Project 10073 Record — North Arlington, Virginia, October 1954

This document is a Project 10073 record detailing a civilian sighting of an unidentified aerial object on October 4, 1954, in North Arlington, Virginia. The witness, a housewife whose reliability was not estimated, reported observing a round, yellowish-white object on three separate occasions over a ten-minute period. The object was described as exhibiting unusually fast movement, traveling from the southeast to the south at approximately 45 degrees elevation before disappearing near a cloudbank. The sighting was confirmed by a Mr. Mintz. An investigation conducted by Major R. C. Dornbrock, a duty officer at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, concluded that the observation was likely caused by local jet aircraft activity. The report notes that there were twelve jets flying at varied altitudes in the immediate vicinity of Andrews AFB during the time of the sighting. The investigator suggested that the observer likely witnessed afterburner flames during jet let-downs or the steady white light under the fuselage of the aircraft, which were noted to be traveling at speeds exceeding 500 MPH.