Project 10073 Record Card and Correspondence — Blackburn, Australia, 3 January 1954

On 3 January 1954, at 1555 hours, a witness in Blackburn, Australia, observed an unusual aerial object. The witness, a silversmith, initially heard a sound that prompted him to look for an aircraft. He spotted a silver, highly reflective, oval-shaped object in the vicinity of the sun at an elevation of 42 degrees. The object appeared stationary before moving in a direct flight path toward the ESE horizon with a 'whip motion' before disappearing behind trees on a hill. The sighting lasted approximately one minute. The witness reported no tail and no specific details. The weather was described as fine and clear with good visibility and a temperature of 75 degrees. A report was filed with the Air Operations Room at AFHQ immediately following the event. A subsequent investigation by the R.A.A.F. Training Command noted that the witness appeared genuine and had no prior interest in aerial phenomena, even expressing regret for mentioning the sighting due to fear of ridicule. The official conclusion reached by the evaluating authorities was that the witness likely observed a reflection from an aircraft he was attempting to locate, though the brevity of the sighting prevented a definitive identification of features. The report also notes that four other observers reported similar objects in the area at the same time, though these reports could not be correlated.