Project 10073 Record: Incident 386 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

This document contains the official record for Incident 386, a sighting reported in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the evening of July 3, 1949. The witness, whose name is redacted, observed a strange aircraft between 2220 and 2230 hours. The witness described the object as being approximately 500 feet long and 50 feet high, featuring three or four large, bright, round windows. The object was observed traveling from south to north at a great rate of speed, leaving a cherry-red tail of fire estimated at 100 feet in length. The observation lasted between 10 and 15 seconds. The witness reported the sighting at an angle of 40-45 degrees, estimating the distance at approximately five miles. The witness explicitly stated that the object was not a 'flying saucer' and noted that they had contacted Dr. Draper at the Buhl Planetarium, who had no reports of such an object. The witness also mentioned that they were inspired to write to the Air Materiel Command after reading an article on flying saucers in the Saturday Evening Post. The official conclusion reached by the Technical Intelligence Division of the Air Materiel Command was that the object was an 'Astro (METEOR)'. The file includes the original correspondence from the witness to the Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, a drawing of the object, and a formal acknowledgment letter from Colonel W. R. Clingerian of the Intelligence Department, confirming that the report had been made a matter of record for the study of unidentified aerial objects.