Project Blue Book Case File
Los Alamos, N.M., March 1949 - Incident Number: 274March 1949
Summary
On the morning of March 2, 1949, an AEC security inspector on foot patrol at Station 103 near Los Alamos, New Mexico, spotted a light moving low in the sky. The inspector observed the object for about two seconds before trees blocked the view. During that brief window, the light crossed half of his field of vision, suggesting extremely fast movement. The object appeared dim and steady in brightness, and it traveled in a nearly horizontal path from north to south.
The inspector reported that the object moved so quickly it covered thirty degrees of his line of sight in just two seconds. He described it as self-luminous, meaning it generated its own light rather than reflecting sunlight. The object eventually disappeared behind trees. Weather conditions at the time included thin cloud cover at 20,000 feet.
The Air Force recorded the sighting as incident number 274 and interviewed the observer on the same day. The case file notes that the observer had the security clearance required for employment with the Atomic Energy Commission and was a guard with the Atomic Energy Security Service. No explanation for the sighting appears in the available case materials, and the Air Force made no official determination about what the object was.
The full case file, comprising six pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.
Reported location
Los Alamos, N.M., March 1949 - Incident Number: 274
Date of incident
March 1949
State / country
? / XX
Page count
6 scanned pages
USAF evaluation
unknown
Microfilm
T1206, Roll 4