Los Alamos, N.M., October 1949October 1949

# Los Alamos Sightings, October-November 1949

During October and November 1949, personnel at Los Alamos, New Mexico, a major U.S. atomic energy installation, reported multiple sightings of unusual aerial phenomena. The Air Force investigation file contains more than a dozen separate reports from military and civilian observers over a two-month period.

The first documented sighting occurred on October 7, 1949, at approximately 2120 hours (9:20 p.m.). A first lieutenant stationed at Sandia Base was driving east on Albion Avenue, about 300 yards west of the Veterans Hospital, when he spotted a bright yellow-green object above the Sandia Mountains. The object appeared roughly the size of a half-moon, hung at an angle of 34 degrees above the horizon, and plummeted straight down at high speed, dropping 15 degrees in just one second before vanishing behind the mountains. The entire sighting lasted only about one second. The weather was clear, and the officer was looking directly at the object through his car windshield.

Over the following weeks, inspectors and employees at Los Alamos reported seeing additional lights. On October 14, a security inspector at the Anchor Utilities site observed a green and silver luminous object about one-eighth the size of a full moon, traveling from south to north in 3 to 4 seconds. On October 22, two separate sightings were reported: one of a small green light near station 303 that observers believed came from a flare gun, and another of a bright green object as large as four flares, moving from northwest to southeast along the horizon in just 2 seconds. In mid-November, observers at the Anchor Site reported brief sightings of green lights descending vertically, with one witness noting the color shifted from green to yellow or white mid-sighting.

In late November, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission reported to military authorities two additional incidents involving bluish-green lights observed by AEC scientists and laboratory staff. One observation, on November 15 at approximately 1950 hours (7:50 p.m.), described two bluish-green lights similar to burning zinc, initially hovering, then suddenly curving north at meteoric speed with no sound. Another sighting on November 25 at approximately 2000 hours (8 p.m.) involved a yellowish-green point of light brighter than any star, moving from east to west for roughly 90 degrees before disappearing.

The case file includes several reports from locations outside Los Alamos. One letter, dated October 3, 1949, described an unusual sighting near Mount Hope, West Virginia, on October 1. Two residents reported seeing a sheet-metal-like object roughly 4 to 5 feet long, traveling due north at terrific speed with no sound or visible exhaust. Another report documented a sighting near Holland, Michigan, on October 2, 1949, where a witness traveling on a highway observed a shiny, dinner-plate-shaped object that flipped and entered a cloud before reversing direction.

The case file does not indicate a final determination of what caused these observations. Weather information and observer background checks are documented, but the OCR text becomes increasingly fragmented in the latter pages, making a complete assessment of the Air Force's final conclusion difficult to extract from the available file materials.

The full case file, consisting of 16 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.