Long Beach, CaliforniaNovember 1957

On the afternoon of November 5, 1957, Major Lewis F. Baker Jr. and two other weather observers at Long Beach Air Force Base spotted several small, metallic objects moving erratically near a thunderstorm about ten miles to the northeast. The objects appeared as bright as coins and moved with sudden, jerky motions, darting in and out of the storm clouds over roughly 90 seconds before vanishing into the clouds.

Major Baker called out the other observers to watch. The group noted that the objects moved too rapidly and unpredictably to be aircraft, and they detected no sound. The objects seemed to glow brighter than the dark storm clouds behind them. All three observers were experienced weather personnel with military backgrounds. Baker himself had served 27 years in the Air Force, with 17 years as a weather observer.

The Air Force investigation that followed was thorough. Investigators contacted the Federal Aviation Administration office for the Los Angeles area, local radar centers, weather stations, nearby military bases, and commercial airports. They learned that weather balloons had been released in the area around the time of the sighting. They also confirmed that at least ten aircraft were in the vicinity of Long Beach Airport during the incident, though none matched the reported behavior. No radar stations reported detecting the objects.

In their conclusion, investigators noted that Major Baker himself had offered a possible explanation: the objects might have been light reflections from ice crystals or sheet ice within the storm, possibly bouncing light from either the sun or from lightning flashes. The Air Force evaluation ultimately classified the sighting as "possibly optical phenomena" related to atmospheric conditions, though the file notes that the true cause could not be definitively determined. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spanning 13 pages.