Dayton, OhioNovember 1961

Unidentified

Summary

In November 1961, people in the Dayton, Ohio area reported seeing a light moving in circles over the city. The light moved in a clockwise direction and reportedly passed over the area about four times. Witnesses said the light would go out when it was directly overhead, then turn back on again. When the light moved over Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, it would go dark once more.

The Air Force dispatcher in the area was contacted during the sighting. He told investigators that three T-33 aircraft (a military trainer jet) were in the area at the time of the sighting. One of the T-33s was practicing takeoffs and landings repeatedly. The investigator noted that this detail explained what the witnesses saw. The T-33 has two landing lights located in the nose wheel well. When the aircraft takes off and retracts its landing gear, these lights disappear from view. When the plane prepares to land and extends its gear again, the lights come back on. From a distance, the two separate lights can appear as a single light. The other light that vanished from witnesses' sight was likely one of the other T-33s flying in the area.

Based on this analysis, the Air Force concluded that the witnesses had observed the landing lights of one or more T-33 aircraft. The case was marked as unidentified in the official record, though the file contains a probable explanation. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives across 16 pages.

Reported location

Dayton, Ohio

Date of incident

November 1961

State / country

OH / US

Page count

16 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 44

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 16

View transcribed text

3 : PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD | ;
E 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
4 : 2 Was Bollcon
1 2 Nov 61 Dayton, Ohio OD Probably Balloon
| 3 3. DATE-TIME GROUP & TYPE OF OBSERVATION HC CAEN OY Tio
i 191 2 0 Was Aircraft
4 EE AN BB Ground-Yisvel 0 Ground-Redor BX Probobly Aircroft
1 oMT__030015Z D AirVisval 0 Air-Intercept Radar D Possibly Aircraft
4 5. PHOTOS . SOURCE 0 Was Astronomical
4 0 Yes 0 Probobly Astronomicol
4 KNo Civilian O Possibly Astronomical
| 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE ES
= 0 Init ew Data for Evaluation
ig 2 [mw] nknown
EE 10-15 min 1 Varied :
2 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 2 Feople saw a light 11. COMMENTS clrcle over Dayton area in a
E clockwise direction, passing over about 4 times| Patterson dispatcher was contacted
4 a and he stated that there were 3 T-33's in areq at time, 1 which was shooting landings
4 3 or 5 times, Witnesses stated that when light yas overhead it would go out, then come
EE back on again, then when it was over Wright-Patierson it would go out again. This can be
i explained by fact that T-33 has two landing lights located in the nosewheel well, and upor
. taking off it will retract when the whegls are yetracted. Then when preparing for a
9 landing wheels are extended, landing lights are |estended and at a distance they can appe
: to be one instead of 2. Light that disappeared fo S was probably 1 of the other T-33's
E flying S. It is therefore concluded that lights [observed by witnesses were those on an a/d.
RE
3 |
E ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) \
E $
4

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28995421