Project 10073 Record Card and Supplement to AF Form 112 — 17 December 1957

On 17 December 1957, at 2240Z, four aircrew members of the 59th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, operating a WB-50 aircraft at an altitude of 19,000 feet over the North Atlantic (30° 54' N 54° 50' W), observed an unidentified aerial object. The crew, consisting of a pilot, navigator, weather officer, and airborne weather operator, reported seeing a white object with red at the trailing edge. The object was described as being shaped like a pencil or round, with a size comparable to a dime or a pea. The duration of the sighting was estimated between one and five seconds. The object appeared to have a short trail of sparks, described by the crew as resembling a cone-shaped exhaust similar to that of a toy rocket. The flight path was characterized as a curved, shallow gliding path or a slight descending arc. The sighting occurred at night under clear weather conditions, with 3/8 alto stratus clouds reported at 8,000 feet. The object eventually disappeared, with reports suggesting it went behind the left wing of the airplane or past the pilot's window. The intelligence officer, Captain William J. Thomas, concluded that all indications from the report pointed to the object being a meteor. He noted that if the object were a meteor, the observers might have experienced an illusion of it passing to their rear due to the aircraft's movement. The report was classified as confidential under AFR 200-2 but was later declassified by the authority of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans, Headquarters MATS, on 8 January 1958. The document includes a Project 10073 record card and a supplement to AF Form 112, detailing the specific observations of the crew members, all of whom were noted as usually reliable.