Project Blue Book Case File
New Orleans, May 1949May 1949
Summary
On May 18, 1949, a woman sitting in her backyard in New Orleans watched an unusual disc-shaped object move slowly from east to west. She sat watching for about ten minutes while it traveled in an end-over-end spinning motion at an altitude of about 45 degrees above the horizon. The object was silver in color, flat like a dinner plate, and roughly the size of a small training aircraft. She estimated its distance at one to one and a half miles away. There was no sound, no trail, and no maneuvers other than its steady eastward motion and spinning.
The next day, May 19, another New Orleans woman reported seeing a similar object from her back steps. This observer watched for about five minutes as the object moved east to west at a similar altitude and distance. She also described it as silver, disc-shaped like a dinner plate, and silent. She compared its speed to a single-engine Naval training plane she had seen before, estimating it at between 150 and 170 miles per hour.
On May 20, 1949, a professor at Tulane University who was also a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve witnessed an even more dramatic sighting from Pontchartrain Beach. He first saw one bright, shiny object, then five smaller ones grouped around it. All were silver-colored and flat or spherical in shape. The objects circled over the New Orleans airport for approximately 23 minutes before one of them rotated on a horizontal axis and disappeared. There was no sound, and the weather was clear with unlimited visibility.
In addition to the New Orleans sightings, the file also describes several other incidents from May 1949 across the region. In Dallas on May 21, between 8:45 and 9:00 p.m., multiple civilian observers reported seeing anywhere from 20 to 75 flat, circular objects moving east to west at extremely high speed, estimated at 800 to 1,000 miles per hour. The objects were visible for only about three seconds. On May 30, thirteen enlisted men at Fort Bliss, Texas, observed an object in the air for approximately five minutes. Two days earlier, two more Fort Bliss soldiers reported seeing an object in the area. On June 5, a captain at Wingate Ordnance Depot near Gallup, New Mexico, saw an orange spherical object for about five seconds that left a white smoke trail lasting about 15 minutes.
The U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations compiled these reports and forwarded them to the Technical Intelligence division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. The investigation included interviews with the witnesses, weather reports, and background checks. Most of the witnesses were considered reliable by the investigators, and none had criminal records. The file indicates that the weather at the time of the New Orleans sightings was clear with good visibility.
The complete case file as held by the National Archives, spanning 34 pages of investigation records, is reproduced below.
Reported location
New Orleans, May 1949
Date of incident
May 1949
State / country
? / XX
Page count
34 scanned pages
USAF evaluation
unknown
Microfilm
T1206, Roll 5