Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico, September 1960September 1960

On the evening of September 16, 1960, multiple witnesses across Puerto Rico and the surrounding ocean reported seeing a bright object with a tail streaking across the sky. The sightings occurred near Ramey Air Force Base and were observed by military personnel, civilian air traffic controllers, and crews aboard ships at sea.

The object itself was described inconsistently by different witnesses. Some said it was small, roughly the size of a pea to a half-dollar held at arm's length. Others reported it was much larger, three times the size of a basketball. The color varied from bluish-white to dusky red in different accounts. Most striking was the tail, which witnesses said extended three to five times the object's size. Multiple observers reported seeing twelve or more separate objects, though some witnesses described a single object that broke apart into many smaller lights. One account noted that the lead object appeared larger than the others.

The sightings lasted between twelve and twenty-five seconds. All witnesses reported the object moved in a straight, level path across the sky. It appeared to fade from sight rather than disappear suddenly. The observation began with the object at a high angle of elevation, roughly forty-five to eighty degrees above the horizon, and ended at a lower angle as it moved away. The object moved from a southwest direction to a northeast direction.

The Air Force received reports from multiple sources, including officers and enlisted personnel stationed at Ramey, air traffic control towers at San Juan and Roosevelt Roads, two Navy jet aircraft, and merchant vessels in the Caribbean. The weather was clear with excellent visibility. Initial analysis suggested the sighting might be a satellite reentering Earth's atmosphere or debris from a space vehicle, given the object's reported extreme altitude (estimated at or above forty thousand feet) and rapid movement across a wide geographic area. Ramey AFB received reports indicating the object may have passed over San Juan and continued north-northwest, with one account suggesting it fell into the sea near Aruba.

The file does not indicate a final conclusion about what was observed. The full case file, consisting of twenty pages of declassified documents held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.