Tiflet-Monor, Morocco, December 1957December 1957

On the evening of December 8, 1957, a U.S. Navy intelligence officer driving between Tiflet and Monor, Morocco, spotted a bright light in the southwestern sky. The object appeared roughly the size of the moon and glowed yellow-orange with sharp, well-defined edges. For about two to five minutes, the officer thought he was looking at sunlight reflecting off a jet contrail (the white trail left by aircraft at high altitude). His eleven-year-old daughter, riding in the car, had already noticed the light.

The object seemed to be moving on a north-northeast course and descending gradually. But something seemed wrong. Instead of developing like a normal vapor trail, the light grew brighter while keeping its same shape. After watching for a few more minutes, the light suddenly descended sharply toward the earth in a steep arc, dropping about ten degrees toward the horizon. For a moment, all the observers thought they were witnessing either a meteor or a Soviet satellite falling back to Earth. Then trees blocked their view for about thirty seconds.

When the light reappeared, it had climbed back to its original height and was now horizontal, pointing in the opposite direction, toward the south-southwest. The car had stopped by this time, so the officers could measure the light's position more accurately. The light grew dimmer and thinner, then faded away around 5:30 p.m. (1730Z in military time). The observers concluded the object had simply moved away from them, though the investigators noted it might also have simply lost the reflected sunlight as it entered Earth's shadow.

The Navy intelligence report suggested that Venus, which was unusually bright in the December sky that year, combined with a jet contrail caught in the sun's low rays at sunset, could easily explain what the officers saw. Jet contrails often glow yellow, red, or orange-red when struck by sunlight at dawn or dusk. The report also noted that when observers track objects from a moving vehicle on hilly roads, their sense of direction and elevation can become unreliable, causing stationary objects to appear to move. The Air Force evaluation concluded that the sighting was most likely the planet Venus and jet afterburner exhaust seen separately but mistaken for a single object.

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