Miami, FloridaFebruary 1962

Unidentified

Summary

On the evening of February 14, 1962, four people sat by the swimming pool at the Key Biscayne Hotel in Miami, Florida, and saw a bright light moving across the clear night sky. The light was as bright as the brightest star visible and moved roughly from west to east. The witnesses initially thought it might be Echo, an American satellite they had seen before.

As the object drew closer to the moon, it grew dimmer. The witnesses assumed the moon's brightness was washing out their view and expected to see the object reappear on the other side of the moon. They watched for about 20 minutes, but it never came back into view. They estimated the object should have crossed the moon's glare in no more than two minutes, yet it vanished completely.

The Air Force investigated the sighting and concluded the object was probably an aircraft. According to the case file, the witnesses likely lost sight of the object when it approached the bright moon. The file suggests several explanations for why the object did not reappear as expected. The witnesses' eyes may have adjusted to the brightness of the moon and lost their night vision, making them unable to see the object as it emerged. Alternatively, the object may have changed direction while in the moon's glare and did not emerge from the side of the moon where the witnesses were watching. The file notes that the moon itself was fully illuminated (in the twilight or "new" phase is unclear from the OCR) at the time of the sighting.

This case file, marked as "unidentified" by the Air Force, consists of 11 pages held by the National Archives.

Reported location

Miami, Florida

Date of incident

February 1962

State / country

FL / US

Page count

11 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 44

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 11

View transcribed text

3 : PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD |
i 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
| 14 Feb 62 Miami, Florida B Provably Ballean
E 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION sicher is bo
i (Tr ty” 1 8 NSO SO osu R Ground- Visual 0 Ground-Radar = a eats : {
4 SE ISIORIBR O Air Visual O Air-Intercept Radar 0 Possibly Aircraft |
h S. PHOTOS . SOURCE O Was Astronomical
: 0 Yes DO Probably Astronomical |
3 B No | Civilian O Possibly Astronomical
EE 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9- COURSE d Othet io ——
3 O Insufficient Data for Evaluation
is ) QO Unknown \
R, : L-€ min & | E/NZ
: 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING Ctit appearing 2s 1igat |W. COMMENTSOL jt viewad by witnesses was
3 : nA as bright as lst magnitude star was probably an a/c. sfc was lost fm view A
: ~hrarved by witnesse: Im K2Yy Bisca ne, Miami, | as it approached mocn due Lo brightness
b Tiopida. Obit which appeared to hange bright- of that body. boon was TW5 illuminated
1 ne33 was observed until it approach i moon at time of sighting. ObJt (a/c) was not
: a+ which tine it faded. Cbjt was ;oserved ~pserved fm vicinity of moon, this
1 generally overhead and ‘ndicent lésted L4-© minlcould oe attributed to zany of
- itnesees roported she throught obit was Zcho | following causes singularly or colliectivefy.
n-il it diszsrpeszred behind moon Sng did not 1, Witnesses stared at brignt moon and
Rs r2aDpesT. their coves Lost their zgaption To dark-
i nes: and Shey missed objt &s IU emerg2ad
E 2. Obj: chenged direction when in moon
glare and did not emerge wasre 2xpected.
QVER
ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)
-p

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28996252