Fursten Feldbruck, Germany, November 1948 - Incident Number: 222November 1948

On November 23, 1948, a U.S. Air Force captain stationed at Fursten Feldbruck, Germany saw an object in the sky that looked like a reddish star. The captain watched it from the ground near his barracks around 2220 hours (10:20 p.m.) as it moved in a southerly direction across the sky, turning slightly toward the southwest and southeast. He estimated the object's speed at between 200 and 500 miles per hour, though he noted this was a rough guess.

The captain immediately called the base operations office to report what he had seen. Base operations then contacted a nearby radar station called Racecard DF, which initially reported nothing on its scope. However, a short time later, Racecard called back with surprising news. The radar operators had picked up an unidentified object at 27,000 feet altitude, about 30 miles south of Munich. They reported that the object was climbing in altitude and was then believed to be at about 40,000 feet, roughly 40 miles south of Munich, and circling in the sky. A second Air Force pilot who was with the captain at the time verified the sighting.

The investigation that followed turned up no additional information about the object. An intelligence officer noted that it was unlikely any further details would be learned. According to an Air Force weather analysis of the case, the object's motions (if correctly reported) and the time it remained visible were significant. The analysis concluded it was most likely not a balloon. The file does not indicate what the Air Force's final evaluation of the incident was.

The full case file, consisting of 9 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.