Elizabethtown, KentuckySeptember 1952

On September 4, 1952, around 5:10 p.m., a man standing outside Elizabethtown, Kentucky saw a disc-shaped object moving across the sky. The object appeared to be shining, as if reflecting light. According to the Air Force report, there was no sound, and the object moved in a straight line from southwest to northeast. The observer estimated the object was traveling between 75 and 200 miles per hour and flying between 40 and 80 feet above the ground. The sighting lasted roughly eight minutes.

The observer, who had some qualifying experience watching aircraft, was certain about the time and direction of the sighting. Other people in the area reportedly saw the object too, but the observer did not obtain their names or contact information. The weather at the time was clear with good visibility, occasional cirrus clouds, and winds from the southwest and west. One T-6 aircraft was returning from Lexington around the same time, passing through the area between 3:30 and 6:00 p.m.

The Air Force recorded the object's position, size, and course in their investigation files. However, the OCR text is too garbled in several key sections of the questionnaire responses to provide a complete understanding of all details the observers provided. The file indicates the Air Force concluded the sighting was unidentified, with a secondary note that it was "probably balloon," though the basis for that assessment is not clearly stated in the available OCR text.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 19 pages of microfilm.