Riverside, CaliforniaFebruary 1956

Unidentified

Summary

On February 15, 1956, a US Navy pilot near Riverside, California reported seeing a cigar-shaped brown object with no apparent details. The object followed a straight and level course at about 30 degrees per second, then disappeared abruptly. The pilot was the only witness. The Air Force concluded the sighting was an optical illusion caused by oddly-shaped contrails from five known aircraft in the area. The observation lasted eight minutes.

Reported location

Riverside, California

Date of incident

February 1956

State / country

CA / US

Page count

3 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 24

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 3

View transcribed text

PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD

1. DATE
15 February 1956

3. DATE/TIME GROUP
Local ___
GMT 15/2040Z

4. PHOTOS
Yes
No [checked]

2. LOCATION
Riverside, California

5. TYPE OF OBSERVATION
Ground-Visual
Air-Visual [checked]
Ground-Radar
Air-Intercept Radar

6. SOURCE
Military (USN Pilot)

7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION
eight minutes

8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS
one

12. CONCLUSIONS
Was Balloon
Probably Balloon
Possible Balloon
Was Aircraft
Probably Aircraft
Possible Aircraft
Was Astronomical
Probably Astronomical
Possible Astronomical
Other
Insufficient Data for Evaluation
Unknown [checked]

9. COURSE
unknown

10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING
One cigar shaped object, brown, with no apparent details. Object followed a straight and level course. Moved through 30 dgr arc in fraction of second. Disappeared abruptly. Pilot first believed the object to be an optical illusion caused by odd shaped contrails.

11. COMMENTS
The straight and level course of the object and the fact that there were five known aircraft in the area leaving contrails leads this hq to the conclusion indicated above.

ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)

/ 3

Use ← → keys to navigate · scans hosted by the U.S. National Archives

Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28964861