South Bay, CaliforniaAugust 1955

Unidentified

Summary

On August 9, 1955, near 4:35 p.m. local time in the South Bay area of California, a 12-year-old civilian reported one disc-shaped object. The Air Force recorded the report under Project 10073, its official record for unidentified flying object reports.

The object looked about the size of a grapefruit held at arm's length. It was silver and sounded like a jet. It flew a straight course to the east. The noise first drew the witness's attention. The sighting lasted about 39 seconds. There was heavy air traffic in the San Diego area at the time.

The Air Force noted the young witness's limited knowledge of aircraft. Officials concluded the witness most likely saw a conventional aircraft, probably a jet, whose reflected sunlight gave it a disc-shaped look. The case was marked as probably aircraft.

Reported location

South Bay, California

Date of incident

August 1955

State / country

CA / US

Page count

2 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 23

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 2

View transcribed text

Va |

ADMIT UR 3 J : N “8 { o 3 -

‘ Rh . UFOS INDEX CARD ;eq pop ogo fe 1
| Tew BIORMEN 11h CoELUsoNS
3 O Wos Balloon :
| 9 August 1955 | South | California EE HLal aan
| | 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION Ror CR mes
(on SOD SRE. & Ground- Visual f 0 Ground-Redar x Sahil Rivers ;
GMT 22352, 9 Aug 1955 O AirVisval “ a Air-intercept Radar O Possibly Aircroft
FE FETE ee | RT] a Se SOE: A em ap |
8 Yes 4 y J LY. Re w) Probably Astronomical
: b Xie | Civilian (12 g old) O Possibly Astronomical
| | 7. LENGTH OF an : 1g NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE : faire - —— RR
"| Thirty-nine (39) Seconds One (1 WtoR
|. [10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING TI. COMMENTS
! Cne (1) disc shaped object, the size of a The age of the observer would limit the
1 grapefruit held at arms length, was silver in observer's inmowledge of objects which
| | color and sounded like a jet, The object flew| would be readily identifiable to the
i a straight course to the east. The noise trained layman. In all probability ;
© | attracted the observer's attanbion. the source saw a conventional aircraft
SE : (Probably jet) which reflecting the
4 : sullight, gave the disceshaped appear
E BRE iss ance, The fact that the object sounded
i 7 Se aan SEI like a Jet and the noise of the object |
. | : nal first attracted the observer's attantiop,
] | in leads to the above checked conclusien,
1 AISOP Form 5 (15 Oct 54) Fr = te : {2 rer ne

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28963106