SAUDIA ARABIA, November 1953November 1953

On the evening of November 27, 1953, two separate objects were spotted from the ground near Dhahran Air Force Base in Saudi Arabia. The first sighting occurred around dusk. An observer saw a small, round, silver object about the size of a pinhead descending steeply from 20 degrees above the horizon down to 5 degrees. The object vanished abruptly, like a light switching off. The entire sighting lasted about one second.

Roughly two hours later, around 1540 (3:40 p.m.), another object appeared. This one was round and flat, resembling a dime spinning on its vertical axis. It had a reflective, silver side that caught the light. Unlike the first object, this one moved horizontally across the sky through an arc of about 20 degrees. It also vanished suddenly. This sighting lasted about two seconds.

The Air Force investigated both incidents. Weather conditions were clear, with visibility of 10 miles. A weather balloon had been released from Dhahran that day. A civilian aircraft, a Gulf Aviation Dove bound for Bahrain, was in the air during both sightings, but the times and positions did not match the reported objects. The intelligence officer filing the report, First Lieutenant Joseph A. Boyer Jr., noted that the short duration of each sighting and the lack of physical detail made analysis difficult. He offered no preliminary explanation.

The official conclusion for the first sighting was "insufficient data for evaluation." For the second sighting, the Air Force initially concluded it was "astronomical: meteor," noting that the object's movement through a 20-degree arc in two seconds was similar to meteor reports. However, no detailed analysis was provided for either case. The full case file, consisting of 12 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.