Urbana, OhioJune 1949

On June 28, 1949, at 1745 (5:45 p.m.), a ball of fire with a trailing flame was spotted moving from west to east across the sky near Urbana, Ohio. The sighting happened in daylight or near-twilight conditions and involved at least five separate witnesses over the course of a few seconds as the object traveled. One witness was a U.S. Army Air Forces major flying solo in a light aircraft near Urbana Airport at 5,000 feet altitude. From his vantage point, he saw the object appear out of a cloud bank to his northwest, shaped like a bright orange ball with a mixed orange-and-blue flame tail. The object traveled in a straight line with a slight decline, covered about 90 to 120 degrees of sky in three to four seconds, and then faded away. The major estimated the object was about fifty miles or more away. He noted the tail was roughly ten times the diameter of the ball itself and appeared to shrink as the object moved. He heard no sound or experienced any radio interference.

Ground witnesses in Dayton saw similar details from different locations. One man sitting on his lawn saw a large orange ball with a twenty-foot tail and a small plane in the same vicinity. A young woman at a school playground described a silver, round object with a V-shaped front and a multicolored fiery tail. A welder walking on Vermont Avenue reported a deep reddish-orange ball as bright as the sun, with an incandescent white tail giving off sparks brighter than welding sparks he had seen before. He said a hissing sound like compressed air escaping caught his attention. Another witness driving near Crystal Lakes described a nearly white ball of fire with a blue-and-yellow tail, which he believed was a meteor. All witnesses agreed the object moved from west to east, appeared in the general direction of north from their positions, and moved at high speed.

The investigation was conducted by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and included interviews with all available witnesses between June 29 and June 30, 1949. The Air Force evaluated the sighting using the category "meteor" (a natural celestial phenomenon). The case file indicates that investigators considered the possibility of a rocket or guided missile based on the major's initial impression, but he concluded upon reflection that it resembled a meteor. The file was closed on June 30, 1949, after all investigative leads were covered. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spanning 18 pages.