[ILLEGIBLE], [ILLEGIBLE] 1948 - Incident Number: 213Circa 1948

On the evening of December 4, 1948, a bright, flaming object streaked across the sky near Bellefontaine, Ohio, lighting up the entire area with smoke and flames. The object crashed to earth in a residential section of town. Police Chief A. D. Paden said the burned remains looked like a tire rim from an airplane or automobile. A patrolman who tried to collect pieces found the object so fragile it crumbled in his hands. Only a few small fragments survived intact.

Police sent the remains to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 45 miles away, hoping the Air Force Experimental Center could identify what had crashed. The base's public relations officer, Colonel C. H. Welch, suggested it might have been a magnesium flare used by pilots for night photography, though he noted there had been no night photo flights from Wright-Patterson the previous evening. He also said he knew of no guided missile experiments being conducted at the base that could explain the sighting.

The Air Force's technical investigation confirmed this theory. A telephone conversation between Air Force personnel concluded that questioning of witnesses and examination of the burned remains indicated the object was probably a Very pistol flare (a handheld signal device that fires brilliant illumination cartridges). The flare had apparently been fired from the ground by someone who did not want to admit responsibility because of the publicity surrounding the incident.

Materials laboratory analysis of the metallic and mineral samples recovered from the crash site found compositions typical of flares and other explosive devices. The samples contained zinc, magnesium, sodium, lead, and cadmium as significant elements, along with various trace metals. Testing revealed no radioactive materials in the remains. The laboratory recommended forwarding its findings to Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, the military's development agency for pyrotechnics, for expert confirmation that the materials matched known flare compositions.

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