Southwestern Canada, May 1960May 1960

On the evening of May 24, 1960, three separate observers in southwestern Canada reported seeing a glowing object that appeared to be falling from the sky. The sightings took place within a few minutes of each other and involved military personnel: a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot and another officer flying over Comox Air Station in British Columbia, an airman stationed at Saskatoon Mountain, and personnel at the Baldy Hughes station, also in British Columbia.

All three observers described the same object in much the same way. It was round and green, roughly the size of an orange, with an orange tail that emitted sparks. The object appeared to be losing altitude as it traveled from east to west. The airborne observers, flying at 22,000 feet, saw it descend in an arc over about five to eight seconds before it dropped below the horizon and vanished. The observers on the ground saw it disappear at roughly the same time from their vantage points.

The U.S. Air Force investigators received an important piece of information from the Royal Canadian Air Force headquarters in Ottawa. A meteorite had fallen to earth about 48 miles southeast of Jasper, Alberta, at almost exactly the same time as the three sightings. This detail became key to understanding what people had seen. Based on the description of a green, glowing object with a bright tail moving downward at speed, along with the confirmed meteorite fall in the same region and timeframe, the Air Force concluded that the observers had most likely witnessed a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere and burning up. The case file notes that nothing in the reports suggested the object was anything other than a meteor, and the description fit that conclusion.

The full case file, comprising 11 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.