King Salmon, AlaskaFebruary 1953

On February 7, 1953, around 3 a.m., four people at King Salmon Airport in Alaska saw a strange light in the sky to the west of the airfield. The group included one U.S. Air Force officer and three Civil Aeronautics Administration workers. The light appeared orange at first, then changed to white several times. It stayed in roughly the same spot but moved slightly, and its shape seemed to shift from oval to more rounded and back again. The light eventually disappeared below the horizon.

One observer, James Burrus, the chief control tower operator, estimated the light was about one foot in diameter. He watched it pulse and change colors, sometimes rapidly and sometimes slowly. Another witness, Victor Mahler, an aircraft communicator, saw the light change from orange to white like "a piece of metal cooling made white hot." The Air Force radar operators in the area detected nothing unusual on their screens, and the weather observers confirmed they had not released any weather balloons that night. The sky was very clear and the temperature was around minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Air Force officer who investigated the case interviewed all four witnesses and determined their observations credible. He noted that James Burrus had eight years of experience in air traffic control and was reliable and efficient. The other witnesses also seemed sincere and trustworthy. The weather officer reported a temperature inversion was in effect at the time, with the surface temperature at minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit and the upper atmosphere considerably warmer.

By February 18, one of the observers reported that he had seen the same object several more times and had concluded it was a planet, most likely Jupiter. The Air Force officially classified the case as "unknown" but included a note that it was likely Jupiter or possibly Mars or Venus. The investigating officer remarked that the report might help in identifying other similar sightings that could be explained as planets. The full case file, comprising ten pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.