Logotee, Indiana Crane, IndianaFebruary 1957

On the evening of February 29, 1957, Department of Defense security officers at the U.S. Naval Ammunition Depot in Crane, Indiana saw two unusually lit objects traveling southwest at moderate speed. The objects appeared very large to the witnesses and were covered in white lights along their undersides. One object was barely visible as it passed overhead. The sighting lasted several minutes as observers watched from Jacobson Road near Crane Village.

About an hour later, residents of Logootee, Indiana, located 15 miles south of Crane, reported similar sightings. They observed two objects moving from north to south at moderate speed with flashing white and colored lights. The same witnesses reported seeing a cluster of two or three additional objects flying erratically a few minutes later. Another object was spotted traveling from east to west at an extreme rate of speed, showing similar coloring.

The Air Force interviewed the main witness, a Department of Defense security patrolman from Bloomfield, Indiana. He described the objects as apparently very large based on the long strings of white lights visible on their undersurfaces. He noted that both objects traveled in straight paths from northeast to southwest at speeds consistent with conventional aircraft. The paths of the two objects crisscrossed as they moved. The patrolman heard no sound until he and his partner turned off their truck motor. At that point, they heard a single-engine aircraft sound, but it was not loud enough to match the apparent size of the objects. He stated the sound was definitely not that of a jet engine.

The legal officer at the Naval Ammunition Depot who compiled the report concluded that the two objects were probably conventional aircraft. The Air Force ultimately listed this case as unknown. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives across 20 scanned pages.