Johnson Island, October 1961October 1961

Insufficient Data

Summary

In October 1961, a U.S. Air Force officer flying near Johnson Island took motion pictures of the island from the air. He saw nothing unusual during the flight. But when he developed the film after returning home, he noticed a white oval object in the photographs that had not been visible to his eye.

The officer, an Instructor Technical Representative traveling on official Air Force business to Eniwetok Atoll, had been flying at 10,000 feet aboard an EKC-97 aircraft. The filmstrip showed the mysterious object in several frames. Because the object appeared only in the photographs and not to any of the crew members watching through the windows, the Air Force sent the film to the Foreign Technology Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for analysis.

Experts examined the filmstrip carefully. They found that the white oval image and a fainter companion image moved within the frames in a uniform, coordinated way. The background also shifted position, but at a different rate. After studying the film's technical details, the analysts concluded that the images were reflections. Specifically, they said the bright oval was caused by sunlight reflecting off a round window or a light fixture inside the aircraft. The double-pane window design would explain why a faint duplicate image also appeared nearby.

The full case file, consisting of 14 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

Johnson Island, October 1961

Date of incident

October 1961

State / country

? / XX

Page count

14 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 44

] i“ LS PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD 1 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS 1 E 1 0 Was Balleon 1 5 Oct 61 Johnson Islznd 0 Probably Balloon 1 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4.. TYPE OF OBSERVATION 0. Possibly Bolloon 3 ¥ 0 Was Aircraft 1 Boesh als ci a a 0 Ground-Yisual J Ground-Radar 0 Probobly Aircraft 1 GMT D AirVYisuval 0 Air-Intercept Radar 0 Possibly Aircraft 1 5. PHOTOS . SOURCE 0 Was Astronomicol 3 XXYes 0 Probably Astronomical 5 8 0 Neo Military 0D Possibly Astronomical 4 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE 6 Other Reflections b 0 Insufficient Dota for Evaluation 4 i j 3 10. ‘BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING One white oval obJt [. COMMENTS £10G0 analysis of prints indicages g not seen visually. Noticed on photographs of 1that objts in prints were reflections of 3 island. | wound window or light within the z/c. : | / : ATIC FORM 329 (REY 26 SEP 82) | 4 br . '