[ILLEGIBLE], September 1953September 1953

On the night of September 2, 1953, a crew of a U.S. Air Force C-47 transport plane spotted an unusually bright white light near Sidi Slimane Air Base in French Morocco. The light appeared larger than a typical aircraft navigation light, but the crew could not make out the object's shape, and they heard no sound. The copilot noticed the light first at 2114 hours (9:14 p.m.) and alerted the pilot. The object was initially spotted at an estimated altitude of about 4,800 feet above the C-47.

What happened next caught the crew's attention. The unidentified object closed in on the transport plane at very high speed and seemed to be on a near-collision course. When the object drew level with the C-47, it executed a sharp 180-degree descending turn at a speed the crew described as extremely fast. During a second 180-degree turn, the object dropped to 7,800 feet or below. As it descended, the object noticeably slowed down. It then made a 90-degree turn toward the main highway that runs parallel to Sidi Slimane Air Base, where it appeared to hover before the light vanished. The entire sighting lasted approximately three minutes.

The C-47 was flying at 140 miles per hour at an altitude of 6,000 feet. The crew flew the aircraft in a 360-degree circle to keep watching the object. They observed it from as close as one-quarter to one-half mile away and as far as roughly eight miles. Visibility was good, the sky was clear, there was no moon, and the wind was calm. When the control tower at Sidi Slimane was contacted immediately after the sighting, operators reported no other aircraft in the area. Air traffic control in Casablanca confirmed no aircraft nearby except two Navy planes near Port Lyautey, about 25 miles away, which the C-47 crew had already seen earlier on their flight. Both the radar station at Sidi Slimane and the Naval Station at Port Lyautey reported their radar equipment was not operational at the time of the sighting.

The pilot was Lieutenant Colonel Wilson Moore, who had 3,200 hours of flying time. The copilot was First Lieutenant Jamie H. MacInnis, with 900 hours of flying time. The file notes that a similar object was observed at another air base in Morocco on March 25 of the same year, and mentions an unconfirmed report that Navy pilots at Port Lyautey also spotted an unidentified object closing rapidly at 2018 hours (8:18 p.m.) that same day. An initial assessment from Air Force Intelligence suggested the object's maneuvers might indicate "an aircraft in a practice dogfight," but the investigation findings were forwarded on September 12, 1953. The Air Force's final evaluation of the case is not clearly stated in the file.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spanning 8 pages of microfilm T1206, Roll 19.