Dallas-Ft Worth, TexasJune 1963

Someone at Six Flags Over Texas amusement park, located between Dallas and Fort Worth, shot 13 slides of what looked like a flying object on June 15, 1963, sometime between 11 a.m. and noon. The photographer was riding in a gondola, a hanging cable car, on the park's ski-tow lift when the photos were taken. The camera was a Bell and Howell Zoomatic with a zoom lens. The sky was clear.

When Air Force analysts examined the slides, they found three distinct objects in the images. One larger object moved upward and to the left across the frames. Above it, attached by some kind of shaft, was a smaller object too blurry to identify clearly. Below the main body was a third object shaped like a cylinder or missile, also probably attached. The analysts noted that this lower object moved at the same speed as the main body, which was an important clue.

The Air Force's conclusion was straightforward: the objects in the photographs were likely parts of the amusement park equipment itself, not a flying object at all. Because the photographer was sitting inside the moving gondola when the pictures were taken, the camera may have picked up reflections or structural elements from the lift mechanism around him. The Air Force asked for additional details about the camera, lens, weather, and sun position to be certain, and the photographer's son provided that information in August 1963. The evaluation confirmed that the "UFO" was almost certainly equipment attached to the ride.

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