Palm Springs, CaliforniaFebruary 1955

Unidentified

Summary

# Summary

On the evening of February 19, 1955, a group of people on a beach near San Diego, California saw an unusual object in the sky. The witness who filed the report was Paul W. McKim, a 23-year-old yeoman third class in the U.S. Pacific Fleet. At 6:45 p.m. local time, McKim and others on a beach party looked up at the stars and spotted a blue streak moving across the sky.

The object appeared to be made up of five separate formations flying together. The witnesses described seeing groups arranged as 2-2-3-2-1, with three of the objects flying in a tight V-formation. The objects made no sound as they moved. McKim watched as the three-object formation started to dive slightly and then faded from sight due to distance. The entire sighting lasted between three and five seconds for each group that passed overhead.

The Air Force investigated the sighting and noted that the description suggested the witnesses may have observed a meteor shower. A transport aircraft was also taking off from San Diego at the time, heading north. Despite these possible explanations, the Air Force's official evaluation of the case remained unidentified. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives across 7 pages.

Reported location

Palm Springs, California

Date of incident

February 1955

State / country

CA / US

Page count

7 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 22

dn I PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD ; | I. DATE : i 2. LOCATION sR © 1% coNcLURIoNE [ 2 Yas Balloon ——19 February 1955 | palm Snrin #S,—California |g Probably Balloon ; 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION | Riis s otal. 1035 PST RIC SEAN “TX Ground- Visual 0 Ground-Radar “ul f Was Aircraft i “0 Probably Aircraft i oMT__19/1835Z DETTACER ERC 0 Air Visual (®] Air-Intercept Radar 0 Possibly Aircraft 5. PHOTOS 6. SOURCE 0D Was Astronomical ; O Yes O Probably Astronomical X31 No Civilian 0 Possibly Astronomical : 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION TG. ‘NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE ~~ TRE LC ER ES 0 Insufficient Duta for Evaluation q ; 0 Unknown he SHB ADMLS | one | SEIS LLRER, |enae 10, BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS Solid, round, very bright, faded or Probably a/c sighting, y went into cloud, BE ER pe Prete perm et Es SURRENDER ATIC FORM 329 (REV 256 SEP 52)