Israel, Cairo, Egypt, September 1962September 1962

On the evening of September 26, 1962, observers across Israel, Egypt, and the Middle East watched a brilliant fireball streak across the sky, leaving behind a long, glowing trail of smoke that persisted for nearly forty minutes. The phenomenon was seen from multiple locations, including the villages near Haifa in Israel and the city of Port Said in Egypt, where an American consulate member witnessed the event.

The object appeared as a luminous white light moving slowly from southeast to north at approximately 81,000 feet. It descended gradually, leaving a thick trail of white smoke behind it. The trail first appeared intensely bright white before changing colors, shifting to red and orange tones within seconds, likely influenced by the sunset light at that altitude. The smoke trail thickened as the object fell and became distorted into zigzag patterns, yet the trail itself did not drift in the wind but remained relatively fixed in the sky.

The fireball disappeared about four to five degrees above the horizon. Observers reported that the smoke trail persisted from approximately 15:44 to 16:22 Universal time (or about 1547 to 1622 in local Greenwich Mean Time), visible for roughly 36 minutes. Photographs of the smoke trail were taken by observers in Israel. The object fell into the Mediterranean Sea north of Port Fuad, and no impact debris was recovered, though the smoke was visible for several minutes after the descent.

The Air Force's Foreign Technology Division analyzed the report and concluded that a meteor or decaying artificial space object was probably consumed before reaching the ground. However, the case file notes that the evaluation was marked "unknown." The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spanning 11 pages.