Air Force investigation.

Ground observers provided independent confirmation. A member of Ohio State University reported to Harvard College Observatory that at approximately 6:15 p.m. on January 8, he had watched a brilliant bluish-white meteor streak across the sky over Columbus and vanish within seconds. The fact that observers nearly 300 miles apart saw the same bright object at the same moment supported the interpretation that it was a high-altitude fireball rather than a nearby craft or object.

The Air Force evaluation concluded the object was probably a meteor. The full case file as held by the National Archives is reproduced below across 12 pages.