PORTUGAL, May 1952May 1952

Insufficient Data

Summary

On May 13, 1952, over towns northeast of Lisbon, Portugal, including Santarem, Cartaxo, and Torres, many people reported an unusual object. The account came from an Azores newspaper and was passed on to U.S. Air Force intelligence. The sighting happened about 11 o'clock and lasted about half an hour.

Witnesses described an object that many said looked like an airplane made of aluminum or painted that color, with an intense reflection. It made strange maneuvers at high altitude, leaving smoke that formed shapes such as circles, squares, and lines. It sometimes traveled slowly and sometimes at great speed, performing acrobatics in a circular course. After half an hour it departed abruptly, leaving smoke clouds that lingered more than an hour. Two fighter aircraft later appeared from another direction.

A newspaper correspondent who watched stated clearly that it was an airplane, with only the movements, speed, and smoke being strange. The U.S. security officer noted the area was about 20 miles northeast of Lisbon, near OTA Airfield, and that the craft could have been one of the new jet aircraft delivered to Portugal under NATO. On the Air Force record card, the case was marked Unknown.

Reported location

PORTUGAL, May 1952

Date of incident

May 1952

State / country

? / XX

Page count

2 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 10

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 2

View transcribed text

A PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD El

30 yl ' . F] ®

2 ’ 55 ee Eee SE Ee TR
i- DATE ( 2. LOCATION : ( | 2. CONCLUSIONS |
i 13 lay 52 ; seasae. {O0t0GRZ 0 Wos Bolloon |
\ O Probably Balloon |
3. DATE-TIME GHOUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION 1 TROY Sevens ;
Locel | REIRER (ZSround- Visual O Ground-Radar o or ag AP |
X . . \
ont__1 3 '/ 360 kd ' 0 Air-Visval O Air-Intercept Rodar Rr Possibly Aircraft pi
!'S. PHOTOCS 8. SOURCE 0 Was Astronomical :

C Yes 1 O Probably Astronomical
ip Pie Iewspapex O Possibly Astronomicol :
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE BE ais |.

: ), -. DO Insufficient Dato for Evaluation |
+ how 1 ZL Unknown
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING p 11. COMMENTS ofs :
Alninum color Shape - a/c. Many and It is possible that the XE was one of

varied. the new jet a/c delivered 16
Portugal under NATO since the incident|

area is approx 20 MI NE of Lisbon.

ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP $2) J
ee a er re re et ee ee Ee —————— ee ———————————— SRY NSN
po PR SB § . RR = or 3 " Chi a a GR as dia

/ 2

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28942121