Incident #196 Sighting Report — Goose Bay, Labrador, 1 November 1948

This document details the investigation into a radar-only sighting of an unidentified aerial object near Goose Bay, Labrador, on 1 November 1948. The incident, recorded as Incident #196, involved a GCA (Ground Controlled Approach) radar operator, M/Sgt Francis H. Mills, who observed a blip on his scope at 2145Z. The object was tracked for 4 minutes and 7 seconds, traveling in a straight line on a heading of 249 degrees at an estimated speed of 60 MPH. The object was described as being too small to be an aircraft but too large to be a bird. The report includes significant internal correspondence between the Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the 1227th Air Base Group in Newfoundland. A major point of contention within the documents is the mathematical discrepancy in the reported flight path; subsequent analysis by the 1227th Air Base Group indicated that the reported coordinates and the object's disappearance point were inconsistent with the stated flight path and duration. The document includes multiple incoming message transcripts and internal memoranda requesting further investigation and clarification. Despite the efforts to reconcile the data, the final assessment remained inconclusive, with the suggestion that the object might have been a balloon radiosonde, though this was noted as unlikely given the object's movement against the wind. The file concludes with a recommendation from the Air Weather Service to improve the reporting standards for such sightings, specifically regarding the clarification of flight path terminology and radar settings.