Project 10073 Record Card and Incoming Message — Hall Lake, N.W.T., Canada, 20 Feb 59

On February 20, 1959, at 1345Z, multiple personnel stationed at the DEW Line in the Northwest Territories of Canada reported a sighting of an unidentified aerial phenomenon. Observers located at Hall Lake, West Melville, and Rowley witnessed a bright, round, white object, described as being the size of a baseball held at arm's length and resembling a burning magnesium flare. The object traveled in a downward arc from north to south, lasting approximately five seconds. It produced a bright flash at the bottom of its arc before disappearing instantaneously. A whitish vapor trail, thinner than that of a normal jet and lasting between five and fifteen minutes, was observed between the points of the initial and second flash. The observers, who were employees of the Federal Electric Corporation, reported no noise or vibration associated with the object. Squadron Leader Keith H. Ball of the RCAF, the military commander at Fox Main Station, compiled the reports from the various observers. While the initial assessment on the Project 10073 record card categorized the event as a 'daylight fireball,' the subsequent intelligence message from the 4601st Support Group noted that while the object's characteristics—such as its intense white color, apparent velocity, and the absence of noise—suggested a meteor, the possibility of a missile re-entry could not be entirely ruled out. The observers were noted to have good reliability, and despite being widely separated, their reports were described as remarkably similar. The document concludes that the sighting was genuine, with a strong probability that it was a meteor entering the Earth's atmosphere.