Sighting of Flying Disc - New Orleans, Louisiana - 7 August 1949

This document is a collection of reports and correspondence regarding a sighting of an unidentified aerial object in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 7 August 1949. The primary witness, an assistant U.S. attorney and Navy veteran, reported observing a round, luminous, orange-colored object traveling at high speed across Lake Pontchartrain at approximately 0255 hours. The object was described as spherical, roughly the size of a volleyball, and leaving a gaseous trail. The witness, who was driving along the lakefront, estimated the speed at 650 miles per hour and the altitude at 2,500 feet. The sighting lasted approximately 30 seconds. A separate statement from 1st Lt. Walter T. Prebis, USAF, describes a similar sighting on 8 August 1949 near Biloxi, Mississippi, involving a bright spherical object traveling at 600 to 800 miles per hour. The official investigation, conducted by the 9th OSI District and the 112th CIC Detachment, concluded that the New Orleans sighting was likely caused by a weather balloon released by the US Weather Bureau at Moisant Airport at 0300 hours on 7 August 1949. The report notes that the balloon would have appeared consistent with the witness's description. The investigation was closed with no further action contemplated.