Incident #208 Sighting Report — Clark Air Force Base, Philippines, 17 November 1948

This document details the investigation of an unidentified aerial phenomenon reported on 17 November 1948 at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. Two fighter pilots from the 44th Fighter Squadron, 18th Fighter Group, observed an object at approximately 1430 hours. The witnesses described the object as an irregular, white mass at an altitude of 30,000 feet, which appeared to perform a loop or corkscrew maneuver. The object left a white exhaust trail estimated to be between one and ten miles long, which did not resemble a standard vapor trail but rather that of a rocket or jet exhaust. The object and its trail dissipated within approximately three minutes. The witnesses noted that the object appeared similar to a flak burst that remained stationary in the atmosphere before dissipating. The weather at the time was clear with scattered clouds at 4,000 feet and high visibility. The Thirteenth Air Force initially evaluated the report as C-3. Subsequent analysis, as documented in the Project Grudge report materials, concluded that the sighting was likely a fireball, noting that the description of the trail, the terminal burst, and the altitude were consistent with such an event. The file includes correspondence between the 18th Fighter Wing, the Far East Air Forces, and the Air Materiel Command, as well as sketches of the object and a weather certification for the time of the incident.