MORRISTOWN, TENN., October 1952October 1952

On October 3, 1952, at 5:05 p.m., roughly 100 to 150 factory workers leaving their shift in Morristown, Tennessee spotted an unusual object in the sky. The object appeared round and transparent, with a good-sized trail of smoke behind it. It flew at an altitude of about 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the ground, traveling in a straight line from north to south toward Newport, Tennessee.

The object moved at roughly the same speed as a transport airplane, though witnesses thought it was moving faster than typical aircraft. The most striking detail was that nobody heard any sound from it, and there was no visible propulsion system. The object did crab slightly into the wind, meaning it adjusted its course to compensate for wind direction, the way an aircraft does.

An Air Force radar controller on duty at a nearby facility tried to track the object on his equipment when the report came in but found no radar contact in that area. Weather conditions at the time were clear with 58 miles of visibility. Air traffic records showed no aircraft reported over Morristown at that exact time, though numerous planes were operating in the general region that afternoon.

The Air Force investigated the report and concluded the sighting was probably a balloon, though the file notes that the evaluation was considered low confidence given the proximity of Knoxville Air Force Base and commercial air routes to the area. The full case file, seven pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.