Unidentified Object Sighting Report — Marrakesh, French Morocco, August 1952

This document collection details an unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) sighting reported on August 26, 1952, near Marrakesh, French Morocco. According to the official report, personnel at a Radar Bomb Scoring (RBS) site tracked an unidentified target using AN/MPQ-2 radar equipment. The target was recorded at a speed of 1157 mph and an altitude exceeding 60,000 feet. Three detachment personnel—Captain Ramon R. Santiago, First Lieutenant Adelbert C. Beard, and Airman Second Class John H. Snelling—observed the object through a telescope attached to the radar antenna. They described the object as having a gray color, a fat fuselage, a very large vertical stabilizer, and wings that were slightly swept back. They noted the object appeared to be in a rapid descent or shallow dive and banked to the right. The observers compared the object to a B-26 without engines or an AJ-1 aircraft.

Following the initial report, the Directorate of Intelligence, 5th Air Division, conducted an investigation. It was determined that a US Navy AJ-1 aircraft was in the vicinity of Marrakesh at the time of the sighting. The official conclusion reached by the Air Force was that the sighting was an AJ-1 aircraft and that the extreme speed and altitude readings were the result of a malfunction in the radar plotting equipment. By dividing the reported speed and altitude by a factor of three, the investigators arrived at a corrected speed of approximately 350 mph and an altitude of 20,000 feet, which they deemed reasonable for an AJ-1. The file also includes correspondence from a U.S. Customs Inspector named Harding Franco-Soto, who reported his own sightings of unidentified objects in Puerto Rico in 1954, which he compared to the 1952 Marrakesh incident. The collection includes sketches of the object observed in Marrakesh and the AJ-1 aircraft for comparison, as well as internal memoranda coordinating the evaluation of the report for the Secretary of the Air Force.