Southern Victoria Island, Canada, December 1959December 1959

On December 19, 1959, a radar station on Southern Victoria Island in Canada picked up an unidentified radar track. The radar operator tracked the object for one hour and thirty-three minutes. According to the radar data, the object was traveling at a speed between forty and sixty knots (roughly forty-six to sixty-nine miles per hour).

The Air Force was unable to identify what created the radar signature. Investigators examined several possible explanations. They noted that unusual radar propagation effects in the area, caused by a temperature inversion in the atmosphere, might have produced a false echo on the radar screen. They also considered that the echo could have come from permanent radar reflections bouncing off layers of cold and warm air. A third possibility was that the radar had actually detected a balloon drifting on the wind.

To test the balloon theory, Air Force analysts checked weather data on upper-level winds. The direction and speed of the winds matched the object's movement and groundspeed reasonably well, making a balloon a plausible explanation. However, the Air Force noted that they lacked enough information to make a definitive determination.

The case was filed as "insufficient data for evaluation." The Air Force concluded that without additional details about atmospheric conditions and radar performance that day, no thorough analysis was possible. The full case file, consisting of seven pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.