Project Blue Book Case File
Kirksville AFS, MissouriMay 1962
Summary
On the evening of May 6, 1962, school children in Kirksville, Missouri spotted two round, white objects in the western sky just after dusk. The objects appeared to be about the size of baseballs and shaped like dinner plates. They flew together at first, then separated. One seemed to hang motionless in the sky for a few seconds before both objects disappeared into a cloud formation. The entire sighting lasted roughly two minutes. The children heard no sound and saw no trail or exhaust.
The objects first appeared around 272 degrees (roughly west), flying toward the southeast. They disappeared near 150 degrees (roughly south-southeast). An aircraft control and warning technician at Kirksville Air Force Station filed the report after the children called it in.
The Air Force investigator noted that all the witnesses were school children, whose reliability was unknown due to their age. The file also mentions that the observers had been doing extensive reading about UFOs, which the investigator suggested could possibly account for the sighting. Weather conditions at the time were clear. No radar contact was made with the objects. The file does not state a final conclusion about what the objects were. The full case file, comprising 7 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.
Reported location
Kirksville AFS, Missouri
Date of incident
May 1962
State / country
MO / US
Page count
7 scanned pages
USAF evaluation
unknown
Microfilm
T1206, Roll 45