PENNINGTON NJ, [ILLEGIBLE] 1952Circa 1952

On the night of July 22, 1952, five people aboard a civilian airplane near Pennington, New Jersey, spotted an unidentified object in the sky. The observers reported seeing a bright light traveling in front of their aircraft, moving from northeast to southwest. The object remained at a constant distance from the plane the entire time. The witnesses watched it for two or three minutes before it simply drew out of sight.

The Air Force investigated the sighting through the 55th Air Defense Group. A staff sergeant interviewed the airplane crew and passengers, who described the object as a light with either a reddish or orange tint. The witnesses could not make out a clear shape and offered conflicting estimates of its size, though some thought it was slightly larger than an average star. No one heard any sound, saw any exhaust, or noticed any unusual engine features on the object. The airplane crew said the mysterious object appeared to be following them and maintaining the same speed.

The weather that night was very clear and extremely hot, with high humidity and no breeze. There were no clouds in the sky, and multiple aircraft were flying in the area. Several of the witnesses noted that many fireflies had been out that evening, and some suggested the object might have been flying in formation with the airplane. The Air Force officers conducting the investigation found the witnesses to be reliable and credible, with no indication they had been drinking or were otherwise unreliable observers. However, no additional reports of similar incidents were found for that date, and no other aircraft in the area reported seeing anything unusual.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 12 pages.