Project 10073 Record Card — Longview, Washington, 17 August 1956

On 17 August 1956, at 0500Z, a sighting of an unidentified aerial object occurred in Longview, Washington. The event was observed by two civilians and one military individual over a duration of 48 minutes. The object was described as round, orange in color, and smaller than a dime. Its movement was characterized as moving up, down, and sideways, with a primary tendency to move upward. During the observation, an aircraft in the area approached the object from the south, circled it twice, and then proceeded back south. The observer reported this interaction, though subsequent checks with the aircraft in the area yielded no confirmation of the crew seeing the object. There was other air traffic passing south-bound on Amber One. The official conclusion reached by the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) was that the object was a probable star or planet, noting that the positional data provided was garbled. The report includes various teletype communications between the 25th Air Division at McChord AFB, the Air Defense Command at Ent AFB, and ATIC at Wright-Patterson AFB, documenting the incident and the subsequent investigation. The weather conditions were reported as clear.