Miami, FloridaMay 1954

On a day in May 1954, a civilian in Miami, Florida, looked up and saw something unusual in the sky. The object was round and silvery white, about the size of a basketball. Around it seemed to be smoke or vapor. The witness watched for about 20 minutes as the object moved from northwest to northeast, climbing higher into the air. At one point, it appeared to give off sparks.

The Air Force investigators noted that the object grew brighter as it gained altitude. It moved with a steady direction and seemed to follow the wind. The witness was confident in what they had seen, though the OCR quality of the handwritten responses on the official questionnaire makes some details difficult to read with complete certainty.

Based on the evidence, the U.S. Air Force concluded the sighting was probably a balloon. An object moving steadily with the wind and growing smaller as it climbed fit the profile of a weather or research balloon drifting away on the breeze. The Air Force classified this case as unidentified, meaning it could not confirm the exact nature of what was seen, but the most likely explanation was a balloon.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 11 scanned pages.