Incident #124 Sighting Report — North Atlantic, 18 April 1948

This document details Incident #124, a radar sighting reported by the USCGC BIBB (WPG-31) while on Ocean Weather Station patrol in the North Atlantic (62°00'N 33°00'W) on 18 April 1948. At 1500 GCT, the ship's air search radar made contact with an unidentified target at 6500 yards. The target was tracked until it reached 18,000 yards, moving at an estimated velocity of 30 mph. The report explicitly states that the area was thoroughly searched visually and that there were no clouds or weather fronts in the vicinity. Furthermore, there were no corresponding indications on the ship's surface radar. The target strength was recorded as S5, fading at 18,000 yards. This was the only time the phenomenon was observed by the ship. The report was forwarded by the Coast Guard to the Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on 19 May 1948. An internal evaluation, extracted from the Project Grudge report, notes that an astronomical explanation for the incident is considered unlikely and poses the question of whether the sighting could be attributed to a flock of migrating birds. The document includes the original incident report, a cover letter from the Coast Guard, and a reference to the incident's inclusion in the Project Grudge index.