Herefordshire, England, December 1957December 1957

On the evening of December 22, 1957, a man stationed at an RAF base in Herefordshire, England, was returning to his quarters when he noticed an unusual object in the sky. He watched for about five seconds as it descended at roughly a 45-degree angle. The object appeared the size of a small pea and glowed a light bluish-white color. The observer compared it to a Verey pistol, a device that fires illuminated signal rounds into the air. The object disappeared into the fog before he could observe it further.

The sighting caught the observer's attention enough that he completed a detailed U.S. Air Force questionnaire about the incident. He noted that he had recently finished reading a book about flying saucers by Donald Keyhoe, which may have prompted him to formally report what he had seen. He also mentioned reading a newspaper report the next day about a UFO sighting over South Wales, which reinforced his decision to document his own experience.

The Air Force investigators who reviewed the case concluded that the object was most likely a bolide or fireball, a type of bright meteor. Such phenomena were relatively common during December 1957. The object's characteristics, the observer's own description of it as a "fireball" in his report, and the atmospheric conditions at the time all supported this explanation. In their reply to the witness, Air Force officials noted that a large number of bolides had been reported to the U.S. Air Force during 1957.

The full case file, containing 25 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.