AIR INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION REPORT: Unidentified Flying Objects

This document is an Air Intelligence Information Report (IR-88-50) issued by the Intelligence Division of Headquarters MATS on April 11, 1950. It serves as a record for Project 10073, documenting a specific unidentified aerial phenomenon sighting that occurred on March 13, 1950. The report details an incident involving a civilian pilot flying a Piper Cruiser (NC3285M) at an altitude of 3,500 feet. At approximately 1415Z, the pilot observed an unidentified object at an estimated altitude of 25,000 feet in the vicinity of St Johns, Michigan, roughly 15 miles north of Lansing. The object was reported to be traveling at a very high rate of speed in a west-northwesterly direction. The report notes that no photographs or sketches of the object were available, and investigators were unable to obtain information regarding the object's physical characteristics, such as shape, color, size, or the presence of exhaust trails. Following the report of the sighting, the Wright-Patterson Flight Service Center was notified within 15 minutes by the Detroit Air Route Traffic Control Center. Subsequent inquiries were conducted to determine if military aircraft were in the vicinity; it was confirmed that Selfridge Air Force Base, Michigan, had no jet aircraft in the Lansing area at the time of the sighting. Weather conditions at the time were described as having scattered to broken clouds at 3,000 feet and a higher deck of broken to overcast clouds at 25,000 feet, with visibility between 10 and 15 miles. The official conclusion reached by the Intelligence Division for this specific record was that there was insufficient data to identify the object. The document is signed by Lt. Colonel Joseph G. Mahar, Chief of the Intelligence Division.