Mangham, LouisianaMay 1960

Unidentified

Summary

On the morning of May 22, 1960, a man preparing to shoot blackbirds near Mangham, Louisiana spotted an unusual object in the sky. He called his wife over to look. The object was round and basketball-sized, with a shiny, glittering surface that sometimes looked brilliant like fire and sometimes like silver. As they watched, the shape changed from round to tubular and back to round again. At times it seemed to have a tail roughly as long as the object itself. The couple watched it move steadily from north to south across the sky with no sudden maneuvers. The sighting lasted about two hours.

Several other people in the area saw the object that morning. A parish sheriff who was also a licensed civilian pilot said he was certain it was a weather balloon. Two interceptor aircraft were sent from nearby England Air Force Base to chase it down, but they had no success.

The investigation moved quickly because England Air Force Base's weather office had definite information about what the object was. Officials there stated positively that the object was a weather balloon that had been released at another location. This identification moved it from the category of unknown object to known object. The Air Force officers who investigated the case, along with the Intelligence Division chief at Barksdale Air Force Base, agreed with this conclusion. They determined the object was, in all probability, a weather balloon.

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

Reported location

Mangham, Louisiana

Date of incident

May 1960

State / country

LA / US

Page count

8 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 38

CC - — " See » i Deere PT ton EE Ee a LL pvpsr—— RE PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD BAHB08 2 mE DATE ~ 12. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS 22 May 60 Mangham, Louisiana © Probably Balloon | 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION G. Possibly Balosn | A FE RAD Sr Cf Ground- Visual 0 Ground-Rodor 8 oe og AR oft oMT___22/1230Z 12302 0 Air Visval O Air-Intercept Radar |O Fossitly Aiverate 5. PHOTOS &" . RCE - to ig isd a | { ] 3 o <i | Civilian O Possibly Astronomical nid | 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE BDI icin ainsi 0 Insufficient Data for Evaluation 2 hrs one N-S O Unknown | | 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS : | Shape changed while observer watched from round England AFB weather office definitely to tubular and back to round, size of basket- |identified the object as a weather ballooch. ball, shiny, glittering, sometimes brilliant ~~ :@ - like fire, sometimes like silver. At times the : object seemed to have a tail which was aprox ; | |as long as the object itself. ; ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 82) ' i F000 0 A on SAAR Sa ;