QSL16 — 1956-08-22 — 38N latitude / 123W longitude area (north of Hamilton AFB, C
Narrative
On 22 August 1956 at 1935Z, F-89D #673 from the 84th FIS Hamilton AFB carrying pilot 2/Lt Robert C. Morelli and radar observer 2/Lt John W. Curtis sighted a round, clear-silver dime-sized object near a B-47 contrail at 20,000 feet. The object appeared near the contrail about 2 miles from the aircraft, was observed for 10 minutes, and appeared to go between the interceptor and the contrail, then under the contrail. The pilot attempted maximum aircraft performance to intercept at 270 degrees and 250 KIAS climbing, but the object appeared to pull away and climb up; intercept was futile. Pilot turned home; object appeared to become larger (pilot believed canopy magnified it). 28th Air Div Director of Intelligence suggested possible balloon, but weather stated no balloons released in the area. F-89D radar was inoperative.
extracted via: llm_subagent_v1
Witnesses (2)
- Lt John W. Curtis sightednamed_pattern
- Lt Robert C. Morelli and radarnamed_pattern
Source documents (1)
Click filename to view on Internet Archive (where these are mirrored as public-domain US-government records).
- 23857158-008-040NARAvalue 1.1[direct]
Score evidence (3)
Why this event scored the way it did. Every contribution is traceable.
p
- docs=1 (+0.5)
- single agency (+0.5)
evid
- narrative only (base 1)