Project 10073 Record Card and Incoming Message — RAF Station, Kirknewton, 29 September 1959

This document consists of a Project 10073 record card and an associated incoming staff message from the Department of the Air Force, dated October 3, 1959. The report details a UFO sighting that occurred on September 29, 1959, in the vicinity of RAF Station, Kirknewton, and Edinburgh, Scotland. At approximately 2030Z, multiple witnesses—including airmen and a mission supervisor—observed a round, white-to-dim-yellow light with unusual brilliance. The object was described as being the size of a nickel to a dime, moving at a speed between 75 and 150 MPH at an altitude of less than 1,000 feet. The observation lasted between five and seven minutes. The witnesses reported no sound or exhaust associated with the object.

An investigation was conducted to determine if the sighting could be attributed to conventional aircraft. Air traffic control at Edinburgh Airport was queried, and while a scheduled flight was approaching the airfield at the time, it did not account for all aspects of the sighting. Local radar stations were also consulted, yielding negative results. A CAF airman at the Edinburgh Airport also reported a similar sighting, describing a slow-moving white light that he felt was completely different from any aircraft he had ever seen. The report notes that because the light was seen from three different angles by five different people at the same time, it was unlikely to be a light refracted from an upper air temperature inversion or other meteorological phenomena. Ultimately, the evaluating agency, ATIC, concluded that they were unable to develop any reasonable hypothesis to explain the sighting, leaving it as an unexplained event.