Unidentified Flying Object Report — Fontana, California, 28 April 1953

On 28 April 1953, at approximately 2200 PDT, 1st Lt Ralph R. Scowden of the USAF was piloting a T-6 aircraft (SN 44-81209) through the Cajon Pass in California. During this flight, he observed a series of unidentified flying objects. Initially, he sighted two amber-colored, circular lights that he assumed were wing lights of another aircraft. As he continued his flight, the number of objects increased to four, and eventually to a maximum of approximately sixteen. The objects initially appeared in a normal two-ship formation, but later transitioned into an unsystematic ball formation. The witness reported that the objects moved parallel to his aircraft and slightly toward him before eventually moving southward. He noted that he did not observe any conventional navigational lights on the objects. Upon contacting the Long Beach tower, Scowden was informed that US Navy jets were conducting round-robin flights to Catalina Island. Scowden speculated that he might have been observing the exhausts of these jets, though he maintained that the lights did not resemble standard aircraft lighting. The official conclusion reached by the evaluating authorities was that the sighting was a mirage of ground lights. The report includes a formal statement from 1st Lt Scowden, who had been a rated pilot since 12 March 1944 with 885 total flight hours at the time of the incident. The weather conditions at the time were described as clear with an inversion layer at approximately 3000 feet and haze below, which may have contributed to the visual phenomenon.