Dillsboro, IndianaJanuary 1961

On a January night in 1961, two people standing near Dillsboro, Indiana, about 18 miles west of Cincinnati Airport, saw two brilliant yellow lights low on the horizon. The lights resembled auto headlights and made no sound. The witnesses could not see a definite shape to the object, only that it appeared roughly 2,000 feet above the ground. They watched for about 30 seconds before the lights vanished.

The Air Force investigator who reviewed the case noted that the witnesses had been looking east when they spotted the lights. Given that direction, the timing, and the appearance of the lights, the investigator suggested the object was most likely an aircraft approaching or taxiing at Greater Cincinnati Airport. The description of two brilliant yellow lights matched landing lights on an aircraft, the investigator wrote, and the low angle matched the expected angle of an airplane in those operations.

The case file shows that the witnesses were sent an Air Force technical questionnaire to complete with more details about their sighting. The form asked about weather, cloud cover, the object's apparent size, motion, and the witnesses' location and background. However, the questionnaire responses in this file are largely illegible due to OCR degradation.

The Air Force's official evaluation for this sighting was listed as "unknown" on the initial case card, though the investigator's written comments strongly suggested a conventional explanation. The complete case file, comprising 14 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.