Newburgh, N.Y., November 1948 - Incident Number: 219November 1948

Insufficient Data

Summary

On November 29, 1948, a ninth-grade student in Newburgh, New York, reported seeing an unusual object in the sky. The girl said she was standing with two friends at the corner of Concord Street and First Street when she looked north and saw what she described as a bright ball of fire with a long tail. The object lasted only about two seconds, she reported, moving from east to west and disappearing below the horizon. She said it was larger than shooting stars she had seen before and compared it to a comet with a blue tail.

The Air Force investigated the sighting by checking it against weather balloons released in the area that same day. The time of the sighting lined up closely with a rawinsonde (a weather balloon used to measure upper-atmosphere conditions) launched at Newburgh and a pilot balloon sounding at a nearby location. However, the investigation revealed a problem: the object moved from east to west, but winds at all atmospheric levels that night were blowing from the west. A balloon cannot move against the wind, making the balloon explanation problematic. The witness and her two friends were clear about the direction of movement, and the object's speed appeared to be extremely fast, too quick for a drifting balloon.

In a formal report, the Air Force Weather Service acknowledged that the sighting's timing matched the balloon releases and that little in the witness's description ruled out a burning balloon or meteor. But the eastward-to-westward motion remained unexplained under those theories. The Air Force ultimately listed this case as involving lack of evidence that would support any clear explanation.

The full case file, consisting of 9 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.

Reported location

Newburgh, N.Y., November 1948 - Incident Number: 219

Date of incident

November 1948

State / country

? / XX

Page count

9 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 3

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 9

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28931899