Kew Gardens, New YorkNovember 1961

On the evening of November 26, 1961, a resident of Kew Gardens, New York, watched an unusual object from his home. He was indoors watching television when he heard a noise on the fire escape. He looked out a kitchen window and saw the object in the eastern sky. It appeared as a bright white shape with two lights in front.

Over the course of roughly thirty-five minutes, the witness observed the object change colors, shifting from white to red to blue and back to white. The object hovered in place at times and moved side to side. It drifted slowly from east to northeast across the sky before fading from sight as it rose higher. The witness went to a bedroom to get a better view and looked through binoculars and a telescope. He also called his parents, who came and saw the object as well.

The Air Force received the initial report and asked the witness to complete a detailed questionnaire so they could gather more information. In his written account, the witness noted that the object's outline appeared fuzzy and that the brightest part seemed brighter than the rest of it, which looked faint or hazy. He could not estimate how far away it was or how fast it moved. When asked what he thought the object might be, he wrote, "I don't know."

The official Air Force evaluation, recorded on the case summary card, concluded that the sighting was "probably a balloon." The evaluators noted that balloons carrying lights are commonly released at night by the Air Force and U.S. weather stations, and that many airports and weather stations operated in the New York area. They suggested the object likely came from an unknown balloon release in the region.

The complete case file, comprising 17 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.