Massapequa Park, New YorkOctober 1957

Unidentified

Summary

On the evening of October 31, 1957, a retired naval aviator living in Massapequa Park, New York, witnessed an extraordinarily bright object that moved rapidly across the sky. He described the object as traveling from south to north, passing through roughly 120 degrees of the horizon in approximately six to seven seconds. The object's brilliance exceeded that of Sirius or the brightest planets by a factor of about ten times.

The witness, a former FBI agent, noted that the object's course appeared to remain level with the horizon as it traveled. He discounted the possibility of a meteor despite the object's extreme speed and brightness, partly because of the flat trajectory he observed. The Air Force received no corroborating reports from radar, aircraft, or air operations in the area.

The Air Force evaluated the characteristics and speed described in the witness's account. Despite the witness's skepticism about a natural explanation, the official assessment concluded that the object's features pointed to a meteor. The case file indicates that the witness was confident enough in his observation to contact the Air Force in early December 1957, noting his professional experience as justification for reporting the sighting. In January 1958, the Air Force granted permission for the witness to publish his account.

The full case file, consisting of 10 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

Massapequa Park, New York

Date of incident

October 1957

State / country

NY / US

Page count

10 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 29

J “oe PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD | [3 | 1. DATE | 2. LOCATION | 12. CONCLUSIONS | 2 fal : 2 0 Wos Balloon S51 October 19067 Massapequa Park, New York D Probably Balloon | ee ee ee eee eee ee de] Poss bly Baolloon { 3. DATE-T!ME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION | : INA 9 Oe Vi L O Was Aircraft fT EG RE (Nt Si DXGround-Vi sual DO Ground-Rador QO Probably Aircraft GMT. 01/ 01307 Nov O Air Visual O Air-Intercept Radar 0 Possibly Aircraft | 5. PHOTOS 8. SOURCE 0 Was Astronomical MO Loo QO Yes DO Probably Astronomical XX No Civilian (Pilot & X FBI) si dss Sd ig 7. LENGTH OF.03SERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE CD ER Se 0 Insufficient Data for Evaluation Sl A SH a a 1. - H a 0 Unknown d not given /6-7 seconds one North 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS gsi "An extremely bright object was seen Although observer tends to traveling very fast, (120 dgr in discount the possibility of a | ahout 6.7 seconds), No reports of an | meteor, the characteristics, - UFO from radar, aircraft, air opera- | speed and description all point tions or others from that area, to the object being a meteor, ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) | Ek 5B i