Dayton, OhioSeptember 1956

Insufficient Data

Summary

Early on the morning of September 2, 1956, someone near Dayton, Ohio reported seeing an unidentified object in the sky. The observer described a yellow-green, oval object roughly the size of a basket. The object appeared to be about 15 to 20 feet across and 8 to 10 feet thick. It moved slowly and seemed to hover just 5 to 10 feet above the ground for roughly 35 to 40 minutes.

The observer watched the object approach until it came within 150 feet. When the observer shined a flashlight at it, the object disappeared instantly. The brightness of the object had illuminated an area about 5 to 6 feet in diameter. The Air Force's technical questionnaire notes reference to stars, planets, and other conditions in the sky, but the OCR text does not clearly preserve enough detail to confirm all other aspects of the sighting.

The Air Force checked the sighting against weather records and found that a weather balloon had been launched around the same time from a nearby weather station. That balloon was carrying a radiosonde, a device used to measure atmospheric conditions. The radiosonde malfunctioned and was lost, according to the weather station's records. While a direct connection was not established in the available text, the timing and nature of the reports led the Air Force to conclude the sighting was probably a balloon.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 15 scanned pages.

Reported location

Dayton, Ohio

Date of incident

September 1956

State / country

OH / US

Page count

15 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 26

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 15

View transcribed text

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GPaliss dit Lr PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD gy
1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
RX” Wes Bolloon
2 entemher ITA Naa fad 0" Probably Balloon
3. DATE-TINE GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION "TONEY Se |
Locel _0230aM (N) %E Ground-Visvel O Ground-Rader - 2g A oft
emt _02/0930Z2 0 AirVisuvel O Air-Intercept Radar O Possibly Aircraft
3. PHOTO . SOU 0 Was Astronomicol
OVYes O Probably Astronomical
«a Ne one civilian O Possibly Astronomicol
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION S. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE 0 Other “NEDNNERN
O Insufficient Date for Evaluation
0 Unknown 35 ’
39-40 minutes one unknown Lallpnag
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS
One object oval. About size of basket} Checked with WX station & a bale |
ball & yellow-green in color, Object loon was launched about same tims
15-20 ft around & 8-10 ft thick, Obj as sighting & had radiosonde mal
moved slowly & seemed to hover 5 tof function and was lost completely
ft above ground, Moved toward observr| by WX station, Positional data
until 150ft away, at which time rot included, Star Regulus set-
obhsrvr shined flashlight on obj. Obj | ting in West, Venus in W about 15
disappeared instantly, Brightness of dgr elevation. No mention of how
t obj lit area for diameter of 5 to 6 estimate on distance determined,
feet, EV ada sotanamiivt DRNPT BFE TD
ORM 329 (REV 26 SEP $52)
I : | : |
i 2 AY " 2
° is E 3
y . . " — _— A cc NBA ls rvs sa Btn. I ——————— pa RRA A BR EA EVER RR TST RTI Wp BR SE i Sidi

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28967338