Project 10073 Record Card and Incident Report — Las Vegas, Nevada, 27 February 1960

This document consists of a Project 10073 record card and an associated teletype report detailing an unidentified aerial phenomenon observed on 27 February 1960 in the vicinity of Las Vegas, Nevada. The sighting occurred at 0530Z and was reported by four individuals, including a civilian control tower operator at McCarran Field, a police patrolman, and a sheet metal worker from Nellis Air Force Base. The witnesses described a circular object, white to light bluish-green in color, appearing roughly the size of a silver dollar at arm's length. The object featured a trail of sparks approximately ten times the length of the main light source and moved in an arc across the northern sky from the northwest to the northeast before fading out behind mountains. The duration of the event was estimated between two and fifteen seconds. The primary witness, the control tower operator, remarked that while the object behaved like a meteor, it was the brightest he had ever seen. Despite his experience with such phenomena, he remained cautious about definitively labeling it astronomical. The military investigation, coordinated through the 27th Air Division and ATIC, concluded that the object was likely a large meteor. Efforts to corroborate this finding with the Director of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, proved inconclusive, as the observatory reported no observations at the time of the incident. The report notes that Salt Lake Center had received several airborne reports of the same object, with at least one observation as far north as Wendover, Utah. No physical evidence, radar contact, or photographic documentation was obtained.