Project Blue Book Record Card and Intelligence Reports — Florence, South Carolina, 17 November 1952

This document consists of a series of reports and a record card regarding an unidentified aerial object sighting that occurred on 17 November 1952 near Florence, South Carolina. The object was observed by multiple qualified witnesses, including the Florence Municipal Airport manager, an Eastern Airlines captain, a weather observer, and a radio operator, as well as a driver on the highway between Marion and Sumter, South Carolina. The sightings occurred at three distinct times: 1713, 1715, and 1721 hours. Witnesses described the object as bright and elliptical in shape, characterized by being thick in the center and tapering toward the edges. The object was reported to be moving slowly and was observed for a duration of six minutes. Despite the visual nature of the report, there was no sound associated with the object, and no contrails were observed. Weather conditions at the time were reported as CAVU (Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited) with winds at 310 degrees and 20 knots. The Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) evaluated the incident and concluded that the object was likely a jet aircraft due over Florence at the time, noting that while the object appeared to have no sound and moved slowly, it could have been a jet at high altitude. The document also includes a separate, unrelated report from 1 December 1952 concerning a sighting in Newfoundland, which describes an object changing color from white to orange and then green, witnessed by S/Sgt Canny and others near McAndrew Air Force Base. This Newfoundland report concludes that no interception or identification action was taken.