TUSCON, ARIZONASeptember 1952

On the afternoon of September 6, 1952, a woman traveling by car on the Satagenia Highway near Tucson, Arizona, spotted an unusual orange, tear-drop shaped object in the sky. The woman was a former member of the U.S. Congress and a well-known businesswoman in Arizona. She asked her driver to stop the car so they could observe the object more carefully. According to the official report, the object appeared to be spinning on its vertical axis and emitting a strange light.

As the pair watched, the object descended toward them along a slanting path at what seemed to be high speed. The woman was careful to note that without knowing the object's actual distance or size, she could not estimate its speed with certainty, but the way it grew larger suggested rapid movement. Then, without any visible maneuver, the object suddenly stopped and reversed direction, ascending along the same slanted path it had taken down. It climbed rapidly until it became too small to see. The entire sighting lasted roughly two and a half minutes. During descent, the object appeared to whirl in one direction, but during ascent, the direction of rotation seemed to change.

The Air Force investigated the sighting and noted that the witness was highly credible. The weather that day was clear with no storms in the area. The report documented that no known meteorological or other activity could account for what the witnesses observed. No physical evidence was found, and no aircraft were known to be in the area at the time. The full case file, comprising 40 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.