Washington, D. C., September 1958September 1958

In September 1958, a woman sitting on the upper balcony of her home in Washington, D.C., observed an unusual light in the night sky. She had been watching what appeared to be a brilliant star in the southwestern sky when it suddenly began to move. The object traveled first slightly westward, then across the open sky in a northerly direction before heading toward her and disappearing beyond her roof. The entire sighting lasted about one minute.

The witness described the object as silent and swift, moving at roughly the speed of a fast jet fighter. When she first noticed it, it resembled a bright star. As it approached her position, it appeared more like a small lamp without any radiating beams, similar to a street light seen from several blocks away or a railway worker's signal lamp. She could detect no outline, no smaller lights along its sides, and no engine sound. The object gave off no smoke, did not increase in size as it drew closer, and cast no illumination around it.

The witness waited until January 1965 to report the sighting, prompted by newspaper articles inviting reports of unidentified flying objects. In her detailed written account, she noted that a week after her observation, she had read about a flurry of UFO reports in the Washington area. She considered several explanations, including a high-altitude military aircraft or possibly the Soviet Sputnik satellite, though she acknowledged uncertainty about what she had witnessed.

Major Hector Quintanilla Jr., Chief of Project Blue Book, evaluated the case in March 1965. He concluded that the one-minute duration of the sighting was more consistent with an aircraft observation than a satellite. However, without an exact time and date, he noted that the Air Force could not rule out observation of the Sputnik satellite. Quintanilla stated that the available data "is more in accord with an observation of a high flying aircraft," though the passage of time prevented identification of any specific aircraft flight. The Air Force marked the case as probable aircraft, though it remained officially unresolved.

The full case file, comprising 12 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.