Dayton, OhioDecember 1957

Unidentified

Summary

On December 4, 1957, at around 9:00 a.m., a 15-year-old boy in Dayton, Ohio saw an unusual object in the sky. The object was very high, bright silver, and sharply outlined. It moved from north to south-southwest across his field of view. He watched it for about 10 seconds before it left his sight.

The boy reported his sighting to Air Force operations personnel, who checked with the control tower. Operations stated that two aircraft were in that general area at the same time. Despite this information, investigators were unable to confirm that either of those aircraft accounted for what the boy had seen.

The Air Force examined all available details from the sighting report, including the object's brightness, direction of travel, and the witness's observations about its solid appearance and sharp edges. However, the file does not contain any weather analysis, radar data, or follow-up interviews that might have helped explain what the boy observed.

The Air Force concluded that the sighting was unidentified. No explanation for the object appears in the case file beyond the initial mention of aircraft in the area.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, consisting of 9 pages.

Reported location

Dayton, Ohio

Date of incident

December 1957

State / country

OH / US

Page count

9 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 31

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 9

View transcribed text

RR RR RR RRR RRR RRR ETT
Bi A Pep, TN NR POR re 0 ge J PA ASI om RA 0 CETTE 0 esti 5 namo, rom rt TT ETTORE 1k. eg psc ?
|
1 PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD |
|v. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS -
: 0 Wos Balloon
4 December 19357 Dayton, Ohio O Probably Balloon
3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION messin paliesn
2 x Was Aircraft
| Loeat 0900 AM ~~~ BGround-Visual 0 Ground-Radar a Probably Aircraft
oMT__04/1400Z 0 Air Visual 0 Air-Intercept Radar QO Possibly Aircraft :
5. PHOTOS . R 0 Was Astronomical
0 VYes g Gabo Asnomiee
B:No ivilian - 15 year old bo 29aibly Astranemice
7. LENGTH OP OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE 0 Otheyil. Sirhan dwnidend of
8 {gutlisiant Data for Evaluation
% nKnown
10 seconds one SSW :
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS |
One object very high, bright silver, Call operations and WX, Opera-
sharply outlined, moving from N to SSW tions stated two aircraft’ in
that general area at that time
i ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP $2)
i : / :
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bi i BRR ARE EY ANAS i saad } INES Iv iii !

/ 9

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28975662