Lake Charles, LouisianaNovember 1961

Insufficient Data

Summary

On November 17, 1961, military and civilian witnesses in Lake Charles, Louisiana, reported objects at about 6:00 a.m. local time (1200 Zulu). One bright object, about the size of an aircraft, was seen exploding and continuing on its flight path until it broke apart. It was too bright to make out a shape, and very bright fire-like red. It left a bright trail that lasted about 5 seconds, moving on a horizontal path to the east. A second report described a white object leaving a smoke-like trail that lasted about 4 minutes, with no sound, flying west to east. The sighting of the first object lasted about 5 to 10 seconds. The Air Force noted the marks of a bolide type meteor and listed the case as astronomical, a meteor.

Reported location

Lake Charles, Louisiana

Date of incident

November 1961

State / country

LA / US

Page count

6 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 44

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 6

View transcribed text

3 1
j pry PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD
E 1. DATE - ‘ 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS ;
17 Nov 61 Lake Charles, Louisianz g bs Tor pi A
i 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION pie db Son di
i 0600 pi 4 0 Was Aircraft
eal 8 Ground- Visual 0 Ground-Rodor 0 Probably Aircraft
E GMT 17 12007 D Air Visual O Air-Intercept Radar 0 Possibly Aircraft
3 5. PHOTOS 16. SOURCE T Was Astronomical ME7¢0
4 0OVYes 0 Probably Astronomical
1 No Military end Civilian GC. Possinly Asiinement
| a 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE 0):= Obese. oo icnioian glo
§& OD Insufficient Data for Evaluation
E A ! ; 0 Unknown
4 5 .~ 10 sec il BE !
3 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIC SIGHTING Brig 0ojt size of a/c |11. COMMENTS “icnhting has all characteristick
E exploding and continuing flight path until dis-| of metecr chservation of bolide type. Colpr,
integration, Bright trail persisting for 5 sec.| flight, z:zlosicn and duration of sighting
b Horizontal plane to E. Instantaneous disappear-| conform +: zettern, Case listed as astro-
3 ance. nomical; ==ateor.
i 2. White objt leaving rrail like smcke persis-
i [ ting for 4 min. No sound. Zcrizontal flight W-E
3
A EG [ 4 or 2 J or of TH
k ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 EP 52)

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28995616