Queens College Flushing Long Island, NYMay 1956

Insufficient Data

Summary

On May 31, 1956, a student at Queens College in Flushing, Long Island saw an unusual object in the sky. The witness described it as white and roughly half the size of an airliner. According to the report, the object was traveling at high speed and appeared to follow an airline aircraft before suddenly accelerating and disappearing from view. The entire sighting lasted between five and ten minutes.

The object's size and speed caught the attention of Air Force investigators. In their evaluation, officers noted that the object's dimensions and velocity were consistent with a jet aircraft. The Air Force concluded in the case file that the object was "probably a jet aircraft," which would explain both the observed size and the impressive burst of speed reported by the witness.

The case file does not indicate whether any photographs were obtained or whether additional witnesses corroborated the sighting. A report was submitted two hours after the initial sighting, which the Air Force noted in its analysis.

This case file, consisting of 22 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

Queens College Flushing Long Island, NY

Date of incident

May 1956

State / country

NY / US

Page count

22 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 25

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 22

View transcribed text

ATW ‘ Jes SPadlig Oh FRE BOs TN CET CTE Fe Lr AL Fu JPOP ORTIIL ETI 13 FTA1S 15 Wl gr mad pom Pe 0 TIRE PRE gl JE Sim TS Ee ER tir ae RE ER EabES. IL Ta
RE Dy PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD :
1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
Queens College 0 Was Balloon
31 May 19586 Flushing Long Island, NY a prebably Balloon
3, DATE-TIME GROUP 2. TYPE OF OBSERVATION ossibly Balloon
) : Q_ Wos Aircraft
lh i
Loca — XX) Ground- Visual O Ground-Radar Probably Aircraft
I GMT 0 Air Visval 0 Air-Intercept Radar 0 Possibly Aircrait
j 5. PHOTOS . SOURCE 0 Was Astronomical
XH Yes not 0 Probably Astronomical
aN received student O Possibly Astromomical
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 5. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE BOM
: 2 nplciciant Dato for Evaluation
ES nknown
5-10 minutes one not given
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS
White object, half the size of airlines Size and speed of object indi-
a/c traveling at geeat speed. Followe cates jet a/c.
airlines a/c and eventmally passed it
with great burst of speed, then faded : Wo
from sight.
ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)
; : ral
8 : L] ie ; 3 : [ E) 3 ‘
SE I HT EC SS SE I Re EE
FR ERE RE ee
i tet LF pl iy 08 Wad:

/ 22

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28965752