Dallas, PennsylvaniaSeptember 1956

Unidentified

Summary

On September 30, 1956, in Dallas, Pennsylvania, a witness observed an unusual yellow object in the night sky. The object appeared snowflake-shaped and about the size of a basketball held at arm's length. It had two tails and emitted flashes of light in all directions. The witness watched it for one hour and forty minutes while it moved south and then back to the west.

According to the Air Force report, multiple observers at Benton Air Force Station, along with military personnel from a radar unit, analyzed the sighting. The senior director noted that his initial theory was that the object might be a weather balloon (an observation balloon used to measure atmospheric conditions) with a light attached. However, after reviewing the evidence and noting that scrambled aircraft sent to investigate made no contact with the object at various altitudes, the official conclusion stated that the sighting was probably caused by the planet Mars. The evaluation box at the top of the form was checked for "Probably Astronomical," with a note reading "Description, duration, and path of object indicate sighting was probably caused by planet Mars."

The file contains 34 pages of documentation held by the National Archives.

Reported location

Dallas, Pennsylvania

Date of incident

September 1956

State / country

PA / US

Page count

34 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 26

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 34

View transcribed text

’
LJ
A PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD i
1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
8 § HR : : 0 Was Balloon
30 Szptember 1956 Ballas, Pennsylvania) D Probably Balloon
3. DATE-TIME CROUP 4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION 0 Possibly Balloon
¢ a E O Wos Aircraft
Local erg emg on : — © Ground-Visval Ground-Rodar O Probably Aircralt
our 01/0007 c<ro BEL 0 AirVisuol O Air-Intercopt Radar |D Possibly Aircroft
5. PHOTOS . $0 32 Was Astronomical Lia 1'S
0 Yes DO Probably Astronomicol
£'No Civilian GEL 0D Po asibly, Astronomical
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE BD TE cosines
or vo teat |B Insufficient Data for Evaluotion
wl t il & hack oD Unknown
ona hour forty mins cne and west
10. BRIER SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS .
One yellow object, the shapes of a Concur w/rpting officer that sighp-
snow flake and the size of a basket- ing was caused by a star or planet.
ball at arn's length, Object had two Description, duration, and path
tails and had flashes of light shoot-| of object indicate sighting was
ing out of all directions. Object probably caused by plancti Mars,
~ moved to south and back to west, Obj Evaluation'"was astronomical ,
was observed visually for one hour probably Mars."
and forty minutes and was still in
sight at time of initial report,
ATIC FORM 329 (REV 25 SEP 82)
’
LI
IE EO SO EROS EEE once 5 The.

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28967743