Project 10073 Record: Sighting at Sea (U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt)

This document collection details the investigation into an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) sighting that occurred on September 20, 1952, during Operation Mainbrace. A Metro Group photographer, identified in correspondence as Litwin, and a U.S. Navy Lieutenant observed a round object while aboard the U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt. The witness described the object as appearing at an altitude of five hundred to one thousand feet, moving with a rotary motion about its own axis before disappearing into an overcast sky within approximately fifty seconds. The photographer managed to capture the object on color film. Following the incident, the Air Force initiated an inquiry to determine if the object was a weather balloon. Communications between the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC), the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Navy were exchanged to verify if any ships in the naval formation had released weather balloons at the time of the sighting. The investigation concluded that the object was an aerological balloon with a radar reflector, which had been launched from the U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt shortly before the photographs were taken. The weather officer aboard the carrier confirmed that no other ships in the formation had released balloons during that period. The original photographic negatives and transparencies were provided to the Air Force for analysis and were later returned to the photographer. The documents include internal routing slips, transmittal forms, and correspondence between Major Dewey J. Fournet of the Air Force and the editor of Metropolitan Sunday Newspapers, Inc., regarding the return of the materials and the Air Force's official evaluation. The case was eventually closed under the classification of a weather balloon, with the Air Force noting that the object's appearance and behavior were consistent with such an item.