South Parkersburg, West VirginiaFebruary 1949

On the morning of February 5, 1949, a man driving alone south of Parkersburg, West Virginia, saw a brilliant flash of light that stopped him in his tracks. The sky first lit up white, intensely bright, then shifted to a reddish yellow glow. The whole area around him was suddenly illuminated. The sighting lasted only fifteen to twenty seconds before darkness returned.

The witness, who was traveling toward Elizabeth on U.S. Route 21, did not see a distinct object at first. But as his eyes adjusted, he noticed what looked like molten material. He compared it to a comet with a tail, or to hot metal spewing from a foundry cupola (a cone-shaped oven used in metalworking). The object appeared to be inclining downward toward a hillside to his southwest, about two to three miles away. Drops that resembled molten metal seemed to be falling from its rear. The witness estimated the object was about the size of a four-inch alarm clock, though he acknowledged the distance and darkness made sizing difficult.

The Air Force Office of Special Investigations contacted the witness in Akron, Ohio in May 1949, more than three months after the event. He signed a detailed statement describing his observation. He confirmed he saw no moving objects before the flash, heard no sound, and smelled nothing unusual. The weather that night was clear, though he could not recall exactly where or how the object finally disappeared over or behind the hills. The witness was a factory worker who had been tired from driving, making the trip to visit family near Elizabeth.

The file notes that the witness may have been off by fifteen or twenty minutes on the exact time, and it mentions that other drivers on the road might have seen the phenomenon as well, though they were not located. An interrogator remarked that the observation was probably shorter than the witness estimated. No physical evidence was collected. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, 20 pages.