Project Blue Book Case File
Sweetwater, South CarolinaOctober 1960
Summary
On the night of October 12, 1960, residents of Sweetwater, South Carolina reported seeing a very bright white light that briefly illuminated the sky. According to the report card in this file, the object moved at an estimated speed of 40 to 50 miles per hour, appeared to hit the ground, and emitted a bright flash of sparks before disappearing. The observation lasted between 8 and 12 seconds. Multiple witnesses in the area reported seeing the same object at the same time and date.
The sighting was classified as a ground-visual observation with a single object. The U.S. Air Force investigators noted in their comments that the description coincided with that of a classic meteor. The case file indicates that several other people in the Sweetwater area reported witnessing such an object at the same time. The official evaluation, shown on the case record card, lists the conclusion as "probably balloon," though the analysis sheet references meteor characteristics.
The OCR quality of the interior pages makes it difficult to extract detailed investigation notes, but the file shows that the Air Force conducted a standard analysis including radar data review, astronomical phenomena assessment, and source reliability evaluation. No photographs were taken of the object.
The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spanning 22 pages.
Reported location
Sweetwater, South Carolina
Date of incident
October 1960
State / country
SC / US
Page count
22 scanned pages
USAF evaluation
unknown
Microfilm
T1206, Roll 40