Indianapolis, IndianaJanuary 1956

On January 5, 1956, a pilot and his passenger flying an Aero Commander aircraft near Indianapolis, Indiana reported seeing a very bright, intermittent light while cruising at 5000 feet. The pilot first dismissed his passenger's question about flying saucers, but when the light appeared again near Clayton marker (about 10 miles west of Indianapolis), the pilot took notice. He described the light as extremely bright, brighter than portable searchlights used by gas stations, and believed at first that another aircraft was passing very close by. On closer inspection, he estimated the object was several miles away, somewhere south and southwest of Indianapolis Weir Cook Airport. The light was localized with sharp, bright edges but offered no definition as an aircraft beacon. The object appeared to be traveling in the aircraft's direction on a course of approximately 70 degrees. When the pilot called Indianapolis radio to ask what the light was, it immediately went out. While the tower was trying to respond, an airliner pilot over Chicago (about 185 miles away) called in to say he too had seen the flashing light just as it disappeared. Based on the geometry and altitude required for the Chicago pilot to see the object, the reporting pilot concluded it must have been airborne rather than on the ground.

The pilot suggested the object might have been an Army photographic flash or strip-mapping light, and noted that such equipment could be useful for low-visibility airport approaches on dark, foggy nights.

The Air Force's investigation, documented in the case file, included interviews with both witnesses and analysis of weather data from nearby rawinsonde stations (weather balloons used to measure conditions in the upper atmosphere) at Wright-Patterson and Chanute Air Force Bases. The file's cover sheet indicates the Air Force concluded the sighting was "probably the star Canopus, which was just below the horizon" and that "atmospheric refraction probably brought it into view distorted." This explanation appeared on the official evaluation card, though the reasoning for attributing the sighting to a star when two independent observers, one of them an experienced pilot, described a moving light that responded to a radio call differs from the case details in the questionnaires.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, 57 pages in total.