Incident Report — Birmingham, Alabama, 26 September 1950

This document package details a UFO sighting reported on September 26, 1950, in Birmingham, Alabama. The primary witness was Aubrey Yates, a Jefferson County sheriff's deputy and member of the Air Force Reserve, who observed the object while at a drive-in movie theater with his wife. Yates described the object as a cigar-shaped craft with two glowing ends and a soft glow in between. He reported that the object hovered for approximately 15 minutes before ascending rapidly and disappearing within three seconds. Yates explicitly stated that the object was not an airplane and noted that a cloud passed between the object and the ground, which he believed ruled out the possibility of a reflection. The U.S. Weather Bureau in Birmingham reported receiving other calls regarding the object, though they claimed they did not see anything themselves. The incident was formally reported by Headquarters Third Army to the Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base under control number A-1917. The official conclusion recorded on the ATIC record card for this incident is 'ASTRO (STAR/PLANET).'