Honshu, Japan, March 1953March 1953

On the night of March 31, 1953, Major Eugene S. Williams was flying an F-84 jet fighter at 30,000 feet over central Honshu, Japan, when he spotted something unusual in the sky. The object appeared as a bright white light with what looked like a red leg on its lower left side and a blue leg on its lower right side, positioned about 20 degrees above the horizon to the west. Williams watched the thing intermittently for fifteen minutes as it seemed to lower in altitude and grow brighter. Over time, the object shifted its bearing from 330 degrees to 290 degrees (roughly west-southwest), and it had what Williams described as a tendency to swivel around.

Williams was experienced enough to rule out obvious explanations. He called ahead to another flight of F-84s to ask if they had any bright landing lights on, just to make sure he was not looking at another aircraft. They said no. Curious and concerned, he turned toward the object and throttled up to about 350 miles per hour indicated airspeed. He even switched off his running lights to get a clearer view. The object's red and blue beams seemed to beam directly into his eyes as they rotated. Over the course of roughly ten minutes of pursuit, the object gradually moved away, pulling off to the west until it appeared almost out of sight.

Williams noted that his radio compass was oscillating erratically during the sighting, though he could not explain why. The night itself was very clear with good visibility after the full moon came up, and the Air Force meteorology unit later confirmed that weather conditions were stable with no unusual atmospheric layers that could account for the sighting.

The Air Force investigation concluded that the object was most likely the planet Venus. The investigators noted that Venus can appear quite bright on clear nights and can exhibit color shifts depending on atmospheric conditions. They explained the red and blue legs as likely illusions caused by the way light from a bright object refracts through the human eye and aircraft canopy. The fact that the object disappeared coincided with Venus setting on the western horizon also supported this conclusion.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, totaling 15 pages.