[ILLEGIBLE], November 1950November 1950

In November 1950, a serviceman stationed on Okinawa reported seeing an unidentified object that fell into the sea near the island. The witness, playing cards at an outpost, heard a sound he described as different from any aircraft engine he had encountered in twelve years of military service. He said the motor "died" after a short time. People in a nearby village also saw a bright white light descending. The object appeared to come from the northeast and fell somewhere near the mouth of a lagoon. About half an hour after the incident, the witness called island control to ask if any aircraft were down, but radio logs that might have confirmed this information were destroyed per regulations requiring their disposal every six months.

Air Force investigators struggled to pinpoint the exact location. The witness sketched the area from memory, but his description did not match the hydrographic charts available to the investigators. Officers debated whether the object had fallen into a shallow lagoon at one location or in much deeper water at another. The depth mattered enormously for any recovery attempt. If the water was only about four fathoms deep (roughly twenty-four feet), a search might be practical. If it was ten fathoms or more, the effort would require deep diving operations over a half-square-mile area or larger, which the Air Force deemed impractical. A 1952 memo concluded that recovery was not worth attempting and suggested filing the case in case future circumstances changed.

The case file notes that the Air Force evaluation remains unknown. A complete scanned copy of the original file, 32 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.