Temple Hills, MarylandSeptember 1954

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the night of September 30 to October 1, 1954, civilians in Temple Hills, Maryland reported seeing a strange white object moving across the sky. The witnesses described it sometimes as a single object and sometimes as two objects flying together from northeast to southwest. A searchlight was visible in the area during the sighting, and the witnesses noted that the light appeared to reflect off clouds.

The Air Force investigated the report but found that the available information was too incomplete to reach a firm conclusion. Local evaluators suggested the sightings might have been caused by a searchlight, but the case file notes this explanation was not definitive. The Air Force's final evaluation was marked as insufficient data for evaluation, meaning investigators could not determine what the witnesses had actually seen.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, consisting of 7 pages.

Reported location

Temple Hills, Maryland

Date of incident

September 1954

State / country

MD / US

Page count

7 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 21

% PROJECT 10073 RECORD | 1. DATE - TIME GROUP 2. LOCATION 30 September 1954 01/0145%Z Oct Temple Hills, Maryland 3. SOURCE 10. CONCLUSION Civilian INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR EVALUATION | 4. NUMBER OF OBJECTS 182 ; | 5. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION |{11. BRIEF SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS Not Reported Wnite - sometimes one object, cther times two in flight from 6. TYPE OF OBSERVATION NE to SH. Searchlight in area. Searchlight on cloud. Local evaluation searchlight. Ground Visual 7. COURSE Insufficient data for firm enalysis., SW | 8. PHOTOS | O Yes | AX No | 9. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE i O Yes XEX No FORM FTD sep 63 0-329 (TDE) Previous editions of this form may be used. - L]