Pacific 33.05N 134W, June 1959June 1959

On June 18, 1959, just after 2:15 a.m., a United Airlines pilot flying over the Pacific Ocean spotted what he believed was a rocket firing. His aircraft was at 19,000 feet near the coordinates 33.05 degrees north, 134 degrees west, roughly 1,200 miles west of California. A second pilot from a Transoceanic Airlines flight about 120 miles away reported seeing the same thing at the same time.

The United Airlines pilot noticed a flash of intense light first, which caught his attention. The sky then lit up, and he saw four round, fiery glowing objects arranged in two pairs. They were bluish-white in color and appeared quite bright. The objects had no visible tails or trails, made no sound, and moved from west to east. They traveled across his field of view in roughly two seconds before vanishing completely. The copilot, sitting on the right side of the plane, saw only the initial flash. Weather conditions were clear with good visibility.

Because the sighting occurred in an area where the U.S. military was watching for possible Soviet missile tests, the Air Force examined the report carefully. The pilot had estimated the objects were about thirty miles away and moving at high speed, which would suggest speeds around 14,500 miles per hour, similar to a ballistic missile. However, the Air Force considered this unlikely because the objects appeared to be at relatively low altitude with a flat trajectory and seemed to have an active "power plant" still firing. If the distance estimate was actually much greater (hundreds of miles away), the speed would match meteor velocities of around 50,000 miles per hour. The physical descriptions also matched a fireball meteor: the colors, extreme brightness, and overall appearance. The Air Force concluded the object was most likely a meteor.

The full case file, reproduced below as held by the National Archives, contains 13 pages.