Spokane, WashingtonSeptember 1951

Between September 3 and 8, 1951, multiple Air Force personnel in Spokane, Washington reported seeing unusual objects in the sky. The Air Force investigated these sightings and ultimately classified the case as unidentified, though the file is incomplete.

The sightings fell into two distinct groups. On September 2 and 3, several witnesses including an Air Force captain and his wife saw a bluish-white light about the size of an automobile headlight moving at high speed and low altitude. The light left a fiery trail behind it. These sightings lasted only seconds. On September 3, an Air Force major observed three bronze-colored disk-shaped objects, each roughly 20 to 30 feet across, through binoculars. These objects appeared out of the northwest, moved erratically, and sometimes hovered. The major watched them for three to four minutes.

The Air Force investigation notes that some witnesses believed the bluish-white lights were meteors or fireballs, though no definitive conclusion was reached. The file does not explain why the three disk-shaped objects and the bluish-white light events were grouped together as a single case, or whether investigators thought they were related. The case file notes marked "Insufficient Data" for the final conclusion, indicating the investigation was inconclusive.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spanning 8 pages of microfilm.