Fla, S.C., Ga, Area, October 1958October 1958

A bright fireball was spotted across Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia on October 28, 1958, over a period of just a few seconds. Multiple witnesses on the ground and in the air reported seeing an object descending rapidly from the sky, though their descriptions of its appearance varied somewhat.

At Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina, two airmen sitting behind a building at approximately 17:55 (5:55 p.m.) described a white ball of fire about the size of a dime with an orange tail roughly the length of a pencil. They watched it descend quickly, disappear, briefly reappear, and vanish completely, all within one to three seconds. Another airman at the same base, observing from a different location, gave similar details but saw only the initial flash, lasting two to five seconds. A civilian observer about five miles northwest of Harleyville, South Carolina, thought he was watching a burning jet aircraft falling from the sky. He saw what he described as a dark fuselage about half engulfed in flames pass in front of his truck before disappearing behind trees. About two hours later, he noticed smoke rising from a wooded area two miles west of Cross, South Carolina.

The Air Force investigation involved multiple agencies and bases. Officers at Hunter Air Force Base in Georgia reported the sighting, and pilots in the area were dispatched to search for debris or evidence of a crash. The Weather Bureau confirmed clear skies and good visibility in the region at the time. However, checks with the Forest Service in Charleston found no evidence of fire or unusual incident in the Cross, South Carolina, area that the civilian observer had reported. Radar stations were consulted but provided no explanation. The 111th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron had been conducting air-to-air rocket exercises thirty to fifty miles east of Charleston that day, but no aircrew reported unusual sightings.

The case file indicates that a Navy intelligence report noted the object was spherical with a long tail, glowing red with a blue streak. This report came from a shipyard worker aboard a vessel docked at Charleston Naval Base. The observer estimated the object to be about the size of a basketball, traveling downward at a very high speed, and disappearing below the horizon roughly two miles to the southeast.

Air Force headquarters acknowledged receiving information from multiple sources and requested that all available details be submitted for evaluation. However, the documents in the file do not show a final determination of what caused the sighting. The case was eventually classified as unknown, meaning the Air Force could not identify the object based on available evidence. The full case file, comprising 17 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.