Project 10073 Record Card — Van Nuys, California, 20 April 1955

This document is an Air Intelligence Information Report concerning a UFO sighting reported on 20 April 1955 in Van Nuys, California. The witness, a 35-year-old housewife and member of the Ground Observer Corps, reported seeing a red, flashing light that appeared to emerge after a multi-engine aircraft passed overhead. She described the object as swaying back and forth before moving in a straight line toward the northwest. The witness noted that she had observed this phenomenon three or four times in the preceding week, always following the passage of a scheduled airliner. An investigation was conducted by 1st Lt. Calvin Hammond Jr. of the 669th ACWRON. The investigation included an interview with the witness and a check with the Lockheed Air Terminal tower. The tower personnel reported no unusual traffic, but suggested that the witness might be observing a new type of large rotating beacon being used by Los Angeles Airways helicopters or United Airlines aircraft. Further investigation confirmed that a United Airlines cargo flight, which departed from the Burbank terminal at 21/0632Z, was equipped with a red, rotating beacon mounted on its tail structure. The investigating officer concluded that the sighting was definitively identified as this specific United Airlines flight. The report notes that the witness's description of the object's appearance and behavior, including its tendency to appear after the passage of an aircraft, was perfectly consistent with the characteristics of the identified airliner's beacon. The report was approved by Colonel John L. Watts Jr. and serves as a formal record of the investigation and its conclusion that the reported UAP was a conventional aircraft.