Trenton, New JerseyAugust 1959

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the night of August 20, 1959, a civilian in the northern part of Trenton, New Jersey, watched lights in the sky for about 50 minutes. The man, a contractor and former aircraft engineer, first saw a single elongated light low on the horizon to the southeast. He said it was the size of a hardball at first, then shrank to the size of a pea at arm's length.

The light was star-like in color with a bluish-green edge that changed to light orange in the center. The one object later split into five, which seemed to merge again as they faded. The objects had no tail and made no sound. The man said they moved, then made sharp 90 degree turns and returned to course, repeating this 8 to 10 times.

The sky was clear with a full moon and good visibility. Radar showed no returns that matched the sighting, and there was heavy commercial air traffic in the area. The report says no cause was known or estimated. The Air Force record card lists the case as insufficient data. This was part of Project 10073, the Air Force's official record for unidentified flying object reports.

Reported location

Trenton, New Jersey

Date of incident

August 1959

State / country

NJ / US

Page count

6 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 36

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 6

View transcribed text

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£: ; sd PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD Sis od,
i _—
§ 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
: 0 Was Balloon
£ 10 fe [KO Trenton, New Jersey 0 Probably Balloon
3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION O° Fossisly Balican
i 10h5 $ O Was Aircraft
4 Local i pn Pal ie 0.Ground- Visual O Ground-Radar 0 Probobly Aireraft
4 fi GMT 20 /00452, ‘ug 59 0 Air Visual 0 Air-Intercept Radar O Possibly Aircraft
3; 5. PHOTOS 6. SOURCE 0 Was Astronomical
§ 0 Yes 0 Probably Astronomical
3 “0 No Civilian O Possibly Astronomical
E 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE Ei OF HB pi anki el ab a Tals
E 0 Insufficient Data for Evaluation
3 Gi : : i hE O Unknown
i 50 min INTO) NE
3 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS
E Elongated light, vertical in form, larger Insufficient data.
i ‘J than any star, grew smaller before fisappeaxr-
E ing. Star-like in color w/bluish-green around
3 perimeter changing to light orange at the
i center. Originally one, changing into five
4 obJjs, which secmed to merge as they disappeared.
3 No tail, no sound. j
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FE ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)
: : | y
3 )
BE
2
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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28984237