Lafayette, IndianaOctober 1955

Unidentified

Summary

On October 1, 1955, at 1 p.m. local time, a civilian in Lafayette, Indiana, observed an object that looked like a parachute. The witness ran toward where he thought it would land, but the object started ascending and moved toward the witness while tumbling. It stopped almost directly above him, then moved to the right very slowly. The witness could run and keep up with it. Suddenly the object shot upward toward the sun and disappeared. The witness reported the sighting three years later in a letter dated October 20, 1958. The object was described as metallic, about 20 feet in diameter, moving faster than any jet the witness had seen, and visible for 2 to 3 minutes under fair sky conditions. The Air Force evaluation was unidentified.

Reported location

Lafayette, Indiana

Date of incident

October 1955

State / country

IN / US

Page count

3 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 24

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 3

View transcribed text

PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD

1. DATE: Oct. 55

2. LOCATION: Lafayette, Indiana

3. DATE-TIME GROUP: Local 1300 hours (1:00 pm)
GMT [blank]

4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION: X Ground-Visual [  ] Ground-Radar [  ] Air-Visual [  ] Air-Intercept Radar

5. PHOTOS: [  ] Yes [X] No

6. SOURCE: civilian

7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION: X - 3 min

8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS: one

9. COURSE: not reported

12. CONCLUSIONS:
[X] Was Balloon
[  ] Probably Balloon
[  ] Possibly Balloon
[  ] Was Aircraft
[  ] Probably Aircraft
[  ] Possibly Aircraft
[  ] Was Astronomical
[  ] Probably Astronomical
[  ] Possibly Astronomical
[  ] Other [  ]
[  ] Insufficient Data for Evaluation
[  ] Unknown

10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING:
Observer saw obj that looked like a parachute landing. Man turned obj but then it started rising, tumbling toward him and stopped almost overhead. Observer could run and keep up with obj. Then obj shot away toward the sun. Reported in letter form three years after observation.

11. COMMENTS: BALLOON
[Side panel text, partially legible]

ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28963793