North Carolina, Va. Area, September 1959September 1959

On the evening of September 24, 1959, multiple people across North Carolina and Virginia reported seeing a bright, unusual object moving across the sky. The witnesses described it as round or cigar-shaped, glowing green or blue-green in color, with a long white or red tail. It moved slowly and silently from east to west at a low altitude, staying level rather than falling like a typical meteor would.

The sightings came from several locations. At Seymour-Johnson Air Force Base near Goldsboro, North Carolina, a weather observer and several military pilots watched the object for about five to ten seconds as it passed overhead. At Fort Belvoir, Virginia, a military officer driving in a car saw it arc across the sky for about thirty seconds before it disappeared behind the treeline. Another observer near Lynchburg, Virginia reported a thirty-second sighting of a cigar-shaped object with a green body, red nose, and white trail.

The Air Force investigated the case through radar and weather stations in the region. The radar site at Kure Beach, North Carolina did not pick up any target. However, the Air Force found that weather stations at Seymour-Johnson Air Force Base, Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, and Dover Air Force Base in Delaware all reported a large meteor at nearly identical times on the same night. An operations officer concluded that the witnesses "probably saw a large meteor or shooting star," though he noted the observers were puzzled by the object's level flight path and low altitude, which was unusual for a falling meteor.

A civilian observer who submitted a detailed report to NASA several months after the sighting was referred to the Air Force by NASA. The witness indicated the object was exceptionally bright and appeared to move more slowly than a typical shooting star. The Air Force requested he complete a formal sighting report form so they could evaluate the case more thoroughly, but the OCR text does not show whether he ever submitted this additional information.

The complete case file, as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below across 14 pages.