South Of Macao, China, June 1959June 1959

In June 1959, crews flying reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea reported seeing unidentified objects near Macao. The sightings raised questions that Air Force investigators struggled to answer.

On June 21, a B-66 aircraft at 34,000 feet spotted eight spherical objects arranged in four pairs. The objects appeared dark in color and roughly 25 to 70 feet across. They were spaced about 200 to 300 yards apart within each pair, with roughly fifteen nautical miles between pairs. A ship was visible at either end of the formation. The crew noticed that one pair moved closer together as the aircraft approached. The pilot reported detecting a three-beam radar signal that seemed to come from the area of the objects, though later analysis suggested this signal came from a commercial radar source unrelated to the sighting.

Air Force analysts in Ohio responded with skepticism about the crew's ability to judge what they had observed from that altitude. They noted that a 25-foot object at 34,000 feet would be too small to see clearly without optical aids, making it nearly impossible to determine its color or measure shadows. The analysts raised several possibilities, including that the objects might be captive balloons supporting a communications line between the ships, or low-lying clouds misidentified as solid objects. They requested additional information about weather conditions, how long the sighting lasted, and how the crew had estimated the size and altitude of the objects.

A second sighting on July 3 involved a different B-66 crew that observed sixteen objects in an irregular group, with some appearing cream-colored and oval or oblong in shape. On July 4, the same crew reported five objects through cloud cover that resembled fishing boats. The file notes that the crew's experience flying in the Far East was good, but the altitude of observation still limited how much detail they could provide.

Air Force records show that officials at U.S. Navy headquarters in the Philippines suggested the June objects might be meteorological devices (weather instruments), while the July objects could have been fishing craft or balloons carried by ocean currents. The file contains radar film from one mission but notes that the other films did not show clear reflections due to poor weather. The full case file, reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spans 18 pages.