Evanston, IllinoisJuly 1962

On the evening of July 14, 1962, someone in Evanston, Illinois reported seeing an unusual object in the sky that resembled a large commercial airliner with multiple bright yellow lights. According to the report, the object had "too many lights" with no visible flashing, and observers noticed a black pattern moving across it from rear to front in a rhythmic manner. The witnesses reported hearing no sound from the object.

The sighting lasted several minutes. The observers noted that when the object passed through clouds, the lights did not black out, which struck them as odd. The object appeared to maintain an altitude estimated between 3,500 and 5,000 feet and was seen moving over the area before eventually leaving.

An additional report in the file describes a separate sighting in the same area on July 16, 1962. In this case, observers described an orange, disc-shaped object that appeared to spin and hover above trees. The object reportedly disappeared at high speed roughly 15 seconds into the sighting.

The Air Force investigators who reviewed these reports noted the limited information available for evaluation. The first sighting was evaluated as potentially consistent with aircraft characteristics based on the lights and apparent size comparisons to a Boeing 707 jetliner, though anomalies remained. The second sighting was marked as having insufficient data for firm evaluation given the brief duration and limited witness information.

The full case file, spanning 32 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.