Project 10073 Record Card — Ferndale, Michigan, 12 Oct 61

This document consists of a Project 10073 record card and a supporting letter from a citizen witness regarding an aerial sighting on October 12, 1961, in Ferndale, Michigan. The witness, a Detroit school teacher, reported observing two objects that appeared as flaming tubes in the sky for approximately 28 minutes. According to the witness, the objects appeared to make turns and move as a unit. The witness also noted that the objects were bright and turned red as they moved through the haze of the setting sun. The witness attempted to calculate the size of the objects using trigonometry and finger measurements, estimating them to be between 0.3 and 0.6 miles in length. The witness also mentioned that their sister-in-law in Mount Clemens, Michigan, observed the same phenomenon. The official evaluation by the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) concluded that the sighting was likely a non-persistent condensation trail. The analysis explains that the perceived motion and turns were an optical illusion created by the aircraft generating a trail at one end while it dissipated at the other. The red color was attributed to the illumination of the trails by the setting sun. The report explicitly states that there was no evidence available to indicate that the object was anything other than a non-persistent condensation trail.