Project 10073 Record Card — Huntington, California, 27 April 1956

On April 27, 1956, a civilian witness in Huntington, California, reported observing an unidentified aerial object for a duration of thirty minutes. The witness, a 35-year-old resident of Costa Mesa, described the object as a very small, round, bluish-white light. According to the report, the object appeared to be at an altitude of 5,000 feet and exhibited erratic movement, initially traveling westward before eventually moving out toward the ocean at a very high speed. The weather conditions at the time were reported as clear with ten miles of visibility, a cloud bank at 5,000 feet, and winds aloft from 265 degrees at ten knots. The incident was documented by the 669th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron (ACWRON) at Porhue, California, and transmitted via official military message channels to Ent Air Force Base and the 27th Air Division at Norton Air Force Base. The report was also forwarded to the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Following the evaluation of the sighting, the official conclusion reached by the investigating authorities was that the object was the planet Venus. This determination was based on the object's observed characteristics and its consistent relative position in the western sky throughout the duration of the sighting.