Ventura, CaliforniaMay 1957

Insufficient Data

Summary

On May 21, 1957, in Ventura, California, a school teacher and approximately 20 students observed a round, silver or white object in the sky at 8:30 a.m. The object made a loud noise and broke the sound barrier. It moved erratically, fading from sight after about 23 minutes. The Air Force noted there was a blind spot in the sighting area and that a considerable amount of small aircraft were in the vicinity. The investigation could not definitively identify the object. The evaluation was listed as Unknown.

Reported location

Ventura, California

Date of incident

May 1957

State / country

CA / US

Page count

3 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 27

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 3

View transcribed text

PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD

1. DATE                          2. LOCATION                    12. CONCLUSIONS
   21 May 1957                      Ventura, California            [ ] Probably Balloon
                                                                    [X] Probably Balloon
3. DATE-TIME GROUP               4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION         [ ] Possibly Aircraft
   Local                           [X] Ground-Visual              [X] Possibly Aircraft
   GMT: 21/1530 1532Z             [ ] Ground-Radar               [X] Was Aircraft
                                   [ ] Air-Visual                 [ ] Probably Aircraft
5. PHOTOS                        [ ] Air-Intercept Radar         [ ] Possibly Aircraft
   [ ] Yes                                                        [ ] Was Astronomical
   [X] No                        6. SOURCE                        [ ] Probably Astronomical
                                                                   [ ] Possibly Astronomical
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION         2 Civ plus 20 students          [ ] Other
                                                                   [X] Insufficient Data for Evaluation
   23 minutes                   8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS  9. COURSE  [ ] Unknown
                                  one               faded out of
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING                       sight
    One object, round size head of pin,          11. COMMENTS
    color silver or white. Object sighted       No radar paint, however, there is
    after jet noise breaking sonic barrier.     a blind spot in area of sighting
    Object hardly moved then oscillated          and does not paint all a/c in
    & faded fm sight.                           vicinity. But, fm description of
                                                obj & time in view it is believed
                                                obj was a balloon or a/c. There
                                                is considerable amount of small
                                                a/c in this vicinity. Insufficient
                                                data for valid conclusion.

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28969880