St. Augustine, FloridaDecember 1952

Unidentified

Summary

On a night in December 1952, someone in St. Augustine, Florida saw an object streaking across the sky. The witness described a silver saucer with five or six lit windows, a spinning outer rim, and a hum. The object had a white and blue flame at its rear that suddenly turned bright red before it shot upward and across the sky at high speed.

The sighting lasted about ten seconds. The witness reported traveling roughly ninety degrees in azimuth, or about a quarter turn across the sky. The observation occurred around 9 to 9:20 p.m. local time.

The Air Force received the report late, in June 1961, nearly nine years after the sighting took place. Because of the delay, the investigators noted that evaluation was difficult. However, they wrote that most of the details matched what a meteor would look like. The file makes no definitive conclusion about what the object was. Instead, it classifies the case as unidentified due to insufficient data and a single witness.

The full case file, consisting of 14 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.

Reported location

St. Augustine, Florida

Date of incident

December 1952

State / country

FL / US

Page count

14 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 16

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 14

View transcribed text

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/ : PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD ~~ 1
0g ci Ss Sv bi hie i AES |
DATE .( % EOCATION A ( hag CONCLUSIONS
. gle | : 4 Y 10 Was Balloon .
ee... Dec52 | __St, Augustine, Florida ____ |Q Probobly Relloon
| 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION 0 Pessiny Dutton
Local We ERR) R Ground-Visvol 0 Ground-Radar I ple <b AOR
| _om7..0200Z Dec 52 e] Air Vi suol O Air-Intorcopt Radar ht Poasibly Airerale
S. PHOTOS 3 * SOURCE g |o Was rg ion |
QO Yes : {30 Probably Astronomico
h Civilian {0 Possibly A ical
eo) Nas H oss Y sironomica
7. LENGTH OF CBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OGJECTS | 9. COURSE TI Bl icin ii
; MN Insufficient Dota for Evaluation
10 sec one SW 0 Unknown :
|]
ro BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING Silver colored “Saucer” | “COMMENTS Object vas in sight about 10
with 5 or 6 windows 1it up inside with white sec. White and blue flame which twaed
llichts. Outer rim was spinning and there was a Ito bright red. Traveled about 90° azirmthi
hum. Was silver colored with a bluish flame iReport received in Jun 61. Too old for |
burning at rear."Then this flame turned to a |evaluation, however most inforratioa lead
big bright red flame and the "Saucer" shot up to observation of meteor. However in Koop
end clear across the sky at a terrific speed.” jing with policy this report will be class
sd a3 incuificlent data, 1 witness, |
|
Beg
ATIC FORM 323 {REV 26 SEP 82) : from——
anions tod no tp te pte edt ttn —tBanl. bli ——— le —
A 1.02.1 p-

/ 14

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28951716