Elizabethtown, PennsylvaniaApril 1954

# Summary

On the evening of April 22, 1954, a civilian employee at Olmsted Air Force Base in Pennsylvania witnessed an unusual object in the sky near Elizabethtown. At around 9:47 p.m., the man's wife called his attention to what she called a meteor. He looked toward the east and saw a semi-oval object with an orange glow moving northward across the sky. The object appeared roughly the size of a grapefruit and seemed to hover about one to two miles above the ground, at the same height as the low-hanging brown clouds. It traveled in a straight line at a steady speed, faster than any aircraft he had seen. The entire sighting lasted approximately fifteen to twenty seconds before the object disappeared behind a tree. It made no sound.

After the initial sighting, the witness went to his backyard with his wife and another neighbor. There, he reported seeing the object a second time. On this second pass, it appeared much brighter, moved faster, and shot upward into the sky at a 45-degree angle before vanishing. The three witnesses then went to a nearby parking lot to get a clearer view of the sky, but found no further trace of the object.

The witness called Olmsted Air Force Base to report what he had seen. Investigators noted that a United Airlines DC-4 aircraft had flown over the Lancaster Range (a few miles from Elizabethtown) at approximately 9:36 p.m., around the same time as the sighting. However, the investigators could not explain how a conventional airplane matched the witness's detailed description of the object's behavior, particularly its vertical ascent and glowing appearance. The Air Force's weather station recorded broken clouds at 7,200 feet, with visibility of 10 miles and calm southeast winds at the time of the sighting.

The case file indicates that the Air Force's chief security officer noted the proximity in time between the UFO sighting and the aircraft's passage over the area, and stated that the possible cause of the sighting remained unknown. The case was marked as unidentified. The full 12-page case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.