San Jose, Calif, February 1950February 1950

On the evening of February 7, 1950, in the San Jose area and over Alameda Naval Air Station near Oakland, California, multiple witnesses reported seeing an unusual cone-shaped object moving slowly through the sky. The sightings began around 5:30 p.m., when a shop owner in San Jose watched what he described as a small single-engine airplane with a red fiery tail pass low over his street. Nearly simultaneously, observers in Berkeley and on a Southern Pacific commuter train between San Carlos and Palo Alto reported similar sightings. The object appeared cone-shaped, roughly 30 feet long, and was either bright red or silvery depending on the observer's vantage point.

The Air Force later interviewed six observers near Alameda, including a Navy officer and civilian employees at the naval air station. They described the object as bright silver, moving slowly at first (around 60 to 70 miles per hour) while hovering at times, then suddenly shifting from a vertical to horizontal position. Most witnesses reported an altitude between 2,500 and 5,000 feet. One observer noted an exhaust trail resembling that of a jet engine, while another saw none. The object made no sound. At one point it appeared to tilt on its side and accelerate to 75 to 95 miles per hour, moving southeast before disappearing.

Alameda Naval Air Station confirmed they had not launched any meteorological balloons that day. A retired Army colonel who witnessed the event proposed that the object was likely an airplane that had emitted a cone of exhaust vapor and that the setting sun illuminated this cone, making it appear red to him but gray or invisible to other observers. The Air Force investigation concluded the sighting with the object remaining unidentified, though no formal statement of that conclusion appears in this file. The full case file contains 13 pages and is held by the National Archives.