PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD - 9 October 1957

On October 9, 1957, at approximately 1935 local time, a bright unidentified flying object was observed in the vicinity of Parkersburg, West Virginia. The sighting was reported by a KC-97 aircraft crew flying a refueling mission on a heading of 200 degrees. The object was described as moving at a very high velocity from the northwest to the southeast, with the observation lasting approximately 30 seconds. The object appeared to the crew to be positioned at their four to five o'clock. The report was initially received at the Patterson Flight Service Center and subsequently forwarded to the Detroit Center and the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC). Official analysis concluded that the duration of the sighting was too long for a meteor and too fast for a balloon. Investigators noted that a third-stage rocket from a Soviet satellite was in the general area at approximately 1858 that evening. Because the direction of the observed object generally coincided with the satellite's path, officials suggested that if the observer's time estimate was slightly off, the object was likely the satellite rocket. If not, the report suggests the object could possibly have been an aircraft.