See "Elcentro" 13 May 58 For Classified Location, May 1952May 1952

Early on the morning of May 13, 1952, several people in and around El Centro, California reported seeing unidentified objects in the sky. The sightings occurred over roughly a two-hour period and involved witnesses in different locations, including El Centro, the town of Niland, Imperial, and Yuma, Arizona.

At around 4:17 a.m., two officers from the Imperial Police Department reported seeing five bright objects that they described as being as large as B-36 bombers. The objects had lights underneath them. The officers said they watched the objects circle and orbit for about four minutes before three of them vanished and two headed south toward Mexico. They heard no sound.

A few minutes later, a Deputy Sheriff stationed in Niland reported seeing a strange bright light moving up and down in the sky above the south end of the Salton Sea, at an altitude of roughly 3,000 feet. He thought it might be a weather balloon or a flare from a Navy plane.

At the same time, personnel at the El Centro Naval Air Station control tower and military pilots in the area were also reporting sightings. A tower operator in Yuma, Arizona reported seeing an orange and blue object at a distance of about 20 miles. The object appeared to hover in one spot, then move to another spot and hover again. The operator said it was visible for too long to be a falling star or meteor.

The investigation that followed was handled by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Interviews with the witnesses revealed some important details. The Imperial Police officers who reported the five objects were questioned thoroughly, though one had been discharged from the force as unreliable and could not be located. A Navy flight surgeon who interviewed the control tower operator in El Centro concluded that the operator was actually looking at the morning star through binoculars. The pulsating light given off by the star, when magnified, could appear to change colors and seem to move. The investigating officers believed that the Yuma tower operator, based on the location he reported, was likely observing the same morning star.

However, a tower operator interview conducted weeks later at Yuma provided a different account. This operator said he had seen two bright orange objects through 7 by 50 binoculars at around 4:50 a.m. He said they appeared to be about one foot in diameter and were at an altitude of 2,500 to 5,000 feet. He watched them for about thirty minutes as they moved back and forth across the sky, gradually getting farther away. He reported seeing beams of light coming from one of the objects that flashed on and off, and short but continuous trails that looked like flame coming from both objects. He stated the objects were not conventional aircraft and that no military planes from Yuma or El Centro were airborne at the time. He also noted that he had considerable flying experience and had never seen anything like these objects before or since.

The Air Force concluded that some of the sightings, particularly the early morning report of five large objects from Imperial, may have been caused by F9F aircraft from El Centro Naval Air Station that were airborne during that time. The objects described as looking like shooting stars were likely meteors. The Yuma tower operator's sighting was initially attributed to automobile headlights reflecting off the highway, though the operator himself later disputed this explanation when interviewed.

The full case file, consisting of 31 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.