New York, NYDecember 1959

Unidentified

Summary

# Summary

On December 13, 1959, someone in New York City observed a round, silvery object in the sky for about two and a half minutes. The object appeared solid and moved from west to southwest before disappearing from view. The witness reported the sighting to the Air Force, but did not complete the detailed questionnaire that was sent to them for follow-up.

Because the witness left most of the questionnaire blank, the Air Force lacked key information needed to investigate properly. Critical details were missing, such as the exact time of day, the witness's location in the city, weather conditions, whether anyone else saw the object, and what the witness thought the object might have been. The Air Force noted in its file that there was insufficient information for a valid conclusion.

The Air Force ultimately classified this sighting as unidentified, but the sparse details made serious analysis impossible. The case illustrates a common challenge in Project Blue Book's work: without complete eyewitness accounts, investigators could draw few solid conclusions about what people saw. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spanning 12 pages.

Reported location

New York, NY

Date of incident

December 1959

State / country

NY / US

Page count

12 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 37

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 12

View transcribed text

(ON CIEE ce a eR CL TT Se ep Tee Se ee

| “ 4 PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD |
1. DATE & 2. LOCATION rary 12. CONCLUSIONS
4 i a] ie Balingn
i Yor oo New Tou 0 Probably Balloon

y ie wey IE Erb Boe |
i 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION

i ig ; ow Ai

a Ealn 1600 RAL £3Ground- Visual O Ground-Redar © ui Ald IR

: amt Lh/e 2AORT us 0 Air Visual 0 Air-Intercept Radar O Possibly Aircraft

: 5. PHOTGCS 6. SOURCE 0 Was Astronomical

§ 0 Yass O Probably Atinomi cal {
[y oP ib i {
i Foes & No Civilian ossibly Astronomical |
i 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE oR oF y py CIR GT Tl GA Rs Ger AST

| ; 1X Insufficient Data for Evaluation

; : 0 Unknown

2 mins 30 secs cone | West to SW
i 10. BRIEP SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS
. Rnd, silvery obj w/ sclid appearancs. Insufficient info for a valid conclusioiy.
BB 1 Witness did not complete the form sent flox
additional info, leaving many of the

: ; pertinent spaces blank.

"ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)

§ ’

/ 12

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28985537