Meridian, Miss, November 1950November 1950

On November 13, 1950, military pilots and ground observers in Mississippi reported seeing an unusual object in the sky that remained unidentified by the U.S. Air Force.

The main sighting came from Major B.D. Stephens, a pilot with the 153rd Fighter Squadron of the Mississippi Air National Guard who was also an editor at the Meridian Star. Flying an F-47 aircraft east of Meridian at 3,000 feet, Stephens saw an object that appeared to be made of milky white light, shaped like a horizontal bar or the edge of a bright tilted plate, roughly 450 to 500 feet long and 50 feet wide. It was traveling due west at an elevation of about 15 degrees above the horizon. Stephens climbed to 21,000 feet and pursued the object for about 66 miles at speeds up to 210 miles per hour, but never drew closer. He estimated the object's altitude at 55,000 feet and its ground speed at around 600 miles per hour. The observation lasted approximately 25 minutes until darkness fell near Vicksburg, Mississippi.

The object was also witnessed from the ground. Three mechanics at Key Field near Meridian watched it for about an hour and a half starting around 3:50 p.m., and two control tower operators at Jackson Air Field spotted it through binoculars. Radio stations in Jackson, McComb, and Monroe reported tracking the object's course westward. Local newspapers carried accounts from Brookhaven and other locations of a light or "flying saucer" moving across the sky. One woman reported seeing what looked like a cylinder of flame about five or six feet long at the rear end of the object.

The Air Force investigated the sighting by interviewing witnesses and collecting weather data. Weather conditions on the date were clear with calm to light winds across the region. The file notes that the witnesses were all in good health and of reliable character. Some observers suggested the object might have been a vapor trail from a high-altitude military aircraft such as a B-36 bomber, whose bright vapor trails can be striking at sunset. Stephens himself speculated it could be the vapor effect of a high-flying B-36. However, military radio channels had no record of any scheduled flights in that area at the time. The Air Force investigation concluded with no final determination of what the object was.

The complete case file, as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below across 12 pages.