Los Angeles International Airport Tower/ Long Beach C, March 1957March 1957

Insufficient Data

Summary

On March 22, 1957, radar at Los Angeles International Airport and Long Beach Municipal tower tracked objects near Los Angeles, California. The case was logged under Project 10073, the Air Force's official record for unidentified flying object reports. The contacts first showed two objects, then one, described as rectangular and about the size of a conventional radar target.

The target was detected about 10 miles northwest of the station on a 320 degree heading. It moved at about 3,500 miles per hour, stopped abruptly at about 40 to 50 miles range, came back toward the station to about 10 miles, stopped again, then went back out beyond the range of the scope. The event lasted about 40 seconds. No visual sightings were reported. The sky was clear with 15 miles visibility.

The senior controller noted that at the time, the station's radar lost its high voltage and went off. The Air Force concluded the contacts were a radar malfunction due to the loss of high voltage at the station.

Reported location

Los Angeles International Airport Tower/ Long Beach C, March 1957

Date of incident

March 1957

State / country

? / XX

Page count

3 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 27

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 3

View transcribed text

» Rd
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PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD
1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
: : ; {
0s Angeles International 0 Was Balloon |
22 March 1957 Iii gigppoyd  tover/Long Beach C|0. Brabehly Bellon
3. DATE-TIME GROUP | 4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION ind aL |
! ; : 0 Was Aircraft i
Local RAE 0 Ground- Visual ¥Ground-Radar QO Prabably Aircraft
: GM ESOT BTN a O Air Yisual C Air-Intercept Redar 0 Possibly Aircraft
: 3. PHOTOS | 5 SOURCE 0 Was Astronomicol il ]
Be } Q Yass ) 30. Probably Astronomical i :
d XE No Civilian 1 Possibly Astronomical |
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE |B XOrherR2dar malfunciijon
: O Insufficient Deta for Evaluation i
: or G % ;
| 0 seconds 2 then 1 | wien
| lio. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING. 111. COMMENTS a ied
"so objects then one --rectangular-- Preparing Officer concur this i :
size of conventional mrget., Speed was radar malfunction due to I .
: approx 3600 MPH. Objects detected 10 ioss of high voltage at station.
miles Northwest of station on a 320 j
{der magnitude. Heading & stopped at
approx «+0 miles range, then mame ; |
back towards station to approx 10 miles : |
: stopped then proceeded on 320dgr mag
A heading beyond range of scope. : |
: ATIC FORM 329 (REV 25 SEP 52)
{ 4 :

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28969376