Project 10073 Record — Puyallup, Washington, 27 July 1949

On July 27, 1949, a Major in the United States Air Force, who operated a small airstrip and performed crop dusting near Puyallup, Washington, observed an unidentified aerial object. The sighting occurred at dusk under clear weather conditions, with the witness noting that the object appeared as a long streak of light traveling parallel to the horizon. The witness, a former fighter pilot, reported that the streak moved from East to West for a few seconds before appearing to explode or accelerate, subsequently narrowing out and resembling a 'pip' leveling out on a radar scope. The report notes that the witness estimated the object's distance to be between fifteen and twenty miles away. At the time of the sighting, an airliner was flying in the area at an altitude of approximately 1500 feet, and the witness suggested the object could have been behind or to the south of the airliner at a higher altitude. The official conclusion reached by the evaluating authorities was that the object was an 'Astro (METEOR)'. The document, classified as Confidential, was issued by the District Intelligence Officer of the Thirteenth Naval District to the Director of Naval Intelligence on August 31, 1949.