Southern Ohio, September 1962September 1962

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the night of September 18, 1962, pilots and ground observers across a wide region from Ohio to Tennessee reported seeing unusual bright lights in the sky. The observations were made during clear conditions with good visibility.

Five commercial airline crews flying over Peoria, Illinois reported a strange bright light roughly 24 degrees above the horizon (about one-quarter of the way up the sky from the horizon). The light appeared very bright and seemed to shine through haze, though the pilots noted there was no visible haze in the area. They watched it for about ten minutes and said it did not move. The airline crews did not offer an opinion about what they had seen.

Ground observers in the St. Clairsville and Minerva areas of southern Ohio saw something different but related. They watched a funnel-shaped cloud with an extremely bright light at its point. The light flashed for about 30 seconds, then went out. The cloud quickly faded away after the light disappeared. These observers were looking south.

Two Strategic Air Command (a division of the Air Force focused on bomber aircraft) pilots flying northeast over Tennessee at 37,200 feet also reported the sighting. Captain J.F. Krill and Captain W.T. Wetzel, both flying B-47 bombers in formation, saw two bright round objects ahead of a luminous cloud. The objects were higher than their aircraft and moving in a north-northeast direction. Within a few seconds, they faded out of sight.

The objects were observed across a large geographic area stretching from Ohio through Illinois and Michigan down to Tennessee. This wide distribution suggested to investigators that whatever was seen was at considerable altitude.

The Air Force's comments in the file note that past cases of funnel-shaped cloud observations of this nature had turned out to be meteor observations (bright objects burning up as they entered Earth's atmosphere). The file itself concludes the sighting was "probably balloon," though the evidence for this conclusion is not detailed in the available pages.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, totaling 24 pages.

Reported location

Southern Ohio, September 1962

Date of incident

September 1962

State / country

? / XX

Page count

24 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 46

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 24

View transcribed text

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Eo PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD
“ i. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
i eoutnern Ohio; Peoris 3 EE 3 Woes Balloon
| | LS Se piemnoer 1962 Cullman Mich: Nashville Tenn 0 Probably Balloon
3 : ORES sensei FORESTER wi oy SEIU ENOITIIOTE Satin t sh Sutbot IRE Sherfiruciosiott DEE AD ch 2 ZW J BEL HCCC Fu
; sa gs : mdeidecd 13 Possibly Balloon
1 3, DATESTIAZE SCROUP 4, TYPE OF DAZERVYATION
' \ ' .
0 Was Alrsraft |
& i 0 Cround-Roadae Ades
. RR RR 2 Grund. Visual Ground-Roda 0 Probably Airerof? |
3 1X / Nn 0 8 S F | ae 7; bs . foe | H s
: ont _L3/05053 18/0900% 3 Air Visvol 0 Airlntercopt Rodor |B Possibly Aireraft
3 5. PHOTOS 8. SOURCE TL Was Astonamical Mot one
f a Yes Civilian police Military 13 Probably Astronomical
4 Po Roden Sle gr i Shader Balan d tial dey 0 Possibly Astronomical
U B' £1 - i) 4 i | 4 - 3 .
| ToNe eiv linn NW A / i I1nma fs 1 4 3
BF | 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE Co RRR SS DRS
OO Inzufiiciant Date for Evaluation
3 0 Unknown
a i T O51 nla W ol oN oe v : ve “1 % - . roy
1) few seconds 2) 10 mins two NNF
LB 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 1). COMMENTS
jis 1 7 Li a . » i 1 EERE JE EY : : % Et Le : : : :
rE Two bright round large objs ahead of a Rpt essentinlly one of bright lizht
8 : mr FW $8 ro > PEE PBI | A PH Pe ’ PE 4 3 i ot ¢ b Le
| luminous cloud highez than a/c at 37 ] going out & leaving cloud which
. N00 fF 4 FR RE Sores NNT gre ey ? dl Aa iat Rt
5 addin, Objects moving NNE, dissipated, Observed fm Qhio to
4h § EOL TT A 1 owe 1 ~ ~The i. i, ST 2 CSR Ti F R Z La BASE pc
er ¢) ¥ive airlines observed strange bright Illinois & Michigan to Tennessee.
Ga i 3 3 = alk Od T ey) - : w te Ty wn ol - po d+ A 1 3
rE light, very high & shining through hazd, Observation fm such wide area
3 NT a AN TP TS Yee 2 4 i Hy ag i Cy eee A ' s “ . - . .
- x0 movement observed, Rptd to Chica 20 indicates that obj at consider-
i Yantor bu Piva advwlda ik Fah i a 3
5 Sich fr Avy alriipen, able altitude, Cases of this
id PRT 1 TG SRST NY PR RE PR 4 we : 2 .
| 2) round observations Of funnel shaped nature in the past have a lwavs
» ry og Lal Fa v 1 ~~ gi 1 AX 2 1 )
I cloud fm St Clairesville & Minerva 2 turned out to be meteor observa- |
g E Ely = am Aa de ll FL (TNR Ave fi ae el Es
| | Ohio, Light/ flashed for 30 seconds & tions,
| | weal out, Cloud then quickly dissipated.
| Locking south.
{ A a ae A A aA A PS SAA SIR A lr nN Wr) Wl 5 At SMB HOR 0 0 pt da wv we:
ATIC FORM 329 (REY 256 SEP 52)
i be ; EE RRR dS ERR, EE PEE BS Po a a toh \ t ; So VIR a
CA : : :
tr $ 4 } J » .
THES { /

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28999160