N of Lakehurst, New JerseyOctober 1957

Insufficient Data

Summary

On October 8, 1957, two military pilots observed an object north of Lakehurst, New Jersey. The sighting lasted two seconds. The object was round and dim yellow-orange, about twenty times the diameter of a star. It left a long trail of light in the sky and produced a brilliant flash before disappearing. An Air Force intelligence officer concluded that evidence indicated the object was a meteorite, despite the observers claiming it was the brightest thing they had ever seen. The officer noted that a meteor would have been easily spotted by others and submitted the report to help address uncertain sightings, possibly related to a Utah sighting.

Reported location

N of Lakehurst, New Jersey

Date of incident

October 1957

State / country

NJ / US

Page count

3 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 29

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 3

View transcribed text

PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD

1. DATE
8 October 1957

2. LOCATION
N of Lakehurst, New Jersey

3. DATE/TIME GROUP
Air

4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION
Xall Air-Visied [illegible] Air-Intercept Radar

5. SOURCE
Military

6. NUMBER OF OBJECTS
one

7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION
2 seconds

8. COURSE
ENE

9. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING
Round object, size of dimyellow-orange. Trail twenty times diameter of object. Largest brightest ever s seen by observers. Long streak of light in sky. Brilliant flash then died out.

10. CONCLUSIONS
Was Balloon [illegible]
Probably Balloon
Possibly Balloon
Was Aircraft
Probably Aircraft
Possibly Aircraft
Was Astronomical Meteor
Probably Astronomical
Possibly Astronomical
Other
Insufficient Data for Evaluation
Unknown

11. COMMENTS
Evidence indicates meteor.

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28972050