UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT Sighted at Westlake, Ohio on 2 August 1954

On 2 August 1954, at approximately 1717 hours, an unidentified flying object was sighted near Westlake, Ohio, by a witness identified as a former Air Force gunner and member of the Cleveland Astronomical Society. The witness, who was at the intersection of State Route 254 and Dover Center Road, reported seeing an elliptical object that appeared to be the size of a shirt button or 50 seconds of arc. The object was described as having the appearance of highly polished metal with no visible surface characteristics, distortion, or chromatic dispersion. The witness observed the object hovering at an altitude of approximately 5,000 feet for five to eight seconds before it suddenly dropped vertically to an altitude of 2,000 feet in approximately three seconds. The object then remained stationary for ten seconds before fading from sight, a process the witness likened to a television set being turned off. The witness estimated the object's distance at six miles and compared its speed during the descent to that of a ME 109 fighter plane approaching a B-17 head-on, magnified three times, or roughly 1,000 to 1,200 miles per hour. The weather was reported as relatively clear with some clouds to the south and southeast. The witness, who had completed nineteen missions over Germany during his military service, stated he had never sighted an object he could not identify before and explicitly noted that he did not believe the sighting was connected to any known heavenly phenomena. The report, filed by Colonel Roberts P. Johnson, Jr. of the Air Force, concludes that no further investigative action is required by the District Office.