Norman Mesa, NevadaJanuary 1960

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the night of January 4, 1960, pilots and crew members aboard two commercial airliners spotted a bright, fast-moving object with blue and yellow flames over Mormon Mesa, Nevada. The sighting occurred at 0530Z (roughly 10:30 p.m. local time). The object appeared to be traveling at an altitude of 20,000 to 25,000 feet and resembled a missile of some sort. It moved in a southwest direction at high speed and vanished after about five seconds.

The witnesses were experienced aviation professionals. United Airlines Flight 140, heading to Denver at 17,000 feet, and TWA Flight 207, heading to Las Vegas at 13,000 feet, both had clear views of the object. An Air Force radar site in the area was unable to detect anything on its instruments despite the object's apparent proximity and brightness.

The Air Force investigated by checking for satellite activity, aircraft traffic, and natural phenomena. No radar confirmation was possible. Weather conditions at the time included scattered clouds at 12,000 feet with unlimited visibility at higher altitudes. After reviewing the case, Air Force analysts concluded the object was probably a meteor. This assessment agreed with the opinion of Dr. Bidelman of Lick Observatory, a professional astronomer. The unusual combination of the blue and yellow flame and the object's apparent missile-like shape led analysts to rule out a conventional aircraft or balloon, but the rapid movement and visual characteristics matched those of a bright meteor entering the atmosphere.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, across 7 pages of microfilm.

Reported location

Norman Mesa, Nevada

Date of incident

January 1960

State / country

NV / US

Page count

7 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 37

Fi pa Cis: Tr pr id wo on ET srr tery . . - or Tr rm r——— JD : PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD I. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS NA January . Vo ae NR "a 3 Was Balloon JB January 19560 aormon Mesa, asvada 0 Probably Bellaon 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION Soin Abed ill ; 0 Was Aircraft Local ER glib sual O Ground-Radar 1 Probably Aircraft | SAE you 44S { i i cht. 0204 Air Vi sual D Air-Intercopt Radar |B Possibly Aircraft 5. PHOTOS 8. SOURCE ,0 Was Astronomical X 0 Yos 3 Probably Astronomical 2 C30 ; HiMe Civilian 0 Possibly Astronomical | aR 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE [BBE ORI praise dbitangan bh be Soli 0 Insufficient Data for Evaluation 5 Second Max One SW Bi AnEDewn 10, BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS 1 22 and yellow flame, appearing as a Description is typical of a meteor, missile of some sort. Obsarved at 20-25,000 g ; feet and disappeared at same altitude, No radar pickup. . i ? i - rlines Ir) TWA, Eg ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 32) [J NRE BS Tae eli BS A . : :