Grosse Pointe, MichiganJune 1961

Unidentified

Summary

On June 30, 1961, in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, a witness observed an unidentified flying object from her bedroom around 5 a.m. The object was described as saucer-shaped, about the size of a dime or nickel held at arm's length, white in color, with no discernible features, tail, or sound. The observer woke from sleep and saw the bright object initially at approximately 60 degrees elevation from the horizon. The object faded away like cutting down a rheostat at a fast rate and remained visible for about 10 minutes total. The sighting was made from the ground during clear conditions just before dawn. No photographs were taken and no physical evidence was collected. The Air Force evaluation classified the report as unidentified.

Reported location

Grosse Pointe, Michigan

Date of incident

June 1961

State / country

MI / US

Page count

3 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 42

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 3

View transcribed text

PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD

1. DATE
30 Jun 61

2. DATE-TIME GROUP
Local 0500 & 0510
GMT 0900-0910 & [illegible]

3. PHOTOS
[checkbox] Yes
[checkbox] No

7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION
10 min on time

2. LOCATION
Grosse Pointe, Michigan

4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION
[checkbox] Ground-Visual [checkbox] Ground-Radar
[checkbox] Air-Visual [checkbox] Air-Intercept Radar

6. SOURCE
Civilian

8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS
1 ea time

9. COURSE
Stationary

12. CONCLUSIONS
[checkbox] Was Balloon
[checkbox] Probably Balloon
[checkbox] Possibly Balloon
[checkbox] Was Aircraft
[checkbox] Probably Aircraft
[checkbox] Possibly Aircraft
[checkbox] Was Astronomical
[checkbox] Probably Astronomical
[checkbox] Possibly Astronomical
[checkbox] Other
[checkbox] Insufficient Data for Evaluation
[checkbox] Unknown

10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING
Observer shaken, size of dime or nickel held at arm's length, white color 10-15 foot, seemed to be hovering or at least was motionless. Seemed to be about 60 degs elev, just faded away.

11. COMMENTS
Object was broken clouds and appeared bright at high elev. Venus if in 5h at about 20 deg elev. This is lower that predicted for Venus, but it has been found that average individual cannot estimate elev accurately, especially at night and while lying down. Presence of smoke would tend to make planet appear at a higher elevation, and object was probably the star Capella.

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28993121