Orly AF France, February 1956February 1956

On a February night in 1956, a C-119 cargo plane climbed out of Marseille, France toward Montelimar with three aircrew members aboard. As the aircraft reached about 2,000 feet, the pilot spotted what he thought was another plane at roughly 350 degrees (west-northwest) and about 10 degrees above the horizon. When the plane climbed higher to 8,500 feet, the object appeared again, now at 270 degrees (due west) and the same angle. The observers described it as a round dot, roughly the size of a star in the night sky. What made it unusual was its color: the object cycled slowly from white to red to green and back to white, each color change taking about 30 seconds. The observers noted that these color shifts were nothing like aircraft navigation lights. As the crew passed near Montelimar at 2,500 feet, the object seemed to move away and fade out gradually over about three seconds, as if it were burning out.

The sighting might have gone unrecorded except for a news story. On February 20, the New York Herald Tribune reported that Orly Air Traffic Control radar near Paris had picked up an unusual blip on Friday night. The blip appeared roughly twice as large as a normal airliner on the radar screen and moved at estimated speeds over 1,500 miles per hour. The Orly radar picked up the target for about four hours. When the aircrew read the article, they connected their sighting to the radar report and filed an official Air Force intelligence report.

The Air Force's investigation found the radar signal intriguing, but the explanation focused on the visual sighting. The intelligence officer noted that Venus was visible that evening at about 55 degrees elevation and roughly 10 degrees altitude at the time of the sighting. The report suggests the pilot likely saw an aircraft taking off and then observed Venus for the duration of the observation. Regarding the Orly radar blip, the report notes it was an unofficial report from a newspaper and that all other radar stations in the area failed to detect the target, suggesting it may have been due to a radar malfunction rather than an actual object.

The full case file, consisting of 13 pages as held by the National Archives microfilm T1206, Roll 24, is reproduced below.