N of Rome, NYOctober 1950

On the evening of November 2, 1950, two flying officers stationed north of Rome, New York reported observing a bright blue-white flash of light. The event occurred at 1935 hours (7:35 p.m.). According to their account, the flash built up for two to three seconds and then suddenly disappeared. They reported no visible object, no sound, and no crater in the area.

The incident drew attention from higher Air Force headquarters, which initially asked the Griffiss Air Force Base intelligence office to investigate whether a meteor had fallen in the region and, if so, whether there was evidence of an impact crater. The base's Office of Special Investigations decided not to launch a formal investigation. They noted that the two witnesses were "apparently reliable" but that other witnesses had been transferred to different stations, making follow-up difficult. They also judged that the incident was too old by the time the inquiry arrived to mount a thorough field investigation.

Within days, however, the mystery was resolved through multiple channels. The Air Force Eastern Air Defense Force contacted Harvard Observatory by way of Boston's Civil Aeronautics Administration. Harvard Observatory confirmed that the event was caused by the Wright meteor group, an expected meteor shower that had been predicted to arrive that night. The same identification was corroborated independently by radar operators at Quonset Point, Rhode Island. Additional reports indicated that the meteor had been sighted from multiple locations across the Northeast, including Watertown, Syracuse, Cleveland, and areas near the Canadian border.

On February 9, 1951, headquarters sent a final directive stating that the phenomena had been confirmed as a meteor by several sources and that no further action was required. The full case file, as held by the National Archives, consists of 11 pages.