Springfield and Dayton, OhioMarch 1961

On March 2, 1961, residents in Springfield, Dayton, and Cincinnati, Ohio, along with an observer in Richmond, Indiana, reported seeing a bright glowing object streak across the evening sky. The sightings occurred around 7:30 p.m. local time. Witnesses described the object as a luminous, greenish-white ball with a trailing tail behind it, resembling an F-104 jet fighter with its afterburner engaged.

The object's behavior was consistent across all reports. It appeared in the southern sky and moved northward before disappearing above the horizon. Because observers separated by several miles saw the object at nearly the same time, the Air Force concluded it must have been at very high altitude. The fact that multiple independent witnesses in different locations reported identical descriptions of the object's appearance and direction of travel suggested they had all observed the same phenomenon.

The Air Force's investigation included weather analysis, consultation with local military installations, and review of air traffic in the area. No aircraft were reported in the region at the time. The Air Force Technical Information Division concluded that the object was a fireball, an exceptionally bright type of meteor roughly as luminous as the planet Venus at its brightest. These meteors are relatively rare and can display various colors and long durations, making them easy to misidentify as something extraordinary. The Air Force noted that the witnesses' reports were valuable precisely because they had been detailed enough to support a definitive analysis.

The full case file, comprising 47 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.