Nitro, W. Va., July 1959July 1959

In July 1959, a visitor to Nitro, West Virginia reported seeing what he believed were two flying saucers. The witness described them as circular discs that gave off a luminous glow and had blinking lights. The sighting occurred late at night. The objects appeared to move from northwest to west. The witness noted that a plane came over shortly after the sighting, which made him wonder if what he saw might have been flares or some other aircraft-related device rather than something unknown.

The witness did not report the sighting immediately. It was not until October 4, 1959, nearly three months later, that he wrote to the Department of the Air Force. In his letter, he mentioned that an Air Force staff car had passed by his home the morning after the sighting, which struck him as a possible coincidence. The Air Force responded by asking him to complete a detailed questionnaire so the Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base could analyze the report.

The witness filled out the Air Force form, though much of his written responses are difficult to read in the scanned documents. He estimated the objects were about the size of a straw hat as they appeared to him. He said they seemed to disappear into a clump of trees without making sound. According to the case record card, the Air Force later indicated that the case appeared to involve an aircraft sighting rather than an unidentified phenomenon, though the file notes that no additional witnesses came forward and the analysis found nothing unusual about the report.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 14 scanned pages.