Project Blue Book Case File
Hartford, Conn, January 1948 - Incident Number: 93January 1948
Summary
On January 11, 1948, at approximately 1630 (4:30 p.m.), two Air Force officers spotted an unusual object over Hartford, Connecticut. Captain Kenneth M. Zelton and Captain James J. Pargoe were flying with the Air Evacuation Squadron when they saw what appeared to be a disc-shaped object with a bluish center and red edges. The object was traveling at extremely high speed on a downward trajectory at roughly a 45-degree angle toward the ground.
The object had no tail and left no visible trail behind it in the sky. Because it was moving so fast and remained in view for only a brief moment, neither observer could say with certainty how large it was. In general terms, they described it as resembling a shooting star. The object dropped out of sight on the north side of Mount Tom, near Holyoke, Massachusetts.
The Air Weather Service later examined the case and reported that a synoptic weather balloon (a balloon used to measure atmospheric conditions over a large area) could have been at the location where the sighting occurred, based on wind patterns and the location of nearby weather stations at the time. Dr. Hynek's evaluation of the case, extracted from the Project Grudge report compiled by the Air Force's successor investigation, placed this incident in the category of non-astronomical events suggestive of balloons or other ordinary aircraft.
The full case file, comprised of 7 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.
Reported location
Hartford, Conn, January 1948 - Incident Number: 93
Date of incident
January 1948
State / country
? / XX
Page count
7 scanned pages
USAF evaluation
unknown
Microfilm
T1206, Roll 2