New Orleans, La., August 1949August 1949

On the night of August 13, 1949, a metal object fell to the pavement at the intersection of Canal and Bourbon Streets in New Orleans, Louisiana. The object was roughly pie-shaped and appeared to be made of a cast aluminum alloy. Its exterior was covered with a dark sooty substance, while underneath the metal had a silvery-gray color. Two sides of the object were rough, as if it had been broken from something larger, but its rounded edge looked finished. The piece was small, varying in thickness from one-eighth inch to half an inch.

A New Orleans police officer on duty at the intersection heard a sharp explosion at approximately 2145 hours (9:45 p.m.), followed about five minutes later by a whirring sound that ended with the metallic clatter of an object striking the ground about ten feet away. The officer did not actually see the object fall, but he took it into custody. A news vendor at the intersection and a railroad worker parked nearby also witnessed the incident, though their accounts differed on details, and neither clearly saw the object in flight. Building inspections found no evidence that the object had fallen from any nearby structure.

The Air Force sent the object to its Materials Laboratory for analysis. Metallurgists found that it was indeed a cast aluminum alloy of ordinary commercial quality, similar to standard aircraft or industrial casting material. The dark coating on the surface contained calcium carbonate and other elements. The deposit showed wave patterns suggesting hot gases had passed over it at high speed. The examination revealed nothing exotic about the metal itself, but it did not establish where the object had come from or what its original purpose was.

The file's contradictions about what witnesses actually saw left the central question unresolved. The police officer reported hearing the object fall from above, but other witnesses said he did not know about it until called to the scene. The news vendor first claimed not to have seen the object until it struck the pavement, then later said it had fallen from the air. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 15 pages.