Union Lake, Mich, October 1953October 1953

Insufficient Data

Summary

On October 31, 1953, a civilian witness near Union Lake, Michigan, about 25 miles west of Detroit, reported seeing an unusual object in the sky. The witness was an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve whose wife was a licensed aircraft pilot. Both saw the same thing.

The object appeared as a bluish-green haze with no solid body. It circled Detroit six times, with each orbit taking about 11 seconds to complete. The object then headed east at high speed and vanished. The witness estimated the object was between 7,000 and 12,000 feet high and fairly large. He was certain it was not a reflection.

The Air Force received word of the sighting on November 2, 1953, when the witness reported it to an FBI agent in Detroit. A questionnaire was sent to Union Lake on November 20, but the file indicates investigators could not locate the witness for follow-up interviews. Without additional data, the Air Force could not reach a firm conclusion about what the object was.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spanning 9 pages.

Reported location

Union Lake, Mich, October 1953

Date of incident

October 1953

State / country

? / XX

Page count

9 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 19

ods 1 ) | : ae ; | | 4 | 4 I. DATE - TIME GROUP 2. LOCATION an | 3 31 Oct 53 1/02302 Union Lake, Mich 3. SOURCE CONC | 10. CONCLUSION 11s FFICIENT DATA | civilian Could not locatewitness for additional data. 3 4. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | : one | | S. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION [1]. BRIEF SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS y ; €5 seconds Obj described as bluish-green haze with no material body. | Circle City 6 times and headed in East direction at high : ¢ TYPE OF SRRAVATION speed. Source stated that obj was fairly large and required ground visual 11 seconds to complete orbit. Observer was positive that obj was not a reflection. 7. COURSE circling 8. PHOTOS \ Q Yes " 0 Ne “i 9. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE 0 Yes ; . a Ne FORM G7 FTD sep 63 0-329 (TDE) provieus editions of this form may be used. :