SE corner of Minnesota, April 1956April 1956

Insufficient Data

Summary

On April 18, 1956, an Air Force pilot reported one object over the southeast corner of Minnesota, between La Crosse, Wisconsin, and Rochester, Minnesota. The report was filed under Project 10073, the Air Force's official record for unidentified flying object reports.

The witness saw one point of light, smaller than the head of a pin at arm's length. It appeared to change through all the colors of the rainbow. The object moved erratically from side to side and was ahead of the aircraft. It faded from sight after about forty minutes. There was no radar contact.

The Air Force concluded the sighting was possibly astronomical, likely the planet Venus or the star Capella. The record said the duration, the color changes, and the positions of those bodies matched the report, and that the lack of radar contact supported this finding.

Reported location

SE corner of Minnesota, April 1956

Date of incident

April 1956

State / country

? / XX

Page count

4 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 25

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 4

View transcribed text

4 Fs |
3 epee PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD ’ |
‘ ): .f |
1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
; 0 Was Balloon
1 18 April 1956 SE corner of Minnesota DO Probably Balloon |
1 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION | 0 Possibly Balloon |
1 Lyn Joe a SE A A CT NOR 0 Ground- Visual 0 Ground-Radar 2 Probably Alveraft
3 omMT__19/0205Z =~ XR Air Visual 0 Air-Intercept Radar O Possibly Aircraft i
i 5. PHOTOS « SOURCE 0 Was Astronomical (Star/pl net
u 0 Yes 0 Probably Astronomical
XH No Military (AF Pi lot) Possibly Astronomicol
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE Jr RR I :
3 8) agli clear Date for Evaluation
1 forty minutes one | erratic in w|® Unknewr
| 3 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING |". COMMENTS : |
| One point of light, smaller than the The duration of the sighting, |
] head of a pin held at arms length, the changing of colors,%and |
4 appeared to be colors of rainbow, the positionsbf Venus or Capella
£ changing. The object moved erratically as compared with the positions
1 from side to side, Faded from sight of the UFOB, are suggestive that
1 after forty minutes, No pickup on this sighting was possibly gneea
; radar, ted by one of the above mentione
5 heavenly bodies. Fact that obj |
: could pot be picked up on radar
: substantiates this conclusion,
4 " ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 53) :
i
4 a : 4 .

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28965411