Ladd AFB, AlaskaJuly 1950

On July 22, 1950, at 1710 hours (5:10 p.m. Alaska time), military personnel stationed at Ladd Air Force Base in Fairbanks, Alaska spotted an unusual object in the sky. Several airmen and soldiers with aerial observation training were manning antiaircraft gun positions near the airstrip when they watched the object for about twenty minutes before it vanished.

The object appeared to be round in shape and roughly three feet across. It was bright red in color with two white dots underneath that seemed to rotate around it. The witnesses, viewing the object from the side at angles between fifty and seventy degrees above the horizon, said it looked very high in the sky. It moved slowly from east to west without any evasive maneuvers, and it appeared to be descending. Any smoke or exhaust from the object evaporated quickly. The two white dots looked like reflectors. There were no visible signs of propulsion, support structures, radio antennas, or any other structural features.

After remaining relatively stationary for approximately twenty minutes, a stream of smoke appeared, and the object then exploded and disappeared from view. Weather conditions at the time of the sighting were clear. Air Force officials confirmed that no known aircraft were in the area and that nearby weather stations reported no testing devices in the air.

The Alaskan Air Command's investigation considered the object might have been a meteorological balloon that had drifted into the area from another station in Alaska, or possibly some other terrestrial body. However, the investigators stated they could not determine the object's origin or nature with certainty. The Air Force ultimately evaluated the case as an unidentified object, though the initial investigation summary suggested a balloon was the most plausible explanation.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, consisting of 8 scanned pages.