Project 10073 Record: Sighting Incident - Okinawa, 7 February 1953

On 7 February 1953, at 2122 local time, ground radar at Okinawa tracked an unidentified aerial object. An F-94 interceptor was scrambled at 2123 hours to investigate. While the F-94's airborne radar failed to detect the object, the pilot reported a visual sighting at 2145 hours. The pilot described the object as a bright orange light that changed to red and green. The object was observed to diminish in size and color before pulling away at high speed and disappearing. The F-94 chased the object to a position 145 miles from the GCI station before breaking off due to a shortage of fuel. The object was also observed on the GCI radar scope as being below the F-94. The weather conditions at the time were reported as scattered stratus clouds. Subsequent analysis by the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) concluded that the sighting was likely the planet Venus. Investigators noted that Venus was extremely bright at that time of year and was located at an azimuth of 270 degrees, 10 degrees above the horizon. It was determined that the ground radar likely received a spurious plot, leading to the vectoring of the F-94 toward the planet. The report explicitly states that no strict correlation between the electronic radar data and the visual contact could be established.