Pennsylvania, OhioJune 1949

On the night of June 26, 1949, around midnight (0005 hours), several observers in Pennsylvania and Ohio saw what appeared to be an unusually large and bright meteor streaking across the sky. The object was described as a blue-green glowing disc, roughly one-half to two-thirds the size of a full moon, traveling southward at high speed. It moved through about twenty degrees of arc in three to three-and-a-half seconds before disappearing behind a house. The observation lasted only one to five seconds depending on the observer's vantage point.

The primary witness was a civilian observer in Media, Pennsylvania, who provided a detailed written statement. He noted that the object appeared five degrees below the star Altair in the Big Dipper constellation. Unlike a typical meteor or fireball, the phenomenon produced no hissing sound, no thunder, and left no visible trail of light. The observer calculated that if the object was roughly fifty miles away, its altitude might have been around twenty miles and its speed approximately seven miles per second, though these figures were rough estimates based on the limited information available. Other witnesses from Conshohocken, Pennsylvania and locations in New Jersey reported seeing what was likely the same event, describing it as either a rocket or a very bright meteor.

The U.S. Air Force's Office of Special Investigations conducted interviews with the witnesses and consulted with astronomers, including the director of the Flower Observatory at Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, and the director of the School of Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania. These experts classified the phenomenon as a fireball, a type of exceptionally bright meteor. They noted that the diameter of the object had been estimated at about one-half degree of arc. The Observatory director stated he was very confident the event was a fireball, though he noted he lacked enough witness reports to trace the object's actual course by triangulation.

The Air Force conclusion on the case file indicates the phenomenon was a fireball. The complete 15-page case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.